The Vault Dweller
always looking for water.
The Amazing Story of Touhou. The original series, it's spin-offs, fan-made and official, including music, manga, and animation.
First of all let me say that the main reason I've neglected to return to NMA after being absent (besides being busy playing games) is that when I did return I would have to make threads about the games I played both as an explanation and a gift to others. What scared me about this was explaining...Touhou. There's so much to say it could take easily an hour to write it all and I have no idea how to organize it. I've thought of one. I'll introduce each topic in terms of the time they were created.
In which case it all starts with one man...
One day over a decade ago a man who worked for a Japanese game company decided to develop a game all on his own. It was well-recieved so in a few years he made four more with each improving from the last. What began as a old-fashioned shooter became one with a story and even characters with actual dialogue which is extremely rare in such games. Then some years went by and he released something even more amazing. A sequal that would not only run in windows, but was of much better quality than those previous. At this point his games gathered a large following in Japan and were also introduced to a Western audience (Europe and North America) since they now worked in windows. He made many more installments with each one improving on the other in ways unimaginable. Where most shooters didn't have selectable characters his could have up to four even having them work as duos you could switch between with a button. Where most games had large, ugly machines/monsters for bosses his had thinking, acting, people the player could talk with. Where most have no story and were completely linear his games had long dialogue exchanges between characters and depending upon character and success had at least three endings per character. Even gameplay wasn't left uninnovated. Whereas in all shooters the only difference between one boss and another was the size, number, and speed of shots increasing with level in his games the bosses were granted special abilites that made it more difficult without simply adding more things to dodge. This not only made for varied and fun gameplay, but even gave the characters personality in battle again something almost unprecedented in shooters. During that time the fanbase in Japan had grown to such a quantity and quality that fans began repaying the Author by making not only large amounts of fan-works, but apparently inspired by what one man could do that the fan-works were of quality enough to be enjoyed as though professionally made. They made everything you could think of. They took music themes directly from the games and wrote songs for the characters, they took the concepts of the characters as revealed in the games and wrote derivative stories. They even animated many songs and allowed them to spread across the internet in flash form. Then they created many game tributes that took well-known series and game mechanics and created a "Touhou Universe" version. That leads to today...
Zun creator of the Touhou series is not only author of 11 games, but he does all the work himself. No not all the work of one type like art or code. All the work of every asset is done by him. Most of the games have anywhere from 2-4 characters and each character has a bad, normal, and good ending. If you want them all that can make for at least six playthroughs. One of the best (and worst) aspects of the series though is that you can't simply try for an ending...you have to earn it. The difficulty in the later stages of any game is of the kind which even a non-shooter fan would not only appreciate, but be astounded by. The enemies fire not only multiple waves of shots at once, but each wave having a different pattern, direction, shape, and speed. At first glance when I started playing I was as excited to try the games as I was apprehensive about actually completing one successfully. Let me remind you that though I am a fan of shooters I suck at them...it took a lot of practice, but the endings and feeling of triumph are worth it. Characters aren't just pretty pictures with a name attached. They converse with the other characters when approached and some of the conversations can actually get very long. To think some shooters don't even have dialogue and this has paragraphs and paragraphs. Not to mention characters also effect gameplay since they each have unique shot patters and bomb abilities. Each game is it's own small story about a fantasy realm (Gensokyo) which has such a large population of interesting and powerful people that there is always something bizarre and potentially dangerous going on. The playable characters are either well-meaning or working for a character interested in gaining power. The adventure and meet other characters and usually discover/unravel a plot or event that leads to some grand scheme. The plots are simple, but well-represented. All in all the original Touhou series isn't just an amazing example of great shooters...it is by far the best. Choose any one of the later games and it is better than any shooter you can think of and probably by far. It actually feels outside the realm of possibility that such an old and (lately) underplayed game archetype can not only still be successfut, but even innovate in ways that are greatly appreciated.
Now without further ado here's some gameplay from one of the newer games. Note the great music, unique gameplay, and somewhat heavy dialogue:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l89gJrrnkCw&feature=related[/youtube]
Not to mention the difficulty.
...but what if you don't like shooters? Well don't worry, because the fandom is so large they've made games of all types in the same universe. I know what you're thinking "Fan made games are always amateur". Well certainly there are always exceptions. Of course you (and I) would find it ironic if so many exceptions would exist for one series. However I can verify they are quality games and not by me having unrealistic expectations as a fanboy. I've played many of them and also struggled to explain how so many can work so hard. I strongly suspect that Zun (the Author of Touhou) completing not only all aspects of the games, but also by himself that he serves as a figure of inspiration for amatuer game creators and fans.
For most genres of games I have something to mention and I'm sure at least one will apply to you:
-FIGHTING:
Two fighting games have been released using the Touhou setting. They are not only well made as far as fighting games go, but in order to stay true to the spirit of the series which they come from they had to introduce new game mechanics in the form of a large repertoire of ranged attacks (in most fighting games characters have one or none, but in this half your attacks are ranged) and a "spell card" system that lets you fill a gauge and perform special attacks or buffs (this isn't really innovative as a lot of fighting games have gauges you fill for special effect). The large variety of ranged attacks means you can never get away with just melee or ranged since each character has half of their moves in either category. As with all the other Touhou games the music and graphics are excellent and they include a story with character specific endings. Although I am not a fan of fighting games I made myself play one of the two quite a bit and actually enjoyed it. Here's a gameplay video to illustrate my point:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Jy2YfOPRg&feature=related[/youtube]
Keep in mind if you like fighting games you probably have MUGEN and can simply import all the stuff into it.
If you're interested get Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and/or Immaterial and the Missing Power.
-RTS:
A single RTS is based in the Touhou universe. Seems like an odd choice for an Eastern game, but it's not a full RTS. It's really a tower defense game (though you do have units). You have an army of golems each of which is a minor duplicate of one of the characters and your job (as a certain character) is to defend your library from attacks by the golems sent to steal books from the library. You spend coins to make an army of golems and fight varying sized groups of other characters. Of course each character has unique stats and abilites, but as well you have spell cards that can be activated for global effects. Depending on difficulty and character choice the game can be very different. In fact there are six sets of characters plus two extra individuals. You can play with one of the six teams or make your own team by selecting individuals from the different teams. There are five characters a team so you thirty-two to choose from. The game can also vary a lot whether you choose to use all five characters or only a few and whether you choose to spend coins on having a higher maximum of golems allowed or leveling your golems. Here's a video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7ClDcxEKI&feature=related[/youtube]
PatchCon: Defend the Library
...oh and don't forget the English language patch.
-PLATFORMER:
Megamari. Yes an excellent Mega-Man clone for the Touhou universe. Unlike Megaman it is much more difficult, but balances that difficulty by offering you two characters that can be switched each with their own energy bar. Don't think this is one of the Megaman's with just it's sprites and music replaced. Everything music, graphics, and game design is unique and one-of-a-kind. One thing in Megamari which I've never seen before is that the powers you get from bosses only apply to the character you beat them with. This means the game is worth playing at least twice to try it with the various abilities belonging to one character or the other. The title theme (which is also the final boss theme) is perfect as far as MegaMan would be concerned.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8w-9E9_nZY&feature=related[/youtube]
As is the gameplay...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzxzjHyzSDs[/youtube]
Try Megamari if you like great platformers.
-OTHER games:
There are numerous smaller or yet-to-be-translated projects. Just considering ones I've seen there are five other games waiting to be translated and for each one of those a few that are in production and almost done. These include RPG's (I look forward most to a Touhou Rogue-Clone that is 90% done as well as a Touhou RPG made with the MOTHER or Earthbound engine), more shooters, and a few puzzle games even.
-Music and Animation:
For every character in game there is accompanying music (boss battle) which inadvertently gets referred to as the characters "theme". For most of the characters the fans write songs then remix the music to match. Often these inspire appropriately themed flash animations which end up all over youtube and the like. If there's one thing about Touhou other than the games that you can enjoy without having exposure to anything Touhou (and makes for a good introduction) its these videos. There are dozens made to be unique character songs and countless more made in parody (usually meme versions). As an example which I beg you to listen to whether you are a Touhou fan or not I give you what is easily the highest viewed of Touhou vids and also something which spawned numerous versions for other fandoms. Marisa Stole the Precious Thing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbhJk4YJns[/youtube]
I'm quite lucky the most popular video is based more on music and less on story so it can be used as a good exposure to Touhou that a non-fan would understand. For those of you who are fans, but are new I have about twenty other videos of similar quality which I won't bother all to post (since most aren't fans and wouldn't understand), but I will post my favorites for those interested by those above.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPilJCvwKok&feature=related[/youtube]
The Brutal Sisters and the Suffering Maid.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wFDWP5JwSM&feature=related[/youtube]
Cirno's Perfect Math Class.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptp3Ahu_Z7g&feature=related[/youtube]
Kero Destiny.
I'm also glad to show you a very good example of the fans going above and beyond to create something great. You know the Caramelldansen meme/fad? Even though it's a good one I always hated how the audio never changes and the animation only involves two characters and a few frames of movement. It's like the easiest to fad to copy/paste and as such there's a version for anything and everything you can think of. Well the Touhou fans needed to do something special...there version was made to be almost three minutes long with not only totally different animation the whole time, but it's the one and only Caramelldansen that tells a story. If you don't believe me than watch it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh--GLt4-cE&feature=related[/youtube]
-Manga:
As if both the official and unofficial games wasn't enough due to the setting being great and the characters being many they had to make stories. However with the games being shooters (even with a lot of dialogue) there wasn't much to write about. However the setting of Gensokyo and the circumstances of the characters were such that very little concrete detail is shown leaving lots to the imagination or fan discussion. These fans then as both a tribute to ZUN and for fun created lots of manga many of which ZUN himself approved of. Due to the huge fanbase and long period of popularity the amount of quality literature (worth reading) is large enough to create a small library.
Now I know what you're thinking. No matter what you're a fan of you've been exposed to fanfictions and found them to be overwhelmingly bad both in number and quality. If I were to try to convince you that the case is different with Touhou you'd think me just a rabid fan or someone who is infatuated with something new and has yet to realise it. Yet I have been a fan for months and read lots of different manga all by different authors and I'm flabbergasted to admit that I don't really see them as amatuer. This forces me to come up with some explanation and thankfully I have one. People are just inspired by ZUN. Given how amazing it is that so many games of such high quality are made by one man reminds people that no matter how small they are they are capable of doing things of great magnitude.
I've spent almost ten hours now reading manga created for Touhou...all fan-made both the art and stories. I've also only read about half of whats out there. For a full list of all the stuff worth reading and short desciptions check here:
It's a huge page with around 50 links.
-Summary:
If there's one thing I can tell you about Touhou is that it amazes me above and beyond anything I've seen as far as game development is concerned. One man developing a large part of a game for modern games would be notable, but the entirety of the games is practically unbelievable. Not only that, but to innovate as he does and does so well.
Then the fans and all their work. I believe they are inspired by ZUN...how else could they make so much? As a Fallout fan it really brings a tear to my eye. I know that the series are far removed from one another, but I can't help it. I hope you feel the same way.
First of all let me say that the main reason I've neglected to return to NMA after being absent (besides being busy playing games) is that when I did return I would have to make threads about the games I played both as an explanation and a gift to others. What scared me about this was explaining...Touhou. There's so much to say it could take easily an hour to write it all and I have no idea how to organize it. I've thought of one. I'll introduce each topic in terms of the time they were created.
In which case it all starts with one man...
One day over a decade ago a man who worked for a Japanese game company decided to develop a game all on his own. It was well-recieved so in a few years he made four more with each improving from the last. What began as a old-fashioned shooter became one with a story and even characters with actual dialogue which is extremely rare in such games. Then some years went by and he released something even more amazing. A sequal that would not only run in windows, but was of much better quality than those previous. At this point his games gathered a large following in Japan and were also introduced to a Western audience (Europe and North America) since they now worked in windows. He made many more installments with each one improving on the other in ways unimaginable. Where most shooters didn't have selectable characters his could have up to four even having them work as duos you could switch between with a button. Where most games had large, ugly machines/monsters for bosses his had thinking, acting, people the player could talk with. Where most have no story and were completely linear his games had long dialogue exchanges between characters and depending upon character and success had at least three endings per character. Even gameplay wasn't left uninnovated. Whereas in all shooters the only difference between one boss and another was the size, number, and speed of shots increasing with level in his games the bosses were granted special abilites that made it more difficult without simply adding more things to dodge. This not only made for varied and fun gameplay, but even gave the characters personality in battle again something almost unprecedented in shooters. During that time the fanbase in Japan had grown to such a quantity and quality that fans began repaying the Author by making not only large amounts of fan-works, but apparently inspired by what one man could do that the fan-works were of quality enough to be enjoyed as though professionally made. They made everything you could think of. They took music themes directly from the games and wrote songs for the characters, they took the concepts of the characters as revealed in the games and wrote derivative stories. They even animated many songs and allowed them to spread across the internet in flash form. Then they created many game tributes that took well-known series and game mechanics and created a "Touhou Universe" version. That leads to today...
Zun creator of the Touhou series is not only author of 11 games, but he does all the work himself. No not all the work of one type like art or code. All the work of every asset is done by him. Most of the games have anywhere from 2-4 characters and each character has a bad, normal, and good ending. If you want them all that can make for at least six playthroughs. One of the best (and worst) aspects of the series though is that you can't simply try for an ending...you have to earn it. The difficulty in the later stages of any game is of the kind which even a non-shooter fan would not only appreciate, but be astounded by. The enemies fire not only multiple waves of shots at once, but each wave having a different pattern, direction, shape, and speed. At first glance when I started playing I was as excited to try the games as I was apprehensive about actually completing one successfully. Let me remind you that though I am a fan of shooters I suck at them...it took a lot of practice, but the endings and feeling of triumph are worth it. Characters aren't just pretty pictures with a name attached. They converse with the other characters when approached and some of the conversations can actually get very long. To think some shooters don't even have dialogue and this has paragraphs and paragraphs. Not to mention characters also effect gameplay since they each have unique shot patters and bomb abilities. Each game is it's own small story about a fantasy realm (Gensokyo) which has such a large population of interesting and powerful people that there is always something bizarre and potentially dangerous going on. The playable characters are either well-meaning or working for a character interested in gaining power. The adventure and meet other characters and usually discover/unravel a plot or event that leads to some grand scheme. The plots are simple, but well-represented. All in all the original Touhou series isn't just an amazing example of great shooters...it is by far the best. Choose any one of the later games and it is better than any shooter you can think of and probably by far. It actually feels outside the realm of possibility that such an old and (lately) underplayed game archetype can not only still be successfut, but even innovate in ways that are greatly appreciated.
Now without further ado here's some gameplay from one of the newer games. Note the great music, unique gameplay, and somewhat heavy dialogue:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l89gJrrnkCw&feature=related[/youtube]
Not to mention the difficulty.
...but what if you don't like shooters? Well don't worry, because the fandom is so large they've made games of all types in the same universe. I know what you're thinking "Fan made games are always amateur". Well certainly there are always exceptions. Of course you (and I) would find it ironic if so many exceptions would exist for one series. However I can verify they are quality games and not by me having unrealistic expectations as a fanboy. I've played many of them and also struggled to explain how so many can work so hard. I strongly suspect that Zun (the Author of Touhou) completing not only all aspects of the games, but also by himself that he serves as a figure of inspiration for amatuer game creators and fans.
For most genres of games I have something to mention and I'm sure at least one will apply to you:
-FIGHTING:
Two fighting games have been released using the Touhou setting. They are not only well made as far as fighting games go, but in order to stay true to the spirit of the series which they come from they had to introduce new game mechanics in the form of a large repertoire of ranged attacks (in most fighting games characters have one or none, but in this half your attacks are ranged) and a "spell card" system that lets you fill a gauge and perform special attacks or buffs (this isn't really innovative as a lot of fighting games have gauges you fill for special effect). The large variety of ranged attacks means you can never get away with just melee or ranged since each character has half of their moves in either category. As with all the other Touhou games the music and graphics are excellent and they include a story with character specific endings. Although I am not a fan of fighting games I made myself play one of the two quite a bit and actually enjoyed it. Here's a gameplay video to illustrate my point:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Jy2YfOPRg&feature=related[/youtube]
Keep in mind if you like fighting games you probably have MUGEN and can simply import all the stuff into it.
If you're interested get Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and/or Immaterial and the Missing Power.
-RTS:
A single RTS is based in the Touhou universe. Seems like an odd choice for an Eastern game, but it's not a full RTS. It's really a tower defense game (though you do have units). You have an army of golems each of which is a minor duplicate of one of the characters and your job (as a certain character) is to defend your library from attacks by the golems sent to steal books from the library. You spend coins to make an army of golems and fight varying sized groups of other characters. Of course each character has unique stats and abilites, but as well you have spell cards that can be activated for global effects. Depending on difficulty and character choice the game can be very different. In fact there are six sets of characters plus two extra individuals. You can play with one of the six teams or make your own team by selecting individuals from the different teams. There are five characters a team so you thirty-two to choose from. The game can also vary a lot whether you choose to use all five characters or only a few and whether you choose to spend coins on having a higher maximum of golems allowed or leveling your golems. Here's a video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7ClDcxEKI&feature=related[/youtube]
PatchCon: Defend the Library
...oh and don't forget the English language patch.
-PLATFORMER:
Megamari. Yes an excellent Mega-Man clone for the Touhou universe. Unlike Megaman it is much more difficult, but balances that difficulty by offering you two characters that can be switched each with their own energy bar. Don't think this is one of the Megaman's with just it's sprites and music replaced. Everything music, graphics, and game design is unique and one-of-a-kind. One thing in Megamari which I've never seen before is that the powers you get from bosses only apply to the character you beat them with. This means the game is worth playing at least twice to try it with the various abilities belonging to one character or the other. The title theme (which is also the final boss theme) is perfect as far as MegaMan would be concerned.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8w-9E9_nZY&feature=related[/youtube]
As is the gameplay...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzxzjHyzSDs[/youtube]
Try Megamari if you like great platformers.
-OTHER games:
There are numerous smaller or yet-to-be-translated projects. Just considering ones I've seen there are five other games waiting to be translated and for each one of those a few that are in production and almost done. These include RPG's (I look forward most to a Touhou Rogue-Clone that is 90% done as well as a Touhou RPG made with the MOTHER or Earthbound engine), more shooters, and a few puzzle games even.
-Music and Animation:
For every character in game there is accompanying music (boss battle) which inadvertently gets referred to as the characters "theme". For most of the characters the fans write songs then remix the music to match. Often these inspire appropriately themed flash animations which end up all over youtube and the like. If there's one thing about Touhou other than the games that you can enjoy without having exposure to anything Touhou (and makes for a good introduction) its these videos. There are dozens made to be unique character songs and countless more made in parody (usually meme versions). As an example which I beg you to listen to whether you are a Touhou fan or not I give you what is easily the highest viewed of Touhou vids and also something which spawned numerous versions for other fandoms. Marisa Stole the Precious Thing:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbhJk4YJns[/youtube]
I'm quite lucky the most popular video is based more on music and less on story so it can be used as a good exposure to Touhou that a non-fan would understand. For those of you who are fans, but are new I have about twenty other videos of similar quality which I won't bother all to post (since most aren't fans and wouldn't understand), but I will post my favorites for those interested by those above.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPilJCvwKok&feature=related[/youtube]
The Brutal Sisters and the Suffering Maid.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wFDWP5JwSM&feature=related[/youtube]
Cirno's Perfect Math Class.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptp3Ahu_Z7g&feature=related[/youtube]
Kero Destiny.
I'm also glad to show you a very good example of the fans going above and beyond to create something great. You know the Caramelldansen meme/fad? Even though it's a good one I always hated how the audio never changes and the animation only involves two characters and a few frames of movement. It's like the easiest to fad to copy/paste and as such there's a version for anything and everything you can think of. Well the Touhou fans needed to do something special...there version was made to be almost three minutes long with not only totally different animation the whole time, but it's the one and only Caramelldansen that tells a story. If you don't believe me than watch it:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh--GLt4-cE&feature=related[/youtube]
-Manga:
As if both the official and unofficial games wasn't enough due to the setting being great and the characters being many they had to make stories. However with the games being shooters (even with a lot of dialogue) there wasn't much to write about. However the setting of Gensokyo and the circumstances of the characters were such that very little concrete detail is shown leaving lots to the imagination or fan discussion. These fans then as both a tribute to ZUN and for fun created lots of manga many of which ZUN himself approved of. Due to the huge fanbase and long period of popularity the amount of quality literature (worth reading) is large enough to create a small library.
Now I know what you're thinking. No matter what you're a fan of you've been exposed to fanfictions and found them to be overwhelmingly bad both in number and quality. If I were to try to convince you that the case is different with Touhou you'd think me just a rabid fan or someone who is infatuated with something new and has yet to realise it. Yet I have been a fan for months and read lots of different manga all by different authors and I'm flabbergasted to admit that I don't really see them as amatuer. This forces me to come up with some explanation and thankfully I have one. People are just inspired by ZUN. Given how amazing it is that so many games of such high quality are made by one man reminds people that no matter how small they are they are capable of doing things of great magnitude.
I've spent almost ten hours now reading manga created for Touhou...all fan-made both the art and stories. I've also only read about half of whats out there. For a full list of all the stuff worth reading and short desciptions check here:
It's a huge page with around 50 links.
-Summary:
If there's one thing I can tell you about Touhou is that it amazes me above and beyond anything I've seen as far as game development is concerned. One man developing a large part of a game for modern games would be notable, but the entirety of the games is practically unbelievable. Not only that, but to innovate as he does and does so well.
Then the fans and all their work. I believe they are inspired by ZUN...how else could they make so much? As a Fallout fan it really brings a tear to my eye. I know that the series are far removed from one another, but I can't help it. I hope you feel the same way.
