This is it. This is the hardest touhou game. Not because it's particularly difficult perse, but because of pure bullshit. Shou Toramaru I don't care how kinda cool you are, can suck a fat one because of that fight. And the unique mechanic of this game? Shitty little UFOs you have to babysit and possibly get yourself killed for.
On another note, this game has some neat fights and themes. Also it brings back the old life and bomb system but slightly changed, so that's pretty nice. Emotional Skyscraper is tied for one of my favorite themes in the series too, this shit is godly. Also playable Sanae is pretty cool.
The only game I will never be able to 1CC.

Once again, this one is very funny for story reasons. A bunch of jokers who were trapped underground were freed by the last game's events and are now trying to release their friend, a Buddhist monk who was sealed in Makai by humans because she wanted to be nice to yokai. First touhou girl to be like an actually nice person. Meanwhile another lady they were stuck underground with decides to fuck with them for no particular reason by leading the heroines to like, kind of take part? Everyone just kind of hangs out, lets Byakuren out of her seal and then immediately tries to put her back because they're all just kind of afraid of change. At no point do you meaningfully influence events.

The unique mechanic in this one is collecting UFOs of different colors to make a big UFO and get rewards. It absolutely blows as a mechanic since you have to babysit the stupid things but it lets you get millions of extra lives so it's impossible to say if it's bad or not.

Extra points for being the first game with playable Sanae, who is very funny and my favorite. Everyone else is fairly bored with living in the fantasy dimension but since she's from outside and is definitely a Gamer you can enjoy her obsessing over if aliens are real the whole time.

Another series first: this one has a man in it but he's a cloud.

It's interesting how the view of the community of this game changes depending on how many other shmup franchises you played. If you play exclusively Touhou, the bouncing items and curved lasers seem like hell on earth and make it so a lot of people hate the game, but if you play others aside from Touhou, the game becomes a blast. This is one of my favorites Touhou games now because I did just that, topped ever so slightly by Subterranean Animism.

Routing UFO enemies and being rewarded by resources and a screen clear is fun, even more so when you get multiple of them in a row.

I would say, if you thought this game was weird and obtuse, that's okay, but if it happens that you also don't have much shmup experience aside from Touhou, you should come back to this title after playing other games with similar mechanics, most notably Darius Gaiden, which seems like a direct inspiration with the Black Hole bombs and 3 colored power ups.

TLDR- It's so INCREDILBLY difficult but there's a lot to enjoy here.

Undefined Fantastic Object is truly a turning point in the series. This is the first step the series took into solidifying and becoming it's own weird self that it is today. This game was the first to take real, important risks in the series and it pays off. I had said before that Subterranean Animism was weird, but that was in more of an awkward fashion, this game is weird in the facet that it really tested what this series could become, pushing new mechanics, new patterns, new relationships, new main characters, everything. This game was willing to take risks and step out of the wheelhouse that the series had never dared to do before, making each character even more individualized and pushed what you could call a bullet hell.

Firstly, there are 3 main characters in this game, shaking off the phase of settling into the second windows generation of only having Reimu and Marisa, as this game adds Sanae, who sticks around. The two most important facets of this game's development, individualization and quirkiness are shown here. Each character has two shot types which are vastly different from each other; thankfully this game does not have the problem of some of the types feeling extremely weak in comparison to the others (only Marisa B sorrrrrrta feels this way). Compare this to SA, for if you were trying to Lunatic 1CC (which I have been for every game) it was Reimu A or bust. In UFO, there are arguably 3 shot types that you can make work to 1CC. This is a welcome change and can give the player more freedom to choose something more akin to how they like to play. These shot types individually though, are all pretty quirky and unique, Reimu now has an extremely interesting bomb on A, which felt wrong for her having that powerful of a bomb at first. Sanae is the star in this aspect, both of her shot types utilizing the Moriya gods and making her shots feel super unique and both are fun to use. Unfortunately Marisa normally gets the short end of the stick in shot types in this series (except like DDC) and doesn't have much interesting in her kit. Also the bad continue system is back from SA, this system makes your knowledge of the game extremely front heavy, which personally I don't like but alas. The sheer amount of unique and viable options you have in this game show the effort put into the characterization of all of the main cast and are extremely appreciated.

This game has the main mechanic of UFOs, which if collected in a certain order spawn survival tools or score, the entire soul of the game revolves around this mechanic, good and bad. For the good, it is probably the most unique mechanic in the series, even going on to be reused (albeit modified) in WBaWC. The constant mini game the player has to keep track of during the normal Touhou gameplay makes playing this game extremely unique, and the best mechanic in the series. The mechanic is dynamic in you can "order what you need" for the situation. Got a tough pattern ahead? Make a few green UFOs and spam your way through it. Need to keep the run alive? Go for some reds. The sheer fluidity of the mechanic leads to some great on the spot decision making that really takes the front seat of this game gameplay wise, it is overall fantastic. The game will expect you to abuse the UFOs though, they are the most abusable mechanic in the series so the game will throw some absolute garbage patterns and stage segments that require you to be on it UFO wise to keep up. One problem I do have with the mechanic however, is having to memorize the spawn locations of each UFO and where it drops. You end up forming a rather samey route for the first 2 or 3 stages and just stick to that. Memorization of spawns isn't a horrible thing for an overall 30 minute game, and you pick it up pretty quick, but I have feeling there's a slightly better alternative in there somewhere. The game demanding you playing this new sort of constant mini game makes it feel quirky too, you feel like you're playing Undefined Fantastic Object more than you are playing a Touhou game.

I said before that SA was my pick for hardest Touhou, that was before I put 67 hours into getting one 1CC on Lunatic. This game is exhaustingly difficult, to the point where I dreaded grinding it at points. You will memorize every spawn by the time this game is done with and be forced to make snap decisions to keep your runs alive. Stage by stage, the difficulty curves in every which way with stage 3 being extremely hard and stage 4 and 6 being the easier ones in the game, it's a mess of balance frankly. All bosses do get unique bullets that only they use themselves which does add to the individualization of bosses that was obviously a focus of this game.

Going to the Extra, it feels pretty quirky and out there, it feels like pure chaos caused by Nue, being expressed through the patterns of the stage enemies, Kogasa randomly showing up, the music, Nue's patterns herself, it's honestly a great time but isn't stand out enough to be up in talks of best Extra's like SA's or LoLK's.

With all of that, this game does feel relatively foreign to other installments in the series, it's still obviously a Touhou game, but it makes you exist inside its own universe, you're playing a rather familiar concept under it's' domain, its rules. The gameplay is quirky because you rarely use normal dodging techniques in this game, tried and true streaming is hardly present in this game's stage sections and it reiterates that feeling of foreign familiarity.

The environments of this game do not disappoint either, going from the, bluntly said, lackluster environments of SA to the sprawling skies of UFO is an amazing step up. The shadow of the ship being cast over you when you go into Nazrin's first non on stage 1 shows the effort put forth into making storytelling part of the stage and environments in this installment. Boarding a ship and then going to another dimension, one that is familiar and eerie to fans of the series is a genuinely unique and interesting progression of environments and this game excels at that. Leading up to Hokkai, one of the most beautiful areas in the series where you find a final boss you can sympathize with ties the environment being essential to this game perfectly.

The plot of this game feels uniquely its own too. While SA felt like it relied heavily on MoF and was practically MoF 2 story wise, this game uses SA as a stepping stone to kick it's plot into gear, but hold its own story wise and is self contained outside of the starting conditions which makes it feel more special. Byakuren is also a very convincing villain who can easily be sympathized with which is also a bonus.

Music-wise, this game is solid too, with Emotional Skyscraper, Heian Alein, Kogasa's theme, Fires of Hokkai being some personal favorites. All themes are fitting and add even more atmosphere.

In all this game marches to the beat of its own drum, and it does that to creating the most unique game in the series, and one of the better installments in the franchise.

Touhou 12: Undefined Fantastic Object has as its strengths what I love most about Touhou: intense treat collection and hard danmaku, and it's my personal favorite Touhou game. the crowd boos, throws tomatoes, a comically large crook appears from offstage to drag me off wait!!! no!! let me finish!!

I will start by saying that the difficulty level is pretty high, the resources that it gives you can frustrating to obtain and the danmaku is among the most difficult in the series imo (like, Kogasa are you kidding me with Monster Sign "A Forgotten Umbrella's Night Train"?? you're a stage 2 boss!) so I wouldn't recommend it to beginners of the series. But if you know your way around a Touhou game (or a shmup in general) you shouldn't let the difficulty intimidate you.

That being said, I love the UFO mechanic, you have a wide variety of shot types to choose from according to your preference, and mechanically it feels responsive and comfortable to maneuver. The UFO mechanic keeps the stages feeling fresh and engaging, contributes to a sense of replayability, and rewards you for skill and courage. It also gives you a great deal of flexibility and agency in stage routing according to whatever resources you might need at the time. And UFO does really throw resources at you, as long as you play with focus, restraint and courage. Honestly, nothing feels as invigorating as collecting the UFOs just right and getting those screen clears and all those sweet, sweet treats. To me, the gameplay is just the right amount of punishing (imo it could even be more punishing).

Music-wise they aren't all winners, but there's some excellent tracks here. Personal favorites include "Captain Murasa", "The Tiger-Patterned Bishamonten" and "Interdimensional Voyage of a Ghostly Passenger Ship". Girls-wise there's some great designs all around and every single boss fight keeps you on your toes (I always say that dying to Nazrin is just burning off bad karma). I also enjoy the overall flavor and the Buddhism of it all. Magic "Mystic Fragrance of a Makai Butterfly" is one of my favorite spell cards to do and it's very beautiful.

You can also really feel the Buddhist theming through the gameplay. For example, attachment (trying to collect the slippery goddamn ufos) leads to suffering (running right into a bullet). And then you have the impermanence of all phenomena (the goddamn ufo changed color right before i grabbed it).

The Buddha himself once said that bombing for treats is just like sweeping sand off the banks of the Ganges river.

Touhou, by and large, is something im not a huge fan of. Its a series of wildly varying quality that suffers from sameyness, a terrible fanbase and some general gameplay issues that pervade from game to game.

Most notably of these, Touhou stages are shit. The games are always defined by their fantastic boss battles, but the other half of the game is always, always, forgettable and nothing special. And this is where UFO really shines.

UFO's key is in its eponymous system, where collecting
3 UFO items of the same colour or of all different items spawn a UFO, a docile enemy that sucks up drops, and when it's sucked up enough and killed, drops additional items such as life fragments, bombs, or a shittonne of score. More importantly than this, on death, they cancel all enemy bullets, which is absolutely massive. It is frankly, a Genius system, mostly because of how it interacts with the existing Touhou item drop formula, how it encourages both clever stage routing and on-the fly adaptation, and encourages the player to be far more active in movement as UFO items are so important to both scoring and survival, and therefore it rewards weaving through bullets and take risks to make the most out of it. It is exactly the sort of thing Touhou stages need, and it turns the worst part of the EOSD-onwards Touhous into the best part.

Well, maybe. I think it's fair to say UFO also has incredibly rock solid bosses. Touhou never really falters on the bosses, and whilst I can hardly call myself an authority on them, they're great here, particularly Stage 6's boss.

The music is also just lovely. ZUN spices this one up a bit more than the other Post-EOSD games i've played, with the latter stages including some more varied instrumentation and styling to his traditional faire, which really works well. Stage 4 and the Stage 6 boss track are clear standouts for me and just make the game that little bit more special.

It's still a Windows Touhou, so the art is bad, it looks very similar to other games from the time, and frankly you have to jump through some hoops to get it in english and you're stuck with awkward compatibility and resolutions going up to the mighty 1280x960. Fuck you if you want it fullscreen, by the way.

But yeah, ZUN did it. This is by far the best Touhou i've played and just a top-tier STG in general. A fantastic gimmick accompanied by a Touhou game of high quality in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, this is his Magnum Opus.

I hope the money I unneccessarily spent on the Steam version of this game gets ZUN a nice beer. I almost forgive him for Violet Detector.

1cc normal
dizem ser tão dificil quando o 11 mas achei bem mais facil.
o esquema de pegar os discos voadores força muito o jogador a decorar quando eles vão aparecer, isso é bem criticado no jogo mas basicamente todos os touhous envolvem decorar o nivel então não faz muita diferença
murasa best waifu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RCJFjziC6Y
e tem a famosa rata dos memes

Man, I wish I liked this game. I really do! The plot is nice, still find it great how it's all the Moriya gang's fault it even happened, the characters are some of my favorites in the series and the OST is also one of my favorites, right next to MoF and LoLK

But man, does the gameplay suuuuuuuuck. This opinion varies from person to person, but I really didn't like it. As someone who's not good at these games, this took me one hell of a time to beat. The patterns are quite tough, and I would say that the difficulty curve is fine, but the main gimmick of this game, the UFOs, make the game unnecessarily tougher. And I just hate how they were handled in this game

Get 3 UFOs of the same color or one of every 3 colors and a giant UFO spawns. Shoot enemies down to feed it stuff and make it drop whatever the UFO is associated with. Shoot down the UFO to get more. Easy, right? Well, have fun catching the one you need while dodging the as mentioned previously tough patterns. The game starves you from resources like lives and bombs with these, and I cannot count you the amount of times I flew into a bullet trying so. Skill issue? Maybe. But I really don't recommend this one as your first game