Touhou: Fading Illusion

Touhou: Fading Illusion

Indie Game Order · December 5, 2022 · Visual Novel, Interactive Fiction, Detective, Lore-Rich, Text-Based

Touhou: Fading Illusion is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Very Positive90% · 249
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

Touhou: Fading Illusion price

Touhou: Fading Illusion is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About Touhou: Fading Illusion

Touhou: Fading Illusion is a visual novel set in Touhou Project universe that comprehensively describes Gensokyo and its inhabitants. Get ready to meet many of the series' iconic characters and travel to various locations in the Underworld, Gensokyo, Heaven, and even Outside World!

Synopsis:

Throughout the ages, excessive curiosity has had a cruel cost. Once, the urge for the unknown made humans superior to animals, but the fear caused by this urge gave birth to the youkai, creatures that rose above mankind itself. Although both species have managed to find a way to coexist peacefully, even today modesty is still not in high favour. While technology is advancing at a rapid pace in the Outside World, the Gensokyo sages are falling deeper and deeper into the illusion of their own power, not realising that there may be something very different, deep, and extremely dense that even they should not touch. With each passing day, the prospect of its coming to light is gradually becoming a question of time. Reimu is enjoying a warm spring day at her shrine, but her rest is interrupted by Yukari, who, in her manner, shows up unexpectedly and gives the shrine maiden an urgent task: Yukari wants Reimu to follow Sumireko at the festival at the Myouren Temple. The matter concerns the Hakurei Barrier, so Reimu has no choice but to go to the base of her rivals and hope that in the evening, Yukari deigns to explain everything that is happening.

Game Features:

  • Suitable for people unfamiliar with Touhou Project! A brief introduction to the universe in the free Prologue and an extensive in-game dictionary will keep newcomers from getting lost.
  • Non-linear plot! You have access to many choices that can dramatically change the plot. Currently, you can play Prologue, the first three days of the Destitute Chapter and the first day of the Underworld Chapter. That's about 10-15 hours of reading.
  • Journey through the vast world of Touhou Project! Visit the Former Hell, Netherworld, various parts of Gensokyo and even beyond!
  • Over 50 characters from Touhou Project series! You will definitely find someone you'll like.

Touhou: Fading Illusion — game info

Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux / SteamOS
Steam Deck
Playable
Player modes
Single-player
Controller
Full controller support
PC Game Pass
Not included

DLC & expansions

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Not recommended Apr 17, 2026
UPDATE: Found out that the game uses AI for animations in one of the DLC's. I cannot support AI animations in game design, sorry. This game is an obvious cash grab. Each DLC is priced at $10 by default, and this game has 7 chapters planned (which would add up to $70). Combine that with the fact that the DLCs are charging (presumably) full price despite not even being done, If this game didn't charge you for each chapter and instead just had the main game cost $5-15, then I wouldn't have as much of a problem.
8 found this helpful
Not recommended Jul 10, 2026
[quote][b]Warning: Copyright Infringement![/b] This product contains images, likenesses and assets from Touhou, owned by Junya "ZUN" Ota. ZUN permits his copyright Touhou work to be used to create [b]non-commercial fan projects[/b]. [i]But this is a paid, for profit product![/i] The developer has deliberately infringed ZUN's copyright for profit, something strictly forbidden without permission from ZUN, which is not granted here. Because Touhou intellectual property is being used without any permission from the copyright holder, this is an attempt to profit from stealing the intellectual property of others and scam you out of YOUR money. This is not only unethical, but in many places around the world, it's a breach of criminal law. One DMCA takedown and this game is absolutely gone from Steam... so if you buy products from unethical developers, you're putting your money at risk.[/quote] "Touhou: Fading Illusion" isn't a game. It's an e-book dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual novel/e-book/fan-fiction, this has no notable gameplay. It's just clicking through badly written dialogue that would never be accepted in print by an actual professional publisher. How …
2 found this helpful
Recommended Jul 1, 2026
good use of renpy
1 found this helpful
Recommended Sep 25, 2026
reimu bad as ♥♥♥♥ in this game bro
Not recommended Sep 10, 2026
i dont remember too much hapenning but i also didnt purchase the dlc
Recommended Jan 29, 2026
Honestly i am not interested in visual novel style games, to me they are quite corny, but this game, it is perfect for anyone new to the Touhou rabbit hole, especially the dictionary feature which will come in handy even for me, it gives in-depth information on the characters, locations and other stuff, unlike some visual novels there isnt any voice lines, at least as far as ive gotten, but the OST is beautiful, the characters are fairly similar to the canon characters with a hint of comedy, the art can be "wrong" to some but it is completely fine in my opinion, after all drawing a billion artworks is tedious at any level, not all artists have the same style so for some the different styles can be a negative but again for me its actually quite nice, the story is also quite nice, ive yet to get past the prologue but i plan on getting the other chapters later on, overall an 9/10

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