Discuss any manner of Touhou fandom or gameplay on this thread.
What is it?
The Touhou Project is a long-running series of 2D vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting games made by Team Shanghai Alice. Danmaku is a Japanese word roughly meaning "curtain fire", although the genre has been described as "bullet hell".
The Touhou games separate themselves from other games in the genre by being made by one person (ZUN) and having the usual spaceships and vehicles shooting each other replaced by lots of girls with hats.
There currently exist 15 games in the main series, with 5 fighting game spin-offs.
Story
Touhou takes place in a separate dimension known as Gensokyo, literally "land of dreams", where most of the mythical monsters in Japan and around the world have fled to long ago, explaining why there are none today. The main characters Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame are residents of Gensokyo, and being somewhat powerful and somewhat morally upright, they investigate and solve the unusual events popping up in Gensokyo. Each game describes an unusual incident which they solve by beating people up and introduces new characters to the series.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Touhou is similar to that of other vertically scrolling shooters, where the player dodges enemy shots while firing continuously to destroy the enemies. However, Touhou is known for its large amount of bullets and bullet density compared to other such games, and combined with the fact that one hit from any shot kills you, it is viewed as a hard game.
Each Touhou game has six stages. During a stage, there will be a "stage" period where regular enemies fly onscreen to die or run away, and release copious amounts of bullets. This will be followed by a "midboss", a more prominent enemy who will have more complicated attack patterns and bullet density. The midboss is followed by the "boss", which is a named character whose dialogue with the protagonists constitutes a large part of the story.
The main boss has very complex attacks, separated into two distinct groups: "Nonspells" and "Spellcards". Nonspells are the boss's standard attacks, and are usually easier to dodge and last for a shorter time than spellcards. Spellcards are named and have a time limit. If the player is able to defeat the boss during this time limit without dying or bombing, a score bonus is rewarded to the player. However, spellcards are usually ludicrously tough to dodge. There also exist survival spellcards, which have the boss leave the screen, only needing you to outlast a long timer while dodging bullets.
Players have two means of damaging enemies: standard shot types and bombs. Standard shot is a continuous barrage of bullets, which can be made stronger by collecting powerups. Bombs clear large areas of bullets while granting invincibility, but are in limited quantity and hard to recover. Death can be prevented by bombing in the split-second you are hit, known as a "deathbomb".
There are several items which are dropped by enemies and can be collected by the player moving near them. These take the form of small squares with a symbol on them.
Powerups grant a small boost to power when collected. They come in small, big and Full power forms respectively.
Score items raise the player's score by a small amount and are dropped by almost everything.
Bomb items are rare and give the player another bomb to use. In certain games, bombs are dropped in fragments, and multiple must be collected for a bomb.
Life items, or "extends" as the game refers to them, give players and extra life. These are very rare, and certain games drop these in fragments.
In addition, each game has a form of special mechanic which may influence gameplay.
Characters
Can you find the one and only male characterTo a large part of the Touhou fans, the STAGGERING number of characters is the true appeal of the series. Every boss and midboss of each game is a new character with their own personality and abilities. Due to the sheer number, we cannot list all of them here, so only the two main characters shall be shown.
The disgruntled but optimistic shrine maiden of the eternally poor Hakurei shrine, it is her duty to exterminate the youkai running amok in Gensokyo. She may be lazy, but when something annoys her sufficiently, they are eliminated quickly as she uses her talismans, amulets and Yin-yang orb as danmaku to remove enemies from existence. She has the ability to float in and out of reality, and uses traditional Shinto magic to seal enemies. Her signature move is "Fantasy Seal", summoning balls of energy to seal the target. In-game, her shots are usually weaker but spread out over a larger area, sometimes homing in on enemies.
An "ordinary magician" according to herself, Marisa is a human witch who themes her appearance after Western magicians. She is tomboyish and easygoing in comparison to Reimu's straight-laced attitude, but is equally skilled at vanquishing troublemakers. Her magic is based around light and heat despite her affinity with water, and she uses astronomical themes such as stars and galaxies in her spellcards. Her signature move is "Master Spark", which is a big effin' laser to vaporise the target. In-game, she has powerful shots with little spread which fire straight forward.
Music
Another large part of Touhou's appeal is its music, of which there are many, many,
many excellent game soundtracks which one would not expect from a one-man made shooting game. Fans have taken this even further, with countless fan remixes and parodies spreading through the internet.
For some examples, visit the following page.
TVtropes Touhou Awesome Music Page
TL:DR
Vertical scrolling shooter with lots of girls and very nice music. Oh, and it's all made by one guy.
So! Are there any fans of Touhou in the Blockland community at all, or did I just waste 2 hours of my time? I've been searching for other Touhou fans for a while now. Please, someone, anyone.
