Cosmic
Onshi
And now, we've made it to the first of the Windows Touhou games! ...Yep, this sure is the first Touhou game on Windows alright.
I don't know if this is going to seem like stating the obvious or is going to make everyone on this forum hate me, but I honestly find this game to be pretty overhyped in a lot of areas. To start with, the story - Remilia has covered Gensokyo in a thick red mist so that she as a vampire can go outside in the day, and Reimu and Marisa head out to stop her, battling various members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion staff (as well as two entirely unrelated youkai) along the way. It's fairly basic, but it gets the job done, no issues here. Now, this is the part I think I'll lose a lot of you at; I do not think this game has very good characters.
Alright, hear me out here, there are characters introduced in this game who I like. I've mentioned Cirno before as one I particularly enjoy, and Sakuya and Patchouli are another two I quite like (Patchouli admittedly more for the fact I think the "big floating magic circle" type of magic she uses is really cool than anything), but I don't think any of their best qualities are really there in their EoSD characterization. Cirno is a complete and utter non-character here compared to what she would go on to become from PoFV onwards, and most of the other characters are just kinda there as well, not really getting to express much of a personality. If you told me to name a single character trait Remilia has after I played EoSD without showing me anything else from the series, I really don't think I could. It's a shame, too, because Mystic Square and to a small extent Lotus Land Story were both able to do a good amount for their new characters with roughly the same amount of lines as the EoSD cast, so having virtually everyone here be carried by their portrayals in future games is a shame.
Beyond that, I feel like this game's soundtrack is also somewhat of a downgrade from the last two PC-98 games, although it could just be that I don't like most of the instruments used in this game. It makes sense, given that ZUN was just now getting used to using anything other than FM Synthesis to compose music, but of this game's soundtrack, Voile, the Magic Library, Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial, and Septette for the Dead Princess are the only three songs that really stick out to me, with the rest ranging from alright to barely listenable for me, and even of the ones I just listed, Luna Dial is the only one I'd put on the same level as the best of Lotus Land Story or Mystic Square's soundtracks. This soundtrack isn't bad, mostly, I just find it extremely forgettable when compared to what came before or after it.
Despite everything I've just said, there are some things I actually do like here! First of all, I feel like this is the point where ZUN became really willing to experiment with the bullet patterns. We'd seen a lot of variety beforehand in Mystic Square, sure (Mai's spinning laser wheel thingy continues to be one of my favorite bullet patterns in the series), but this game feels like it really goes out of its way to experiment and display its characters' abilities through gameplay, in moments like Cirno freezing her bullets still and having them move in a different direction when they're un-frozen, or Sakuya being able to stop time, place bullets on the screen, and resume time, having them all start moving at once. I really love stuff like this, so it's a pleasant surprise to see it being done this early in the series. Additionally, the character art, although objectively quite bad, still has a certain charm for me that I really enjoy, even if Meiling does look a bit like she'll eat me alive.
Overall, while EoSD is responsible for the start of the Windows Touhou continuity, it's definitely a game that I respect more than I actually enjoy it. I have this idea in my head of it being one that everyone really likes, but come to think of it, I don't actually know what the general fandom perception of it is these days, so it'll be interesting to see if I get burnt at the stake for this post or if it gets met with a slightly underwhelming sense of "well, yeah, obviously".
I don't know if this is going to seem like stating the obvious or is going to make everyone on this forum hate me, but I honestly find this game to be pretty overhyped in a lot of areas. To start with, the story - Remilia has covered Gensokyo in a thick red mist so that she as a vampire can go outside in the day, and Reimu and Marisa head out to stop her, battling various members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion staff (as well as two entirely unrelated youkai) along the way. It's fairly basic, but it gets the job done, no issues here. Now, this is the part I think I'll lose a lot of you at; I do not think this game has very good characters.
Alright, hear me out here, there are characters introduced in this game who I like. I've mentioned Cirno before as one I particularly enjoy, and Sakuya and Patchouli are another two I quite like (Patchouli admittedly more for the fact I think the "big floating magic circle" type of magic she uses is really cool than anything), but I don't think any of their best qualities are really there in their EoSD characterization. Cirno is a complete and utter non-character here compared to what she would go on to become from PoFV onwards, and most of the other characters are just kinda there as well, not really getting to express much of a personality. If you told me to name a single character trait Remilia has after I played EoSD without showing me anything else from the series, I really don't think I could. It's a shame, too, because Mystic Square and to a small extent Lotus Land Story were both able to do a good amount for their new characters with roughly the same amount of lines as the EoSD cast, so having virtually everyone here be carried by their portrayals in future games is a shame.
Beyond that, I feel like this game's soundtrack is also somewhat of a downgrade from the last two PC-98 games, although it could just be that I don't like most of the instruments used in this game. It makes sense, given that ZUN was just now getting used to using anything other than FM Synthesis to compose music, but of this game's soundtrack, Voile, the Magic Library, Lunar Clock ~ Luna Dial, and Septette for the Dead Princess are the only three songs that really stick out to me, with the rest ranging from alright to barely listenable for me, and even of the ones I just listed, Luna Dial is the only one I'd put on the same level as the best of Lotus Land Story or Mystic Square's soundtracks. This soundtrack isn't bad, mostly, I just find it extremely forgettable when compared to what came before or after it.
Despite everything I've just said, there are some things I actually do like here! First of all, I feel like this is the point where ZUN became really willing to experiment with the bullet patterns. We'd seen a lot of variety beforehand in Mystic Square, sure (Mai's spinning laser wheel thingy continues to be one of my favorite bullet patterns in the series), but this game feels like it really goes out of its way to experiment and display its characters' abilities through gameplay, in moments like Cirno freezing her bullets still and having them move in a different direction when they're un-frozen, or Sakuya being able to stop time, place bullets on the screen, and resume time, having them all start moving at once. I really love stuff like this, so it's a pleasant surprise to see it being done this early in the series. Additionally, the character art, although objectively quite bad, still has a certain charm for me that I really enjoy, even if Meiling does look a bit like she'll eat me alive.
Overall, while EoSD is responsible for the start of the Windows Touhou continuity, it's definitely a game that I respect more than I actually enjoy it. I have this idea in my head of it being one that everyone really likes, but come to think of it, I don't actually know what the general fandom perception of it is these days, so it'll be interesting to see if I get burnt at the stake for this post or if it gets met with a slightly underwhelming sense of "well, yeah, obviously".
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