Recent reviews by matohin

I know some people say this in their reviews, and here I run into it again for the first time - I don't actually think this game is bad per say, and if I could pick, I would rather have a neutral review, but alas, Steam does not have that.

This game isn't bad by any means, but it's not great, either. First of all, on I've beaten this game on Normal 1cc, first try, with a ton of resources left. The first time I died was in the final stage - this is not how those games should be. And what did I die to? A gimmick pattern (The weird midboss transformation spell) that I haven't realized you could even shoot, leading to me trying to time it out and dying. After that I've also died to a few of the final boss' patterns, but I still had a ton of resources left. In my opinion, this game doesn't really have the right balance - it vomits complex patterns at you straight from the get go, as even the first stage boss alone is more intimidating than almost any official Touhou first stage boss. That is nice, but most of them aren't actually difficult, and the rest you can just bomb through because of how much resources the game gives you - which is where a lot of the gimmick patterns seem to come in. The hard to notice "bridges" of enemies appearing up your ass in Stage 4, quite a few of Ran's spellcards (besides, why the hell is Ran a part of the main run, anyway? A timeout spellcard in Stage 5 is a bit odd - usually, Stage 5 bosses are fast-paced, but tough encounters that are similar to the stage itself - putting Ran as the fifth Stage boss might not be as much of a difficulty spike as it might sound, as this is definitely an easier Ran than in PCB Extra, but it's still a bit of an odd choice), the Yuyuko soul stealing card and that stage 6 midboss card I've mentioned before. Those are the main things that were intimidating on my run - and I didn't even know how to deal with most of them, so I had no idea if they were actually hard or I just didn't get them - turns out, aside from Ran's final and Yuyuko's soul steal, they aren't that hard, either. But there's no problem in an easy game - the problem is how the game gets to that point.

The game suffers from PCB's issue... except in an even worse fashion. The game feels LOOOOONG, even longer than PCB. And as I've said before, there's a lot of gimmicky patterns. What I did not mention is a whole load of gimmick bullets - sheep, wings, skull barrels, just about everything you can imagine. And most of their hitboxes are... questionable. Not in a way that is particularly a pain to dodge, but in a way that is not very nice to understand. And remember when people complained about Ten Desires having shiny bullets to an absurd extent? That was true, and it just so happens to be true for this game, too. It actually becomes a challenge to comprehend some of the patterns visually - not as in, they're hard to dodge, but as in, they're hard on my eyes. On the other hand, PCB barely even had that - there were quite some visibility issues in Stage 4, yes, but even the unique bullets like butterflies prioritized the orb aspect of the bullet more than the actual butterfly - to the point where I barely even realized it was a butterfly originally. Here, there's literal bullet butterflies that glow. Why? It really feels like due to not having any limitations, the developers just decided to make whatever bullets they wanted - rather than doing what ZUN did in his earlier works and use the simple set of bullets with occassional additions to make patterns that are pretty without being confusing. The easiest example to bring up is the stage 3 midboss spellcard in EoSD - simple, efficient, looks like a flower, cool. Here, the example would be, say, Stage 6 boss' pre-final spellcard. It's a tree - except that it's not just a laser tree, it also has more neon plastered on it than a riced Honda Civic and butterflies fly out. Sheesh.

However, not all is bad - the main mechanic of the Cherry Barrier is also basically the main way to get resources now. As I am not particularly knowledgeable about how it actually works, I'll just say that it felt satisfying to use during gameplay - it seems like the more you manage to keep the barrier up, the more you will get resources. It feels natural to use and didn't feel like a gimmick at all, and it was easy to understand - similar to the original barrier, but way more useful for gaining resources. Having a bar show the amount of cherry things needed to power up the barrier and also how long it will last is a great addition, too. And indeed, as gimmicky as it can sometimes be, the game is plain fun, even if a bit too long and easy compared to even actual PCB. And the sound effects are really nice too, for the most part.

There's just one more problem - the aesthetics are... very, very questionable. First of all, most of the music is very over the top, but I can't even remember most of it, which is not good. It feels like it was made for the game, and, as such, only works within the game. The exception is Stage 3's theme and boss theme - those are oddly different from the rest of the soundtrack and I really liked those. Second of all, the character portraits are very bouncy in animation upon activating a spellcard and have all this cool effects, blah blah blah... they look like mobile gacha characters. I've never understood this obsession with making Touhou girls "sexy" - sure, you can say ZUN's original art is a goofy mess, but that wasn't unintentional - look at his PC-98 box art or PC-98 ingame character portraits. It's very hard to call those bad and there's way less actual mistakes than his Windows works - and yet, there's still not even a trace of what this game's characters look like. If I had to describe, the way Touhou characters should look is closer to Kirby characters - goofy faces, memorable color palette and silhouette, some funny quirk, done. This game adds too much on top of those basics, and I don't really think that was a good idea. Third, the actual changes to the events of PCB are very, very weird. For some reason, Letty, Prismrivers and Youmu are gone - it makes sense as to why Youmu is gone, as she was promoted to playable now, but what was the reason behind the other two? The others get replaced by a new character and Lily White - Lily's alright, her patterns are decent, but the Prismrivers were one of the best Stage 4 bosses in the series, so this wasn't really a good trade. The new character is unmemorable past that gimmicky spellcard from Stage 6, so that wasn't a good trade, either. And while I personally like the Alice in Wonderland spin on Alice, it's not particularly the most in-depth or clever, either - in fact, quite the opposite. I suppose it sort of makes sense, though, given that Mystic Square's EXTRA Stage music was titled "Alice in Wonderland", but there it was done in a far more interesting way, in my opinion. Also, why the hell did Stage 2 and 6 get turned into pretty generic oriental places? Stage 2 in particular - the original was a beautiful sight, even if it was done using the most primitive of shapes and textures, it really had a memorable feel. In this, it's just a generic mansion interior.

Overall, this game is mixed - if you're looking for a plain relaxing Touhou game, this is a good idea. If you're looking for a shoot-em-up, this is still a decent pick, as it's not really expensive. But if you're looking for a PCB remake or something that is more focused on being fast-paced and difficult, like I was expecting, it's better to buy another game. Once again I'd like to state that I don't think this is bad, but alas.

one of the best in the franchise - a game that essentially appeals to all types of players while still keeping the heart and soul of the series. carrying over the sheer amount of polish from the previous (also great) game, this one goes back to having bomb items, instead punishing you in terms of power by making your power drop by 1.00 each death. now, while you do still gain heart pieces from bosses, it doesn't work like in Subterranean Animism and is much less frequent - alongside that, the game also gives you one full 1up item! the new system is the UFO system - a complex system that, while chaotic and overcomplicated-looking, is actually extremely fun and helpful for all types of players. what i would recommend to those who are new at the game is to focus on balancing between red ufos and green ufos, with one rainbow ufo also thrown in the run. try to get as much resources through stages 1-3, you'll need them! though, you can still get them in stages 4-6, but it's harder there. the shottypes i've tried are all fun, and both Sanae and Reimu are good picks for a run, with Marisa being the really fun but also dangerous option. the music is some of ZUN's best, and so are the gorgeous graphics, with really nice 3D stage visuals, cute portraits and well-made object sprites. the game also has 4 difficulties - Easy, a difficulty i would recommend to people who prefer Touhou games like Lotus Land Story or Mountain of Faith, Normal, a difficulty for those who love those like Subterranean Animism, Hard, a difficulty for fans of 1cc'ing arcade games of the genre and Lunatic, for those who will score millions upon millions and want to go beyond. this is a game that appeals to all of those types of players, and while i am not particularly good enough to clear Hard or Lunatic, i've had dozens of fun in Easy and Normal. this game is some of the hardest in the franchise, but it's definitely worth playing. if you want to have an English translation, try using the THCrap - the Touhou Community Automated Patcher (i forgot what the r stands for). it's translations for 6-9, in my opinion, are rather mixed (hopefully those games come to Steam!), but from 10 and onwards, the translations are great and definitely worth using if you don't know Japanese (or like the EN fonts more)

P.S: i only have 0.6 hours because i played the game mostly outside of Steam
P.P.S: thanks to PV(PhoenixVania) for gifting me this game on Steam! big thanks!

as someone whose first game ever that i remember was some version of PAC-MAN, i loved this.
fun gameplay, great continue/score system, cute intermissions, and a very good Namco feel.
definitely worth buying!

pretty much the best game in the franchise, even if one of the hardest. best balance of shottypes having variety and also being useful, incredible spellcards, the best music out of them all and beautiful visuals. if you're a beginner, you can buy this game and try to 1cc (1-credit-clear, aka no continues) on Easy, or instantly try going for Normal if you already have experience with the series or the genre. the game's power-bombing system which drains 1.00 of your power for a bomb is way more balanced than Mountain of Faith's, as bombs have more variety and are way less broken, and the system itself works in this game like a charm - instead of having way too many resources or not enough resources, it's the player who decides how many resources are going to be available - that also applies to lives, which are given for not dying on a spellcard or a nonspell of a boss/midboss. since using bombs doesn't count as dying, gaining resources isn't as hard as you might think, and you can even get a extra life on the final boss as long as you play good enough. as for things that particularly stand out, the game's music now has some ambience and more atmosphere to it than the previous games, and most spellcards are very creative even for this series, with my favorites being stage 5 boss (Orin)'s first spellcard and stage 6 boss (Utsuho)'s pre-final spellcard. if you're a fan of Touhou, shmups, both or even if you don't like Touhou that much, as long as you like shmups, you're gonna enjoy this game. it's fair to the core while also having just enough challenge on each difficulty to be extremely satisfying to beat.

That's a very good 3D puzzle game with a twist in the ending and a challenge. It's short, but great.