Touhou: New World

Touhou: New World is an action RPG developed by Ankake Spa and published by XSEED Games alongside Marvelous USA, Inc. Inspired by the long-running Touhou Project universe, the game presents a fresh adventure that combines high-speed real-time combat with role-playing progression while staying true to the colorful charm and supernatural atmosphere that fans have come to expect. Instead of simply adapting existing stories, it introduces an original narrative in which Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame investigate strange events that begin to affect both Gensokyo and the outside world. Their journey soon grows into a larger conflict involving mysterious powers, unexpected allies, and dangerous enemies, creating a story that balances lighthearted character interactions with moments of genuine tension. Combat is the centerpiece of the experience and successfully blends hack-and-slash action with mechanics inspired by Touhou's famous bullet-hell gameplay. Battles are energetic and constantly demand quick reflexes as players weave through dense patterns of magical projectiles while launching close-range attacks, ranged spells, and devastating Spell Cards. Every encounter encourages aggres…

I played this game back in 2023 on the switch and am sad to see that this game is still as janky in every aspect. Firstly while I do like and can compliment the art style of the sprites and the ost, the controls/battle mechanics are really annoying. Not being able to reconfigure controller settings in particular got me messed up for the longest time because why is X the regular attack binding. That, and the huge delay before your character actually attacks which is especially prominent with the regular attack that once you max out the special recharge rates it's probably more efficient to just wait for them to recharge than trying to spam regular combos. Super annoying when you input an attack and suddenly theres a millisecond of a perfect guard window but that's too bad because you're still waiting for your attack animation and you've been actionlocked. Secondly the game is extremely repetitive, like if I wanted to play a good game about breaking barriers I would play Undertale. Literally, 90% of the game is just deactivating walls and fighting the same flowers and killer roombas (spaced out by kilometres so you have to run cross country between enemies to clear an area, might I…

I had fun with this one. I played this right off the back of finishing Scarlet Curiosity (it's a direct sequel), so my expectations were pretty high. And for the most part, I was pleased with how this game felt. This was also my first experience with Sumireko! I enjoyed her character a lot. The story is simple. Sumireko Usami, a human from the outside world, finds a way to enter Gensokyo using an artifact called the Occult Ball. But by doing so, she inadvertently sends both worlds on a collision course with one-another. It is up to Reimu Hakurei, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, to save the day. The gameplay is almost identical to that of Scarlet Curiosity. There are a few mechanical changes, like each skill having its own cooldown timer instead of a universal one that effects all skills. The number of skills have been decreased between games as well. In SC, you had a large variety of skills that you could customize to make your own unique build for Remi & Sakuya. Here, you have a small handful, making customization much more limited. The world map has been changed as well, the world of Gensokyo feeling much more expansive this time around. There are even side quests now! The mus…

Scarlet Curiosity was good for its time, but doesn't hold up very well. This game is... basically just Scarlet Curiosity again, dropped in 2023 like that's anything interesting or exciting. Oof. When a guy who's simultaneously a huge mark for Ys and Touhou doesn't like your game, who is it even for at that point?

touhou

I like the art style