Thinking of trying Touhou

[puggsoy]

After recently hearing some music from a Touhou game, I checked out this series that I've often heard about but never really considered playing. It looks pretty good, bullet hell shooter aren't a genre a play a lot of but I really enjoyed Jamestown. It seems fairly good seeing how popular the series is so it might be something I'd like.

So yeah, can anybody here recommend Touhou games? As far as I can tell most/all of them are free (at least the official/original ones) so trying it out won't be a loss, but I'm just wondering if anyone here can tell me whether they think it's a good/bad idea or just their general opinion on the series.

[Vipershark]

Scarlet Weather Rhapsody used to be pretty popular around here

You'd probably get the best answer by asking Kitsu

[Kosheh]

hey i can give a little Touhou Insight from a casual point of view

the cool thing about touhou are how straight-up insane its community is (they're almost like bronies, kinda, but in this case it's for the best, trust me. bronies usually don't code games)

there's the main games, which are "bullet hell" shooters. basically, they're shoot-em-ups where you're a little spaceship but the bosses spew INSANE amounts of damaging pellets.
they're awesome, because one man who goes by ZUN created the entire game from the ground up; from the pixelart, to the character design, to the game code, to the game mechanics (which include a 'card deck' element per character) to the music. It's all him. he's almost prophetic. he's created more of these than i can count on my hands.


then there's the .5 games, which are fighting game spinoffs. ZUN supervises these games but they're made by another studio. they play like a weird dragonball 2d fighting game but if every fighter was cute. it also uses a card system akin to the main series for special buffs and character supers, too. they're pretty intense, and very good. i'd recommend them if you like smash bros. more than street fighter, weirdly enough.
they recently made a new touhou fighter that pretty much reboots the fighting games' mechanics, character art, everything, and further emphasises dragonball-esque battles (ALL FIGHTS take place in the air)

and then there's the several spinoff games made by fans of the series (yes - fangames of an indie game), including [but definitely not limited to] Kumajou Densetsu (a Castlevania parody that's ACTUALLY AMAZING), New Super Marisa World (an SMW parody), and a 3D polygonal touhou airborne fighting game.



there's also several remix albums of the main games' soundtrack (oh, yeah - which all of the spinoffs and fangame-of-indiegame make use of, too)


the series is pretty legit; but i'm sure someone else here has a little better insight on the series here than i do.

[Maxpphire]

Scarlet Weather Rhapsody used to be pretty popular around here

You'd probably get the best answer by asking Kitsu

Thats one of the fighters.

Also tbh the fandom is kinda split up into five different ones. The Shooters, The Fighters, The Music. The Injokes, and then people who like a mixture of the other 4 parts. When someone says they like Touhou, its very well possibly that they've never played a Touhou game, and that isn't a bad thing.

As someone was used to play the bullet hell games like years and years ago, a bit of advice: Generally your goal is to clear the game on one credit. Best way to do this is to practice on one difficulty higher then the difficulty you're trying to clear.

I personally suggest playing Perfect Cherry Blossom as it is a good starter Touhou game. Then my favorite is Embodiment of Scarlet Devil while my best friend's favorite is Subterranean Animism.

[Solid_Spy]

I highly recommend it. Touhou is a very fun series to play. I haven't played all of them unfortunately, but many of them are very good and addicting :p.

I highly reccomend that you play Touhou 8 Imperishable Night. I hear that is supposed to be the easiest one.

[Random Talking Bush]

I actually used to play Touhou games often a few years back (and had at least five avatars based off of it), but only the ones by ZUN or Twilight Frontier (I'm barely into the fanworks, only the official/semi-official games). Although I haven't played any games past Subterranean Animism...

For the SHMUP games, I've only managed to 1-credit clear Story of Eastern Wonderland, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night on Normal, I've never been skilled enough to complete the Extra levels as I keep dying halfway through every time. And since it's been so long, I'd be even worse at it now.



Reminds me that I should get back to ripping the sprites from Hopeless Masquerade sometime.

[puggsoy]

Thanks for all your opinions guys! I was thinking of just starting with Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil (the first one for Windows) and if I like it then playing the rest in order. I know there's a story but is it significant enough to possibly make me care about the order I play them in? If not then I'll probably play Perfect Cherry Blossom first as Kat suggested.

[Maxpphire]

I would say they could be played in any order for the most part.

The stories really aren't interlocking except for character personalities, and I really don't think they reference past events and if they do it isn't until much newer games.

[Keychain]

Sorry for the late-ish reply but I'm only just seeing this thread.

I recommend Perfect Cherry Blossom for a first-timer. I'm pretty bad at the games but I still love them and the fanmade content that gets generated.

also this is obligatory