Touhou Volleyball Danmaku Review Summary

Fun, easy-to-learn bullet-hell volleyball with a unique roster, but the tedious story mode and bugs and glitches hold it back.

Fun and Engaging Gameplay: Overall gameplay is very fun, fast-paced, and exhilarating. It is beautifully chaotic yet easy to pick up, providing a relaxing but engaging experience.

Diverse and Unique Character Roster: Characters have distinct playstyles, movesets, and stats that match their personalities. There is a versatile list including popular Touhou characters and cameos.

Unique Touhou Bullet Hell Volleyball: The game successfully combines bullet hell danmaku with volleyball, creating a novel and engaging experience. Players enjoy shooting bullets to interfere with opponents while catching and hitting the ball.

Controls Easy to Learn: Controls take about an hour to get a good grasp of and become manageable after a match or two. Players find them intuitive with a low skill floor but high skill ceiling.

Solid Dialogue and Story: The dialogue is witty and matches character personalities, with a vibe similar to the Compact Youmu channel. The story mode is wonderful and helps players understand game mechanics.

Story mode is tedious: The story mode requires excessive points to progress, forcing hours of grinding with minimal points per victory. Additionally, losing a match can cost a point, making progression feel punishing.

Bugs and glitches present: Players encounter bugs such as a glitch that freezes the player for the next match when using a desperation ability as the ball goes off screen. Another bug disables normal attacks after using Ran's desperation until the next round.

Controls feel weird initially: Multiple players report that the controls are strange and take time to get used to, including confusion about movement and the spacebar. This learning curve may frustrate new players.

Writing is tame and generic: The game's writing feels safe and lacks the humor, personality, and wackiness of the YouTube series. The story mode is readable but fairly generic, and some players find it hard to understand.

Dense bullets hinder ball control: Dense bullets make catching the ball difficult, requiring players to track both ball position and rapidly approaching projectiles simultaneously. This increases difficulty, especially with characters like Great Fairy.

Unique Character Abilities and Roster: Each character has distinct move sets and abilities that match their personalities, such as Marisa flooding the field with stars, Yuugi having the strongest spikes, and Aya being the fastest. The roster includes many popular Touhou characters beyond the usual EoSD lineup.

Touhou Volleyball Hybrid Gameplay: The game uniquely combines Touhou Project characters with volleyball and bullet hell (danmaku) mechanics. Players hit a volleyball while simultaneously shooting bullets to interfere with opponents, managing both volleys and projectiles.

Arcade and Story Modes: The game features an arcade mode with mini-games and new mechanics, as well as a story mode with point-based progression, a shop, weather/mood mechanics, and character-specific campaigns. Story mode helps players understand the game's mechanics.

Accessible Controls with Learning Curve: Controls are easy to learn within an hour but have a slight learning curve, taking a match or two to get used to. The tutorial does not cover spiking the ball, and players can use movement, spacebar interactions, and a purple downward slam move.

Strategic Depth and Skill Ceiling: The game has a low skill floor but high skill ceiling, with character-specific spells enabling mind games like rock-paper-scissors. Players must manage bullets and volleys simultaneously, and CPU opponents react to specific techniques, encouraging strategy development.

Update 1.100 fixes technical issues: Update 1.100 resolved crashes on certain hardware and improved performance on PC, allowing the game to run perfectly fine after the update.

Fog effect causes slowdown: One user reports that the game slowed down when fog effects were present.

Crash using Remilia's bomb: A crash occurs when trying to use Remilia's bomb, as reported by one user.

Appeal to Touhou Fans: The game is recommended for Touhou fans who will enjoy its novelty, and for those who like Touhou sports or party games. It also serves as hype for the Touhou EoSD New Classic Game.

Recommend for Compact Youmu Fans: The game is specifically recommended for fans of the YouTube channel Compact Youmu, though some fans find it missing the series' charm. Viewers are also encouraged to report issues directly to Compact Youmu.

Purchase Encouragement and Urgency: Multiple reviews urge players to buy the game immediately, particularly during sales. It is seen as worth the full price even after sales end.

Support Small Creators: The game is worth buying to support the dedicated author and small creators. The developer's care for the community is highlighted as a reason to purchase.

Arcade-like Game Enjoyment: Players who enjoy arcade-style games will find this title fun and accessible. It offers a simple pick-up-and-play experience.

Game completion: 6.0h.

Session length: 0.3h.

The game has early friction from slow point gain, a 100-point progression gate, and tutorial gaps, but it appears to click after roughly 30 minutes of tutorial-guided practice when players start beating CPUs; some players also find it addicting and challenging from the start.

Friction: Slow point gain makes the first round tedious; Losing a match risks losing a point; Progress requires at least 100 points; Tutorial does not teach how to spike the ball; Slight learning curve delays competitive success; Crashes on certain hardware before the 1.100 update.

Unlock drivers: Wagering points to speed up point gain; Clearing mini-games as they appear; Reading the tutorial and practicing for about 30 minutes; Starting to beat CPUs after practice; 1.100 update fixing crashes and adding arcade mode, fun minigames, and online multiplayer.

Touhou Character Loyalist: Plays through favorite characters, appreciates move sets and personality-driven design, and engages in single or multiplayer matches. Motivation: Enjoying recognizable Touhou characters and the familiar series atmosphere. Stance: buy.

Relaxed Danmaku Newcomer: Plays occasionally to unwind, learning easy-to-pick-up mechanics rather than seeking high difficulty. Motivation: Relaxing casual play with an accessible entry into danmaku. Stance: buy.

Arcade Challenge Seeker: Seeks arcade-style matches, character variety, and repeated attempts at tough bosses. Motivation: Challenging arcade combat and mastering clears in single and multiplayer. Stance: buy.

Ongoing Updates and Potential: The game is constantly being improved with more content to come, and its future potential is seen as promising. Many reviewers look forward to future updates.

Improved AI and Challenges: An update made challenges more recurring and improved CPU reactions to the ball-throwing technique, enhancing gameplay.

Desire for More Characters: Reviewers express hope for new character mini-games and more content, and list specific characters they want added, such as Patchouli Knowledge.

Solo Developer Effort: The game is developed by a single person, credited as Compact. This highlights the indie nature of the project.

Discovery via YouTube: Many found the game through the creator's YouTube videos, showing the channel's role in promotion.