東方恋物語 ~ Locked Together (2025)

[b]Touhou Koimonogatari (東方恋物語) ~ Locked Together[/b] is a cute PC-98-styled Touhou danmaku shooter that comes recommended with a warning. As the store description states, this game is an Extra-stage-only affair, and it is [b][i]punishingly difficult[/i][/b] as a result. The difficulty easily approaches the vibes of the EoSD, Subterranean Animism, and UFO Extra stages (Context: I mainly play Touhou for Normal/Hard 1ccs, with Ex clears across about half the mainline series; take this subjective view as you wish). Many spellcards and "non-spell" attacks have limited margins for error and/or short time windows to make required movements to avoid certain death, but otherwise have neat designs and concepts. Players should be well-versed in movement fundamentals and reading medium- to high-density attacks, along with being prepared to fail and practice repeatedly in the hopes of seeing the MariPatchy interactions and earning a 1cc. Unlike conventional Extra stages, you are offered several continues in the event you run out of lives. You can also set the default number of starting lives between 0 to 7 (default is 2) to suit your level of experience and desired challenge. The only major i…

Yes, but with a caveat that this game is REALLY hard. This follows a lot of the PC98 design philosophy in style, the wider than normal play window, and with a lot of fast bullets with a lot of randomness to the patterns. Readability of the patterns can be difficult too, there's often no visible method of streaming or routing. It does contain some QoL that the PC98 titles didn't have, like focus, visible hitbox while focusing, and while your shots are pretty distracting it's not as bad for bullet visibility as the original PC98 titles. The difficulty is really high, there are no difficulty levels, you only have a single extra stage level of difficulty available. You also only have Marisa as a playable character, and there's only one stage so there is a lot less replay value than some other games. Finally, Linux and SteamDeck users beware, this requires several components installed via ProtonTricks to function, otherwise you'll get a not implemented shader error. These components are d3dcompiler_43 and d3dx9_43. The gameID is 4209110 if you wish to run it via the command line. Controller support was also a bit whacked, and I had to tweak SteamInput's controller settings for …

Absolutely criminally underrated extra stage length fangame that deserves it's flowers as much as Patchouli deserves some sun. Boasting a whopping 10 unique spell cards on the unmoving library herself, the difficulty on the stage and the boss is no slouch, it definitely took me quite a few tries and all my continues to even get my first clear (which I intend to try a 1CC in the future), but the pattern design, solid music and the lovely way Mugenri tied together some character interaction and service for the ship even in its spellcard descriptions tells me a lot about how much they cared to make a quality experience. The PC98 aesthetic doesn't feel skin deep, it really does feel like a game made by someone who appreciates that era of Touhou too. The entire tone of the fight shifting as you clear more spellcards [spoiler] especially when you get halfway through and Patchouli begins using Marisa's spells against her [/spoiler] is something that really scratched that itch for what I like in interactions between characters in these games, "Danmaku as Self-Expression" if I really wanna give it a name. Having non-spells/spellcards that not only provide an enjoyable gameplay experience …

I have like literally 0 idea how you're meant to go more than 10 seconds without dying or bombing in this game but it's PC-98 so :fire:

my favorite souls-like indie jrpg-inspired videogame experience

amazing game !! very difficult