It's a doom.wad that is heavily based on Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, because if we needed more things out of Touhou fangames it's clearly "EoSD but X" because we definitely don't have enough of those. The levels are simple corridor paths focused on bombarding you and overwhelming you with enemies. Your HP bar is a lie as you really only have 4 heath, it will always go 100 -> 54 -> 34 -> 1 -> 0. The weapons are pretty solid and secrets are alright, I just wish they were utilized in the levels better. The music is also grating, short loops of what feels like midis with a different soundfont rather than properly arranging the music to fit the game.

The story doesn't make much sense, as Sakuya's decision to join the SDM comes out of nowhere and it just felt like an excuse to play as Sakuya in EoSD rather than Reimu (who became DLC later). Boss fights are also lackluster, rather than feeling like Touhou bosses in the Doom engine they're just enemies that shoot out a few attacks and call it a boss fight. I would have loved to see spell cards similar to Flandre's Four of a Kind recreated here, but it wasn't meant to be, and as a result they're all too easy. Especially since you can trim off a good chunk of health by just stopping time and then filling the boss with lead, something they are helpless against.

Touhou combined with Doom is an idea that you could really do a lot with, but this game simply doesn't do all that much.

Reviewed on Jan 06, 2024


Comments