A Guide to Touhou Mobile Apps

[Pinky Cat]

There are four domains that Touhou mobile apps can fall under: Gacha, Collaboration, Derivative Games, and Indie/Doujin Game Development. This is to describe the differences in development styles for Touhou mobile and for what purpose these apps are created for. Depending on what one looks for in a Touhou mobile app, there may be traits in given by the domain that a Touhou app should not be, thus the need to categorize Touhou apps under domains.

1. Gacha​

These are Touhou apps created with approval by Team Shanghai Alice (TSA) for their use of monetization methods supported by elements of gacha games. Since these games can earn revenue monetize the game, the development team can afford the budget to create high-quality art/music for the game. It is thanks to this quality that it can serve as a gateway to Touhou for those on mobile devices.

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Examples​

Active Games:

• Touhou LostWord - Released 2020, developed by Good Smile Company and Next Ninja.
• Gensou Eclipse - Released 2023, developed by CAVE.

Dead Games:

• Touhou Cannonball - Active from 2019 - 2020, developed by Aniplex.
• Touhou Danmaku Kagura - Active from 2021 - 2022, developed by Unknown X whose organization included AQUASTYLE, DeNA, and xeen. This game would be later remade as Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost.
• Touhou Dungeon Dive - Active from 2020 - 2024, developed by STAR FACTORY and SEVEN VOLT.

2. Collaboration​

Mobile collaborations of Touhou are technically not a form of a Touhou app, but any mention of Touhou on mobile is rare, so these collaborations shall be mentioned. Most of these collaborations are rhythm games thanks to their licensing of Touhou music, but there are two notable exceptions to the rhythm game Touhou collabs.
They would be Dandy Dungeon and Rakugaki Kingdom, who both got the collab due to the development team’s close connections with ZUN.

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Examples

• Dandy Dungeon – A roguelike RPG game developed by Onion Games. It has since been rereleased on Steam/Switchwith the Touhou collab brought over to the Steam/Switch version, so this odd collab is still playable today. For the original mobile version, the collab was ran from November 2016.
• Rakugaki Kingdom - A RPG gacha game that features a character creator based on Taito’s Graffiti Kingdom, though the game was only active during 2021. During the launch of the game, a Reimu model was given out to all players. Then, from April 2021, a full Touhou collab was ran.
• Muse Dash
• Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat
• Rhythmically Danmaku: Gensokyo’s (un)Official Guide to Music Games - A 2018 Reddit post about where else can Touhou be found on rhythm games.

3. Derivative Games​

Derivative Games refer to games that are based on another game, usually being a reskin due to their ease of effort. However, there are some games that try to change the mechanics to fit with the Touhou themes, which will be mentioned under “Examples” to award their efforts.

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Examples​

• Touhou Pixel Dungeon: Reloaded – Based on Shattered Pixel Dungeon
• Sweeper Of Suika – Based on Soukoban. This app can no longer be found on the app store, but the apk has been archived on IA.
• Touhou ThousandNightAnamnesis – A mobile attempt at the Touhou danmaku games.

4. Indie/Doujin Game Development​

These are the apps that either are original game concepts, are artistic doujin works, or are ports of Touhou fangames on PC. This is the most interesting domain of Touhou apps as it helps bring quality genres to the mobile space and push the boundaries on what mobile phones can do. Note, that not all apps are on the app store. Some of them are only on Itch.io or on a doujin creator’s website.

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Examples​

Recent Apps​

• Cirno’s Bomb-Tastic Adventure – A puzzle game that can become challenging to solve. This has been translated into English and is available on iOS and Android.
• Touhou Dreamer Runner – A rhythm game that features Youmu beating her enemies on the beat. This game was developed for and won Touhou Fan Game Jam 8.
• Minecraft vs. Zombies II – It’s a PvZ game that happens to include Touhou as a part of its plot. Still, this in-development game offers a fresh spin on the PvZ formula.
• 雛ちゃんブレイカー2ndBreak - Basically competitive Angry Birds.
• Ar Awoo - An augmented reality app featuring Momiji.
• 东方夏夜祭 ~ Shining Shooting Star – The real mobile port of a Touhou danmaku game. This app is a port of 东方夏夜祭 ~ Shining Shooting Star from PC, sometimes considered one of the best Touhou fangames of the danmaku genre.

Artistic Doujin Creations​

• 幻想酒宴 – A Touhou art collab for C79.
• KagekiApp – A Touhou art collab for a Yuuka-themed Touhou event.

Old Apps​

• ISY’s Android Apps – From 2013 – 2021, ISY created quite a lot of Touhou apps for Android. Despite these apps being Japanese only, his sense of humor that one may recognize coming off of a game like 雛ちゃんブレイカー2ndBreak can still be felt in these mobile apps.
• Touhou Maglev Car – About driving a car with the use of magnets, hence the name “Maglev Car”. It’s a bit unbalanced for the player, but at least the game was translated into English.
• -東方- 霊夢無双・弐 – A quickdraw game featuring the PCB cast. It tries to mess with the player’s ability to tap the targets by using the character’s abilities on the target.

Lost Apps​

• 東方知霊奏 – A Touhou parody of QMA, a fast-paced multiplayer quiz show game. There was once an iOS port of 東方知霊奏 being developed and tested. It was never on the official app store as far as I can tell.