What is the Touhou Project?
The Touhou Project (東方Project Tōhō Purojekuto?), also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part. The Touhou Project began in 1996 with the release of the first game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, developed by the group Amusement Makers for the Japanese NEC PC-9801 series of computers. The next four Touhou games released between August 1997 and December 1998 also were released on the NEC PC-9801. The Touhou Project was inactive for the next three and half years until the first Microsoft Windows Touhou game, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, was released in August 2002 solely by ZUN after he split from Amusement Makers and started Team Shanghai Alice. Touhou Project became a media franchise spanning a steadily increasing number of official games, in addition to commercial fan books, light novels, and manga.
There are 16 games in the Touhou series under a few different genre's, mainly curtain shooter however there are a few fighting games mixed in with it.
This is an image of a boss battle on the 7th game in the series, Perfect Cherry Blossom, which is widely considered to be 'the best' in the series. At this point in time the player must be thinking "SH****T" as these are the situations which it takes real skill and concentration to escape from.
This is an image of one of the later games in the series, numbered 10.5, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. The Touhou fighting games are a bit of fun but hold almost no relevance to the story behind the Touhou series.
The plots of the Touhou Project revolve around the strange phenomena that occur in the fictional realm of Gensokyo (幻想郷 Gensōkyō?, literally Illusion Village or Fantasy Village) in Japan. Long ago, it was a desolate place haunted by yōkai who preyed on lost wanderers in the area. Soon exorcists were sent into the area to resolve the yōkai problem, and they eventually settled in the area as a check on the yōkai. As human civilization advanced elsewhere, the power of yōkai began to diminish and they chose to seal Gensokyo away from the outside world as a haven for themselves.
As a result of the seal, the isolated community developed its own civilization. As opposed to the outside world, magical and spiritual qualities prevailed over science and while yōkai and humans coexist, they still fight with each other. The only known gateway from the outside world into Gensokyo is the Hakurei Shrine on the border of Gensokyo. However, the seal has weakened and more humans are able to wander into Gensokyo from the outside. Things disappearing from the outside world such as extinct animals and vanishing traditions tend to show up in Gensokyo.
(courtesy of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touhou_Project)
The Touhou project is so popular it has countless fanwork dedicated to it, and with Touhou boasting an impressive sound track it has been made into some of the most remixed music of all time.
I play the Touhou series often, and although i don't think the games are available for purchase anymore there are places you can find them, i have a full list but i won't link it for the safety of the forum.
I would rate the Touhou series;
9 / 10
The Touhou Project (東方Project Tōhō Purojekuto?), also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part. The Touhou Project began in 1996 with the release of the first game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, developed by the group Amusement Makers for the Japanese NEC PC-9801 series of computers. The next four Touhou games released between August 1997 and December 1998 also were released on the NEC PC-9801. The Touhou Project was inactive for the next three and half years until the first Microsoft Windows Touhou game, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, was released in August 2002 solely by ZUN after he split from Amusement Makers and started Team Shanghai Alice. Touhou Project became a media franchise spanning a steadily increasing number of official games, in addition to commercial fan books, light novels, and manga.
There are 16 games in the Touhou series under a few different genre's, mainly curtain shooter however there are a few fighting games mixed in with it.
This is an image of a boss battle on the 7th game in the series, Perfect Cherry Blossom, which is widely considered to be 'the best' in the series. At this point in time the player must be thinking "SH****T" as these are the situations which it takes real skill and concentration to escape from.
This is an image of one of the later games in the series, numbered 10.5, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody. The Touhou fighting games are a bit of fun but hold almost no relevance to the story behind the Touhou series.
The plots of the Touhou Project revolve around the strange phenomena that occur in the fictional realm of Gensokyo (幻想郷 Gensōkyō?, literally Illusion Village or Fantasy Village) in Japan. Long ago, it was a desolate place haunted by yōkai who preyed on lost wanderers in the area. Soon exorcists were sent into the area to resolve the yōkai problem, and they eventually settled in the area as a check on the yōkai. As human civilization advanced elsewhere, the power of yōkai began to diminish and they chose to seal Gensokyo away from the outside world as a haven for themselves.
As a result of the seal, the isolated community developed its own civilization. As opposed to the outside world, magical and spiritual qualities prevailed over science and while yōkai and humans coexist, they still fight with each other. The only known gateway from the outside world into Gensokyo is the Hakurei Shrine on the border of Gensokyo. However, the seal has weakened and more humans are able to wander into Gensokyo from the outside. Things disappearing from the outside world such as extinct animals and vanishing traditions tend to show up in Gensokyo.
(courtesy of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touhou_Project)
The Touhou project is so popular it has countless fanwork dedicated to it, and with Touhou boasting an impressive sound track it has been made into some of the most remixed music of all time.
I play the Touhou series often, and although i don't think the games are available for purchase anymore there are places you can find them, i have a full list but i won't link it for the safety of the forum.
I would rate the Touhou series;
9 / 10
