Nuage
Probably one of the best Touhou fangame I've played, so good I would recommend it to anyone, even people unfamiliar with the series.
Overall great gameplay with very few flaws, great artstyle, an interesting story that allowed the developers to make Touhou characters with a completely different personality while still making sense, which was very weird at the beginning but I ended up quite enjoying it by the end.
I also enjoyed how there's multiple ways to play the game, from all the gear we get through this adventure (even if most of these need a rebalance) and 3 different difficulties challenges for people wanting more.
I, myself most of the time play through the end then move on, in this game I had lot of fun going for the 100% and beating every bosses no-hit, which is quite doable for anyone who want to put a bit of effort.
I'd also add that for a fangame, or even a Touhou game in general, this one definitely put a lot of effort in its presentation with very nice cutscenes and deserve praise for it.
Even if the game as of April 2024 can be considered completed, there are still additional updates planned and I'll be sure to play it again.
Overall great gameplay with very few flaws, great artstyle, an interesting story that allowed the developers to make Touhou characters with a completely different personality while still making sense, which was very weird at the beginning but I ended up quite enjoying it by the end.
I also enjoyed how there's multiple ways to play the game, from all the gear we get through this adventure (even if most of these need a rebalance) and 3 different difficulties challenges for people wanting more.
I, myself most of the time play through the end then move on, in this game I had lot of fun going for the 100% and beating every bosses no-hit, which is quite doable for anyone who want to put a bit of effort.
I'd also add that for a fangame, or even a Touhou game in general, this one definitely put a lot of effort in its presentation with very nice cutscenes and deserve praise for it.
Even if the game as of April 2024 can be considered completed, there are still additional updates planned and I'll be sure to play it again.
2023
Probably my biggest disappointment of 2023
While Sea of Stars looks great and walking around the levels was fun due to its excellent soundtrack which accompany us across this adventure, that's all there is to it. It felt like one of the most hollow game I've ever played and that's such a shame because on the other hand it's also of the most spectacular pixel art out there.
There's just nothing interesting to find in Sea of Stars in my opinion, the story and characters never clicked at any point with me. The gameplay is empty and tries to keep you engaged with timed inputs during attack and defense but it felt more like something they added to hide the boring combat while it should have been here to add complexity to an already interesting one.
Talking about complexity, if it isn't present during combat maybe atleast we can customize our characters to a certain degree and have fun with it ? Well, not either, you get 2 accessory which adds almost nothing and that's it. Going off the beaten path if there is one (which rarely occurs) will almost never rewards you anything to be happy about and the overall difficulty of the game won't make it necessary to find such items anyway. I played Final Fantasy V a few months before and it's surprisingly sad how that game felt more recent than Sea of Stars on all points. The game was full of hidden items, there are dozens of hours to spend in customizing your characters and the game's difficulty ask you to think about it, if not you'll not be able to progress. I understand that not every game needs to be deep for players to enjoy it but I think they still need to have some spice to stand out among others.
I think that's the actual problem with Sea of Stars, that it tried to emulate the magic of old JRPGs but ultimately failed and more than that, it forsook all the cool things JRPGs has added to spice up the genre.
That's a damn shame because what could have been a great game and homage ended up being a very hollow experience.
While Sea of Stars looks great and walking around the levels was fun due to its excellent soundtrack which accompany us across this adventure, that's all there is to it. It felt like one of the most hollow game I've ever played and that's such a shame because on the other hand it's also of the most spectacular pixel art out there.
There's just nothing interesting to find in Sea of Stars in my opinion, the story and characters never clicked at any point with me. The gameplay is empty and tries to keep you engaged with timed inputs during attack and defense but it felt more like something they added to hide the boring combat while it should have been here to add complexity to an already interesting one.
Talking about complexity, if it isn't present during combat maybe atleast we can customize our characters to a certain degree and have fun with it ? Well, not either, you get 2 accessory which adds almost nothing and that's it. Going off the beaten path if there is one (which rarely occurs) will almost never rewards you anything to be happy about and the overall difficulty of the game won't make it necessary to find such items anyway. I played Final Fantasy V a few months before and it's surprisingly sad how that game felt more recent than Sea of Stars on all points. The game was full of hidden items, there are dozens of hours to spend in customizing your characters and the game's difficulty ask you to think about it, if not you'll not be able to progress. I understand that not every game needs to be deep for players to enjoy it but I think they still need to have some spice to stand out among others.
I think that's the actual problem with Sea of Stars, that it tried to emulate the magic of old JRPGs but ultimately failed and more than that, it forsook all the cool things JRPGs has added to spice up the genre.
That's a damn shame because what could have been a great game and homage ended up being a very hollow experience.
1999
I love Thief and what it did considering how old it is, its level design, the way it uses verticality, offers multiple ways to enter and exit the places you're supposed to steal from, all of this was so ingenious for a game this old, truly ahead of its time.
On the other hand, I find myself not being able to recommend it due to how poorly its controls aged and this is truly a shame.
If you want a stealth game with an amazing atmosphere and don't mind old fps jank, I definitely recommend it but otherwise you should play something else.
On the other hand, I find myself not being able to recommend it due to how poorly its controls aged and this is truly a shame.
If you want a stealth game with an amazing atmosphere and don't mind old fps jank, I definitely recommend it but otherwise you should play something else.
This one is definitely a special game in the series, frankly speaking the atmosphere of this game felt like a breath of fresh air after the two epic and very intense last 2 games, I'm grateful for that.
The game felt more slow-paced, with less bullet density, as for patterns I think it was so-so overall but there were still some very interesting one, 4th stage boss' Seiga is amazing and Futo's lastcard felt like it came out of Shoot the bullet/Double Spoiler, loved it.
I'm not fond of this game's mechanics, it felt too similar to UFO while not being as dynamic. The fact that the ovnis bounce around make it possible to pick each of them well with good timing and preparation, it became a little game inside its own game to pick as much ufos as possible while still dodging bullets. On the other hand the divine spirits never move and just stay there for some time then disappear, I think it's a bit boring and they make the screen less clear to see.
As for the music it's definitely more calm and a bit less memorable than the previous games but I still liked it, notably
4th stage and miko's theme.
Overall Touhou Ten Desires felt like a transitional, more laid-back game between 2 era of Touhou and I can't wait to see what the next ones will be like.
The game felt more slow-paced, with less bullet density, as for patterns I think it was so-so overall but there were still some very interesting one, 4th stage boss' Seiga is amazing and Futo's lastcard felt like it came out of Shoot the bullet/Double Spoiler, loved it.
I'm not fond of this game's mechanics, it felt too similar to UFO while not being as dynamic. The fact that the ovnis bounce around make it possible to pick each of them well with good timing and preparation, it became a little game inside its own game to pick as much ufos as possible while still dodging bullets. On the other hand the divine spirits never move and just stay there for some time then disappear, I think it's a bit boring and they make the screen less clear to see.
As for the music it's definitely more calm and a bit less memorable than the previous games but I still liked it, notably
4th stage and miko's theme.
Overall Touhou Ten Desires felt like a transitional, more laid-back game between 2 era of Touhou and I can't wait to see what the next ones will be like.
2023
Pretty fucking good for a free game, it makes me wish we got more "sekiro-like" games instead of souls-like.
2021
Cool short fangame, at first I thought it was so-so but after a few levels and getting upgrades it ended up being quite fun.
The platforming and ennemies respawning can be strict and may require you to proceed slowly, as for the overall difficulty I've almost never played any Megaman games but did all the stages after a few tries so I think it's doable for anybody.
The stages differ in quality but I think they're pretty cool, It's always nice to see fans' reimagination of Gensokyo and its places, in this case in 2D. The bosses are the best part of the game in my opinion, their sprites and attacks are clear and feel good to play around. The soundtrack is a remix of the original Touhou soundtrack in a Megaman style, Mokou and Reimu are my clear favourite ost from the bunch.
Finally the story is alright, nothing impressive but it gets the job done, if you like either Touhou or Megaman or both, you'll probably enjoy this game :)
The platforming and ennemies respawning can be strict and may require you to proceed slowly, as for the overall difficulty I've almost never played any Megaman games but did all the stages after a few tries so I think it's doable for anybody.
The stages differ in quality but I think they're pretty cool, It's always nice to see fans' reimagination of Gensokyo and its places, in this case in 2D. The bosses are the best part of the game in my opinion, their sprites and attacks are clear and feel good to play around. The soundtrack is a remix of the original Touhou soundtrack in a Megaman style, Mokou and Reimu are my clear favourite ost from the bunch.
Finally the story is alright, nothing impressive but it gets the job done, if you like either Touhou or Megaman or both, you'll probably enjoy this game :)
2023
This is a romhack based on a great concept, each pokemon having 4 abilities. I think it's quite brillant and works really well, offering a very fun and innovative way of playing Pokemon.
Building your team/pokemons is a lot of fun and the difficulty of the game is well made. That being said, while I enjoy the fact that capturing pokemon then building them takes 2 seconds and that we have unlimited items available for our journey, I think in the long run it ruins the "adventure" feel a pokemon game or romhack should have.
At first it's alright because we're trying out a lot of different combinations but as the game goes on, every npc encounter begin to feel tedious as we gain absolutely nothing by beating them. There are some challenge npc that awards rare pokemons but it's still lacking and in the end I just wished to play Radical Red again which rewarded players a lot better by offering mega stones, good items like leftovers, choices items, etc...
I think this romhack is already good but lack the polish that Radical Red has and I'm hoping the future updates make the game better on this aspect precisely as the rest of the game is perfectly fine as it is.
11/01/2023
Building your team/pokemons is a lot of fun and the difficulty of the game is well made. That being said, while I enjoy the fact that capturing pokemon then building them takes 2 seconds and that we have unlimited items available for our journey, I think in the long run it ruins the "adventure" feel a pokemon game or romhack should have.
At first it's alright because we're trying out a lot of different combinations but as the game goes on, every npc encounter begin to feel tedious as we gain absolutely nothing by beating them. There are some challenge npc that awards rare pokemons but it's still lacking and in the end I just wished to play Radical Red again which rewarded players a lot better by offering mega stones, good items like leftovers, choices items, etc...
I think this romhack is already good but lack the polish that Radical Red has and I'm hoping the future updates make the game better on this aspect precisely as the rest of the game is perfectly fine as it is.
11/01/2023
2023
Moonring is an hidden gem developped by a single developper.
As someone who has almost never played any similar games I didn't expect myself to play it more than 1 hour, in the end I played through the whole game in 4 days and greatly appreciated it.
Nonetheless, while this happened to me, it is definitely not a game for everyone. I think many people will be turned off right away by the graphics or the dungeons themselves, but you have nothing to lose though by trying it out as the game is free. Like myself, players will probably have to make an effort at first to go out of their confort zone to truly appreciate what the game has to offer, which can be divided into three important points.
Moonring's world, its storytelling and exploration, all of these three share something in common : the player's progression through his direct involvement, sometimes through his character but more often as the player itself.
This is not a Baldur's Gate 3 type of game where every choice may result in different endings or events, this would probably be way too much work for a single developper but more akin to Outer Wilds. The game doesn't exactly tell you where to go and how to complete its story, you will have to think for yourself and theorize about the hints the game give you along your adventure.
As you wake up and start your adventure, you'll discover that the world is quite dark, there's literally no sun, a strange mist that has been here for as long as people can remember is all around the continent and make people lose their minds. You'll be often scared of anything you meet outside of a city at first and that's why the first place you'll probably go to is one of them.
Inside of them you'll meet many characters, receive many informations and hints about what's around, notice that the world and its places feel very tied to each other and often come out with more questions than answers.
The reason for that is how you get to learn more about your quest and this world you're a part of. When you talk to a npc, you don't simply ask already made questions and get answers to them like most games, you'll have to directly find the words yourselves and write them to interact with any characters, most of the interesting and important words are hinted heavily by the NPCs themselves but some are hidden and it's your job you, the player, to think about it and try to ask the characters.
I'm sure it's not the first time this has been done but it's the first game I've played with this system and I think it's brillant. It forces the player to actively think about what should he say to his interlocutor and become a real piece of the story, the player and not the character.
As for your quests, unlike most RPGs there are no quests to follow with fixed objectives. You only have your book containing the notes you wrote during your interactions with the world and its characters. You noticed something of interest while talking to a NPC ? You'll write it down, even if it makes no sense to you now, maybe later down the line, you'll understand its meaning :)
Again as I said before, this is great because compared to almost all RPGs, this part of the game includes player's involvement, the answer will never be given to you directly, it is your job to make sense of it and find your way.
Finally as you make your way out of the city you'll have to walk out in the unknown blindly and find caves, dungeons and ruins, you'll explore the world.
This is the meat of the game, you will spend half of your time outside the cities either in the overworld walking, finding places of interest, ruins filled with riddles you don't understand yet, ennemies that may or may not be too strong for you, note it down, comeback later more knowledgable and/or stronger in order to progress through your adventure. This also allows Moonring to be a very different game for each player; for example I personally missed a somewhat important line about the main city being near where I would find a priest able to guide me at the beginning and went the opposite direction. I ended up in a really dangerous place but braved through it and the pieces of the puzzle began to gather from a completely different point another player may have gathered his.
I can't really describe it but it felt very good to have this sort of cycle of :
- Go to a city
- Learn about places and get hints about your quest
- Go out a bit cluelessly most of the time
- Find a place, don't understand what to do yet
- Find other places, begin to gather the pieces of a puzzle
- Understand what you missed at first and get closer to your goal
The second half of the game and by consequence a big part of it is the combat, which most of the time will happen either in the nature on the overworld or inside dungeons, it takes form in oldschool roguelike mystery dungeon-type, you make your way through dungeons filled with ennemies, traps, a dangerous environnement overall and come out with treasures, gear and sometimes important items necessary for progressing your quest.
Frankly speaking it's not what makes the game great but it gets the job done by a long margin, each encounters feel different, with A LOT of factors to take into account : how many ennemies are there, which type of ennemy they are, are there pieces of environment I can take advantage of, where are my means of escape if I can escape ? If you try to bruteforce everything you'll quickly understand that it won't work, and this from the very first dungeon. The game is somewhat turn-based, meaning as long as you don't act, nothing will move or attack, letting you analyze the situation and deal with it adequately, it's nice.
You also have a lot of freedom in the way you decide to play, from being a very tanky guy swinging an heavy weapon able to repel your ennemies into walls or holes, to a sneaky assassin walking quietly to backstab an oblivious ennemy, or an archer taking advantage of the space around to kite his ennemies to a wizard throwing flasks, potions and summoning magic spirits and other playstyles I didn't think about...
I think I went on for long enough about this game and hope you'll like it as much as I did, I didn't talk about anything related to the story itself because I think this game is best discovered blindly on that front.
This game is not without its flaws, I could say that some part need some fixes and QoL here and there but the game is already really enjoyable as it is and its developper still plan to work on it and add new things in the times to come.
TL;DR : Moonring is not a game about getting stronger and beating the demon king at the end, it's a game about making sense of the world, your quest and goal by making you interact directly as the player with all its riddles, places and characters.
As someone who has almost never played any similar games I didn't expect myself to play it more than 1 hour, in the end I played through the whole game in 4 days and greatly appreciated it.
Nonetheless, while this happened to me, it is definitely not a game for everyone. I think many people will be turned off right away by the graphics or the dungeons themselves, but you have nothing to lose though by trying it out as the game is free. Like myself, players will probably have to make an effort at first to go out of their confort zone to truly appreciate what the game has to offer, which can be divided into three important points.
Moonring's world, its storytelling and exploration, all of these three share something in common : the player's progression through his direct involvement, sometimes through his character but more often as the player itself.
This is not a Baldur's Gate 3 type of game where every choice may result in different endings or events, this would probably be way too much work for a single developper but more akin to Outer Wilds. The game doesn't exactly tell you where to go and how to complete its story, you will have to think for yourself and theorize about the hints the game give you along your adventure.
As you wake up and start your adventure, you'll discover that the world is quite dark, there's literally no sun, a strange mist that has been here for as long as people can remember is all around the continent and make people lose their minds. You'll be often scared of anything you meet outside of a city at first and that's why the first place you'll probably go to is one of them.
Inside of them you'll meet many characters, receive many informations and hints about what's around, notice that the world and its places feel very tied to each other and often come out with more questions than answers.
The reason for that is how you get to learn more about your quest and this world you're a part of. When you talk to a npc, you don't simply ask already made questions and get answers to them like most games, you'll have to directly find the words yourselves and write them to interact with any characters, most of the interesting and important words are hinted heavily by the NPCs themselves but some are hidden and it's your job you, the player, to think about it and try to ask the characters.
I'm sure it's not the first time this has been done but it's the first game I've played with this system and I think it's brillant. It forces the player to actively think about what should he say to his interlocutor and become a real piece of the story, the player and not the character.
As for your quests, unlike most RPGs there are no quests to follow with fixed objectives. You only have your book containing the notes you wrote during your interactions with the world and its characters. You noticed something of interest while talking to a NPC ? You'll write it down, even if it makes no sense to you now, maybe later down the line, you'll understand its meaning :)
Again as I said before, this is great because compared to almost all RPGs, this part of the game includes player's involvement, the answer will never be given to you directly, it is your job to make sense of it and find your way.
Finally as you make your way out of the city you'll have to walk out in the unknown blindly and find caves, dungeons and ruins, you'll explore the world.
This is the meat of the game, you will spend half of your time outside the cities either in the overworld walking, finding places of interest, ruins filled with riddles you don't understand yet, ennemies that may or may not be too strong for you, note it down, comeback later more knowledgable and/or stronger in order to progress through your adventure. This also allows Moonring to be a very different game for each player; for example I personally missed a somewhat important line about the main city being near where I would find a priest able to guide me at the beginning and went the opposite direction. I ended up in a really dangerous place but braved through it and the pieces of the puzzle began to gather from a completely different point another player may have gathered his.
I can't really describe it but it felt very good to have this sort of cycle of :
- Go to a city
- Learn about places and get hints about your quest
- Go out a bit cluelessly most of the time
- Find a place, don't understand what to do yet
- Find other places, begin to gather the pieces of a puzzle
- Understand what you missed at first and get closer to your goal
The second half of the game and by consequence a big part of it is the combat, which most of the time will happen either in the nature on the overworld or inside dungeons, it takes form in oldschool roguelike mystery dungeon-type, you make your way through dungeons filled with ennemies, traps, a dangerous environnement overall and come out with treasures, gear and sometimes important items necessary for progressing your quest.
Frankly speaking it's not what makes the game great but it gets the job done by a long margin, each encounters feel different, with A LOT of factors to take into account : how many ennemies are there, which type of ennemy they are, are there pieces of environment I can take advantage of, where are my means of escape if I can escape ? If you try to bruteforce everything you'll quickly understand that it won't work, and this from the very first dungeon. The game is somewhat turn-based, meaning as long as you don't act, nothing will move or attack, letting you analyze the situation and deal with it adequately, it's nice.
You also have a lot of freedom in the way you decide to play, from being a very tanky guy swinging an heavy weapon able to repel your ennemies into walls or holes, to a sneaky assassin walking quietly to backstab an oblivious ennemy, or an archer taking advantage of the space around to kite his ennemies to a wizard throwing flasks, potions and summoning magic spirits and other playstyles I didn't think about...
I think I went on for long enough about this game and hope you'll like it as much as I did, I didn't talk about anything related to the story itself because I think this game is best discovered blindly on that front.
This game is not without its flaws, I could say that some part need some fixes and QoL here and there but the game is already really enjoyable as it is and its developper still plan to work on it and add new things in the times to come.
TL;DR : Moonring is not a game about getting stronger and beating the demon king at the end, it's a game about making sense of the world, your quest and goal by making you interact directly as the player with all its riddles, places and characters.
2020
The devs understood what makes a game fun, just going through menu and restarting a map takes no time and that's such a breather nowadays
The gameplay feels great, I didn't play many games of that kind so I can't really compare but I had a lot of fun switching playstyle, equipments and going for highscores, I actually got all missions ace rank and it was very fun apart from some annoying ng+ missions.
Imo the best this game has to offer are its bosses and how their fight go, it's really fast paced, amazing to watch with lot of neat ideas.
I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a light and fresh experience after a bigger game.
The gameplay feels great, I didn't play many games of that kind so I can't really compare but I had a lot of fun switching playstyle, equipments and going for highscores, I actually got all missions ace rank and it was very fun apart from some annoying ng+ missions.
Imo the best this game has to offer are its bosses and how their fight go, it's really fast paced, amazing to watch with lot of neat ideas.
I definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a light and fresh experience after a bigger game.
2020
After playing it for around 3 months, I thought it was time to stop playing.
First of foremost, this is truly a wholesome game, I had a lot of fun discovering every pieces of fan-content brought into it, from the covers to the artworks, to discussing the game with its community, it made me glad to be a Touhou fan.
Now, while I like this game originally, I just can't recommend it in the end. This game reminds me of granblue fantasy, in the sense that you'll spend more time doing factory works, farming the same stages over and over, more than ten thousands times easily, doing the same things and feeling like you don't progress at all.
The problem is definitely the progression itself and how unnecessary grindy the game can feel, because the core gameplay is actually solid, it's a turn based rpg where you'll have to think and read how your characters and the ennemy characters works.
It's truly a shame, I wish I could have fun in this game but farming for days and months in order to reach a goal which doesn't seem to get closer as you play more is unbearable.
Tl;dr : Cool piece of concept, art and sound design but restrained by its genre, making it more of a grindfest than an actual game.
First of foremost, this is truly a wholesome game, I had a lot of fun discovering every pieces of fan-content brought into it, from the covers to the artworks, to discussing the game with its community, it made me glad to be a Touhou fan.
Now, while I like this game originally, I just can't recommend it in the end. This game reminds me of granblue fantasy, in the sense that you'll spend more time doing factory works, farming the same stages over and over, more than ten thousands times easily, doing the same things and feeling like you don't progress at all.
The problem is definitely the progression itself and how unnecessary grindy the game can feel, because the core gameplay is actually solid, it's a turn based rpg where you'll have to think and read how your characters and the ennemy characters works.
It's truly a shame, I wish I could have fun in this game but farming for days and months in order to reach a goal which doesn't seem to get closer as you play more is unbearable.
Tl;dr : Cool piece of concept, art and sound design but restrained by its genre, making it more of a grindfest than an actual game.
2013
The weird game of the series, if that place wasn't already taken by DMC2
Dropping everything the series builded up in terms of aesthetic, characters, story, level & ennemy design to bring a new and fresh experience, unfortunately it didn't work out.
The first cutscene you'll see from this game will show everything you don't want to see in a DMC game, hideous art direction, the game was made to looks bad on purpose and I don't know why, you went from walking through castles and churches in the old games to walking through night streets and empty buildings reeking of piss.
As for the gameplay itself, the game actually feel pretty good, Dante's moveset is polyvalent and there's tons of combo and things to try out.
The problem now with the gameplay is that the level design feel most of the time uninspired, with lot of "grapple to that platform, walk through that corridor, meet some ennemies, sometimes stronger ones" then the end, there's almost no bosses in that game, it's just elite ennemies you meet for the first time as some sort of mini bosses then you meet them again 50 times through the rest of the game and that's such a bummer.
The rare bosses you find in this game are gimmicky bosses, which I hate, you'll most of the time fight giant ennemies, dodge a hit then go through a parkour with your grapple then the fight end, no memorable fight at all apart maybe the last one which even itself is just a way to say to the fans "heyyyy it's like DMC3 !!"
A last comment about the level design in this game which probably has one of the worst idea ever : Hiding secret doors with mini-games that grant some power up through the levels BUT to open them you'll have to find secret keys that are hidden even more to open them
So most of the time you'll see a door, think "oh this is nice I was rewarded for going out of the normal way" and then you don't have a key and you did that for nothing
As for the story and its characters, I'll just say that this was utterly disappointing, from beginning to end. I'm not even criticizing the fact that they went for some early 2000s teenager edgy vibe shit, it just feel like they didn't care at all about what DMC actually is and did their own thing.
At the end of the road I'm wondering why did this game had to be related to DMC when even the devs themselves didn't want to make a DMC game.
Dropping everything the series builded up in terms of aesthetic, characters, story, level & ennemy design to bring a new and fresh experience, unfortunately it didn't work out.
The first cutscene you'll see from this game will show everything you don't want to see in a DMC game, hideous art direction, the game was made to looks bad on purpose and I don't know why, you went from walking through castles and churches in the old games to walking through night streets and empty buildings reeking of piss.
As for the gameplay itself, the game actually feel pretty good, Dante's moveset is polyvalent and there's tons of combo and things to try out.
The problem now with the gameplay is that the level design feel most of the time uninspired, with lot of "grapple to that platform, walk through that corridor, meet some ennemies, sometimes stronger ones" then the end, there's almost no bosses in that game, it's just elite ennemies you meet for the first time as some sort of mini bosses then you meet them again 50 times through the rest of the game and that's such a bummer.
The rare bosses you find in this game are gimmicky bosses, which I hate, you'll most of the time fight giant ennemies, dodge a hit then go through a parkour with your grapple then the fight end, no memorable fight at all apart maybe the last one which even itself is just a way to say to the fans "heyyyy it's like DMC3 !!"
A last comment about the level design in this game which probably has one of the worst idea ever : Hiding secret doors with mini-games that grant some power up through the levels BUT to open them you'll have to find secret keys that are hidden even more to open them
So most of the time you'll see a door, think "oh this is nice I was rewarded for going out of the normal way" and then you don't have a key and you did that for nothing
As for the story and its characters, I'll just say that this was utterly disappointing, from beginning to end. I'm not even criticizing the fact that they went for some early 2000s teenager edgy vibe shit, it just feel like they didn't care at all about what DMC actually is and did their own thing.
At the end of the road I'm wondering why did this game had to be related to DMC when even the devs themselves didn't want to make a DMC game.
Finally got my normal 1cc after what felt like an eternity
At first I didn't like this game at all for how different it felt to other touhou games I've played before, be it ennemies' attacks patterns or our own type shot...
But with time and while I was playing it, I grew to appreciate each pattern and how this game felt special among others.
However I still find that the soundtrack and visuals are inferior to to all the mainlines TH games I've played before (except 9 probably)
It was very fun, for my own mental health I'm not gonna do extra stage though
At first I didn't like this game at all for how different it felt to other touhou games I've played before, be it ennemies' attacks patterns or our own type shot...
But with time and while I was playing it, I grew to appreciate each pattern and how this game felt special among others.
However I still find that the soundtrack and visuals are inferior to to all the mainlines TH games I've played before (except 9 probably)
It was very fun, for my own mental health I'm not gonna do extra stage though
What a little gem of a fangame
I've always been a pokemon fan, but more a fan of the strategic aspect of it and its difficulty, so for those last 10 years, I've mostly only played Showdown and romhacks.
With that said, Touhou Puppet Dance Performance and its modded expansion "SoD - Extended" really appealed to me in every way; training your puppets and making a team you like is a lot of fun.
Every "puppet" (touhou characters in pokemon form) can have 3 "style" which alters their stats, typing and ability.
Basically, one puppet can be 3 different puppet and that's amazing, making a lot of possibilities for team building and finding a sure ay to play your favorite in the form you like.
The game is very easy at the beginning, atlmost too easy but it allows you to learn the new type table at your ease, same with the moves, abilities and all.
From a touhou fan perspective, this game is everything you want aswell. You'll find almost every characters in the whole series, including PC-98 characters, the world is rich with famous locations from Gensokyo and the way it is built for you to be able to walk from almost any location to another is great.
The story works like a main touhou title, with a strange incident occuring and you'll have to discover who's behind it and try to solve it, except in this case you're not Reimu but an human from the outside world, making your way into gensokyu without knowing why you're here. It's quite simple but I liked it.
The game also has a great atmosphere, even for low budget game like this, it's easy to get immersed when first entering in an area because of how great the soundtrack is and how nicely they transcribed area from the maingames. My favorites are probably the Netherworld, Road of Reconsideration and Muenzuka.
Now for what I think could be a bit better :
The equivalent of the pokedex in this game is useless. You'll probably never check it more than once or twice, the reason is that informations about the puppets get registered ONLY when you catch them and not when you see them. As for the information there's almost nothing to see apart from their sprite and a little description. This could have been so much better, like :
- being able to see where you can catch them once you see them,
- see their available costumes because I didn't mention it, each puppet has 2 or 3 exclusive costumes, they're great
- maybe their stats, weaknesses, resistances, learnable moves and all would have been great
Now this bring me to my second point, because there is not much information actually given to you in-game, you'll absolutely need to check the wikia very often and this one is a bit laggy. So each time you want to check the typing of your opponent, you'll have to wait 3 seconds for the page to load.
it's really annoying and for a game that changes everything from pokemon (I'm talking about moves names, effects and typing) those QoL would have been great.
Lastly, the game is not grindy at all, you won't need to grind in the grass to catch up or anything, the opposite actually. You'll often have more levels than your opponent BUT from the midgame, trying to build up a new puppet is quite a long commitment, and in the end if the puppet isn't really what you wanted, you'll end up being disappointed for spending so much time on it.
The last thing I would say is that if you don't know anything about touhou, I'm not sure I would recommend the game, a big part of the fun is recognizing characters and interacting with them.
I'm personally in the middle of discovering the Touhou Series and I completed Touhou 10 not long ago, so while there are many characters I don't know anything about, it was still very fun to discover them in that fangame.
And that's it for the review, I had a lot of fun trying to do almost everything in the game, which took approximatively 45 hours, my thanks to the devs team for making such a passionate project and for my last final message :
Komachi is best girl
I've always been a pokemon fan, but more a fan of the strategic aspect of it and its difficulty, so for those last 10 years, I've mostly only played Showdown and romhacks.
With that said, Touhou Puppet Dance Performance and its modded expansion "SoD - Extended" really appealed to me in every way; training your puppets and making a team you like is a lot of fun.
Every "puppet" (touhou characters in pokemon form) can have 3 "style" which alters their stats, typing and ability.
Basically, one puppet can be 3 different puppet and that's amazing, making a lot of possibilities for team building and finding a sure ay to play your favorite in the form you like.
The game is very easy at the beginning, atlmost too easy but it allows you to learn the new type table at your ease, same with the moves, abilities and all.
From a touhou fan perspective, this game is everything you want aswell. You'll find almost every characters in the whole series, including PC-98 characters, the world is rich with famous locations from Gensokyo and the way it is built for you to be able to walk from almost any location to another is great.
The story works like a main touhou title, with a strange incident occuring and you'll have to discover who's behind it and try to solve it, except in this case you're not Reimu but an human from the outside world, making your way into gensokyu without knowing why you're here. It's quite simple but I liked it.
The game also has a great atmosphere, even for low budget game like this, it's easy to get immersed when first entering in an area because of how great the soundtrack is and how nicely they transcribed area from the maingames. My favorites are probably the Netherworld, Road of Reconsideration and Muenzuka.
Now for what I think could be a bit better :
The equivalent of the pokedex in this game is useless. You'll probably never check it more than once or twice, the reason is that informations about the puppets get registered ONLY when you catch them and not when you see them. As for the information there's almost nothing to see apart from their sprite and a little description. This could have been so much better, like :
- being able to see where you can catch them once you see them,
- see their available costumes because I didn't mention it, each puppet has 2 or 3 exclusive costumes, they're great
- maybe their stats, weaknesses, resistances, learnable moves and all would have been great
Now this bring me to my second point, because there is not much information actually given to you in-game, you'll absolutely need to check the wikia very often and this one is a bit laggy. So each time you want to check the typing of your opponent, you'll have to wait 3 seconds for the page to load.
it's really annoying and for a game that changes everything from pokemon (I'm talking about moves names, effects and typing) those QoL would have been great.
Lastly, the game is not grindy at all, you won't need to grind in the grass to catch up or anything, the opposite actually. You'll often have more levels than your opponent BUT from the midgame, trying to build up a new puppet is quite a long commitment, and in the end if the puppet isn't really what you wanted, you'll end up being disappointed for spending so much time on it.
The last thing I would say is that if you don't know anything about touhou, I'm not sure I would recommend the game, a big part of the fun is recognizing characters and interacting with them.
I'm personally in the middle of discovering the Touhou Series and I completed Touhou 10 not long ago, so while there are many characters I don't know anything about, it was still very fun to discover them in that fangame.
And that's it for the review, I had a lot of fun trying to do almost everything in the game, which took approximatively 45 hours, my thanks to the devs team for making such a passionate project and for my last final message :
Komachi is best girl
I'm amazed by how good this game is, I came up knowing absolutely nothing about this after playing TH9 and I don't regret playing it at all, I would even say it has become my favourite TH game for the moment with TH8.
This game is quite unorthodox, you don't shoot anything, don't go through any long stages with multiples ennemies. Instead, you only fight bosses in really short stages which are around 1min max and your goal is to take photos of the boss with your camera.
Your camera also has the power of removing any bullets on its screen, so it's a defensive tool as much as your way to win the stage, this camera must be charged each time, you can wait for it to charge itself slowly OR charge it yourself by being near immobile for a moment, each level requires you to use a different strategy with very different pattern each time and it's a lot of fun to find the way to actually win.
The game is very hard, you'll die a lot of times BUT what I love about this game is that dying has absolutely no consequences, you didn't lose 1 hour and need to beat each stages like any touhou game to fight the final boss again. Here in this game, you'll die, press a button and you're back before the boss instantly and it allows the player to try different things without worrying about the consequences, trying out things is key in this game.
Your character, Aya Shameimaru is very fast and to compensate with her really high movespeed, you get to use 3 different speed modes which allow you to adapt to different patterns. There are times where speed is key and you'll want to cross the entire screen very quickly and other times to be as slow as you can for precise dodging
Overall I had a lot of fun in this game, it becomes a lot harder during the second part of the game where I could take 1 to 4 hours for a single level.
As for the flaws I would say its soundtrack is really poor for a Touhou game, I know it's a spin-off but it's still disappointing.
Lastly I'm a bit bummed that there's no ending, dialogues or anything of the sort in this game.
I recommend it to any touhou fans wanting a different, fresh experience.
This game is quite unorthodox, you don't shoot anything, don't go through any long stages with multiples ennemies. Instead, you only fight bosses in really short stages which are around 1min max and your goal is to take photos of the boss with your camera.
Your camera also has the power of removing any bullets on its screen, so it's a defensive tool as much as your way to win the stage, this camera must be charged each time, you can wait for it to charge itself slowly OR charge it yourself by being near immobile for a moment, each level requires you to use a different strategy with very different pattern each time and it's a lot of fun to find the way to actually win.
The game is very hard, you'll die a lot of times BUT what I love about this game is that dying has absolutely no consequences, you didn't lose 1 hour and need to beat each stages like any touhou game to fight the final boss again. Here in this game, you'll die, press a button and you're back before the boss instantly and it allows the player to try different things without worrying about the consequences, trying out things is key in this game.
Your character, Aya Shameimaru is very fast and to compensate with her really high movespeed, you get to use 3 different speed modes which allow you to adapt to different patterns. There are times where speed is key and you'll want to cross the entire screen very quickly and other times to be as slow as you can for precise dodging
Overall I had a lot of fun in this game, it becomes a lot harder during the second part of the game where I could take 1 to 4 hours for a single level.
As for the flaws I would say its soundtrack is really poor for a Touhou game, I know it's a spin-off but it's still disappointing.
Lastly I'm a bit bummed that there's no ending, dialogues or anything of the sort in this game.
I recommend it to any touhou fans wanting a different, fresh experience.
Really liked it, at first you feel like you aren't progressing and you only get beaten up. But then with time you make some money, fame and skills in both combat and alchemy and it ends up being a very fun journey.
I actually only played this Atelier and Ryza 1 before at the point of writing this review and I wouldn't have expected to like it more than Ryza, while I enjoyed Ryza plenty, I felt like the simplicity behind Atelier Marie's core loop is what attracted me the most.
You have a 5-year time limit but the game isn't pushing you to be fast, I actually finished everything I wanted to do in 4 years, so just enjoy your daily life as an alchemist, I personally had so much fun having people knock at my door for special events related to services I did previously for other people, which in return made me more famous and made more people asking for help, I feel like this is something we lost in recent games, or maybe this is because of Ryza's plot ? While she helps people in the long run, she doesn't interact much with the average person.
In the end the two flaws I could find are the bosses, while you hear about them, nothing really happen while you fight them or after, I know Atelier isn't your typical hero saving the world type of rpg, but there's not a single dialogue related to defeating them and that's a bit of a bummer.
The second flaw is related to all the secrets events : on one hand, finding these feel great but on the other, there's so many important things you can miss which will block like 1/3 of the game easily, like a secret door you have to find behind a wall that open many books of knowledge that would help you solve requests you wouldn't otherwise. I get that this is an older game made with the intention of having people play and play the game again after beating it but... Well, I rarely play the same game multiple times nowadays unfortunately. So it's your choice to play it blindly or following a guide, for my case I did a bit of both.
In the end I still had a lot of fun and I recommand it to everyone who's searching a short retro game with a lot of charm. I will also definitely try the remake coming soon.
I actually only played this Atelier and Ryza 1 before at the point of writing this review and I wouldn't have expected to like it more than Ryza, while I enjoyed Ryza plenty, I felt like the simplicity behind Atelier Marie's core loop is what attracted me the most.
You have a 5-year time limit but the game isn't pushing you to be fast, I actually finished everything I wanted to do in 4 years, so just enjoy your daily life as an alchemist, I personally had so much fun having people knock at my door for special events related to services I did previously for other people, which in return made me more famous and made more people asking for help, I feel like this is something we lost in recent games, or maybe this is because of Ryza's plot ? While she helps people in the long run, she doesn't interact much with the average person.
In the end the two flaws I could find are the bosses, while you hear about them, nothing really happen while you fight them or after, I know Atelier isn't your typical hero saving the world type of rpg, but there's not a single dialogue related to defeating them and that's a bit of a bummer.
The second flaw is related to all the secrets events : on one hand, finding these feel great but on the other, there's so many important things you can miss which will block like 1/3 of the game easily, like a secret door you have to find behind a wall that open many books of knowledge that would help you solve requests you wouldn't otherwise. I get that this is an older game made with the intention of having people play and play the game again after beating it but... Well, I rarely play the same game multiple times nowadays unfortunately. So it's your choice to play it blindly or following a guide, for my case I did a bit of both.
In the end I still had a lot of fun and I recommand it to everyone who's searching a short retro game with a lot of charm. I will also definitely try the remake coming soon.