This was my first experience with a Touhou fangame (of the shmup type anyways). Honestly, it was good fun

Difficulty curve was just right, there were some interesting ideas and patterns thrown around, and the gimmick of the game was neat. Nice music, interesting plot (with a finale that reminded me too much of Undertale for some reason)

My only real complaint, and this is gonna sound very petty, would be the bullet designs and the pickups. I had such a hard time trying to discern what was what and ended up close to dying a couple of times because of that. I beat it on my first go on Easy, and this might just be a skill issue, but it's my only gripe with it.

(Edit: they shadow-dropped a balance patch. most stuff on here got fixed but I'll leave the previous comments as a time capsule of sorts)

Fuck me, did we really hurt Sonic Team that bad? The best way I can describe this DLC is sadistic and perplexing

Let's get this out of the way: story was better than its initial ending. Happy ending, some good moments too. I somehow managed to avoid the new Cyberspace levels, so no comment on those. New music fucks hard
Now gameplay wise, fuck this. I gave this game a fair 7.5, 8 at best with all the issues I had with it. This DLC took the parts I hated the most and made them worse. Ouranos is a fucking mess, just floating platforms everywhere with no actual parkour on the ground. And I never minded the pop in initially, but you can't fucking avoid it here. Shit just renders at such a short distance too.
The playable characters. The best part of this update, yet they still have their problems. Amy is great, no issues with me. Knuckles has such a weird glide, he has to do an animation before he actually starts, and the steering is awful. Tails breaks the game as usual, so I like him, but his flight is so weird. You can't change altitude after you start flying. Guess that's why they gave him his plane. Platforming with them is a joke! If you know the game's physics, you can skip so much of the challenge and get to the end easily! Fun, but come on.

The. Fucking. Towers. That's where sadistic comes from. Platforming these fuckers were some of the biggest challenges in my life, and I've done crazier. The platforming is so precise, and the design is so bad. It's just random assets and cubes everywhere. Get to the top, and participate in a challenge. Some were fine, some were evil. I'm looking at you, Snake and Master King. Deadass had to tone it down to Easy mode so that I don't lose my sanity.

And now, the final boss rewrite. Supreme stayed the same!!! No changes whatsoever! The wings he grows in phase 2? Still not there. Unimplemented QTE's that dataminers found? Not used. It fucking sucked dude, they could've gave him a little more care too...
But then comes The End. Holy fuck, that was pretty fun this time... when you know how to sever the cable. I was losing my mind until my friend pulled up a reddit post of people having the same problem. (Punch his head, then dodge. That's how you hit it)

Overall, they fumbled in my eyes. There are positives, but they are far outweighed by the negatives. I liked the story upgrade, but the game was not it. Then again, the initial story wasn't it, but the original Ouranos design was actually fine. Which is why I find this update so perplexing. I just don't know what to think about this DLC other than thank god it's free, and I hope Sonic Team gets actual Yakuza level QA for its next title. This gameplay is a solid foundation that needs its kinks ironed out to be good, but as it stands this is certainly an experiment of a game. I'd still give the whole game a 7.5/10 honestly. Definitely one of the best 3D Sonic games in a while

Yeah, fuck you Microsoft. Can't believe you'd shutdown a studio that made a banger, only to then say you need more games like this

Genuinely impressed by how much I ended up liking this game. There's types of games I'm good at, and there's ones that I'm bad at. So to make a hack n' slash game (a genre I'm good at) and add rhythm gameplay to it (a genre I suck at) sounded like a recipe for a bad time to me, but hot damn if it wasn't the opposite. Sure, I still sucked at the rhythm portions of the game, but it wasn't as intrusive as I expected it to be. In the heat of the moment, I did end up button mashing, but striking your hits to the rhythm of a fantastic as fuck soundtrack worked so well. And man, what a soundtrack, I had my head bopping the whole time

Characters were super lovable, it impressed me how attached I became to everyone by the end of the game, I thought I was gonna get sick of their (initially) one-note personalities. And man, I am a sucker for cel-shaded aesthetics and this world and its design is so good

Only real complaint had to be the mini-bosses. I felt like their anger state where you had to stop everything you were doing and parry their attacks fucked so hard with the flow of the fights

"Hideaki Itsuno had the goal for this installment to be his best work". Well good fucking job mate!

After marathoning the series, DMC5 was an incredible way to cap it off (for now at least). What a game this was. From story, to gameplay, it was all great.
Story was actually interesting this time around? It was predictable, more so if you binged the series like I did, but the character work was fantastic and the ideas the team had were really good. This game is just filled to the brim of fan-service for people who've played all the games beforehand, but I can see why people also say it's a good starting point. Every main character was so fun and interesting to follow, and to play!

Nero was even more fun to play this time! His new Devil Breaker arms added so much more variety to combat, though keeping track of all the arms you can use is a little bit of a hassle. Some were also kinda... there, the Helter Skelter had to be the worst arm for me. And hey, if you don't like the arms, you can always get your Buster back as an arm! Pulling Exceed attacks also felt less strict than DMC4, which made me feel like a god when playing him correctly. His song, Devil Trigger, is such a banger! I had my head bopping the whole time I was in a fight. Its remixes like Tropical Devil and Silver Bullet were also great.

V. Who knew standing around as gameplay would work? Having minions attack for you, but you having to deal the killing blow is a great idea for gameplay, but I definitely needed more time to adjust with him. Keeping track of two minions and yourself is kinda overwhelming sometimes, and making your minions do combos is such a challenge when you're trying to stay alive. Crimson Cloud was probably the weakest song of the bunch for me. Not that it's bad, but it's just my least favorite. Damn did I ever chant the chorus out loud whenever I heard it.

Oh boy, Dante. I can only describe him as a gimmick packed character. His styles all got some sort of good changes to them (infinite dash with Trickster, RG uses DT if you don't hit it correctly) and his weapons have so. many. things. to remember! Balrog? Remember to Ignite the flame! Cavaliere (side note, what kinda shit did they smoke to make a twin chainsaw weapon that turns into a motorcycle too? Cause goddamn dude)? Gear mechanic making your attacks faster! And etc. I felt overwhelmed playing him sometimes, and to quote some comment I read somewhere, "He's comfortable to play if you had three hands". I will remain one of Subhuman's strongest defenders though, his song fucks so hard, and I don't even like death metal! Listen to this segment and tell me you aren't headbanging, I will not believe you

And for the first time, I actually played as Vergil start to finish. My god is he broken fun. Keeping your Concentration gauge by playing in a Vergil-like manner is really fun, and all his weapons are so fun to use. Gotta hand it to him for keeping the same style of fighting after 3 games. Dante sells the Beowulf? Get that shit back! Dante holds the Sparda sword, which was the Force Edge? Make a spectral copy of it! And I don't need to mention how good Bury The Light is, we all know this by now.

What a great end to this marathon I did. Can't wait for the future of the series, if this game is the standard going forward.

It's really just UFO but done better.

Collecting animal spirits is your gimmick this time around, and it's handled way much better. For once, there's no consequence to getting the wrong combination, as the game will still give you an invulnerability state akin to PCB's cherry system no matter what you collect. That aside, I still find that getting the right combination (3 or more of the same spirits) is your best chance at survival, as this game is tough. Enemies were made tankier and take longer to die, so dealing more damage is crucial in playing this game.

Hot damn, there's barely any life drops in this game. Your best chance at getting them is getting the special spirits from midbosses, but they're rather cryptic in how you get them, and some characters or animal spirit choice may ruin your chances at getting them.

The plot is one of the more insane ones in this franchise, and the OST is really neat and fits the mood greatly. Not one I'd recommend to people starting this series

Another fun installment in the series. Life did get in the way while I was experiencing this game, so I'll admit that I didn't care about the plot that much. (Not like you were supposed to care)

Nero took me a while to like, in terms of character and playing as him. He's very one note, always trying to save his girlfriend (who is also one note) and didn't make me attached to him. Playing him is fun... when you get the moves you need. His swordplay is nice, trying to time attacks to get an extra kick with the Exceed ability was quite fun. His Buster arm? Goddamn was it ever fun to grab an enemy and smack the fuck out of them, whether it'd be suplexing an angel or giving a beating to a priest. Like DMC3 though, you're pretty much expected to quickly master Nero to not get an ass-kicking. I didn't do so well as him, my ranks being rather low with him for a while.

Dante on the other hand? Holy. I felt right at home with him after playing DMC3, he's just as fun to play (I managed to get A ranks in all of his missions somehow!) and a great character throughout the story. Not a fan of how he backtracks through Nero's missions, it removed some uniqueness he should've had. Playing as him is great, love how his shotgun was a default acquired weapon and I love the style switching mechanic. Didn't use Gunslinger or Royal Guard a lot (if not at all), but I'm so mad at how they nerfed Trickster to only one dash! It caused me to appreciate Swordmaster more though. What I am glad is that you don't have to grind enemies to level up your styles. Someone has to explain to me how the Lucifer works though.

Soundtrack is bopping as fuck. Nero's theme is so damn catchy to listen, and I love how Dante's theme is a remix of his DMC1 battle theme. I loved that game's soundtrack.

And to whoever designed the secret mission challenges: What is wrong with you.

My favorite in the series. As a soft reboot in the series, I found that it did a great job!

I would describe this game as simple. The plot is very simple, and the gameplay itself is simple. There's no (intrusive) gimmick this time around, it's purely just shooting and dodging. The difficulty of this game is great too, starts easy, and gets progressively harder, but not to a point where it'll frustrate you. It's definitively the game I'd recommend most people start with

There's one thing I hate about this game: The bomb system. God I'm glad power bombs never stuck around, it's not a fun thing to consider when playing.

OST is an absolute banger. One of my favorites in this series

Ain't gonna lie, I was afraid of this game. As someone who sucks at these, getting to the notoriously and intentionally hardest one of the series scared me from ever trying to 1cc all of these games. But after beating it, what I got was one of the best Touhou games ever!

LoLK is insanely fun. I mean it. It's not coping from how hard it is. Its difficulty is actually what I found the best about it, there were a lot of patterns that definitively need practice. Oh boy will you ever practice in this game. But to practice the attacks and then (somewhat) perfectly beat them feels so rewarding in this game. Yeah, that can apply to any game in this series, but trust me, the high you get on this game is really good for some reason.

LoLK has 2 ways of playing it: Pointdevice and Legacy. Legacy is traditional Touhou, while Pointdevice is Touhou... with checkpoints instead of lives! I would highly suggest playing Pointdevice on your first run of the game to understand what you're gonna go through should you ever 1cc this game. Trust me, if you suck at these games like me, play Reisen. She is literally the cheat character

Plot is one of the craziest in this series, and the OST has no misses at all. Hell, I stayed on the title screen to listen to the main menu theme in full before playing, the first game to ever make me consider doing that!

I don't care what anyone says. This game did not age well. Banger soundtrack might be the only compliment I'll give to this game.

Plot? What plot? You get attacked by a woman that resembles the protag's mother, she asks for help, abandons you, and then nothing happens until the end. Anyone who ships Dante and Trish are fucking weirdos that need special care.

Gameplay? Product of its time. Combat is incredibly basic, as you have only two types of melee weapons that have a long ass switching animation that forces you keep playing one or the other to be safe, and the combos themselves are pretty basic. Devil Trigger is easy to refill and basically a "I win" button. Being that this game is a Resident Evil 4 prototype that was modified, the game has fixed camera angles. It's horrendous to fight, as enemies can still attack outside of your view. That final fight with Griffon? Fuck that

Honestly, start with DMC 3 or 5. Play this game out of curiosity, and use this video to make your playthrough more bearable and fun. Trust me, Shotgun twitching and Grenade rolling is busted. https://youtu.be/noOSWCEowZA