Emotional Touhou moments?

[Queen Honeybumble]

Ever since I played Unconnected Marketeers I became enamored with Chimata. I'm a pretty emotional person, I feel like I can connect on some level with the stories of fictional media pretty often. I am not afraid to admit I cry sometimes listening to her theme, to me there's a lot of emotional stress and desperation in the music and I think about Chimata's story a lot. It's not the only thing like this for me in the Touhou series and I figure that probably a lot of people have their own experiences like this, with how wide Gensokyo is and the huge cast of people living within.

It can be positive or negative (but positivity is rad!) but what are some Touhou moments that hit y'all with some strong feels?

 

[buskerdog]

For me, the final boss of WBaWC. Idk if "emotional" is really the right word but I love that right before the final boss fight you realise that you've been manipulated by the beast spirits the entire time and start to question whether you're even on the good side anymore. And then after fight... nothing is cleared up. And that's fantastic. You're just left sitting there wondering "did I just do something horribly wrong? Which side is even the good side? Are there any good sides?" Anyway, now off to go fight a horse I guess

I also love the final boss fight of AoCF because satisfying Yukari big brain plays. And I guess Shion finally getting her moment to not just be an underling to her sister is cool.

 

[SasaMisa]

Well, being a nijicon, it would be pretty bizarre if I wasn't enamoured with at least some of the characters from Touhou Project, wouldn't it. However, if we stick to something emotional per se, I would have to cite Stage 4 in PCB. The combination of the music, which is the most emotional piece I've ever heard, coupled with Lily White announcing spring just as the music reaches a crescendo always chokes me up. (T_T)

Originally, this also happened to be the music for the Heaven stage in Wandering Souls, which was utter chaos as far as difficulty goes, yet it fitted the section so well. Finally getting to Tenshi & Iku at the conclusion of it all invoked many of the same feelings as finally reaching the Prismrivers if I'm honest.

I think a lot of it stems from how much I hate the winter now, what with my CFS/ME constantly lowering my body temperature and making me cough and splutter for no reason all the time. As such, recalling that wonderful tune and the stage it belongs to cheers me up no end. Oh, and did I forget to mention too that I have a wooden Lily White plaque on my wall with her joyfully announcing spring with a big smile on her face. (=^_^=)

 

[Cosmic]

Not really sure if "emotional" is the right word for either of these, but I have two main ones.

First of all, the beginning of the Eirin fight in IN, there's not much to how I feel about it but having the main characters and the player both come to that "oh shit, we've been tricked" realization and still trying to fight her off anyway is just a generally cool moment in my opinion.

Secondly, Stage 6 in UFO, the music combined with the slow reveal of the location creates a very "calm before the storm" feeling, which is aided by the fact that the stage itself isn't actually that hard, especially when contrasted with the pure chaos that Stage 5 and the Shou fight were. Most Touhou games do a good job at this, but UFO's final stage in particular has a very "last save point in an RPG before the final boss" vibe to it, which I really enjoy.