Wow! It's the first (not really) entry in the popular series of indie Japanese shoot em ups, Touhou 6 is the game many people who are looking to get into the series start with, and for good reason. Out of the whopping 25 games in the series this one that is reccomended the most as an entry into the whimsical and relentless world of Touhou. The game is simple, to understand and otherwise (there are no gimmicks in this game as becomes a trend in later entries), fun, and above all else, easy! (at least compared to the greater scope of the series.) All of this culminates in what many people consider to be the perfect gateway into Touhou, and all things considered I really 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 agree, surprise! Although there are a lot of good reasons for why Touhou 6 should be considered as an entry into the series above all else the game just isn't really that great, and I understand why someone might play it and not want to explore the series further or end up with a bad taste in their mouth. Graphically the game is super ugly, which of course is not really the thing anyone focuses on when playing Touhou, but as can be seen from later entries it still really does a lot for helping you feel more immersed in the world. The backgrounds are honestly incomprehensible a lot of the time, in particular I didn't even know what stage 5 was possibly supposed to resemble. The colors are so washed out it gives the entire game this weird almost depressing look, something that's jarring when compared to the much more colorful depictions of Gensokyo we see in the games later on. It's really weird because Touhou 7 the game immediately afterwards has a lot of rich beautiful colors and settings that I really enjoy. The character art is something that a lot of people rag on and it does look silly but it's also just really charming and fun, definitely a highlight of the game. Speaking of the game, the gameplay itself is a part of Touhou 6 that people praise a lot, but again I don't really see it. When I talk about the gameplay I just mean the bullet patterns you face throughout the game and all that jazz. In general a lot of the Touhou 6 patterns feel pretty uninteresting, later on you can definitely see ZUN hit his stride in creating visually stunning patterns that are also terrifically fun to avoid. It's a tightrope that's hard to balance on, and in this game in particular it falls flat. There just really isn't much of note when talking about specific spells, I can't really think of many that make me go "cool!", save for a few of the final bosses spells and maybe the extra stage boss. Overall Touhou 6 is alright, it's understandable why it's considered the perfect gateway into the series, but I really don't think I'd say the same. Arguably the biggest reason people say this is because it's considered to be the easiest game, but I don't even think that's the case, I'd say Touhou 7, 13, and 17 blow the game out of the water in that regard.