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.
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.