- Exceptional soundtrack enhances the experience
- Challenging but rewarding difficulty
- Memorable characters and strong Touhou entry
- Extreme and unforgiving difficulty
- Pointdevice mode is core, but flawed
- Not recommended for Touhou newcomers
Emotions
Players feel satisfied by overcoming the game's significant difficulty, especially through features like Pointdevice mode which aids skill improvement and progression. The high-quality music, engaging gameplay, and the overall rewarding experience of clearing challenging stages contribute to this feeling, making the game feel worthwhile despite its price and demands.
Frustration primarily stems from the game's extreme difficulty, particularly with specific bosses like Clownpiece and ruthless bullet patterns that require precise reactions. Issues such as input lag, resolution problems, and accidental save file deletion also contribute to a negative and often 'nightmarish' playing experience, leading to frequent deaths and a sense of wasted effort.
Enjoyment is derived from the game's challenging nature, unique mechanics, and the overall immersive experience. The high-quality music, engaging character designs, and the distinct sense of accomplishment from mastering difficult bullet patterns are key contributors to players finding the game fun and engaging.
Excitement is generated by the game's status as a masterpiece, its challenging yet engaging gameplay, and its high replayability. The top-tier music, compelling story, and the exhilarating combat sequences, especially within the forgiving Pointdevice Mode, create a sense of grandeur and make the game a favorite among fans.
Players appreciate the game's exceptional music, creative bullet patterns, and thoughtful design choices, including the division into Pointdevice and Legacy Modes. The memorable characters and the developer's philosophy of allowing players to focus purely on dodging bullets without complicated mechanics are also highly valued.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 84% · Negative 16%. Score: 16 / 100
Positives:
- The game's music is consistently praised as excellent, with many considering it among the best in the Touhou series. Specific stage and boss themes, particularly from Stage 6, are frequently highlighted for their quality and emotional impact.
- The game is noted for its high difficulty, often considered the hardest in the series, yet it remains rewarding. This challenge, combined with well-designed bullet patterns and plentiful lives, appeals to players seeking intense gameplay and a sense of accomplishment upon clearing.
- The game features endearing, memorable, and well-designed characters. Specific characters like Junko and Clownpiece are highlighted for their unique designs, personalities, and impact on the game's atmosphere and story.
- Players widely regard the game as a masterpiece, highlighting its fun, replayability, and engaging combination of writing and gameplay. Many found it to be one of the most enjoyable and satisfying entries in the series, offering a memorable experience.
- The Pointdevice Mode is a significant feature, making the game more accessible and less frustrating for casual players and beginners. Its checkpoint system allows for gradual progression, learning from mistakes, and a motivating 'one more try' mentality, fostering skill improvement.
Negatives:
- Players overwhelmingly report the game as exceptionally difficult, often comparing its 'Normal' mode to 'Hard' or 'Lunatic' modes in other Touhou titles. This high difficulty, characterized by steep learning curves, numerous first-time traps, and relentless bullet patterns, leads to significant frustration and a feeling of being overwhelmed, even for series veterans. The game's difficulty is widely considered the highest in the Touhou series.
- The Pointdevice mode is criticized for its design, particularly the penalty of losing power upon death, which makes players progressively weaker and creates a negative feedback loop. This mechanic is seen as counterintuitive to a mode intended for casual play and can be insulting to veteran players.
- Legacy mode is described as less engaging, requiring extensive memorization for instant-kill spell cards, and feeling like an afterthought. Some players find it becomes 'braindead' with certain characters and bomb usage, while others note its difficulty is not adjusted from Pointdevice mode.
- Some players express dissatisfaction with the game's graphics, describing them as basic. There are also criticisms regarding the EX stage character's costume design and the overall lack of 'beauty' or 'uniqueness' compared to other Touhou titles.
- Minor technical issues include problems with full-screen resolution, causing the screen to be squashed. Additionally, the extend conditions changing between Main and EX modes are seen as undesirable, and some players experienced accidental save file deletions.
Gameplay:
- The game heavily features and encourages its unique 'Pointdevice Mode,' which replaces traditional lives with checkpoints after each chapter. This mode allows players to restart from recent checkpoints upon death, incurring a small power penalty, and is central to the game's design and progression.
- The game is widely considered very difficult, possibly the hardest in the series, with dense bullet patterns. This high difficulty is often attributed to the game's design around the forgiving Pointdevice Mode, which allows for repeated attempts.
- Alongside Pointdevice Mode, the game includes a 'Legacy Mode' that offers a traditional Touhou experience with a limited number of lives and no checkpoints. This mode caters to hardcore players seeking a classic 1-credit-clear challenge.
- Reisen is highlighted as a particularly strong, even 'broken,' playable character. Her unique bomb ability, which defends against bullets multiple times, makes certain difficulties significantly easier.
- The game incorporates a 'graze' mechanic where narrowly dodging bullets contributes to earning extra lives and bombs. This system is tied to performance within each small section of a stage.
Performance:
- Players using Proton on Linux need 'thcrap' to achieve playable frame rates, otherwise the game runs extremely slowly. This indicates a significant performance hurdle for a segment of the player base.
- Certain background applications, such as Discord or VTube Studio, can cause a persistent 'down' key input, making the game unplayable. This suggests a conflict that needs addressing.
- Xbox gamepads do not allow D-pad movement by default, forcing players to use analog sticks or configure custom layouts. This limits controller flexibility and convenience for some users.
- One reviewer noted experiencing input lag, which can negatively impact gameplay responsiveness and player experience. More feedback would be needed to determine the prevalence of this issue.
Recommendations:
- Many players strongly advise against this game as a first Touhou title due to its unique and high difficulty. Several other games like Mountain of Faith, Perfect Cherry Blossom, or Imperishable Night are suggested as more beginner-friendly entry points.
- Players should be mentally prepared for a very difficult experience, often described as 'hellish.' The game is designed for those who enjoy extreme challenges and memorization, with infinite continues available to help beginners progress.
- To enhance the gameplay experience, players are highly recommended to install community patches, such as the thcrap patch for English translation and to remove power loss upon death.
- Players express a desire for more Touhou series games to be available on Steam, noting that some classic titles are currently missing.
- For most players, especially those new to this specific game, sticking to Pointdevice Mode is advised to manage the difficulty.
Miscellaneous:
- Despite sarcastic claims of ease, the game is widely considered extremely difficult, attracting veteran STG players and being recommended only for 'crazy Danmaku maniacs'. It serves as a significant challenge even for experienced players.
- Players express strong preferences for certain characters like Junko and Hecatia, with some even having suggestive preferences. There's also interest in the game's lore, particularly regarding the Lunarians and the desire for more lunar war stories.
- Players have specific habits like preferring to clear without bombs for a more rewarding experience. Some feedback is anecdotal, like the game causing a negative subconscious reaction to the star-spangled banner or being hard on keyboards.
- The game has low PC requirements, making it accessible on older hardware. However, it defaults to using the C drive for saves, which might be an issue for some users. The lack of Japanese understanding is also a barrier for some players.
- Players are hoping for older Touhou titles, specifically Subterranean Animism and Mountain of Faith, to be released on Steam, indicating a desire for a more complete collection on the platform.
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