Though it came from humble beginnings as a series of bullet hell computer games made by a one-man development team, the Touhou franchise has evolved into something of a cultural juggernaut in and outside of Japan. It spans multiple genres of games, music, and a staggering amount of fan content, and I’ll be reviewing a piece of that fan content today. Touhou: New World is a fan game developed by Ankake Supa (who previously developed Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity) that strived to combine the bullet hell gameplay the series is known for with an action-RPG style of gameplay. Unfortunately, it misses the mark in several ways.
For context, the world of Touhou takes place in Gensokyo, a place in which humans coexist with magical creatures called yokai and is separated from the outside world by a magic barrier. In Touhou: New World, you play as Reimu, no-nonsense shrine maiden and series protagonist, or her rival Marisa, a somewhat selfish witch, as they each try to unravel the mystery behind a human girl breaking through the barrier that separates Gensokyo from our world. Each character has their own unique story mode that, while covering the same overall story beats, differ in the characters you interact with and the order in which you take on missions. Unfortunately, both story modes struggle with the same issues.
While the premise of the normal human world colliding with the fantastical sounds exciting, the game unfortunately squanders it. You only go to the outside world in three missions in each campaign, and the world consists of empty streets. Instead, the game is more so concerned with a convoluted plot about a dream world converging into the real world of Gensokyo that threatens to destroy both worlds. Additionally, most of the game’s conflicts feel contrived as every mission ends with a boss fight and, while I do applaud the sheer variety of unique bosses on display, that leads to a series of misunderstandings and miscommunications leading to brawls when they could have been cleared up with a simple conversation. The game does lampshade this with a few jokes (one of the characters even calls fights a “Gensokyo greeting”), but calling out a problem does nothing to solve the actual problem. Finally, the game has a padding issue, though that’s mostly in Reimu’s story. Throughout the game, you’ll be tasked with finding materials or finding information in multiple levels each, and both situations feel like they could have been resolved in one mission or just cut out entirely.
As for gameplay, that might be the game’s biggest mixed bag. Combat is fun on paper. You have a basic combo alongside multiple special moves that recharge on cooldown that you use to defeat enemies. You can use a guard against physical attacks that slows down time upon successful use, and you heal through a move that also recharges on cooldown. Unfortunately, the rest of the game doesn’t do nearly enough to challenge you and this skillset. Though the game gives you a wide range of enemies to fight early on, the game does nothing to expand upon the initial roster of baddies in variety or challenge. By hour thirty, you will be fighting the same enemies as you were in hour one, and they will have the exact same attack patterns you have more than gotten used to at that point. The bosses are where this game truly delivers on the franchise’s bullet hell roots. As mentioned before, this game is filled with unique bosses with uniquely challenging attack patterns that are a joy to fight.
Unfortunately, the bosses are barely more challenging to fight than the normal enemy types. I mentioned the healing system earlier and how, like the combat skills, it works on a cooldown. What I didn’t mention is that the healing charge refills one fourth of your health with every use. This breaks the game’s challenge in half. None of the enemies deal nearly enough damage to pose a serious threat, and the healing recharges so quickly that you will rarely, if ever, find yourself even below half health during levels. Bosses face a similar challenge. Though they pose a greater challenge than regular enemies due to their unique attack patterns and speed, they once again don’t deal enough damage to keep up with how much and how often you can heal yourself. By the midgame, you can increase the amount of healing charges at your disposal. You can have four heals at your disposal, basically trivializing any challenge the game could have posed.
If you were hoping for the “RPG” aspect of this “action-RPG” to help elevate the game, then you will be sorely disappointed. This component mostly comes in the form of gear you can collect from enemies and chests in levels, and the vast, vast majority of gear you collect will be completely useless. Though there are different levels of gear, it barely factors into the actual quality of the items you can collect and equip. Worst yet, the gear doesn’t offer you any unique effects that might influence your decision-making. Simply find the gear with the most amount of positive stat increases and equip it. Rinse and repeat. To make matters worse, the game will inundate you with hordes upon hordes of useless gear that turns your inventory into a trove of useless junk. The game’s item shop offers you the chance to buy or rework gear for the chance of better stats, but the game gives you so much stuff that both are practically worthless. Thus, the shop’s only use is to sell the excess gear you don’t need, and the in-game economy is completely superfluous. The leveling system is similarly useless. You will not see a noticeable difference in the amount of damage you deal or take as your levels go up. In both of my playthroughs, I went into the final boss fight underleveled (by two levels in the first and by four levels in the second), and I didn’t notice any change in difficulty from either playthrough, and that really says everything I want to say about the leveling system.
I wanted to like Touhou: New World. I understand and relate to the passion that goes into fan projects, and I want them to succeed. However, this game doesn’t do nearly enough to deliver a satisfying action-RPG experience. Its poor storytelling, lack of challenge, and superfluous RPG mechanics hold this game down tremendously. Fans of the Touhou series may find some enjoyment in the game’s character interactions and callbacks, but I found this game to be an dissatisfying trek through a fantasy world that doesn’t feel close to reaching its true potential.
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Related: Reviews by Josh Freeman
I love games and love talking about games. Some of my favorites include action games (both 2D and 3D), metroidvanias, roguelikes, shooters, and Indies.
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