In spite of its jankiness, this is one of my favorite Touhous. I'm not kidding.
It really is nice to just jump into a game whose backgrounds have like, 10 colors total, and start flipping cards with symbols I can't read on them.
This is the only (official) Touhou game in existence I'm comfortable playing on Lunatic mode. Besides more aggressive bosses, the main difference this makes is the cards being able to fire a single bullet at you when flipped, not unlike "death bullets" seen across shmups. This gives the game a bit more depth than just hitting the Orb where you know the cards are; there's barely any lulls unlike most Breakout clones out there.
Unlike just about every other game, the act of bombing isn't given its own button and is instead done by shooting while holding both Left and Right. Bombing also holds you in place until you're done, and in some stages nets you way more lives than you would just going about them normally. I thought it was a bit awkward at first, but got used to it pretty fast. Maybe that's Stockholm syndrome idk lol
Which route you're best at is mostly a matter of preference. Some of the bosses in Hell are noticeably easier than those in Makai, particularly its final boss, but a few stage layouts are made harder to compensate. Compare Stage 18 in Hell, which is a struggle to get the Orb under a wall almost the height of the screen, to that same stage in Makai, which is basically a spot to bomb and get a few free lives.
Maybe I'm weird, barely anyone brings them up, but I just think the bosses themselves are pretty solid too? SinGyoku has a cool design, Sariel had a second form with its own song years before Yuyuko did, Kikuri is literally a moon from Hell that fires blood lasers out of its eyes and poison waves out of nowhere, and so on.
Very interesting game. If it were a fangame I don't know if most people would play it, but it's literally the first one. Somehow I feel like it doesn't get as much respect as it should.
It really is nice to just jump into a game whose backgrounds have like, 10 colors total, and start flipping cards with symbols I can't read on them.
This is the only (official) Touhou game in existence I'm comfortable playing on Lunatic mode. Besides more aggressive bosses, the main difference this makes is the cards being able to fire a single bullet at you when flipped, not unlike "death bullets" seen across shmups. This gives the game a bit more depth than just hitting the Orb where you know the cards are; there's barely any lulls unlike most Breakout clones out there.
Unlike just about every other game, the act of bombing isn't given its own button and is instead done by shooting while holding both Left and Right. Bombing also holds you in place until you're done, and in some stages nets you way more lives than you would just going about them normally. I thought it was a bit awkward at first, but got used to it pretty fast. Maybe that's Stockholm syndrome idk lol
Which route you're best at is mostly a matter of preference. Some of the bosses in Hell are noticeably easier than those in Makai, particularly its final boss, but a few stage layouts are made harder to compensate. Compare Stage 18 in Hell, which is a struggle to get the Orb under a wall almost the height of the screen, to that same stage in Makai, which is basically a spot to bomb and get a few free lives.
Maybe I'm weird, barely anyone brings them up, but I just think the bosses themselves are pretty solid too? SinGyoku has a cool design, Sariel had a second form with its own song years before Yuyuko did, Kikuri is literally a moon from Hell that fires blood lasers out of its eyes and poison waves out of nowhere, and so on.
Very interesting game. If it were a fangame I don't know if most people would play it, but it's literally the first one. Somehow I feel like it doesn't get as much respect as it should.