Der erste gute Windows-Teil.
Erstmals wurde ab hier mehr mit den Spielmechaniken experimentiert, die sogar mehr oder weniger mit der Handlung zusammen hängt. Etwas, was sich in nahezu allen nachfolgenden Teilen durchzieht.
Die Spielmechaniken sind sehr simpel und bieten sowohl für Score-Runner als auch normale Leute, die das Spiel einfach nur durchspielen wollen.
Auch ist es nicht mehr ganz so extrem random wie die Teile zuvor und der dynamische Schwierigkeitsgrad wurde deutlich abgeschwächt.

Insgesamt einer der besten Teile, mit der Neulinge in Spiel einsteigen können.

Touhou 7 isn't a perfect sequel. It's a worthy successor and introduces many great things to the table; more complicated danmaku, being able to visually see your hitbox and the enemy at the bottom of the screen, Youmu, and the introduction of gimmicks into the 1st Windows Era. However, I think it lacks on the character department compared to 6 and the music, a pretty iconic part of the series isn't as good this time. However, overall 7 probably is better than 6 just because of the QoL it introduces, and also Youmu.

You remember that one part, shortly after beating Yuyuko's last spell card? As you sit there, reflecting on your journey, the horrors of Stage 4, Youmu's wild ride, and Yuyuko's tough as nails spellcards, some weird poem shows up:

"Remembering the melancholy of human existence
Even ghosts stray from the path of righteousness"

And then BAM, guess who's back, ready for more? Motherfucking Yuyuko, cutting through your reprieve with one last desperate stand: 66 seconds of WAVE after WAVE of beautiful danmaku. With no recourse, you hold on for dear life, dodging on pure adrenaline-fueled instinct, so as to justify the efforts and prayers of the last 30 minutes; all against the backdrop of the absolutely JAMMING remix of Border of Life.

Yeah, I fucking felt that.

One of two Touhou games I managed to 1CC on Lunatic. It's just incredibly fun and the addition of the visible hitbox on focus is very welcome. The Phantasm Stage as a hidden unlockable was fun too and I wish Touhou would bring back more things to unlock. Some shots are straight up better than others (Sakuya A) but that's always how it's been. The border mechanic isn't really a needed life support as it makes one of the easier Touhous even easier (comes up a ton in Phantasm Stage), I don't hate it so much I wish it was gone. Patterns are more complex than EoSD and the only gameplay flaw I'd say is Stage 4 goes on for way too long.

Music is Touhou music so you know it's damn good and incredibly memorable.

Great game. Easier than 6, but has a lot of QoL. Music's great, we love the characters. All this shit rules. It's 2hu baby.

What's really funny is that while this game starts developing a lot of the world and characters of the series, most of that happens in supplemental writing. Just playing this game, the plot is mostly goofy nonsense. The Queen of ghosts, Yuyuko, is stealing the spring in order to make a cherry tree bloom just for funsies and you beat her up to stop her so that winter ends. In the extra levels, you find out that she had the help of a powerful youkai that can manipulate borders, Yakari, and you beat her up to so that she'll fix it. She kind of doesn't. Gensokyo is a sealed-off region of Japan where all the supernatural things go, and Yukari isn't developed beyond the idea that she's maybe responsible for missing children getting sucked in periodically.

In reality, there's a whole bunch of backstory here. Yuyuko wanted to make the cherry tree bloom so that she could find out who was buried under it. This is just totally unresolved in the game, but it's actually her own body, buried there beneath the tree after her suicide to seal it away because it was a dangerous youkai that killed people. Did ZUN have any of that in mind when he made the game? I have no clue! There's enough to suggest that he might have, and just figured that a shmup wasn't a good medium to tell that story.

Yukari is like, one of the most powerful characters in the setting(This is also the game that introduces the idea that the combat in-game is more like a competition designed to allow humans to be able to win than actual combat) who helped create Gensokyo itself. She's usually depicted as being very invested in keeping things running and tends to be the one to figure out a plan that resolves a lot of the plots of future games. In this one she's a dipshit who sleeps all day, has a pet fox, and quite possibly tears holes in the barrier just for a laugh. Honestly, goals. I also want to sleep and hug a fox. I cannot imagine that ZUN had any idea what he was going to do with this character when he made this game.

It's interesting to look back on this and think about current Touhou writing and how its developed over the years. The games have always felt like a half-finished thought, and I mean that in a good way, but we hadn't really reached the "themes" level yet. Still, nothing really quite captures what I love about the series like the juxtoposition between Yuyuko's personality and motivations being 'whatever' and the haunting nobility of her theme song, Border of Life. Is grace a thing of high-minded purpose, or is an ageless, tragic existence in itself a thing of terrible beauty, no matter how few fucks you give?