This ended up being the first Touhou game I ever actually cleared. While this game is extraordinarily difficult, it also had point device mode. Does this make the gameplay itself easier? No. But it does give you the ability to try over and over again, so you can still beat it with enough time and determination.

While at times it can feel a bit like banging your head into a wall, I found this game to be an extremely valuable resource as a beginner. The ability to focus on one spellcard until you do it right helps you learn in a much less roundabout way than having to restart the whole game to get back to the card that killed you [unless you use practice mode, of course!]

I haven't tried legacy mode, so I can't comment on that, but despite the difficulty this game is easy to recommend. I would never do so as a first game, but I did find it helped me improve drastically when I was stuck in the very starting stages of learning how to play touhou. After beating this game, other games suddenly felt much, much more doable!