Review for Everyone: Divided in three for experts, intermediate and beginners. *FOR EXPERTS (Lunatics): Extra and Phantasm are great! *FOR REGULAR PLAYERS: This is one of those games that stay with you long after you play. I knew about Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II because I played the demo for the third part that was available during a next fest. I was so mind blown that I jumped right away into the series (starting with the one on sale of course) and ... God, I am so glad I did. This fan game and it's cinematic flair is better than than most mainline TouHou games and all the free ones to date despite being released in 2019. Immortal Immanuel is the only fan game as good as this in my opinion; It has actually useful graphical options, full controller support and superior patterns but, half of that game is empty and costs three times more than FDF II when both are on sale. I can't wait for part III !!! Pros + Yes, the game is peak! + Amazing soundtrack that matches the energy of the game + 3 bucks when on sale, the most bang for your buck under the bullet hell sky !!! Cons -You cannot use the D-pad, only the left analog stick -No explanation on how anything works -Low res, use Lossless Scaling if you have a 4K monitor -Some trophies are explained wrong, you'll have to go to TouHou Wiki for those Neutral -The game is really long -It delivers a different experience from ALL the other mainline and fan Touhou games which might set alien expectations for you if this is the first Touhou game you play (Like me) -The game can be challenging (this can go either way depending on what you want) *FOR BEGINNERS The game is about surviving a barrage of bullets that come in beautiful patterns and the goal is to clear the game without continuing. The game is a blast on any difficulty you can handle, including easy and it offers 4; Easy, Normal, Hard, Lunatic and two locked extra stages with high difficulty. I provide a short glossary with some terms used all over thousands of reviews so you have a better idea of what everybody is talking about. Fantastic Danmaku Festival Part II took me (average player) 4 1/2 hours with 2 attempts to 1CC on Easy. Then, it took me 16 more hours and 5 attempts on Normal difficulty. I am currently working on some of the trophies and I am getting closer to 1CC on hard. Naturally, you will start disliking easier difficulties as you level up. And, because of that skilled players make guides or posts that tell you no to play on easy... IGNORE THEM You can play however you want. In fact, there is a tradition for beginners to dive into Lunatic difficulties and get our butt kicked to the next universe just for a laugh... I recommend this game to those who have patience because that is one of the main things that is needed if you want to truly enjoy this kind of games. Every new gaming genre you get into requires practice and a learning curve but STG's are specially hard, yet tremendously rewarding. Now, your controller may potentially stop working out of the blue which is a real pain. in which case you will have to disable the steam controller support in the global or game specific settings. This game is the coolest fan game there is at the moment and it is one of the easiest out there too. If you are a tough guy/gal/kitten you can try one of the mainline Touhou games instead :) Some History: Touhou project is a fan project by ZUN and his company (per se) is Team Shangai Alice. Touhou Project is one of the pillars of the Danmaku games and It has 20 main entries (Until July 2025) and he keeps making them. Then we have the fan games, which are pretty much based on the likes of Touhou or actually include touhou characters and mechanics. The fan games can either be released for free like Servants of Harvest Wish, be commissioned or have permission to be monetized like this one. What this game conveniently doesn't explain: Movement - You can move normally in any direction, you can hold the focus button to move slowly and with more precision. While in focus mode you can see a dot in the middle of your character which is your hit box. You can check out "Barrage Musical ~ Basic Danmaku Tutorial" a cheap game ($1 when on sale) that teaches you the wall hugging, how the hit boxes of the bullets actually work and other basic techniques. You can go up to almost the top of the screen to pick up all the power ups on screen Power ups - To blast your way through, you power up your shot until level 4 by picking up the small red squares floating downwards. If you pick up the big square (that one only appears if you are not fully powered yet) that will clear all the bullets on screen. The Cherry Frame (pink rectangle at the bottom left)- The frame is temporary, has three levels and it fills up as you graze bullets or you collect the pink squares floating downwards. It gives you pieces of life & bombs, shield you from a miss or clear all the bullets on screen if you push the bomb button. When the frame gauge is filled up, it activates and pink a circle around you. The gauge depletes over time and when it empties itself, it gets to the next level and gives you a fragment of a bomb or life depending of it's level (3 max). Characters - Reimu: Auto guided shot, best for beginners Marisa: Too fast, Loved by experts Sanae: Widespread shot and low damage. Good start if you need more movement precision Yomu: Harder to use but best damage Advice - 0 -Start Low and Go Slow, ignore those toxic postings that try to shame beginners, the best players, the grand master-bullet-dodging-gods do Youtube videos instead of judging others. I am working to post a cool video showcasing how some strong players that work harder than they should because there are things in the basic levels of play that they miss. 1 - Beat the game on Easy with every resource you have first. There is a certain amount of continues, 5 or 6 I think. Beating the game once on easy unlocks the training for the stages and spells for that difficulty 2 - After training (specially stage 6) go for a 1CC on easy and while you are on it, you can check guides to get some trophies. After beating your first 1CC you'll unlock the replays, which are useful to analize your own strengths and weaknesses 3 - Go for a clear on Normal with continues next and notice how much more fun the game is with proper patterns. Some, while meatier, are strangely easier to dodge. Maybe the STG developers have a hard time butchering a well thought pattern XD 4 - This is it, time to go for your first 1CC on Normal. Since this game is long and you may loose your concentration quite easily, use bombs often and specially during patterns that fill up the screen (nothing worse than loosing a stock of 5 bombs to a stray bullet). That way your concentration muscle will keep fresh as a lettuce. The game has some uneven balance; level four is when the game starts being the most generous with extra lives just hang in there. 5- Congrats, you unlocked the Extra Stage and are officially an above average player. Slim Glossary: 1CC = Finishing the game without using any continue Average player = super beginner baby in Danmaku terms Danmaku = Bullet Hell game Fan game = Game made in the likes of grandma Touhou by fan groups as well as licensed like this one. FDF fan games are in fact fully licensed for Arcadia EXA Phantasm = Stage beyond the Extra stage Hurt = It means getting hit, a collision whether you loose a life or not. Lunatic = This is what the highest difficulty for the regular stages is called. Miss = You loose a life. Spell card = A boss stage. STG = Shooting game (Japanese abbreviation). A.K.A. difficult or bullet hell Cat Pitting Addictor = LOL! - According to AI, they might've meant to say like Cat petting adiction Death bombing = advanced technique to trad a bomb for a life Euro shmup = low quality shoot them up
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