Touhou 10 - 東方風神録 ～ Mountain Of Faith

[Dracil]

Yes, ZUN just updated his blog with screenshots. Demo will come out May 20 during the Reitaisai convention.

Translation taken from http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=80.0:

The 10th Touhou series game [Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith] [Thanks to Solamarle for pointing out it would be Fuujinroku] is going to be released. In the summer.



So, I've decided to mention it.

Since a while ago bits and pieces have been revealed, but this time it's really going back to the roots. From the three Koumakyou, Youyoumu and Eiyashou systems, the important portions have been kept and refined to form an even better new system.

Lately, when I go to game centers to play, my willpower to play exceeds the weakening of my arms, and it surprises me. Were one play shooting games really this intense and tiring? is how I feel, so investing one coin doesn't become troublesome.

For that reason, the system [of th10?] isn't too difficult, and the interface isn't too difficult, or anything tedious like that. If anything, it's just taking the older games' faults and fixing their illnesses. [yes he uses the word illness as in sickness] That sickness is: as time goes on the number of "patients" increases... or so they say.

Anyway, I aimed for the game's level to be something even I myself could enjoy. The result is something that diverges from being orthodox, but it's something you shouldn't have to worry about.

Well then, just a little bit of other game's screenshots.





So? It's gotten better from absolutely nothing changing, right?

During the Hakurei Shrine Reitaisai occuring May 20th, personal experience editions of Fuushinroku (demos?!) will be secretly handed out. If there are any interested individuals, debug and fine-tuning will be presented to the public (how horrible). [lol ZUN is sarcastic asking people if they wanna debug and fine-tune, what a horrific job... Wink]

By the way, the bit about "going back to the roots" was copying the Fuujinroku name from Fuumaroku. [Story of Eastern Wonderland, TH02] (The two don't really have anything in common though.)

Ah, and of course the story is new material.

This time, Hakurei Shrine's operations will be suspended, and Reimu will have to bear the weight of myriads (exaggerated) of gods. For some reason, Marisa too. Leisurely.

Heck yeah!

[Dark Lord Zenigame]

Nice, I'd almost forgotten that Touhou 10 was supposed to be released soon.

[Kaioshin Sama]

So when he mentions a more playable level of gameplay, does he mean less trial and error style gameplay for the people who maybe don't have hours upon hours of their lives to devote to playing the same boss over and over until they've nailed every spell card pattern only to repeat it again with the next one. That was my biggest problem with the way the game was set up other than the nonsensical dialogue (but really when it comes to shooters that is almost a given). Oh and I was also misled to believe it was something akin to the greatest shooter of all time by the bajillions of fans of the series (I was more naive at the time and easily misled by hardcore fans, thinking I was getting the gospel truth when I spoke to people who had played or watched something I hadn't.), but when I actually sat down it was kind of...... I even know, underwhelming compared to some of Treasures games or the Strikers series, and it didn't even hold a candle my all time favourite shooter game Gunbird 2 in terms of fun factor.

Anyway things I would want from this installment include less trial and error gameplay, better dialogue, not having to jump through hoops to unlock the extra stage and perhaps a bit of satisfaction from taking down a tough boss (I honestly felt like I wasn't locked in a duel with the boss, but with a bullet spawner and then when I won it was so sudden and the stage would just end with some nonsense dialogue). I honestly don't know what to ask, maybe one of the girls is in a protective barrier and you have to take down some crystals protecting it in order to get at her. Just mix it up by having multiple stages to the fight, add some real movement to the bosses, have me need to blow off a part of her body to stop a dangerous attack or move the fight along, anything new or unexpected is welcome. Make it worth my time and take some pride in the overall presentation, ZUN (Jesus, God, God-Jesus, whatever they're calling you these days). Oh and I know people rave about the music, but I swear the game has had the same song remixed throughout all the stages of the entire franchise and it really started getting on my nerves as I took a sample of each the games (they didn't make the transition to my new hard drive, when my old hard drive crashed and to date I've had no real desire to reacquire them), so hopefully the music has changed a bit.

In case some haven't noticed, the fan culture surrounding the game put me off a little bit as well. I don't really identify at all with the majority of the games fans, so a major part of the enjoyment of the game, that being the discussion of the characters and events surrounding them (Although really with dialogue like what I found in the game, I'm going to have to assume there is some sort of source book that Zun Buddha-Krishna released to help build the fanbase), was absent for me. So it's a bit of an uphill battle for number 10 to win me over.

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a tirade, but rarely in my life has a game series so failed to live up to the hype surrounding it, and Touhou 1-9 was a huge huge disappointment because I like shooters and not a single one worked for me. As usual with a lot of things, I have a lot of criticisms, but I also see potential in the series for something I could enjoy. Maybe the 10th one will be the charm.

Just one last thing, the deities mentioned are a way for me to poke fun at the zealousness with, which some of the ultra hardcore fans who live Touhou seem to worship ZUN, who is the creator of the games. If I have offended anybody by using these names I apologize in advance.

[Sushi-Y]

There really needs to be a dedicated Touhou thread here. ^^;

There are some areas in ZUN's post that weren't really translated properly, but I'll try to clear them up.

Starting from the arcade thing, it really reads:

Recently, when I go to arcades to play, I would be shocked at the fact that my motivation to play has weakened even more than the weakening of my skills. I would think "did 1 round of shooting game really used to be such a tough and tiring thing?", and it made inserting coins a really hard thing to do.

And the reason for that too, I think, is because the over-the-top difficulty and complexity is just not something to laugh at anymore. In a way, I guess you can say it's like contracting an illness where you would only be able to complain about a game before you even play it. And this illness, they say, gets worse as you get older, along with an increase of patients who have it.....

Anyway, with that said, I explored for a game that's at a level I can enjoy myself. As a result, I ended up with a pretty traditional creation, but maybe that's just the kind that makes me feel comfortable.

Well, I'll just put up a few other game shots.

[game screenshots]

See? Doesn't it make you feel relieved to see that nothing has changed?

I'll be quietly disbuting the trial version of Fuujinroku at the Hakurei Jinja Reitaisai happening on 5/20. If anyone's interested, please go ahead and help out with the open debug & fine-tuning effort (how mean)

By the way, to go along with the whole returning to the roots thing, I gave it the name Fuujinroku by imitating the name of Fuumaroku. (Although they don't really have anything to do with each other)

Ah, the story will be all new, of course.

This time, with a possible suspension of Hakurei Jinja's operations on the line, Reimu takes on the horde of gods. For some reason Marisa too. Leisurely.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

So when he mentions a more playable level of gameplay, does he mean less trial and error style gameplay for the people who maybe don't have hours upon hours of their lives to devote to playing the same boss over and over until they've nailed every spell card pattern only to repeat it again with the next one.

Why would you bother "nailing" for all the spell cards if you don't have time? I just play the game on easy (cause I suck), enjoy the character dialogues, finish the game, and then put it away until I feel like playing it again.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

That was my biggest problem with the way the game was set up other than the nonsensical dialogue (but really when it comes to shooters that is almost a given). Oh and I was also misled to believe it was something akin to the greatest shooter of all time by the bajillions of fans of the series (I was more naive at the time and easily misled by hardcore fans, thinking I was getting the gospel truth when I spoke to people who had played or watched something I hadn't.), but when I actually sat down it was kind of...... I even know, underwhelming compared to some of Treasures games or the Strikers series, and it didn't even hold a candle my all time favourite shooter game Gunbird 2 in terms of fun factor.

The dialogue thing is intentional; nobody in Touhou really ever really follows a logical pattern for conversations. The fun comes from not knowing what they'll say next.

As for the praises, it's really limited to the doujin otaku community here. As a doujin game, the Touhou series is probably one of the most famous names, if not the most famous, out there. If you want to compare Touhou shooters to commercial shooting games from professional companies, I'm sure you'll find many games that trump Touhou in terms of gameplay and features.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

(I honestly felt like I wasn't locked in a duel with the boss, but with a bullet spawner and then when I won it was so sudden and the stage would just end with some nonsense dialogue).

Technically, Touhou isn't really a shooting game, but a danmaku 弾幕 game. The focus is not so much on "killing the enemy", but more on enjoying the "thrill" of watching and evading (sometimes destroying) the many complex patterns of "bullet screens" coming your way.

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

I honestly don't know what to ask, maybe one of the girls is in a protective barrier and you have to take down some crystals protecting it in order to get at her. Just mix it up by having multiple stages to the fight, add some real movement to the bosses, have me need to blow off a part of her body to stop a dangerous attack or move the fight along, anything new or unexpected is welcome.

Same reply as above.

As for the rest of your post, it just sounds like Touhou isn't the kind of game that would suit your taste. Will the newest release change your mind? Most likely not, but you're always welcome to try.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Yeah you pretty much summed it up. I like it when people understand what I'm getting at. I'd be curious to know where the in depth characters and plotlines idea came from though. Really curious actually, did the Otaku players fashion there own agreed character relationships around the little bits of dialogue in the game or something?

[Newprimus]

Someone said that eventually ZUN might wipe away much of the current roster of characters and start the mythos anew or something. Is this true!?


I hope not. I love the current characters and hope they don't just get canonicly erased or something.

[Sushi-Y]

Originally Posted by Kaioshin_Sama

Really curious actually, did the Otaku players fashion there own agreed character relationships around the little bits of dialogue in the game or something?

I would say that the fan community was just as big of an influence on the shaping of the Touhou characters as the original creater was. Through the various ending cinemas and dialogues from the game, we are able to get a good grasp on what each character's personality is like. ZUN has also written various Touhou related articles (for the fanbooks, for example) that further portrayed the relationships and interactions between characters.

On the other hand, the fan community has not only explored and elaborated on those "official traits" (for example, Yukari's laziness, or Alice's tsundere-ness) through fanarts and doujinshis, they have also made their own interpretation on characters when there are little official information to go on (such as Lily White). Without the massive fan creation community, Touhou characters would have never been able to reach the level of popularity they have in the doujin community.

Originally Posted by Shinova

Someone said that eventually ZUN might wipe away much of the current roster of characters and start the mythos anew or something. Is this true!?

Haven't heard of that before. Then again, I would be very surprised if ZUN-san still have enough determination power to go on with a brand new series.

[Theclow]

A new touhou?
Awesome, can't wait for it, though I always thought touhou 9.5 was the last one.(Don't label me as a traitor, I don't really follow ZUN's blogs, so I didn't really know)

[darkscythe]

Great, I love touhou and danmaku (bullet curtain) shooter games!!

[Cloudkiller1]

Wow didn't expect this kind of response on AS. Most forums I've been to are either not intrested in Touhou or hated it. Aside from hongfire of course.

Back to the topic..

I'm really looking foward to his new release, I might actually buy this game. :3 Though, I havent played any of the PC-98 series yet so Im not sure how the difficulty is going to be.

[Psieye]

Originally Posted by Shinova

Someone said that eventually ZUN might wipe away much of the current roster of characters and start the mythos anew or something. Is this true!?

I hope not. I love the current characters and hope they don't just get canonicly erased or something.

Not sure if it's true, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened. Already happened once with the PC-98 characters and they weren't "canonically erased" - they just weren't mentioned of until needed (e.g. Alice, Yuka). It is not possible to have every game include every major character from all the previous games. That is what the doujin community is for - they're not going to let popular characters fade from memory. Ok, one may argue that a lot of the doujin artists aren't familiar with PC-98 characters so you don't see them as much, but there's a vast number hooked on the current Windows games and I doubt they'll leave them aside if Touhou 10 stops mentioning them.

[Ichy]

What? A new Touhou Game?
And I still didn't manage to defeat Flandre...

So much to play...

[Psieye]

ZUN writes more on Touhou 10, including 3 more screenshots.

[Mitsu Aoi]

I got the game and it seems ZUN been abusing the Orange Leaf brush as part of the Effects plus New boss and the only character I knew soo far in MoF is only Aya =/ and still Im stuck at PoFV Melanchony's Normal Story Mode