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I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream: Magical Girl Edition (or, Touhou Project)

Miss Miko MayoneggMiss Miko Mayonegg
edited 2013-06-05 23:49:42 in General Media
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(image source: http://honya-ch.com/2008/10/15/day-spent-in-neet-mode/ )

Touhou Project is a series of 2D shooting games with an all-magical-female cast. They are extraordinarily difficult. They have lots of pretty attacks. They have very memorable soundtracks. They have very complex, in-depth scoring systems. They are noted for their long and spectacular boss battles.

Gameplay typically involves flying through a stage while shooting down little enemies and dodging their many bullets. There are usually multiple characters to play as, and several different styles of attack to use. Extra lives are few and far between, but with bomb items you can cast spells to destroy bullets and make big fireworks of your own. One teeny tiny little hit will cause you to die, but your hitbox is very small, and in all of the recent games, it becomes visible whenever you slow down. However, grazing bullets without them killing you is beneficial and can mean rewards, depending on the game. Every stage has a boss at the end, who is invariably an overpowered magical girl who will flood the screen with colorful bullets, and will probably cast spells that make really complex bullet patterns.

There are also a few fighting games of Touhou as well, though they are commissioned to a different developer.

Touhou has also spawned many, many fan works, including games, music, art, fiction, and animation. It has also spawned an official media franchise of music collections and print works. It is especially popular on the internet, even with people who have never played the games.

Touhou is very silly and non-serious, but there is a coherent story about Reimu Hakurei the shrine maiden, Marisa Kirisame the witch, their various friends who come and go over the years, and the misadventures they get into as they investigate strange occurrences in the land of Gensokyo that they live in.

Reimu:

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(image source: Touhou Wiki)

Marisa:

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(image source: Touhou Wiki)

Screenshots:

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(image source: http://fusionmediaarts.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-media-artists-i-found-are-tetsuya.html )

Here are a few very popular examples of music from the series (though in my opinion the best music is from the more recent games).






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