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Hmm Touhou Lost Word eh? I've played many of gacha games, and LW definitely has some major shortcomings which will probably murder it in the future. So here are some problems which I think are one of the reasons why LW is failing in, and what they should've done in order to "fix it" or to develop a new game in Touhou. Long read ahead, especially the game making part. God I love making arduous and long stories. The Gameplay loop and difficulty scaling sucks - If you have played this game, you know how grating it is to grind for some rare event point or the hilariously difficult "Elemental Stages" which have the unfortunate grind loop that has the tendency to fail. I personally don't like these "Elemental Stages" as they impose some BS skill blocks, barrier blocks, and most shitty of all, MASSIVE HP TANK WITH MORE BARS. Honestly I think this is because the core concept of turn based combat wasn't balanced for this game. I mean look at other turn based games out there. They're always some type of skill/strategy involved with the gameplay, there are no BS "Oh you beat this phase of the boss? Well then you get PUNISHED! Hope you have this ONE unit that counters this one skill that affects ALL YOUR UNITS! Oh and also. THIS UNIT DOES JACK SHIT TO THE BOSS! GOOD LUCK 3-STAR-ing and grinding this stage!" You either Ruffle-stomp enemies, or get blasted by OP boss units. Dump this crappy trend of turn based games. Honestly if you seen other successful gacha games out there, they always had a special niche that they fulfilled. Arknights has TD which they explored and successfully developed to become various modes of gameplay. Genshin has filled the niche of open world gameplay and adventure. I don't see a reason why TLW can't grasp a niche and popularize it, though it might be in part due to the development being more on making money on a popular franchise instead of creating good gameplay mechanics that Touhou fans would enjoy. I mean they can do the same turn based stuff, but include better mechanics instead of spam attack button. About the Story - I know that a lot of Touhou fans do sort of enjoy the light-hearted stories instead of the more serious stories, but it gets grating when some random wacky BS is thrown in to advertise a costume. Otherwise though, the stories are either way too long without any development and or way too short, with little to no plot development. The side-events are also like this, random stuff that doesn't delve into Touhou content, but some kind of random event centered around a party, race, event, and or holiday. It always ends up with Danmaku battles, even if the situation doesn't call for it. TLW could've made it a mix of serious and light-hearted stories. I theorized this is due to the Moe-blob phenomena and the general interest on creating the most "marketable game" with little to no effort in creating something interesting in fear of offending people(money). The game literally has the ability to make these stories, yet they don't. Why don't we have sub-stories instead of "events" that are forgotten, rarely mentioned, or has no main story lore? You literally have a character that can explore this idea, so why not? Gacha and powercreep - Ah yes GACHA. Can't make the game without it. this thing just makes too much money, just like other games out there. Touhou just isn't a gacha game, there are limited characters that can be made and creating new characters would be useless as it would just destroy the reason why you would use the Touhou license in the first place. This has lead TLW having to create various alters and tiers of units with the broken ass characters being locked behind dupes and relics that takes ages to build. This has created a feedback loop and made it so the Devs had to create stages that would call for these units. "Don't have elemental breaks? Tough luck." TBH Gacha could've been made more fair, but their rates are horrendous and they sometimes prevent you from pity either from using coins or just removing it on certain banners. Recreating TLW would probably take a GOOD amount of money given how it seems like this game was made to cash in the Touhou fanbase. Though Touhou in general is an eastern franchise as it seems like it does better in Japan. Though I think that it's due to cultural difference compared to global numbers. (A lot of Japan and Asia in general plays Gacha) Making the game - If the pre-requisites for recreating TLW are for it to be a Gacha, turn-based and interesting gameplay without money restrictions for development nor time, and with full support of the company. I know that as you said, corporations in general don't want to keep a game alive if it doesn't make them money, so that must be explored. First of all re-do character models, 3D models are something that is generally explored within the gacha industry, but it isn't quite widespread within the community due to many of them being Chibis or being flat in design. So then, we are working on a project that is supposed to be interesting enough for people to play and continue playing. With the special niche of 3D models, it provides an opportunity to raise this game up from the flat plane to the 3D plane of existence. This means we can explore more about combat mechanics and other interesting stuff. Secondly, the battle system is replaced. In order to fulfill the niche of being a good game, one must have some meat to the bone. Gacha players in general want to be challenged when there is an interesting mechanic at play during stages. No hit stuff to win or some mechanic that is forced upon you. We can make this turn-based strategy with FMW(Fantasy Maiden Wars)/FEH(Fire Emblem Heroes) in mind. In this gameplay, there must be something that makes it unique. So in this, units are split up into ground/sky with the ability to shift between those two forms. Danmaku is a must as with all Touhou-games so each unit can target another with danmaku , though this can be conflicted with environmental design and unit mode. Air/ground movement is entirely dependent on strategy. In the air you are more vulnerable to danmaku attacks, but can move more freely and attack units that are hiding behind cover at certain distances. Ground movement gives cover, but is generally affected by environmental effects and limited mobility. Fog of war mechanics are in play as with all strategy games. Each stage has certain effects which affect units and has certain levels Y-levels to make combat deeper. Though now that part is done, we have to give a reason to bring characters into stages. So I'm going to introduce some classes to this game. This can be generally generalized into … Heavy hitters - Units that move slowly on both ground and air, but deals some good damage to enemies depending on targeting, and has good amounts of health. They are usually countered by long range units and or light units that can outmaneuver their range. They prioritize cover and general zone cover. They usually have some skill that is unique to them moving and or dealing damage (EX: Yukari, Yuuka, Okina, ETC) Normal Units - Your average rounder unit. mediocre health and movement. These units rely on both movement and skill usage, and the environment to counter enemies. Here, the skill usage is mostly based around defense and or attack. (EX: Reimu, Sanae, Sakuya, ETC) Light Strikers - Fast in movement in exchange for less health. These units are usually scout units, exists to provide vision and or charging of skills that are situational. They rely a lot on skills and generally not being seen for ambushes. (EX: Marisa, Rumia, Cirno) Snipers/Support - They rely on other units to provide vision to enemies when attacking. light in health and somewhat slow-normal movement, they are the main support of other units when dealing with enemies and or healing/buffing your allies. (Kasen, Kanako, Ran) Some character sheets that I might make for this would include the character portrait, 3D form, stats, skills, voice lines, I'll provide some skills that each type of unit might use within their type. along with their ultimate which is charged up by dealing damage to enemies. Yukari Yakumo - Heavy Unit - Skill - 1 - Gap Eye - Provides vision in a plus shape for two turns in a range of 0-3, if enemies are found crossing into or found by the eye, eye will lock onto this enemy and provide vision for two turns. Cooldown of 3 turns Skill - 2 - Hostile Displacement - Move to any seen tile from any ally unit or self 0-3 tiles from origin of selected unit, if there is an enemy unit within those tiles, Yukari attacks for 3 damage - Can only transport Yukari. Cooldown of 3 turns Skill - 3 - Particle Wave - Initiate a attack that takes two turns to charge in a cone shape attack from 0-6, The centermost attack deals 4 damage if at far range while it deals 1 at sides. Deals 5 damage and do one stun to enemies right in front of Yukari's attack. Cooldown of 5 turns Ultimate Skill - Boundary Destruction - opens a large gap in the sky and sends down attacks upon enemy units in or out of vision, those not in cover are dealt 4 damage while those in cover are revealed for two turns. Yukari can choose up to three tiles to place gaps that shoot one damage shots in a cardinal direction. Cooldown of 10 turns. Charged by attacking enemies. Reimu Hakurei - Normal Unit - Skill - 1 - Gohei Stick - Swing in front of 3 tiles to deal 2 damage and 75% stun if Reimu is swinging left to right or right to left and enemy unit is at end of tile. Cooldown of 2 turns Skill - 2 - Yin-Yang Orb - Reimu kicks her orb to any enemy unit visible to her - dealing 3 damage and chance stun. Cooldown of 3 turns. Skill - 3 - Barrier Creation - Reimu can select from three types of barriers - Stun, Damage, and Block. Stun provides two stun, damage provides 3 damage, block provides defense for two turns at select location. Cooldown of 4 turns. Ultimate Skill - Dichromatic Butterfly - This skill is charged for a turn. Reimu is buffed for three turns with attack and defense up. Skill also provides omni-vision for 4 tiles around Reimu. Skills are buffed Gohei Stick gains +1 to range for 2x6 area attack deals 4 damage one stun and knockback. Yin-Yang orb is launched dealing 3 damage and guaranteed stun with AOE. Barrier Creation is replaced for a skill that ends the Ultimate Skill, but sends out an AOE effect in five directions depending on the amount of time left of US, damage ranges from 3-5 with variable KB and stun. Cooldown of 10 turns. Charged from destroying seven enemies and waiting 5 turns. Marisa Kirisame - Light Unit - Skill - 1 - Mushroom Potion - Can provide a potion to allies or self in a range of 0-2 tiles - This potion gives +2 to health and movement speed +3 - Cooldown of 4 turns Skill - 2 - Deadly Concoction - Marisa throws a potion that explodes for one damage in a surrounding area at a range of 1-3 tiles - This potion stuns for one turn and poisons targets for 3 turns, dealing one damage each time. Cooldown of 4 turns Skill - 3 - Borrowed items - Marisa flaunts some stolen items to enemy unit that she stole from them and flings one item at them dealing one damage - Enrages enemies and forces them to move and attack. Cooldown of 3 turns. Ultimate Skill - Dragon Shout - Marisa jumps in the air and charges for a turn. During that time a wide range 5x5 circle is formed for the user to target in the visible range. once the target is selected, the enemy unit in the middle of attack gets hit for 8 damage while those around get hit for 5 and receive burning de-buff for two turns (Dmg every turn, can be mitigated and removed by water tiles) Kanako Yasaka - Sniper/Support - Skill - 1 - Rain maker - Creates weather tiles in a 3x3 area, provides buff to allies that are within weather tiles. That being health regeneration for two turns (Plus two per turn) and air cover. Cooldown of 5 turns. Skill - 2 - Onbashira Barrier - Provides a cover for a unit in their surrounding area, this cover provides about 50% protection and status immunity. lasts for two turns. Cooldown of 4 turns. Skill - 3 - Wind god's guidance - Blesses an ally with wind. Provides unit with +3 movement and 25% evasion that lasts two turns. Cooldown of 5 turns. Ultimate Skill - Onbashira Festival - Kanako drops three Onbashiras of select targets. These Onbashiras provide the Rain maker buff and will also act as a barrier in a 3x3 centered on the zone. The grinding loop is simple and light, no need to wait a couple of minutes for a stage you have already beaten, you can just choose and it will expend energy to give you your rewards. Unit level ups aren't locked behind dupes so players can choose which units to level up without worrying about doing meta-builds. Skills are leveled up through materials and provide certain extra effects and better visual effects. The story Now that this is out of the way for combat mechanics and gameplay. Though it is only a light frame-work, not fully flushed out. I will move on towards the Gacha part. To put it simply, Gacha is something that baits a lot of companies into developing these games. I mean look at Genshin, that shit smokin some stuff to get those gains that are super enviable to others. Yet you see a lot of attention towards making costumes paid by real money. Though we have ways of preventing gacha stuffing. Azur Lane for example, easily provides gacha units that are pretty easy to get, but prioritizes costumes for characters that aren't affecting gameplay. Arknights is also one as it provides good rates with easy to get skins with OP that is usually easy to get. (though recently they did a money only skin) I know that TLW has some crappy gacha rates, 100+ pulls with only a few characters and crappy cards with none of the banner units. So how about buffing the rates along with a better pity system? This way, gacha players are more inclined into spending in an already fun game as those rates will make people more comfortable for pulling units that they would like to get and continue playing the game if pulls are easy to get and farm. A lot of the best gacha games out there that are making a lot of money generally tends towards fan involvement and or conquering a niche so much that it embodies that genre. So in order to make the game not die out, Gacha rates would be generous so you can pull for your favorite units and then pull for others to complete your collection. Costumes will be easy to get if you dedicate yourself to getting one, but costumes will be generally paid for by premium currency that will be often be provided by clearing challenges or stages for the first time. Whales do exist in gacha games, and they generally want to collect everything including costumes. Events can be held to provide some extra currency and story elements that are light-hearted in design or heavy-handed in story. Main Story Honestly, I like the idea of having an female MC as it fits within the Touhou franchise. (though not the male MC stuff, there would be too much coomer brain from people who blatantly show their coomer side. Gotta be honest though, they are too coomer to even care and pretend they aren't coomer.) Touhou LW could be given a better story as the main point of this game was for the MC to find out about who they are and why they even exist within Gensokyo. This was obviously thrown out the window the moment when crazy ass stuff that doesn't make sense was shoved within the story in order to accommodate broken units that they later shoved down LW player's throats. Just give a mix of good main story-telling, some side-stories of the main story that might explore Gensokyo a bit, and events that are just light hearted in nature. Alright that's all.

I am very aware of Fusu's work, and surprisingly I don't mind this sort of art. It's absolutely not for me, but I don't take joy in demeaning other's tastes or what they do in their private time. Honestly, when it comes to fanart, I really don't care as much as say a fangame, because so many people will draw and be paid to draw these characters in literally any situation since it's their line of work, and it's a fruitless battle trying to change or even care about it imo. Fusu is just one of many Touhou artists that make this sort of content, but suddenly, just because one person started spamming r/Touhou with their art, they are now the poster boy that deserves to be "called out" for "misinterpreting our beloved characters". The only problem I have with Fusu's art is the samey-ness of it all, there's an over-reliance of the same foward-facing shot and there's little variation of it. "Ah yes, how do we deal with such a person? By making a parody of their art talking down to anyone who could remotely enjoy such a heinous thing, because they deserve to be treated that way for not being what we have deemed to be 'normal'." Many Western fans see themselves as the arbiters of what's "right" and "wrong" and pretend what they believe is objective and indisputable. It's often why I prefer not to interact with anyone about these topics, because their mind is already made up, discussion is impossible, and I'll likely be put on display for the amusement of an echo chamber. I don't direct this ire towards you, Count. It just sort of strikes a nerve seeing people obsess over nothing remotely constructive and pretend they are making a change for the "better".