方解夢異聞 ～ Avant-Garde Discerning Paralleler (東方二次創作STG)

Genuinely a great fangame! To put it simply, this game is very creative and has a fun premise not typical to a Touhou incident, as well as taking a different spin on the usual Touhou formula. But, it is quite difficult in latter stages and not accommodating due to only having two difficulty settings (the second isn't even unlocked at first, and is very difficult). And last, this game does not have any steam cloud support and its stage backgrounds break on Steam Deck, which is probably just a product of age. Overall, still a great game worth checking out if you're skilled enough, and more-so if this game gets an English translation! I did receive this free, but I would think it's worth its small price.

Honestly, I just think that this game is pretty sick. 16 stages with unique bosses and a whole lot of unique backgrounds is an achievement. The stages are catered to the shot being played (playing Kyouko/Seiga in a later Chen/Ran stage would probably be a nightmare), so it's basically two completely unique gameplay experiences. I value this a lot, actually. For something originally released in 2013, it has a lot of ambition and production value. (This, of course, doesn't even include the 2019 1.10 patch content). The game generally looks pretty good and Pesot.jp's work, both 2013 and 2019, is varied and interesting and sometimes extremely inexplicable (Looking at you, Acrylonitrile). The structure of the game also supports its strengths; having to play an experimental stage like Kyouko/Seiga s7 in a full game run blind would be miserable, but the piecemeal stage of the content makes this a relative nonissue. Now, the main biggest thing about this game is the gimmick spells, which form the core of the boss fights. The first standout that you might encounter is the Nitori fight, where you are immediately confronted with the Oxygen system, which is special to that fight. This only es…

Genuinely a fantastic Touhou fan-game. It strikes a really nice balance of staying true to the source material and doing something new, combining fantasy with sci-fi elements in a way that turns Touhou on it's head, but in a way that's entirely feasible. All of the stages and boss-attacks are incredibly creative and fun to puzzle together and figure out, and there's tons of content that adds a nice amount of replay-value. In typical Touhou fashion the music is good. It's actually made by Pesot.jp, of Treasure Castle Labyrinth fame! The tracks are all arranges of official Touhou songs, but they sound unique and distinct from their original counterparts. I will say that the latter half of this game is extremely hard, and requires quite a bit of experience and reaction time. But if you like a challenge, I'd say this game is right up your alley. All in all, very good game, and severely underrated. If you have 5 dollars to snag this, please do! It's 100% worth it.