I played Twinkle Star Sprites for the first time this week and fell in love with it, which led to me loading up Phantasmagoria of Flower View for the first time in ages and finally finally clicking with it... anyway I feel like spewing out my thoughts on the different touhous I've played over the years.

  • 6/EoSD: there's a sort of elemental perfection to this one, the essence of doujin shmups laid bare. Even after seven trillion touhou games it's still extremely good. The bullets are quick, the end-bosses are scary, the music is excellent, and it has my all-time favorite cast.
  • 7/PCB: strong pick for the best one, and my favorite stage 4 edging out IN. Still has EoSD's teeth; I remember getting at least one run to the final survival pattern and losing it with seconds to go. Just a straightforward blast of good shmup action.
  • 8/IN: also a favorite. Definitely much easier than 6 and 7, but in a nice way that invited me in when I was still intimidated by these games. The robust practice mode is still the gold standard for shmups; it's basically a game unto itself. Stage 4 boss is an all-timer, maybe the best OST.
  • 9/PoFV: no one told me this one was so fun!!! I didn't know!!!!! I want to be home playing it right now!!!!
  • 10/MoF: if EoSD is stripped down in a good way, this one maybe feels a little -too- bare. Feels like he had to push out a game quick after spending most of his time on the new engine. Also wow these bullets are slow... That's a lot of negatives, but it's still fun, it has a great stage 4, and it's another good pick along with 8 for an entry-level Touhou game.
  • 11/SA: masterpiece. All-timer boss fights, fast bullets, and a gorgeous Super C-esque story progression to the stages. You spend the whole game descending deeper and deeper into the earth, the bosses and setting getting scarier and scarier, until you finally reach the end -- and one of the hypest shmup climaxes ever.
  • 12/UFO: extremely excellent! My favorite stage 1-3 progression in the series, one story about approaching and attacking a big battleship. Doesn't get more shmup than that. Love the UFO gimmick. Stages 5 and 6 feel a little too in-line with past entries, PCB in particular, but it's still good. (Stage 6 theme is killer, and I love the final boss's Mystic Square pattern.)
  • 12.8/GFW: fantastic. The last "classic" Touhou in my mind. If you like Touhou and you haven't played Great Fairy Wars go jump in immediately. Three stage Cirno shmup with an amazing gimmick of chain-freezing bullet patterns. Can't overstate how good this game feels to play.
  • 13/TD: it sucks! I remember this one surprising everyone because for the first time a new Touhou was flatly bad. The patterns are really slow, low energy, easy, boring. But the extend system is much more strict than past Touhou games, so it's still weirdly hard to get a clear. How long can you play before getting bored and zoning out challenge.
  • 14/DDC: idk I think it's fun. I remember friends getting really pissed by the stage 5 and 6 boss gimmicks (reversing your controls, making your hitbox bigger) but I think they're cute. I think there are some missed opportunities with the climax's story/theming that keep it emotionally at arm's length for me though.
  • 15/LotLK: this is the "I wanna be the guy" Touhou balanced around infinite lives/frequent checkpoints and obscenely hard individual spell patterns. A lot of really strong stages and bosses here; Clownpiece is obviously a highlight. I think Junko sucks though, they don't commit to her "pure bullet hell" theming enough to be interesting so you're left with a normal final boss that just has very basic ugly patterns. A lot of friction between the normal Touhou structure and IWBTG aspects -- why isn't the extra stage also playable with infinite checkpoints? I liked playing it once, but I think you're ultimately better off playing Aya's photo games (9.5/12.5), which feel a lot less at war with themselves.
  • 16/HSiFS: I got the 1cc in this and I remember next to nothing about it. The game doesn't feel like it starts until stage 5 and by then it's almost over. Stage 5 is good but I don't remember the last boss at all. Maybe my least favorite because it's so nothing.
  • 17/WBaWC: only modern game I straightforwardly really like. The Crimzon Clover-ass burst mode mechanic feels great, it's still pretty tricky, lots of great music and characters, and the climax is really dope. It even does cute story stuff at the end the way I wanted 14 and 15 to! Would love to see ZUN make a normal shmup again someday instead of all this card/shop system nonsense.

1cc's I've nabbed: 6, 7, 8, 10, 12.8, 14, 16
1cc's I want: 9, 11, 12, 17
Want to spend more time with: 5 (holy shit that last boss), 9.5, 12.5
Couldn't pay me to care: any of the new ones with roguelite progressions


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in reply to @farawaytimes's post:

5 is my main game so I can confirm it owns a lot. and it's fun to see the origins of the touhou style; I was surprised how much it has in common with 6. fun to hear ZUN doing fm synth too

I definitely feel you on the climax of SA. it helps a lot that it's around 10 and 11 that the music's production starts to really hit the point where it doesn't stand in the way of appreciating the composition. like pcb has a lot of good songs but sometimes they don't sound so good. and the visuals are great too; it's so obvious that so much fun was had designing the patterns in SA and UFO. and the buzzer before each spell card!

Yesssss happy to hear from a Mystic Square fan. I really wanna nab those 11 and 12 1cc's, but after that really getting into Mystic Square is a big priority, I remember it being so cool and pretty. Good thought about the OSTs in 10 and 11!

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