in terms of touhou games, this one is pretty simple. no UFOs, no crazy ass gimmicks, and nothing too horrendous difficulty-wise until kanako comes along and tells you to fucking die. out of all the 2hu ive played this one is probably the coziest and the easiest to do well in, imo. probably has my favorite boss cast too, even though that probably isn't saying much.

im probably not the best authority to listen to when it comes to this game (i cant do shit past easy mode. go ahead and point and laugh), but i enjoyed this one for what it was. i liked the atmosphere, i liked the boss themes, i liked the nitori, simple as.

I have mixed feelings on this game, but overall it has grown on me over time. I see this one recommended at a starting point a lot, and while it wasn't mine, I've met people who did start with it who agree with the sentiment.

Overall, it's a good game. The bullet patterns are a bit more dense then they are in other games, but this is because you essentially have an unlimited amount of bombs as long as you use them smartly. As power is tied to bombs in this game, as opposed to being a separate resource.

Initially, I found myself hating this new bombing system, but as I got used to it [and stopped being extremely stingy with my bombs] I found myself enjoying it a lot more. I still do not prefer it to the traditional bomb/power split, but it's a perfectly acceptable alternative.

The final spellcard is also uncharacteristically sinister. So look forward to that.

For some reason I just could not get a good handle of any of the spells and I felt uncomfortable with each one. I'm not sure if it's the new engine, or the fact that all bosses have some sort of laser attack or any other reason. I dabbled in the other games before fully committing to this one and I think it's cause of those reasons.

It's not as majestic as PCB or as impactful story-wise (at least emotionally, lore-wise, it's very important).

It's also infinitely harder and for me, more frustrating for some reason (I didn't get frustrated at all when I played PCB but Kanako was a little frustrating). Don't listen to anyone who says to start with this one, please start with PCB instead, it's much more managable.

Aya is a menace who claims she'd go easy on you and it's a complete lie. What other game has a stage 4 boss with a survival card? At least Sanae is easier than Youmu though she still trips me up sometimes (though compared to the rest of the cast, she's a bit of a pushover). Kanako is one of the hardest bosses in any game I've ever played in my entire life. Right out of the gate, she's hard and only gets harder. She has some bullshit cards (the jellybeans) but overall, she's decently fair but she demands skills and playstyles that are hard to execute properly (swapping between focus and unfocus on a dime).

But still a great game of course. Amazing soundtrack, great characters, unique artstyle different from the other games. It's nice and it serves its purpose as the start of the later windows games well. It has a good tone and setting and it introduces new characters that become a mainstay. It expands the lore and setting, setting the basis for the next 2 or 3 games. The backgrounds are so beautiful that they're honestly distracting but in a good way.

The new bomb mechanic is pretty fun too, makes bombs really strong which saved my ass so often.

Though, when I finished PCB, I wanted more, I played it again and beat it another time. When i finished MoF, I was relieved to be done. I'm not really sure what that means.

If I see Yuyuko in my dreams, I see Kanako in my nightmares.

I was worried going into this game that I wouldn't like it coming off of Imperishable Night and hoo boy was I right. To be clear right off the bat, this is a good game. The soundtrack is great as always, the writing is charming, the backgrounds look great, and overall this is still a quality package. If you played this as your first Touhou game I can absolutely see why you would like it, but for me, I'm too spoiled by earlier games.

Too many features are missing compared to IN. I get that this was made in a new engine so ZUN is pretty much starting from scratch here, but the fact that we're starting from scratch in the gameplay department really sucks. I wasn't optimistic about spell practice being in any game after IN but I'm still disappointed to see it missing. The playable roster has been reduced down to just Reimu and Marisa, albiet with three shot types each compared to the previous norm of two, but focused shots have returned to EoSD style as opposed to in PCB where focused shots behaved differently. You can no longer choose your starting lives which just feels like a bizarre choice to me, since the games were challenging enough as they were, and you got a score penalty for using more than 3 anyway, so I don't really see why we needed to remove the feature? Continues start the stage over which I think is fine but again I can't help but feel like I'm getting nerfed by it. Bombs are tied to power which is a fine idea in concept but it's just not that fun in execution since bombs should make the game easier, and lowering your power by using one just doesn't feel like a worthwhile tradeoff when simply dying gives you back almost all of your power. Grazing is gone for some reason, the particle effect is still there but it doesn't seem to have any actual purpose.

There are almost certainly even more things I forgot to mention but this is just a death by ten thousand paper cuts, none of these changes would be too bad on their own and if you haven't played an earlier game then you wouldn't even notice them, but to have them all piled on at once like this it just makes this game feel like a downgrade. I'm open to returning to this game in the future but for the time being I'd rather just move on.

knew I was deep into touhou when the most hype moment of a game I played this year was seeing aya from shoot the bullet show up as the boss of stage 4

bomb mechanic is iffy (as it often is) and I miss grazing, but everything else here's lovely so it's hard to complain. there's a celebratory whimsy and playfulness that's above and beyond even perfect cherry blossom; the kind of joyful bombast that just feels cozy and makes it easy to sink into effortlessly

the bosses are as good as ever, the backgrounds and portraits are better than ever, and the soundtrack might be the best one yet, but what stands out most to me is how much zun's honed his talent for giving even the smallest, faintest moments their own charming flourishes. little swerves like hina's introduction or nitori fleeing from her own initial midboss encounter before it starts are delightful, and tracing the lines as the series gets more and more confident with conveying personality thru mechanical and structural means has been an absolute pleasure; nearly every frame of a character's presence — thru danmaku, dialogue, or lack thereof — being used to fullest effect by this point, leveraging elegant, iterative design perfectly

it's time to admit zun's the most accomplished auteur in the medium and it's not even close