Why is Phantasmagoria of Flower view such an underrated game?

[CountVonNumenor]

Recently, one of the things I was talking about with other Touhou fans was the difference between canon and fanon Eiki Shiki. Now, I think it would be time to ask about the game she came out from. I have the feeling that PoFV is an often forgotten, and still cannot see all the reason for that. At least for me, it has featured 3 of my favorite characters (Youmu, Yuuka and Eiki Shiki), while a lot of the songs such as Higan Retour and Fate of Sixty Years are real bangers.

 

People have always told me that the big problem of the game was that the controls were rather sluggish and the game was built weirdly with the single player/(poorly working) multiplayer. However, I feel it is a shame that some people ended up seeing that game even as a mistake, and that most new characters in it either did not get too much attention, or were outright forgotten, or even butchered in fanon if they got more attention.

 

But what do you think? I hope this is the right chat for such a question, and of not, please feel free to move it to the right section. I am still new in here, but quite happy to find a Touhou forum as I like a lot using this forum thread formula for discussing things. 

[KingDeath]

I think both of the Phantasmagoria games are quite fun. Sure, they're a bit clunky and difficult to control since one of the main gimmicks in PoFV is mapped to either Shooting or Focused mode, and doing it too much would harm you rather than help you, but I've had quite a bit of fun otherwise.

 

I don't think it's a perfect game, but nothing is. To enjoy something more, you need to be able to see the bad in it. Sure, the music is great and the characters are wacky and zany, but the game does feel sluggish and almost unplayable to mostly anyone new.

 

I'm kinda on both sides of the spectrum here. I think they're fun, but there are often times where I'd just want to play other Touhou games. It's enjoyable to a degree.

[Cosmic]

I enjoyed PoFV a lot personally, and I never really noticed any of the issues with it until I saw them brought up here. Plus it introduced Komachi, so it has that going for it.

[Macbeth]

The mp is rly fun, but most people are not willing to bother installing adonis for it

[CountVonNumenor]

3 hours ago, Cosmic said:

I enjoyed PoFV a lot personally, and I never really noticed any of the issues with it until I saw them brought up here. Plus it introduced Komachi, so it has that going for it.

For me, I think the game is at least interesting. I did not get to play it yet, but maybe one day. In my vase, the character introduced that I really like is Eiki, so I guess both of us have someone special in PoFV.

 

1 hour ago, Macbeth said:

The mp is rly fun, but most people are not willing to bother installing adonis for it

I did try get into a multiplayer game with a friend through Adonis. Unfortunately, it did not work. But it is never too late to try again...

[Gou the frog]

PoFV is very interesting, since ZUN tried split screen for the first time. I also got my first 1cc there if there is one.

The concept itself is very decent. Taking a fresh approach to the bullet hell gameplay. The multiplayer is enjoyable nonetheless.

As the above said, it does have some downsides: clunky controls, extreme ai, wacky yin yang balls. The terror of playing lunatic against Shiki Eiki, I've lost many of my sanity to outsmart her.

Regardless of that, It happens to be one of my favorite games in the series and Eiki instantly became one of my favorites.                      PoFV is truly the embodiment of yin and yang. 

 

 

[Tayaya]

PoFV is really good game but it's just different from the rest. Also it's where Aya was introduced so I love it. 

[CountVonNumenor]

Looks like all of of us have a character that made its debut or was featured in PoFV. For me:

• made its debut in PoFV: Eiki, (Windows era) Yuuka
• was featured in PoFV after previous appearance(s): Youmu

[Macbeth]

@CountVonNumenorIf you want to give it a go again, let me know, Ill show you the ropes on getting adonis to work.

[niko uwu]

I've actually been playing it for the past couple days, trying to 1cc it on Lunatic

I would agree that the controls would probably deter people. having to repeatedly press the shoot button is pretty weird compared to what people are used to. its also pretty confusing, at least to me. maybe i should have looked up a guide or read the manual but its definitely not as straightforward as shooting and dodge. having to look away from my sprite to figure out whats actually going on has been pretty rough. like watching the particles move to the opposite side of the screen, look how the hit counter goes up, etc

in short its just unfamiliar and confusing

also the fact that its really hard even for a touhou game. which really doesnt help when players dont know whats happening. how to prevent more bullet spam, etc. probably frustrating watching the ai phase through bullets and decide when it wants to have a hitbox

god, eiki. I had 4 lives to beat you but you don't care. please, have mercy

 

i didnt like the game either. i didnt play it for over a year but decided i would try only recently, and have come to find it fun after starting to kinda understand what im doing