If you are looking to get into Touhou. start here. A direct upgrade from the game the came before in almost every way, its hard to recommend anything else as a first game. Its music bops, its cast is just as fun as any other, and its much easier than most other games in the franchise.

That isn't a complaint at all, its breezy nature makes it much more accessible, combined with the cherry + mechanic with grants an extra hit at certain points, and a life system that can gift you up to 4 extra lives on normal mode and you're looking at a game that's just a blast to run through. Hard to really complain here, great time.

A fantastic game and an incredible jumping on point for the series. Samus controls like absolute butter and just running across the map feels incredible. The game does a wonderful job at guiding the player without feeling like its holding your hand.

My biggest issue with the game is the bosses, with the exception of the final I just did not find them fun. Samus gets some wonderfully flashy attacks that feel ripped right out of DMC game thanks to the counter system and those are great, but it just felt as if they killed the pacing for me. Also the water area sucks.

Absolute wonderful game all around and I cannot wait to see this series continue.

Legends is an absolute joy to experience as a fan of this series for practically my entire life. And while it isn't the perfect direction for the series, it lands the leaps it takes far more than it misses.

Legends takes place in ancient Sinnoh, then called Hisui region, and tasks the player to hunt every species of Pokemon. A simple premise but one that it executes incredibly effectively. Removing the battle progression and focusing on the Gym and Elite Four plot line means the game is entirely centered on the Pokemon themselves, how they interact, how they sleep, where they choose to live, etc. As a result, Pokemon display more personality than ever before, really selling these funny guys as living things better than any game prior.

As for said Pokemon, it's a fairly mixed bag in my opinion. The new Hisuian Rock Fire Arcanine for example, has quickly become one of my favorite Pokemon of all time. As well as the dopey yet powerful Ursaluna. Pokemon this game can feel incredibly inspired and unique, such as a rocky Kleavor or new Electrode, which completely redefines the Pokemon. But others, like Sneasler and the new force of nature Enamours just feel awkward and I can't say I am a fan.

The game's story is aight. It's nothing spectacular and the truly great stuff is saved towards the very tail end of the story, unless you're a Pokemon lore nut. In that case it's a joy throughout naturally.

The gameplay itself is fluid and promotes a great cycle of grabbing materials on the fly, to craft on the fly, to keep catching Pokémon without having to stop. I do take issues with combat however. Simply put, it's heavily flawed and imbalanced. It's based on speed, and the faster you are the more times a Pokémon can attack in a row. This means the fast Pokemon basically just outclass any Pokemon that's slower than average. Some pokemon, like Electrode can get up to 4 attacks in a row while Golem will never get more than 1. It's a good thing this is a single player game. This game completely reworked every move, status, and mechanic in the series and while it works for this game I don't love every change and cutting hundreds of moves certainly became noticeable overtime.

As for visuals, plain and simple it is very very ugly. The music is wonderful however, and every gen 4 lit motif and call back had me smiling like an idiot.

Overall, this game really does everything the hype says it does. It's a fantastic game that took 70 hours to fly by. It's just, pure fun man! And I cannot wait to see where this series goes in the future.

Touhou is a series I always really wanted to get into but never was a good enough gamer to make the leap into the games. I tried a few times to play this game in the past few years but never managed to really understand it.
I guess I leveled up as a gamer this year because when I picked it back up in december I instantly fell in love, the game is hard, brutally so, but it never felt unfair or cheap and I really wanted to see it to the end.
Gameplay wise its incredible simple, you have bombs, 4 different shot types to try, and the ability to slow your speed and focus your shots and thats about it.
The game is 6 stages long (5 on easy mode) and with getting to the very end with the 3 continues is difficult, the game truly shows itself when you have to go for the 1cc, or beating the game with no continues. This is the only way to get the true end and unlock the secret uber hard extra stage.
Visually this game is hilarious, the sprite work is decent enough for a game made by one dude but the art is so armature its sort of charming. Its hard to critique it. The music is also hard to critique but for the opposite reason. Touhou is arguably most iconic for its music and EOSD comes in swinging with some of the best tracks I've heard in video games, U.N. Owen was Her? is the one I'd think most people think of first but the Stage 4 theme, Remilia's theme, and Meiling's theme are all stand outs for me.
The game definitely shows its age, the lack of an indicator for the graze hitbox being the biggest issue for me. Graze is a mechanic that promotes you getting as close to enemy bullets as possible without getting hit as characters have incredibly small hitboxes to allow for complex enemy patterns. But overall, I'd recommend!

This game is almost great. Its sprite work is wonderful and the music as always goes hard. The cast is super fun and it really lets some of the less used characters shine, especially Jo'on, Yuugi, and Murasa. Every character plays dramatically differently, allowing for a lot of creativity when blasting through the boss rush esc story mode.
This game actually carries a story mode unlike the mainline games and its really good! Seeing the same events play out in order, learning more about how the different factions in Gensokyo are dealing with the oil spill really ends in a satisfying way. My favorites being Jo'on and Shions dream of scamming people with oil and Okina just throwing Flandre at the problem until she brute forces a solution.
The thing that kills the game for me is Totetsu, her second phase fight is so insanely obnoxious and unfun that it kills the momentum and mood of any character who has to run through it. Other than that a pretty good time overall