Gaming Touhou Project Thread

[Konata]

(,,#ﾟДﾟ):∴;'･,;`:Help me, Erin~

Firefox crashed on me while finishing up my last attempt to make this thread.

So I will keep it short.

＼(＾▽＾*)Welcome to the OtakuBoards Touhou Project Thread~(*＾▽＾)／

[url=http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4083/touhouwj1.jpg][img]http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4379/touhoufv5yj2.jpg[/img][/url]
Click on the picture above for the full 2127x600 pixel version of (almost) all the inhabitants of Gensōkyō, the setting of Touhou~ Sadly, I can't name all of them for you, but it's a wonderful picture to look at anyway, right?

[SIZE="3"][B]What is Touhou?[/B][/SIZE]

Also known as Toho Project and Project Shrine Maiden. Very popular in Japan, and there are very notable danmaku/shoot-em-up games in the series. It's created by Team Shanghai Alice, but so far, the only member ever recognized is one called "ZUN". This sparks up the rumors that the entire project is made by one man.

Part of its popularity is due to the fact that the storeis of the characters are focused on more. And as you can see above, there are quite a lot of characters.

Here are the games according to Wikipedia:

* 2.1 Highly Responsive to Prayers
* 2.2 Story of Eastern Wonderland
* 2.3 Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream
* 2.4 Lotus Land Story
* 2.5 Mystic Square
* 3.1 Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
* 3.2 Perfect Cherry Blossom
* 3.3 Immaterial and Missing Power
* 3.4 Imperishable Night
* 3.5 Phantasmagoria of Flower View
* 3.6 Shoot the Bullet
* 3.7 Mountain of Faith
* 3.8 Scarlet Weather Rhapsody

All of them are shoot-em-ups except Immaterial and Missing Power, which is a fighter created by both Team Shanghai Alice and Twilight Frontier.

As you can see, it can get pretty chaotic.

[img]http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2742/touhou10tv7nn7.jpg[/img]
Screenshot from Touhou 10

[img]http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/8562/23eo0.jpg[/img]
Screenshot from Immaterial and Missing Power

[SIZE="3"][b]The Fanbase[/b][/SIZE]

One of the great things about the Touhou Project is the fanbase. There are so many beautiful doujins, fan art, and music for it.

An honorable mention is IOSYS. This group is most well-known for making the incredibly popular Internet meme, [u][url=http://shatyou.hp.infoseek.co.jp/IOSYS_tohootomebayashi_loving.swf]Marisa Stole the Precious Thing[/url][/u], based off of a song in Perfect Cherry Blossom. "Stops at the diseased part and melts quickly - Lunatic Undongein" and "Usa Tei" have also been parodied a fair amount of times. In fact, why don't I explain a bit about them?

患部で止まってすぐ溶ける～狂気の優曇華院, or "Stops at the diseased part and melts quickly - Lunatic Undongein" is another of IOSYS' works that became a somewhat famous meme on the Internet. [u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=8SE4DPZ4Il8&mode=related&search=]Click here[/url][/u] to see the animation of it. I would link to IOSYS's flash directly, but right now it doesn't seem to be working, so I'm relying on YouTube now. It parodies "Invisible Full Moon" and focuses on Reisen and her bullets. More specifically, what her bullets look like. One of my favorite parts occurs when the two girls start talking about how horrible going on Easy Mode is. It definitely proves that IOSYS, or at least someone on IOSYS, is a major 2channeler~ (Although it was pretty much proven with their "theme song")

"Usatei" is IOSYS's new release and it's already being heavily parodied. [u][url=http://iosys.cc/mp3/IOSYS_toho5_Usatei_EX.swf]Click here[/url][/u] for the flash animation of it.

Another mention is TAM/TAMUSIC. They have made several beautiful orchestras and compositions with their "Touhou Violin" songs.

Other individual songs...

"Tsurupettan" by Silver Forest. A cute song focusing on the "flat-chested" characters. Reimu, Suika, Youmu,... etc. It references several memes like iDOLM@STER's"tokachi tsukuchite", "Let's Go! Onmyouji", Higurashi's "Oyashiro-sama", etc. It has become a meme on 2ch/Nico.
[u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=vJTvjf0yjWo&mode=related&search=]Click here[/url][/u] for a flash animation of it.

"Help me, ERINNNNNN!!" by COOL&CREATE. Another song that has become a rather big meme amongst 2ch and Nico Nico Douga. In fact, the whole theme of it was inspired by a 2ch chat. Because the character Eirin is a nurse-like person, you can probably assume why it's called "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!"

　　　 _, ,_　∩
　　(　ﾟ∀ﾟ)彡　えーりん！えーりん！
　　　⊂彡

As for doujin games for Touhou, one of the more popular ones is Super Marisa Land, but I don't know much about it because I really didn't feel like getting it D:


[SIZE="3"][B]Resources[/B][/SIZE]

Here's some links for people who are interested in playing.

[u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=y1KxdbhLU0k&mode=related&search=]Immaterial and Missing Power Gameplay Video[/url][/u]

[u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=oAzQBKzH5nY&mode=related&search=]Mountain of Faith Gameplay Video[/url][/u]. Fortunately, I believe this is the hardest mode >_>

[u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=2gwGb8wyjvg]Shoot the Bullet Gameplay Video[/url][/u]

[u][url=http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=HfK_iFd6Evg]Phantasmagoria of Flower View Gameplay Video[/url][/u]


Anyone play these games? Favorite characters? Etc?

I'm not the biggest fan of it, but I do like both the fanbase and some games, including IaMP and PoFV. My favorite characters are probably Eirin (Only because of the fan-made song "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!"), Sakuya, Suika, Youmu, Reimu, and of course, Reisen.[COLOR="Indigo"][INDENT][SIZE="1"][B]Konata[/B], if your picture is stretching OB's layout, please us a link instead. I changed it for you this time. ~indifference[/SIZE][/INDENT][/COLOR]

Σ(ﾟДﾟ|||) Ack, it was stretching the layout? I didn't notice that D: Because 640 pixels is usually the largest width size that doesn't stretch the page on forums, I thought it'd be okay, haha~ But now that I look at my signature, always 500 pixels long, that picture would stretch the layout, not the page. Sorry for doing so~ (｡_｡) Resized to half the size for convenience~ (Do I just delete this conversation if it's been fixed?)

Still editing for more updates.

[Dagger]

Wow! Very impressive post. I don't have the time to read everything carefully right now (I'm packing to move out, heh), but I've been meaning to get into Touhou for a [I]long[/I] time, and this is going to make it so much easier. Thanks! :catgirl:

~Dagger~

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Ah, so this is what bullet hell looks like! I was only recently introduced to the genre when a friend of mine randomly bought some Xbox360 Japanese shooter game and within minutes I was like 'ZOMG I know this genre..." and so I started to play it, and it is not bad. Mostly fun on 2-player mode, though that's mostly because I get to play as a loli and beat the **** ou of my brothers XD

I've never heard of this project, but things with good fanbases generally tend to be fun. I will look into it, captain![/COLOR]