The most bang for your buck game, being some of the best for any kind of player. A huge variety of characters with a fun time mechanic, simple and easy to learn spell cards with some yet effective subversions here and there. This one forces you to 1CC to experience 6B and I'd say that unlike other games in the series it works in its favor here. Some great characters too. Great entry point, great game, great story; pretty easily the best one for simply how much it has alongside all of it being great. Just constantly saying it's great sounds redundant, but it's hard to point out a specific aspect that feels anything less than that other than the characters outside of Border and Magician feeling gimmicky, which is a Touhou thing in general, regardless.

An AMAZING scenario with some of the best characters ZUN has made so far; I love everything that has to do with the Lunarians so I greatly enjoy how grand this feels in realizing what has been set up since Imperishable Night and SSiB. I'm ambivalent on the difficulty, though I do find Pointdevice to be a fun way to mitigate the grand difficulty in comparison to how 10-11-12's Continue system worked. Reisen's development has been some of the best and despite her not being my favorite I do greatly enjoy it regardless. Junko is literally me, and the way that fanworks transformed Junko, Hecatia and Clownpiece's dynamic into something more domestic is both hilarious in contrast, very in character, and very sweet and memorable.

Sort of an inbetween EoSD and IN, where it still has the former's lack of polish but starts to ease into stronger characters and a stronger emphasis to serious storytelling. Resurrection Butterfly is, of course, an amazing moment that still stands out. Really deserves the name of a classic more than EoSD does considering it feels like a true realization of what Touhou and a series would continue to be after this. First one I properly finished, too.

This, WBaWC and UFO are about the same tier of quality and I love the three about the same, but I think SA edges out a little bit. I have a major gripe with it utilizing the 10-11-12 Continue system and how I still believe that for its difficulty, it's still pure bullshit and ends up requiring a 1cc more than it does simplify the process. HOWEVER despite that SA is a top tier game in aesthetics, danmaku patterns, characters and scenarios. It's one of the few I absolutely see myself returning to despite its absolutely insane tier of difficulty. Former Hell is a very interesting setting and embracing the new style of Touhou that MoF introduced while still paying heed to the previous entries with the inclusion of partners in the same way IN did is very smart and well done. ZUN loves his nuclear reactors baby.

Great characters with a lot of variety in their shot types that all works, with a pretty fun mechanic and some of the best bullet patterns so far that creates a very fun game to fly through. Big fan of the plot and how it messes with your expectations; basically being manipulated into breaking an union so the animal spirits could get their jaws back on the human spirits is a really interesting way of handling a Hell-related Incident. Stage 6 is one of the best in the series, with Idolatrize World being a complete banger and the way that it functions as both an extremely tough boss alongside some really interesting bullet patterns and a great setpiece that doesn't really detract from the difficulty is an extremely respectable thing to accomplish even nearly as well as this did. Despite enjoying the mechanics overall, I do think it attempts to emulate UFO but fails in part because of it; though it's not a major issue.

The most shoot-em-up of the games, and for that I actually really like it. Ranks the lowest of the three I pointed out because I'm not as big a fan of its cast and scenario as much as the previous two, though I've grown to like Byakuren and her youkai buddhists, but it has top tier presentation and music in a way that despite technically being this low, it's only because I find the previous five just THAT good. Despite that, I do see myself returning the most out of the rest of the series to this one because I simply adore the UFO mechanic and how much it incentivizes smart play and quick decision making in ways the rest of the series never really approaches to in nearly the same level of quality.

I'll be fair and say the only reason this one is this low is because it's a VS shooter, and I don't really care for the gameplay structure that comes from VS shooters. They're less memorable and have less incentive to replay, but I still really like this one. An improvement over th9 in a lot of ways that despite its structure makes it fun to go through the scenario with a lot of varied player styles. It's pretty clear ZUN made this after 13.5, 14.5 and 15.5 because it takes a lot of notes on how the writing and structure works in those fighting game stories and implements it here.

Interesting mechanics, but not something that really grabs me and interests me deeply. Pretty average cast, and alright music with some specific standouts like The Long-Awaited Oumagatoki and Immemorial Marketeers, as well as an interesting nod to the Hifuu Club albums. Roguelikes are definetly an interesting and good fit for a danmaku series like Touhou, but I don't think it's something that I'm specifically interested in committing to.

Respectable for its simplistic style overall; its gimmick is simply just aiming for a better score and staying at the top of the screen for better rewards and survivability. I also dislike it for its simplistic storytelling style, having various characters that while thematically connected I don't find interesting by themselves. I do like Seija and Shinmyomaru's dynamic, but otherwise, none of the characters really pop out in any interesting manner, and the patterns themselves are simple enough that it's playable, but nothing really interesting.

Similar deal to Double Dealing Character, though instead of two characters that I find interesting, it's just Okina. Aunn is also nice, but I mostly like her in 19 instead of in 16, so I can't give this too much credit in that case. The plot is basic, nothing much interesting other than it establishing Okina as a Sage of Gensokyo in a very desperate sort of call of attention. In that sense, yeah, she's charming and saves the plot. However I do find the gimmick to be sort of mediocre? It's similar to Ten Desire's, and executed better because getting charges is actually realistic, but I still don't find hyper mechanics to be interesting, and the Extra Stage boss being Okina again is somewhat disappointing (though I'm not an Extra Stage gamer).

Utter lack of QoL and either some really boring or extremely RNG heavy and bullshit danmaku patterns definetly sours this as a game; as a plot it's whatever, but it does have an all-star cast. Though mentioning that as a plus is sort of a chicken or egg moment; are they good because they're the first or do they stand on their own contextless? I don't really care because I like them anyways. Also still has a lot of charm even if it is miserable to play at times; the very compressed ZUNpets has soul to it, and it having a lot of classic songs also enhances it. Worth playing, but man is everything after it just exceedingly better in QoL that it hurts to come back to this, especially without a hitbox patch.

The opposite of Unidentified Fantastic Object; really easy with a gimmick I dislike but a cast I really like. I love Seiga, Futo, and Miko a lot; they're all real fun characters that bounce off of each other in great ways with a lot of potential. Unfortunately though the Trance system sucks and I don't really see myself going back to this one because of it.

Absolutely easily my least favorite. A bunch of bullshit spell cards that feel tailor made for you to constantly use your bombs with a Stage 6 that feels impossible without having stocked up on lives. Remember how this has 10-11-12's Continue mechanic, so you just start from the beginning of the stage? This more than anything incentivizes 1ccs, but man I just don't want to with this one. Didn't care about the cast or the scenario, though I think they're all much better in fan works and in official content post MoF; Sanae, Kanako and Suwako especially are much more interesting when they're up to hijinks. I like Aya.

I do like its scenario and it's a very funny ending to the Windows games because of Eiki Shiki but fuck me man if you tell me i have to INDIVIDUALLY PRESS THE SHOOT BUTTON EVERY TIME go fuck yourself. YES i got filtered. NO i dont care.