Prepubescent Girls in Frilly Dresses Shooting Lasers: All About Touhou Project

[Grand Master Kickface]

Touhou Project is a series of doujin shooters made by one man who goes by the pseudonym ZUN (which I can only assume translates to "he whom the god of ecstasy smiles upon and whose emissions are like that of the wild horses"). It is wildly popular in its home country of Japan where it has started something of a free culture movement.

There are a total of 11 main games so far in the Touhou series (and a few "side" games, like Shoot the Bullet or Scarlet Weather Rhapsody), though the series didn't start receiving much attention until the sixth game, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Personally, I think the eighth game, Imperishable Night, is where the series really hits its stride in terms of music and bullet pattern design. The appeal of Touhou games lies in their colorful and versatile array of characters, the synchronization of music and level design, but most of all, the freaking massive amount of bullets that are on the screen at once. They're referred to as danmaku (which roughly translates to "curtain fire") shooters because there are times when 50% of the screen is covered in bullet. But the challenge makes it all the more satisfying when you finally do succeed, a kind of ferocious euphoria that's missing from modern games. If I were to compare it to any other video game series, I would say it's most similar to the Mega Man games of old.

ZUN does not copyright his characters or music, so Touhou has possibly the most creative and involved fanbase on the planet. Touhou has its own annual convention called Hakurei Shrine Reitaisai, where not only does ZUN himself distribute trial versions of his new games, but thousands of fans sell their artwork, manga, and music rearranges of the songs heard in the game. ZUN sometimes even uses fan-created works for inspiration as part of the canon, and thus maintains a mutually beneficial relationship with his fans, encouraging the creative spirit on both sides. And a lot of the fanworks are really freaking good. And like any fanbase that has Internet connection, it's spawned its fair share of memes.

Unless you live in Japan, you'll most likely have to download or torrent the games through the Internet, but it's totally worth it. You can read more about it at Wikipedia or look at some gameplay videos to get a better feel for the games. Discuss anything related to Touhou Project here!

[phil_]

I couldn't get Perfect Cherry Blossom to play at more than 10 FPS on my emulated Ubuntu drive, and thus I gave up on playing the games. I do, however, have a large collection of Chen pictures. Something about the idea of a familiar's familiar appeals to me. Plus, she's cute.

[DFM]

Whelp this is








Whelp

[Kim]

Been playing Perfect Cherry Blossom. Awesome. I love when there's so much stuff going on that it slows down to half speed. That's how a shmup should be.

[Dular]

I was wondering when Touhou would make it to here.

I've beaten 6 to 11 on normal, but I can't seem to do any of them on hard. Hard mode is hard, especially when your too lazy to make the game go slower than 60FPS.

This is just one of those games you have to beat solely out of pure frustration.

[BB]

Oh, Touhou fans!

Yep, I've become entirely enamoured with everything about this series. There's just something awesome about a series where there are no balance issues between characters- EVERYONE is ridiculously over powered. Knife throwing maid who can stop time? Check. Ghost who can invoke death in humans by simply making them want to die? Check. Half-ghost samurai gardener? Check!

I'm feeling particularly gloat-worthy because my brother bought me PCB for christmas. So far I've managed to clear it on normal difficulty once on my very last life (including using all my continues) and bombing the heck out of the final bit.

I adore the back story of PCB. Once you know that, the final Spell Card takes on a whole new level of Awesome. Of course, another great thing about Touhou is it's exactly as serious as you want it to be, whether you want it to be a silly fun game with girls throwing lasers at each other because they can, or you want to read more deeply into it.

The music is superb, Necrofantasia being a personal favourite (it was this song and the encounter with Yukari that really thrust me into Touhou in the first place). And the amount of groups who do covers in immense, you could easily fill a lengthy soundtrack with just Touhou and Touhou covers.

I'm rambling a little now, but this is easily my biggest fandom. It's relatively unheard of so all my friends are sick of me going on about it.

I'll close with this frankly ridiculous display of gaming ability.

[Ryong]

So, this is like Bangai-o but with even more dodging and, for some reason, random lolicon? Well now, that's just weird.

[EVILNess]

I actually dislike walls o' bullets shooters. My eyes don't see the bullet patterns very well and I die. Thats why I suck so much at bejeweled and it took me around 60 hours to beat puzzle quest.

I still play Bangai-O Spirits, but its more of a hate-hate relationship. I hate myself for playing know that its just gonna frustrate me, and the game hates me just because thats what it was programmed to do.

So personally, the idea of a lolicon Bangai-O does not appeal to me.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by EVILNess

lolicon Bangai-O

Originally Posted by Ryong

random lolicon

Originally Posted by phil_

large collection of Chen pictures

Hwhat the fuck?

[Meister]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Tell your employer I said hi.