Touhou Project

Touhou Rei'iden
Japanese Title: 東方靈異伝

English Title: Highly Responsive to Prayers

Airdate: November, 1996

Plot

As we first get a glimpse of Gensokyo, we are introduced to Reimu Hakurei, the Shrine Maiden of the Hakurei Shrine. The Shrine is located near the gate to Hell and the gate to Makai, the Demon World.

Exiting the Shrine, Reimu is tested by her gatekeeper, Shingyoku.

If the chosen path is Makai, our heroine battles the mysterious evil eyes- YuugenMagan. She then is encountered by the not-so innocent devil, Elis. At the edge of Makai, Reimu enters the Fallen Shrine and battles the Angel of Death, Sariel. Sariel may have led Reimu into the Fallen Shrine wishing to trap her in Makai forever. Our heroine defeats Sariel and escapes Makai, proud of her abilities with the Yin-Yang Orb.

If the chosen path is Jigoku, our heroine meets the vengeful ghost, Mima for the first time. The ghost was possibly murdered, for she holds a blood-stained blade. After defeating her, she comes across the nearly anonymous Kikuri. Finally, deep within Hell, Reimu enters the Silent Shrine and encounters Konngara, who may have destroyed Reimu’s shrine out of pure sinful jealousy. The heroine defeats Konngara and leaves Jigoku, hoping to repair her shrine as soon as possible.

Gameplay

Highly Responsive to Prayers introduces the Shrine Maiden Reimu Hakurei, who frantically attempts to persuade a bouncing Yin-Yang ball to hit various on-screen targets, "cards" and "bosses" alike. Reimu can knock and maneuver the ball around by whacking it with her gohei, slide-tackling it, and firing shots at it. Enemies will be trying to hinder your progress by firing at you, but you can cancel out their shots with your own, or even deflect them by swinging your gohei. Only the Yin-Yang ball can damage the enemies, however, so simply firing your shots at enemies will have no effect whatsoever. As a last resort, Reimu can use a "bomb", once per life, to hit all cards on the screen. There is no guarantee that any given card will be hit. Bombs will often fail to damage a boss.

The game consists of several fixed-layout levels which increase in difficulty, with a boss fight occurring every fifth level. To complete a level, the player should disable all cards or strike the boss of that level a certain number of times. Reimu will lose one of her lives whenever she is hit by an enemy's bullet/laser/magic or gets hit by her own ball.

There are two selectable paths in the game: the Jigoku (Hell) path and the Makai (Demon World) path. Each route features unique stages, bosses, and endings.

Touhou Fuumaroku
Japanese Title: 東方封魔録

English Title: The Story of Eastern Wonderland

Airdate: August 15, 1997

Plot

Determined to find who sent these monsters to her shrine, Reimu embarks on yet another journey, this time accompanied by her flying turtle Genjii. She first meets the suspicious engineer Rika, who claimed to have created the monsters at the Hakurei Shrine. Despite Rika's piloting of her own tank, Rika is easily defeated. Rika then tries to lure Reimu into a trap, but Reimu outsmarts Rika and continues on her way. The night comes while Reimu and Genjii enter the Forest of Magic. The samurai Meira attacks Reimu in hope to defeat her and obtain her inherited power. Reimu is reluctant to fight, but not because she fears defeat. In fact, Reimu wasn't even paying attention to Meira's theory. Reimu however, fights Meira and defeats her. Meira runs off into the night and hasn't been seen since.

Still wandering about, our heroine meets the upbeat magician, Marisa Kirisame, who is determined to stop Reimu before she can get to her mistress, Mima. Once defeated, Marisa warns Reimu of Mima's power, quite confident that Reimu will not win. Genjii also doubts Reimu could win against Mima, telling her that she should train more and come back to exorcise her later. Reimu angrily disagrees, and goes on to fight Mima. Mima admits that she truly sent the monsters to the Hakurei Shrine. Mima is finally defeated, but she disappears before Reimu could exorcise her. Rika attacks Reimu once more, this time with the avoided trap… her tank Evil Eye Sigma. Using the full power of the Yin-Yang Orbs, Reimu ultimately defeats Rika and heads home to find that the monsters at her shrine had disappeared.

Gameplay

The Story of Eastern Wonderland casts the player as the Shrine Maiden Reimu Hakurei and offers three distinct attack types to choose from — a wide-range type with weak attack power, a mid-range type with moderate attack power and auto-targeting capabilities, and a narrow-range type with high attack power but lowered player movement speed. The bombs (Spell Cards) also exhibit unique behavior depending upon the type chosen.

As the first Danmaku shooting game in the Touhou series, the Story of Eastern Wonderland introduces many features that are now hallmarks of the series as a whole: relatively small hit boxes, boss characters who are not much larger than the player character yet are highly mobile, a power-up system, variable worth point items, an unlockable Extra Stage, and a semi-complex scoring system. The game also marks the first appearance of Marisa Kirisame, who would become one of the most persistent characters in the series, appearing as often as Reimu herself.

Touhou Yumejikuu
Japanese Title: 東方夢時空

English Title: Phantasmagoria of Dimension Dream

Airdate: December 29, 1997

Plot

While enjoying a quiet morning walk, the local shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei stumbles across some curious ruins a short distance from the Hakurei Shrine's gateway. Spotting Mima and Marisa Kirisame among the crowd gathered, Reimu inquires about the ruins' sudden appearance and is given a flier indicating that the Grand Opening is to occur shortly and that those who enter will be rewarded. Unable to locate any sort of entrance into the ruins, the group instead discovers a notice posted nearby which warns that the ruins can only support one visitor. Thus those wishing to enter the ruins decide to stage an impromptu competition: the one who defeats all others will be allowed to enter the ruins and receive the mystery prize.

The contest winner, having successfully trounced all seven rounds of competition, triumphantly enters the ruins only to be confronted by Chiyuri Kitashirakawa, who levels a strange weapon at the winner and demands that she follow her deeper into the ruins. Yumemi Okazaki appears and accosts Chiyuri for her brusque treatment of their visitor before explaining that the ruins are actually a "probability space hypervessel." Yumemi has come to this world to study the amazing magical powers of its inhabitants and, after denying any knowledge of the promised reward, orders Chiyuri to battle the winner so that she may observe and record data.

Afterward, Yumemi rages that Chiyuri was defeated before she was able to gather enough data and strikes a deal with the protagonist: should the winner be able to defeat her as well, Yumemi will grant her one wish; however if Yumemi wins, the visitor must return with her to their world for further study. Once beaten, Yumemi holds true to her promise and the victor is rewarded well for her efforts.

Gameplay

Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream is considered to be a competitive vertical danmaku shooting game, in which two characters engage in moderate danmaku gameplay within individual and separate play areas (aka. split-screen). Upon meeting certain conditions, players are able to unleash a variety of character-specific Spell Attacks upon their opponents in an attempt to whittle down their remaining health points, in a manner not unlike a VS. puzzle game such as Puyo Puyo.

In Story Mode, the player will face 9 increasingly intelligent AI opponents, each more capable than the last. Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream also features a Match Play Mode in which the player may face off against individual AI opponents or compete against other human players, as well as observe AI vs. AI matches.

Touhou Gensoukyou
Japanese Title: 東方幻想郷

English Title: Lotus Land Story

Airdate: August 14, 1998

Plot

Following the events of the previous games, youkai soon began to swarm the Hakurei Shrine, prompting Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame to seperately head for a lake in the mountains, which appears to be the source of a tremendous power surge. The two reach the gateway underneath the lake, which teleports them to a strange dream world, in which the mansion Reimaden exists, where the mastermind supposedly is.

The heroine sets off to the lake, but sees a youkai, Orange. Orange wasn't going to fight, but the heroine attacked Orange merely because she was a youkai. The heroine goes off but encounters a vampire, Kurumi. Kurumi attempts to prevent the heroine from reaching the island in the mountain lake but fails. Ironically, Kurumi is not a lake guard or anything. After Kurumi is defeated, the heroine sets off somewhere else and finds the boundary line between the dream world and the real world. However, the heroine encounters Elly, the gatekeeper of the boundary. Elly states that depending on who you're using, either a Shrine Maiden or a Magician had entered the world. Elly is battled and defeated, thus the heroine entering the dream world. After, the heroine explores the dream world, but encounters either Reimu or Marisa, depending on who you are playing as. They are surprised to see each other and then they battle. The heroine wins as usual, forcing the other to leave the dream world. The heroine heads deeper in the dream world, but encounters Yuuka, who had just woken up and is upset that someone is in her mansion at this hour. They fought and the heroine wins. However, Yuuka retreats and runs away. The heroine is forced to chase her, leading to the final stage. Yuuka appears and again and battles the heroine one last time, however Yuuka loses again.

Later on, the heroine sets into another unknown dream world. While exploring the dream world, the heroine encounters Mugetsu, a Maid who claims that this dream world is hers. Mugetsu doesn't seem to know about the tremendous power surge, but still battles the heroine merely because she was bored. Mugetsu is defeated, and asks her older twin sister, Gengetsu for help. Mugetsu leaves and Gengetsu comes into the battlefield. Gengetsu doesn't know what is happening, but knows her job is to defeat the heroine. But of course, the heroine wins and the twin sisters are defeated.

Gameplay

Lotus Land Story features two different playable characters to choose from, with two different attack types each. Reimu Hakurei can pepper a wide area of the screen with weaker attacks, while Marisa Kirisame relies on her power to compensate for her narrower attack spread. The bombs (Spell Cards) also exhibit unique behavior and damage amounts depending upon the character chosen.

Lotus Land Story is the first game in the Touhou series to feature bombs that auto-collect items, graze counting, and a non-trivial scoring system that involves the collection of special dream items that boost the player's ultimate scoring potential. Lotus Land Story's scoring system also marks the series' first instance of score bonuses for the elimination of bullets following the defeat of mid-bosses and bosses.

Touhou Kaikidan
Japanese Title: 東方怪綺談

English Title: Mystic Square

Airdate: December 30, 1997

Plot

For no apparent reason, large quantities of demons and youkai begin to travel from Makai, the world of demons, to Gensokyo, swamping the land and leaving Reimu Hakurei with a lot of extermination to do. Frustrated, Reimu tracks the source of the invasion to "The Cave in Which the Door to Makai is Said to Be," which lies in the mountains behind the Hakurei Shrine. Reimu decides that it is her duty as a shrine maiden to root out the cause of this mess. Unbeknownst to her, Marisa Kirisame has learned of her plans and decides to follow along with the hope of discovering some unique powers to steal within Makai. Elsewhere, Mima, the evil spirit of the Hakurei Shrine, and Yuuka Kazami, the youkai, decide to travel to Makai as well, although they have their own reasons for doing so.

Within the cave, the heroine encounters the guardian of the gateway to Makai, Sara, and dispatches her with ease before beginning a high-speed flight through the boundary between worlds. Therein the heroine happens across a demon traveling in the opposite direction named Louise and crushes her as well. The heroine then arrives in Makai above a massive dark city, where she is confronted by Alice Margatroid, who attacks her with the help of her living dolls. After defeating her, the heroine flies away from the city and toward a grim fortress that rises up in distance. Along the way the witches Yuki and Mai appear and attempt to impede her progress, ultimately to little effect.

Entering the fortress Pandæmonium, the heroine soars past fantastic crystal designs while battling through legions of enemies. At the top she is met by a strange individual named Shinki who politely informs her that the demon invasion is entirely the fault of a civilian travel agency that is arranging tours of Gensokyo and that it lies outside of her jurisdiction. Before the protagonist can inquire as to the meaning of this they are interrupted by Yumeko, who adamantly insists that Shinki retire so that she may dispose of their uninvited guest. After defeating the maid, the protagonist meets Shinki again, who now explains that she is actually the god and creator of Makai itself. She promises to look into the tourist issue, but only after severely punishing the heroine for disrupting her realm so. This final battle is extraordinarily violent and Shinki's tremendous power leaves much of Makai in flames.

At an unspecified later date, the heroine again encounters Alice Margatroid, this time in a strange wonderland. Alice now possesses a large grimoire that grants her great magical powers and challenges the heroine to a rematch. After a lengthy battle and her second defeat, Alice laments her inability to defeat the heroine before fleeing with the book.

Gameplay

Mystic Square allows the player to select from among four unique protagonists, each hailing from one of the 2 prior danmaku shooting games in the series. Series mainstays Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame are joined by former enemies Mima and Yuuka Kazami for a journey reaching to the depths of the Makai. Mystic Square also marks the first appearance of Alice Margatroid as an opponent, who later stages a comeback in Perfect Cherry Blossom.

Although limited by the PC-98 hardware, Mystic Square is the most refined of the PC-98 Touhou titles, and features gameplay quite similar to Windows Touhou games. It employs a variant of Lotus Land Story's Dream Bonus system, rewarding the player for taking risks (i.e. collecting point items from the top of the field area). However, notwithstanding the fact that its rank system is far more lenient than Lotus Land Story's, Mystic Square is the first game in the series to punish the player for the use of bombs.

Touhou Koumakyou
Japanese Title: 東方紅魔郷

English Title: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Airdate: August 11, 2002

Plot

During a peaceful summer in Gensokyo, an unnatural scarlet mist appears without warning and covers much of the land. It is strong enough to block out the sun, causing the affected areas to become dark and cold. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden working at the Hakurei Shrine, feels it is a shrine maiden's duty to find the cause of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame, a magician, hopes that the person casting the spell will have some interesting items to collect. Depending on who you choose, only one of these two heroines actually goes out and investigates.

The heroine travels toward the island of a lake where the mist seems to originate from. Before reaching her destination, the heroine is intercepted by Rumia, who was traveling by the lake's edge, and then Cirno, who called the lake her home. However, Rumia and Cirno were not related to the source of the mist. Upon reaching the island, the heroine is immediately attacked by many guards. The offensive is led by Hong Meiling, who is unsuccessful in driving away the intruding heroine from the premises. After the fight, the heroine enters the Scarlet Devil Mansion, certain that the person causing the mist is inside. The heroine first looks through a dim library, where Patchouli Knowledge tries to stop the heroine from proceeding any further. The heroine then reaches the main hallways, where the chief maid Sakuya Izayoi also tries to stop the heroine from reaching her mistress. After the long journey, the heroine comes face to face with the Scarlet Devil herself, Remilia Scarlet, on the balcony of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Remilia reveals that the scarlet mist was created so that she could feel comfortable walking out during the day. After a fierce battle, Remilia is defeated and things return to relative normality in Gensokyo.

A few days later, the heroine returns to the Scarlet Devil Mansion during Remilia's absence and finds the entire household in chaos. Making her way to the main hallways, the heroine fights a stronger maid staff than before, as well as a much stronger version of Patchouli. As the heroine wonders why everyone is on edge, Remilia's little sister, Flandre Scarlet, appears. Flandre reveals that she has been hidden inside the mansion for 495 years, and she has never seen a human before. Flandre asks the heroine to play with her, and after a long and difficult battle, Flandre is defeated.

Gameplay

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil features two different playable characters to choose from, with two different Spell Card types each. Reimu Hakurei can cover a wide area of the screen with weaker attacks, while Marisa Kirisame relies on her speed and power to make up for her thinner attack spread. The bombs (Spell Cards) also show different behavior and damage depending on the character and type chosen.

Some important gameplay features that Embodiment of Scarlet Devil introduces over its predecessor Mystic Square are "automatic item collection" which allows you to collect all items on screen by moving to the top of the screen if you are at full power, and a counter-bomb system, which allows you to negate an enemy hit by pressing the bomb button within a short reaction time immediately after.