Help Guide Me Through Gensokyo

[Angelulu004]

Hi, good morning, afternoon, evening and night. I'm new not only to this site, but to the entire Touhou franchise as well. I always knew about its existence for years but I only decided to take a look at it recently and it fascinated me.
Unfortunately I don't have a PC, only a Tablet. The PC-98 games I could try on emulator if it wasn't for the support for Mobile Retroarch coming to an end. The Windows era games I managed to run the first two quite decently in a windows emulator (but not 7.5), but I thought emulating them became annoying as I'm not very patient for that, so I gave up (maybe I can try again in the future). And there seems to be no mobile ports of those games, so I'm out of luck (a shame because this website would be of great help), but I can stick to just watching vídeos and gameplays of them.

This was just the introduction, now I'll enter the part that truly matters to me.

Outside of the Shmup style gameplay, I always thought the series was just about cute girls fighting, well it technically is, but definitely not exactly the way I imagined.
What the series and its universe explore really caught my attention a lot, I think it's so rich despite having such simple stories.

The characters are used to represent the archetypes of many different religions, traditions, cultures, folklores, myths, etc. I love that, how deep it goes in the theological aspects and the legends of Japan's history, and even outside of it, heck, as far as I saw, there's even a representation of the Chupabra in the series, which is crazy for me.

And following the weird locations the characters go and the anomalies they face, there's also the fact of how everything else that composes the artistic part feels magical, sacred, ethereal. Well at least to me, from some of the dialogue, to the names of the characters’ powers, from the visuals, to the music, it all feels esoteric, weird and unexplainable in a good way.

I'm still at the end of 7.5 only and I'm very interested to see more of this universe and what it has to offer. Which is where my question comes.
After I finish checking all of the main games until the most recent, what should I do next to see more of this very interesting world?

I know there's like countless amount of content surrounding it, most of it made by fans and a smaller portion being official, I think? I thought it was a bit too confusing when tried to look at how the franchise is separated, with some other stuff done by ZUN, but not others, etc.

I would like to see more media that explores the world and lore of the series just like the main games do. But I have no idea how I should look for that.

By looking at Touhou wiki I don't feel I get an exact direction, as aside from guidebooks, it seems other material such as books and comics don't follow the more linear style of storytelling of the games, I can be wrong, but it's what I feel by looking at that site and the info on those content.

There are also other content that ZUN contributed to, but I don't know if they are supposed to belong to the normal series?

There's also derivative works that use the license without ZUN's involvement apparently.

I tried to check out one episode of an anime series, but it seemed to be just a game retelling, with very minimal differences and that skips part of the story, so I'm not sure if I want to continue with that.
I believe none of them matter for the normal series?
And obviously fan content is fan content, which I really don't plan to check so soon, only in the future in case I become a “die-hard fan”, but for now I would like to prioritize what's “essential” and leave the more peripheral stuff for another time.

So I would like to get a direction of what of big importance in the series I should look after the main games series, aside from the guidebooks, what else is very important, worth checking if I want to learn more about this universe and its lore. (It's not like I'm going to become a Touhou lore master or anything tho lol, that probably requires more dedication than I'm willing to put in)

Or the main games series is the only thing that is truly relevant and everything else is just an “extra” without even an order to it?

This place was the only site I found to ask for such a thing, as I'm not a fan of using Reddit or SNS groups.

Though I have the impression people here are more focused on games technicalities and the music circle. But I also saw a few users doing a few posts about the aspects I'm discussing here, which is what motivated me to write this.

Sorry if I sound like a boomer, also I'm treating this as if it was my first and introduction post in the forum, even though I already made two, but It was mainly for me to test how the forum works and if other users would understand my English and the way I write (not my native language) and if I did something wrong. It seems it went fine, so I feel comfortable making this post. Also, my bad if this is not the most appropriate section to post this, was thinking of "Introductions" but I think the purpose of the post suits "All You Can Ask" more but maybe it would be better in General Touhou too, I don't know.

Anyway, I'll really appreciate if this post is not ignored. Depending on the replies I get, it may be helpful enough for you guys to never see my face here again lol, or maybe not, who knows.

I also accept if the replies come with questions, if you think I was too vague in certain points or that I could explain better, I'll give more details. Thank you.

 

[fazun]

The official Touhou lore mostly consists of:
The games (if you're really desperate to see the dialogues, you can go to thpatch website and read the omake.txt (character descriptions) and the rest. Or just see a walkthrough on Youtube. Personally I find game content more important to understand the universe than anything)
The mangas (Silent Sinner in Blue, Wild and Horned Hermit, etc. Most of them are pretty old and complete)
The books and novels (Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Eastern Archive in Japanese Red, etc.)

While the games are the main thing, the literature lets you see Gensokyo from a different perspective (many of them have a storyteller that doesn't really fly around and fight everyone), sometimes explaining the games' events, sometimes bringing something completely new, basically filling the gaps and slightly developing the characters (character development isn't really a thing in Touhou though). Some of them are full of fights and action and some are slice of life, but anyway they aren't as linear as the games, sometimes desperately trying to be serious.

In fact almost everything that includes Zun is canon. 7.5 is a spin-off game made by Tasofro team, but the story is written by Zun therefore it's all Touhou.

 

[Spongelash]

So this depends on how you like to experience your media, but personally I enjoy going through things in roughly release order, and to help with that endeavor the Release Timeline on the wiki has been very helpful to me.

It only covers first-party releases, so those that ZUN created or was involved in creating. It also labels the type of each release which can be helpful if you are interested in one kind of media more than others.

Everything before 2002 is the PC-98 era which is only very loosely connected to what came after, and is really all games. Personally I skipped to 2002 to start.

You've correctly identified that the games are the main drivers of the setting. However, there is plenty of story and setting building contained in other media.

You'll see the "music" type of media. Zun releases stand-alone music albums from time to time that have little stories accompanying the tracks. These are probably the least connected to everything by my reckoning as I think they mostly follow their own characters, but they do take place in the Touhou setting.

You'll also see "serialization" starting with Curiosities of Lotus Asia which is a type that you probably want to pay attention to. These are like short story articles worked on by ZUN that serve to expand the setting and show the characters in situations that you wouldn't get to see in the games. I've only read part of Curiosities so far, but I can say that it really expands on Reimu and Marisa's characters and the world of Gensokyo and I feel like I would have a worse understanding without having read it.

"Book" is similar to serialization, just differing in how the text was released.

That covers all official media. For the most part the games are pretty self-explanatory and self-contained (as far as I have played) but knowing earlier media gives you context you may miss otherwise. And the text is pretty enjoyable in my opinion and I like a lot of the songs on the albums as well. But feel free to pick and choose using that article if you are trying to explore the official base setting of Touhou. Most of this media is accessible here, but of course if you find an accessible official way to access any of it that is great.

(Touhou media that you find that isn't on that list, such as the anime that you mention, is created by fans. Other creators are allowed to profit from Touhou under certain conditions. These fan creations mostly make up their own little continuities (other than influence through cultural osmosis) so if it isn't on the list you don't need to consider it as a reference for anything other than itself.)

you can go to thpatch website and read the omake.txt (character descriptions) and the rest.

Oh, yes, good call out fazun. If you play the games, make sure to poke through the files. There are story materials there. You will have to get a translation.

 

[Napechi97]

I would like to see more media that explores the world and lore of the series just like the main games do. But I have no idea how I should look for that.

If you want to see the lore of the games you haven't played, you can look for the gameplays with english translations of the game, although it may be frustrating since most people in the videos skip the dialogues for some reason.

 

[fazun]

though it may be frustrating since most people in the videos skip the dialogues for some reason.

Megamanomega doesn't, I strongly recommend him if you want to read without playing and see the gameplay

 

[Napechi97]

Megamanomega doesn't, I strongly recommend him if you want to read without playing and see the gameplay

Did he play all the touhou tho? (including the spinoffs)

 

[fazun]

Did he play all the touhou tho? (including the spinoffs)

Yes. PC-98, fighting games, photography, Gouyoku Ibun, many fan-made shmups, everything.

 

[Napechi97]

Yes. PC-98, fighting games, photography, Gouyoku Ibun, many fan-made shmups, everything.

Thanks for the info, useful for me who doesn't want to play pc98 extra stages since thcrap doesn't support pc98

 

[Angelulu004]

Spoiler

The official Touhou lore mostly consists of:
The games. Personally I find game content more important to understand the universe than anything)
The mangas (Silent Sinner in Blue, Wild and Horned Hermit, etc. Most of them are pretty old and complete)
The books and novels (Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Eastern Archive in Japanese Red, etc.)

In fact almost everything that includes Zun is canon. 7.5 is a spin-off game made by Tasofro team, but the story is written by Zun therefore it's all Touhou.

Spoiler

You've correctly identified that the games are the main drivers of the setting. However, there is plenty of story and setting building contained in other media.

You'll also see "serialization" starting with Curiosities of Lotus Asia which is a type that you probably want to pay attention to. These are like short story articles worked on by ZUN that serve to expand the setting and show the characters in situations that you wouldn't get to see in the games. I've only read part of Curiosities so far, but I can say that it really expands on Reimu and Marisa's characters and the world of Gensokyo and I feel like I would have a worse understanding without having read it.

That covers all official media. For the most part the games are pretty self-explanatory and self-contained (as far as I have played) but knowing earlier media gives you context you may miss otherwise. And the text is pretty enjoyable in my opinion and I like a lot of the songs on the albums as well. But feel free to pick and choose using that article if you are trying to explore the official base setting of Touhou. Most of this media is accessible here, but of course if you find an accessible official way to access any of it that is great.

(Touhou media that you find that isn't on that list, such as the anime that you mention, is created by fans. Other creators are allowed to profit from Touhou under certain conditions. These fan creations mostly make up their own little continuities (other than influence through cultural osmosis) so if it isn't on the list you don't need to consider it as a reference for anything other than itself.)

So if I understand correctly “Touhou canon” would be pretty much the set of “Official Works by Zun”, everything else is him being part of the audience even if he gave the blessing to some of them. Clarifies a lot as I was confused if all those games you can buy on Steam and even consoles had some sort of relevancy for the official series.
And it seems ZUN treats anything he created outside of the games as expansions on the universe but not to the point of making the games completely feel like a “vanilla experience” of that world if you miss them, so anyone who wants to ignore the rest won't be losing much I believe with the exception of references in-fandom, but “hardcore fans” are “hardcore fans” and being a fan of the games only won't make the individual any less of a fan than those and won't make it closer to a casual. It's very likely also fruit of being a series born in doujin cradle.

That said, It seems the series is much easier to follow than I thought and I think that's great, thank you.

Spoiler

if you're really desperate to see the dialogues, you can go to thpatch website and read the omake.txt (character descriptions) and the rest

Spoiler

Oh, yes, good call out fazun. If you play the games, make sure to poke through the files. There are story materials there. You will have to get a translation.

I was wondering where the “extra stories” came from as I saw them in the wiki but they don't give the source for them. Thank you

Spoiler

You'll see the "music" type of media. Zun releases stand-alone music albums from time to time that have little stories accompanying the tracks. These are probably the least connected to everything by my reckoning as I think they mostly follow their own characters, but they do take place in the Touhou setting.

I suppose this is where that duo come from, with the two girls one of them called Maribel and I forgot the name of the other one. There seems to be some sort of mascot too, didn't expect the music to also play a role that way, interesting, thank you.

Spoiler

While the games are the main thing, the literature lets you see Gensokyo from a different perspective (many of them have a storyteller that doesn't really fly around and fight everyone), sometimes explaining the games' events, sometimes bringing something completely new, basically filling the gaps and slightly developing the characters (character development isn't really a thing in Touhou though). Some of them are full of fights and action and some are slice of life, but anyway they aren't as linear as the games, sometimes desperately trying to be serious.

Spoiler

"Book" is similar to serialization, just differing in how the text was released.

It seems there was a misconception from me in regards to the books. Having a quick look at the wiki made me imagine there was more like a separation with full guide books covering even production aspects of the games, etc. It seems it's actually a mix of information with fiction while others are full fictional. Seems like the most pure guide material is the manuals and omakes themselves going in deep in material the games can't tell or show with more context from a meta sense, while the books do that from a "in-universe perspective" to my understanding.

Spoiler

So this depends on how you like to experience your media, but personally I enjoy going through things in roughly release order, and to help with that endeavor the Release Timeline on the wiki has been very helpful to me.

It only covers first-party releases, so those that ZUN created or was involved in creating. It also labels the type of each release which can be helpful if you are interested in one kind of media more than others.

I have no issue in switching between the different media, but only in case things get too confusing if I restrict myself to one media linearly, which is why I asked if there was even an order. But based on what you said and the rest, I interpret that I can very well go through all games first with no problem and later check the other content as ZUN didn't intend for them to be essential for the games or just treated them as sub-series. I think that's good as In case I end up not liking the other media it could saturate myself trying to follow all of them by release.

My standard way of following series is by release date too, even stuff like prequels I simply prefer following in release order. I was sure the games were linear but not sure about the other media, so if you followed them by release order I also feel comfortable to do that way too but without the worry of crossing them. Thank you

Spoiler

Everything before 2002 is the PC-98 era which is only very loosely connected to what came after, and is really all games.

I think it's really sad how the PC-98 era entries are overlooked by them. I mean I understand back then ZUN couldn't do much outside of it and was the baby phase of the series. But as far as I checked it seems the only thing it got starting from the 2000s was the soundtracks included in album releases and that's it. But it seems everything else is “forbidden” from showing up again unless it was ZUN deciding to reintroduce, like, I wouldn't mind if they are considered separate canon, continuity or timeline etc (though I personally don't believe it is), but I don't see the reason to just completely ignore them, as it seems that the books only cover Windows era content, meaning anything PC-98 era related like its characters remain in a limbo and we don't have posterior media covering it, even if it was just a guide giving info about it would already be good imo. But the impression it gives me is that they treat those five games as if they were a separate series like Seihou, so they'll always ignore them.
The only thing in terms of expanded content those 5 games have is their manual as far as I'm concerned, any info regarding them stops there. It only makes me wonder if they are ignored due to being out of date / access content, as people can experience the windows era ones without having to resort to piracy. Or even copyright related, so they have to restrict themselves to Windows era only (i think the decision of making new versions of the games starting from 6 could be an indication of this. Though it could be just because it's much easier too while the PC-98 ones would demand full remakes from scratch)

Spoiler

If you want to see the lore of the games you haven't played, you can look for the gameplays with english translations of the game, although it may be frustrating since most people in the videos skip the dialogues for some reason.

It's what I've been doing, it's actually the only thing I can do lol. The dialogue skip is because of the how quick to beat / speedrun culture surrounding those games, as I heard there were even Touhou tournaments or something like that. But yeah for someone like me who wants to read the dialogue and see which sprites are used for each line it can be really annoying. But i can find my ways.

Spoiler

Megamanomega doesn't, I strongly recommend him if you want to read without playing and see the gameplay

Spoiler

Did he play all the touhou tho? (including the spinoffs)

Spoiler

yes. PC-98, fighting games, photography, Gouyoku Ibun, many fan-made shmups, everything.

I don't know about 8 onwards, but for some reason his channel lacks the first game, and from 4 to 7 he doesn't show the other characters, only Marisa, and his videos lack the endings. So to see those I had to look in different channels.

Anyway, I think that's all and everything what you guys said sums up very well what I have to do if I want to learn more about the series. I think maybe there's only the problem of how far the other content goes in translations, as I saw that some of the books and manga got official translations, but some are available through fan translations only and I'm not sure how many of those are complete, but that I can discover by myself.

So I believe from now I can walk with my own two feet, thank you a lot for the help!

 

[StarryusRage]

I don't know about 8 onwards, but for some reason his channel lacks the first game, and from 4 to 7 he doesn't show the other characters, only Marisa, and his videos lack the endings. So to see those I had to look in different channels.

Little thing about his videos not lacking the endings: It's not just MegamanOmega's videos, it's almost ALL gameplays of the Touhou games that people do.

The reason why is, well, ZUN doesn't exactly like it when fans upload or share a game's ending(s). He has said that he prefers that players experience the game themselves by beating them and experiencing the endings, however, due to the difficulty levels pretty much in hindsight, most people won't see the endings because of that.

However, the standalone endings of the games are uploaded onto YouTube actually, so you just have to search them up and watch them on there like how you did.

(This is also sometimes why people use the replays for Stage 6 (or it's just a preference by the uploader): because they don't show the endings.)