Touhou Project Discussion

Off-Topic
#41

A quick and dirty translation of the blogpost.

Touhou Project 16
"Touhou Tenkuushou (ceremonial jeweled thingy of Heaven) ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons"

We’re planning to release a demo on Reitaisai (if we make it in time). The planned release of the full version is on summer Comiket. Try to predict the story from the screenshots. In stark contrast to the previous installment, this one has a very refreshing and bright feel? That’s how I feel.

This time, the protagonists are Hakurei Reimu, Kirisame Marisa, suntanned Cirno and Shameimaru Aya. I wonder what kind of adventure those four will have?

[screenshots]

That sort of thing.

The game is still under development, so what’s seen in the screenshots will probably change, but it will certainly be a shoot 'em up. A demo version should come out at Reitaisai.

This time, returning to the roots, the game will be simple, easy to understand, and feel comfortable. It will be an old-school shoot 'em up with no gimmicks, but perhaps these days, a design like that will be valuable.

Well then, it’s heaven showtime!

Yes, the “it’s heaven showtime” is in English, except for “heaven”.

I like how the character select screen actually lists Cirno as “suntanned Cirno”. And that she represents summer. I wonder what seasons the other characters represent? Reimu for spring, Aya for autumn, Marisa for winter, perhaps?

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#42

You mean autumn or fall, but yes, that is the conclusion Touhou fans have arrived at.

#43

…I first wrote “fall”, and then thought that might be archaic or something so decided to switch for the other expression and ended up screwing things over.

I am bad at months. It seems it extends to seasons, too.

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#44

No Sanae? :frowning:

Anyways HYPEEEE!!!

Introduce Yourself!
#45

If anyone is into the 3D Touhou videos that come out every so often, a new one for Touhou 11 just came out, take a look if you’re interested:

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#46

So I just found a new Touhou music channel on Youtube, and it’s pretty great! They call themselves Komeiji Records, and post a lot of Touhou-techno arranges. However, they also occasionally mix Touhou songs (like mixing Remilia’s theme with Okuu’s, or mixing the themes of the Komeiji sisters). I must say, while I’m new to finding it, I’m really starting to fall in love with their theme mashups.

This one here is probably my favorite. The two themes just mix together so well, and before seeing this I would have never thought of mixing them.

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#47

To be honest, the fandom burned me out on Cirno, so I know I won’t ever play as her for TH16, but I’m happy about Aya becoming playable! Maybe this means characters like Hatate and Seija have a chance at becoming a character in a main game sometime? Also, did anybody else see the development thing for Antimony of Common Flowers in that the tag team system lets you pick your team rather than a set team? I’m hyped for that!

#48

The only game I’ve played, years ago, was Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. I really enjoyed playing it, and at one point had my cursor/wallpaper/shimejis of Cirno, haha. I loved playing it but I sucked at it, really.

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#49

I haven’t, probably never, but I like the franchise since a few years ago! It has been a pretty long time. I play Danmakufu ones but I’m so bad at it, so it’s impossible for me to play the real games (sobs) but I keep up with the current games, watch people play it, and get engrossed in the stories.

I found about Touhou when I strayed in a music video arrangement of Flandre’s theme, “Who Killed U.N Owen?”. The song is so good it struck me hard. I watched recommended Touhou arrangements and later found out what they are actually…and got into the whole series, the whole world, and the whole lore. That was when I was still in sixth grade of elementary school, by the way. I somehow got information that Touhou is a game and all.

My favorite playable character would be Aya Shameimaru (TH16, right, right). My favorite character overall is Koishi Komeiji (blame my interest in psychology). My favorite theme would be Hartmann’s Youkai Girl so far, but Emotional Skyscraper ~ Cosmic Mind is close. Favorite fan arrange…this is hard, I have so many I like, I can’t rank them. If I can promote a group, though, I’ll promote BUTAOTOME. I like their original arranges too.

I would like to play the fighting games someday. There’s Koishi, too, I have to explore her possibilities.

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#50

Many of you probably already know this, but look what unlocks on the same day on steam as Umineko Chiru:

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#51

If I wanted to get in to Touhou, how should I start?

#52

Almost every game is fine, really. I don’t recommend 9 as that’s a versus shooter and thus not very representative, 6 doesn’t display your hitbox yet, so if you want to have that visible, don’t play 6 either, 15 is designed around its main mechanic of starting over and over again from checkpoints and is thus way harder than any other Touhou game, and 11 is generally considered to be one of the harder ones, although 11 might be fine to start at if you don’t mind the higher difficulty. Oh, and 1 - 5 weren’t on Windows, so those are probably hard to get. So all the numbers I didn’t name are a fine starting point in my opinion.

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#53

I’m less worried about the gameplay and more interested in getting to know the story and characters. I know there’s a ton of lore for these folks and I see Touhou merch at pretty much every event in Japan, so ‘getting in on the jokes’ and getting to know the story is my main goal here.

#54

In that case, you could start at any game you want, really. In case the games are too hard for you to complete (as you have to 1cc them on normal usually to see the good ending), the Youtube user MegamanOmega actually doesn’t skip the dialogue and gives hints on how to complete the various attacks that are thrown at you.

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#55

The games can be played in pretty much any order since the stories of individual games stand on their own instead of being direct continuations of previous games or such. Still, I’d recommend playing them in the order they were released, as having the recurring characters introduced in the proper order gives some context for who the playable characters are and so on. Don’t worry about games 1-5, Touhou 6 (Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) was basically a soft reboot of the series, and knowledge of the prior games is entirely unnecessary unless you want to show off your supreme knowledge of obscure bits of dubiously canonical lore.

Playing them in the order they were released in also gives you a chance to appreciate ZUN’s improvement as an artist and the evolution of his musical style.

Anyhow, if understading the story and the characters is your main goal, while the games are important in establishing a basic framework for understanding Touhou, the supplementary material is what truly brings everything together. The world of Touhou is far more complex and multifaceted than what one might gather from the games alone. This depth makes Gensokyo (and associated locations) one of my favourite fictional settings in anything ever, but it also means that you have to dig deep into the franchise to gain a proper understanding of it, which might be a daunting task if you’re there for the lore specifically and not to enjoy fun bullet hell games. To see the big picture in its entriety, you should read the mangas, music CD storylines, artbooks, other print works… en.touhouwiki.net is a good resource for finding what you need, if you want to delve into the side materials.

And then there’s the matter of “getting in on the jokes”. The Touhou fandom produces massive amounts of fanwork, and those inside jokes are often based on those fanworks, which tend to take a generous amount of liberties with the characters. I’m not quite sure what’s the best place to find out more about that side of things, but it’s something you’ll probably absorb eventually one way or another if you stick around long enough and you have an interest in the setting and the characters and how the fans (mis)use them in their own creative works.

Touhou as a whole is a vast beast that can be difficult to get into, but if you find something engaging about it, be it the gameplay of the games or the characters or the amusing fanworks or whatever, getting to know the series more and more can become a natural process that doesn’t take any conscious effort. I hope you enjoy your foray into Touhou, @GoldenBugHunter.

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