if you: have genuine interest in learning about touhou, whether you just got into it or want to get into it OR you already love touhou, then STOP READING THIS AND BUY IT RIGHT NOW i am so serious there is nothing more to think about when deciding to buy this yes this IS that good yes this IS that peak there is truly, ultimately, no other touhou fangame that does this many characters justice, no other fangame that does the world of gensokyo this much justice, no other game that completely respects and enhances all of touhou (up to 12 anyway) you can see and feel all the love and soul put into this game through everything (lik seriously, the first part came out in 2010, last part in 2017, and got translated to be a full release like this in 2025, thats 15 freaking years of nourishing this game) i really believe this might just be the best touhou fangame ever made im not even referring to this like "this is the BEST game ever made its going to CHANGE your life" its more like, if you want to learn about touhou or if you love touhou, then this game will make you love it or love it even more than you already did if you want to learn about all the characters, lore, story (as far as this game covers anyway), then you will get exactly that, you really don't need to know anymore than that there is 0 reason to regret buying this game CHARACTERS/STORY: this is the main thing about why i love this game so much there is an overwhelming amount of dialogue, glossaries, and unique interactions somehow manages to contain something meaningful that exemplifies everyone's characterization practically EVERY character at almost every point in the game will do something impactful to the story or gameplay this game provides such an awesome take on combining all the stories of touhou from pc98 (starting from touhou 6 though) to touhou 12 and more??? to lead to one huge overarching story where all everyone has an opportunity to shine and work together to solve incidents!! there's a lot of instances that leads to characters that normally only have relationships in fanon naturally form (team 9, alice's family, etc). even more importantly, there's actual character development that happens throughout the story (which i wont say for spoiler reasons obviously). there's so much dialogue in this game, to the point where i feel like im just spectating daily life in gensokyo. (i see reviews where they see this as a negative thing since they talk a lot, but i only see it as a positive since that means more opportunities to learn all about the characters and world) these things are so crazy and fulfilling that, considering how faithful this game is to the source material, it actually feels sad to return back to canon touhou where none of these developments or relationships ever happened. it makes me realize how much more potential there is to the world of gensokyo that is mainly utilized through fanworks. but in that same sense, that just makes these all the more inspiring. just because it never happened doesn't mean it couldn't happen! my connection to the characters when returning to official works felt enhanced since now im like "wow i know how that character acts wow i know their personalities and relationships" to all the characters i never thought i would ever learn about. i could go more in depth about that but im not very good at writing into deep levels but im sure you get the idea GAMEPLAY: i didnt know what super robot wars was at all before buying this game, nor have i played any tactical rpgs, but as far as i know, this game was pretty good at making one! to me personally, it's actually more interesting than i expected. there's a lot of depth and hundreds of different interactions that can happen which makes the gameplay feel endless. more importantly, it allows for hype aura moments so it's awesome! my favorite thing to do was get the boss hp low enough so reimu or my favorite characters could do their awesome finishing moves ALL THE ANIMATIONS ARE FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. ALL THE TEAM ATTACKS ARE FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. INFINITE HYPE MOMENTS AND AURAS AVAILABLE OGH MY GOD (i dont really have much to say other than yes the gameplay is good AND YES THE ANIMATIONS ARE GOOD) MUSIC: do i even need to say anything. it would be a criminal offense if every song wasnt extremely peak in a game like this (spoilers: it's extremely peak) (i wish the ost didnt cost as much as the game, it's very worth it but maybe $40 is a bit too much) SPOILERS if you want a somewhat vague description about what this is spoilers about then read this next line: there is an original incident unique to this game for the final arc which is something that is built up toward throughout the whole game [first header], along with a new game+ that somehow provides EVEN MORE CONTENT LIKE WHAT, EVEN BEYOND THE TYPICAL NG+ STUFF [second header] Mehko and Makura OCs in touhou are pretty rare. i almost never see any games or fanworks actually try to include their own character, i guess because there's already so much characters in touhou already. so surprisingly mehko and makura are awesome! mehko's design fits in perfectly with zun's artstyle, she could definitely exist on her own! same with makura, maybe (her design is a lot simpler). though one thing is that after that whole menacing display "shiro" does throughout the game, the idea i built up about her identity in my head ended up being much different from who she really is. doesnt mean it's bad though! makura being a baku is funny because that just means sanbondo really might aswell just be zun 2. predated doremy but made doremy the final boss instead. besides that it wouldn't be fair to compare doremy to makura. makura's whole thing is about pushing her views onto gensokyo with mehko as her underling. but when that fails, they try to understand why its residents are doing what they do, so ironically they are quite literally self-inserts. they're cool and fit in! it sucks that there's pretty much 0 fanart of both of them. then again, according to the steam achievements only around ~15% of people who played this game would have got to the point of the game where they reveal themselves WHICH IS CRAZY HOW MUCH PEOPLE ARE MISSING OUT ON PEAK New Game+ despite literally EVERYTHING ELSE this game provides, they manage to provide EVEN MORE. LIKE WHAT. you get to choose 6 characters that are playable at almost any point in the story, before doing typical new game+ stuff. BUT THERES MORE. after every chapter, there's like commentary with all the relevant characters talking about their thoughts and stuff about that point in the story. which means, even more crazy amounts of dialogue! and if that wasnt enough, if you get 50 aces with a character than you unlock like an interview with the character. somehow every interview perfectly represents each character's true self, the most awesome parts of each of them. and theres still more!!!! certain scenes have unique dialogues when characters interact with a certain enemy, so characters you use that normally wouldn't be there at that point in the story STILL HAVE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL TO SAY. PRETTY MUCH EVERY POSSIBLE EDGE CASE IN THIS GAME IS HANDLED. this guy sanbondo is truly something else