Touhou Mechanical Scrollery Review for Steam

When it comes to crazy action titles, Bullet Hell games tend to be on the more insane size. Enemies are in great numbers, and the amount of hostile objects you have to dodge nearly fill up the screen. Bullet Hell titles have been well established as 2D Scrollers or Rogue-Likes, however, Touhou Mechanical Scrollery, by publisher Phoenixx Inc. and developer Mikosan Manners, has decided to break societal norms and create an ambitious 3D Bullet Hell for fans of the Touhou Universe. 

Story

Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is a story told in the Visual Novel style. Fans of the series will be happy to see a familiar cast of yokai-hunting waifus taking on the challenge of decrypting the mysteries of a cursed book. While the styling and pacing of the story is something fans will find familiar, there are instances where certain side characters seem almost out of place and other characters that you would expect to appear as significant allies or antagonists are completely absent from this title. Others who aren’t familiar with the series may have a hard time connecting to the story or characters at all considering the implication that anyone playing Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is already familiar with the universe. Aside from the story telling, some might also be distracted by the quality of the 2D characters telling the tale.

Aesthetics & Sound

The quality of Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is rough at best. the developers did their job in capturing the Visual Novel aesthetic; however, with such a vast collection of similar art styles, Touhou Mechanical Scrollery seems to fall short when compared to its peers. The animations, while few and far in between, sometimes feel like they are missing a few frames completely and everything else just seems flat. Outside of the 2D space and into the 3D levels, the characters and environments feel very stiff. While the developers nailed the 3D skirt physics (a core requirement when creating a 3D Magical Girl Game), everything else from the rest of the character models and enemies feels lackluster. I was excited to see Marisa Kirisame surfing on top of her broomstick as her flight animation, but I would have loved it if she actually leaned or pitched in the direction of her turns. Also, when switching from your normal Assault mode to the Sniper mode, the characters are locked in one pose with no animation aside from dodging or switching back to Assault.

The music is nice, but repetitive. It picks up during Boss Battles and, to be honest, I enjoyed the boss music, but the loops are short, about 2-3 minutes each, and even if you aren’t paying attention you will notice when a theme ends and then repeats itself. I would have loved some voice work in this game. Even if it was as rough as everything else, it would have made me smile to hear the girls speak, or even emote vocally. Those extra touches go a very long way in Visual Novel games. 

Gameplay & Mechanics

Now for the meat and potatoes! Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is an ambitious take on the Bullet Hell genre. It breaks away from the constraints of 2 dimensions and ascended towards a new stage in evolution. For that, it should be commended. It also retains all the elements of a popper game of its genre and is never short of energy blasts or particles that fill up the screen. This is what the developers got right. Combat and movement, however, would have benefited from far more polish. There are two basic attack types: Melee and Shooting, both of which strongly lean on the lock-on mechanic of the game. While in assault mode, you can both melee and shoot at the same time. Melee attacks, however, are nearly impossible to control and you are guaranteed to miss at least 25% of your combo. You are going to also find yourself adjusting your altitude as well since you’re always flying on your broomstick during gameplay. Shooting is easier. The bullets lock on and seek out the enemies for you, plus you have a Sniper mode that, while it deals more damage per second, isn’t all that necessary. The main advantage is you can selectively target body parts on the enemies to break off and farm upgrades, but you can do this effectively enough with basic melee and homing shots. There are some RPG and crafting elements in the game, but they only serve to encourage you to farm the repetitive levels so you can create weapons with different “Ultimates.”

Summary

I have to give Mikosan Manners and Phoenixx Inc. credit for their ambitious project. Touhou Mechanical Scrolley is a fun time waster and can be invigorating at certain difficulty levels. Unfortunately the game suffers from a lack of polish. With each chapter essentially being two alternating maps with the same enemies, the only real changes between missions are which enemies you have to kill. Sometimes you have to kill two mecha spiders. Sometimes three mecha spiders and a bat. The Visual Novel style fits the series perfectly, but the quality of the artwork does not stand out among its peers, and while the gameplay loop can be challenging at times, its difficult to tell whether its the difficulty of the level, or the difficulty in the game’s overall performance. Regardless of my criticisms, I enjoyed my time with Touhou Mechanical Scrollery. There is fun to be had and I hope for an improved sequel to this title.

5/10

Check Out the Touhou Mechanical Scrollery Trailer:

Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is now available for Windows PC via Steam.

For more information, please visit the official website.

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Sean Threatt

+ posts

As the (self-proclaimed) King of Casuals, I'm always seeking out new titles to play and experience across all platforms. Eventually, I have ambitions to take the many different styles of this medium to create titles that will wow the masses in fresh, innovative ways.

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