A curious adventurer's log book - a multipart review thread

[Ballast]

Hello all welcome to my multipart review. I plan to( or attempt to) play through all the official Touhou games in more or less release order, and then give my thoughts on that particular game.

Even having been a fan of the franchise for a considerable period of time, most of my interaction with the series has been surface level and limited to fangames and nonofficial works. Overtime I gained more interest in the series and wanted to take a swing at the official games. It was then, upon participating more on the forums, that I got the idea for this little review; although, it might not be the most original idea, I felt it would be a fun little project.

and thus begins the first of hopefully many more posts on this thread.

The first game I decided to play was Touhou 8. The reason for starting with 8 rather than the first game is simple, I wanted to get used to the danmaku format before I threw myself into the wolves, and it was through some light research(a video) that I determined 8 was the best for beginners. I would love to cite my sources for such a conclusion but sadly I can't find the video.

Now review time!

It would be a lie to say that I didn't enjoy this game,

I have spent what feel like multiple days playing 8 and I have to say it is a lot of fun. It is a rare for a particular genre of game to capture my interest so intensely let alone one infamous for it's difficulty. I struggled a lot initially to gain any headway, but each attempt I got better and better, and I could tangibly see that I was improving. Which only got me more invested into the game. I started paying more attention to the story, learning the mechanics. All until I got my first clear. I can't even being to describe how rewarding it felt to beat Erin for the first time. Needless to say I enjoyed the gameplay and I believe I will be a danmaku fan for a long time to come.

But the gameplay wasn't the only thing I enjoyed. As mentioned prior I become more invested in the story and characters. Every character felt completely unique in design and personality; Although, some did stand out more than others, non overstayed their welcome in the spotlight. I definitely understand the hype with Reisen.

I personally thought the music in this game is fantastic and hope that them of enjoyability remains the same throughout all of the other windows generation games. I even might have found a favorite in Lunatic Princess, but that could change in the games to come.

I think my conclusion on this game is pretty clear, I loved it and look forward to returning to the modern danmaku format after exploring through the retro games.

On that note,

This has been Ballast, thanks for reading and stayed tuned for my adventure through Touhou: Highly Responsive to Prayers. I hope to see you there!

 

[Retron]

Ah Imperishable Night, I agree with you, very cool game all-around. It's also where my favorite beat mario song originated from. Shame I never was able to get past Reisen cuz I kinda sorta suck ass in danmaku games.

This has been Ballast, thanks for reading and stayed tuned for my adventure through Touhou: Highly Responsive to Prayers. I hope to see you there!

HRtP? Good luck, from my experience, you're gonna develop a hatred for bouncing yin yang orbs. Looking forward to reading more of your reviews  :MeilingThumbsUp:

 

[Ballast]

Ah Imperishable Night, I agree with you, very cool game all-around. It's also where my favorite beat mario song originated from. Shame I never was able to get past Reisen cuz I kinda sorta suck ass in danmaku games.

HRtP? Good luck, from my experience, you're gonna develop a hatred for bouncing yin yang orbs. Looking forward to reading more of your reviews  :MeilingThumbsUp:

Honestly, all it takes is some time and patience to get good at danmaku. I also might end up bundling HRtP and SoEW into 1 review depending on how long it takes me to finish HRtP

 

[Ballast]

Alright floks I know it's been a while, *cough* *cough*, but I am back with another review, Highly Responsive to Prayers, the very first game in the series!

Honsetly, I really enjoyed this game more than I thought I would.

In terms of gameplay, I liked it, for those who don't know, HRtP at it's base is a break out game, yk the old Atari game where you bounce a ball to break the blocks, the difference being the ball can hurt you as well. Which makes for an interesting dynamic of trying to avoid enemy attacks while simultaniously trying to avoid your ball while making sure it continues to bounce around the stage. In terms of difficulty, it could be considered a "hard" game, but that isn't really true until the later levels, Zun does a really good job at easing the player into the difficulty, introducing the player to each new thing one at a time while giving plenty of time for the player to understand said new mechanic. It isn't too much either, each one is a natural progression off of each other that stedily amps the difficulty. One of the most unique things about this game is the two different paths you can take where Reimu either goes to Maki or Hell, each have different bosses and stages. Which adds to the replayability

There isn't a story here, at least not in the traditional sense, I am sure there is something at the very least, but nothing important to the long term story, and there's only one returning character, Reimu. I don't really think anything more needs to be said there.

Music wise isn't the strongest, makes sense seeing as it is the first game, but it also isn't terrible either. No real stand out great music, but nothing absolutly aweful either.

To sum up, The game definitley shows it's age but that isn't a bad thing, the gameplay is pretty fun, it could defo use some improvements, but overall it's a pretty neat game, Not the best but not the worst either, and some part of me wants to see Zun revisit this format in the modern era of 2hu.

And with that This has been Ballast, hope to see you in the next one! which hopefuly will be within the next few weeks. Catch you next time!