Touhou Tenkuushou ~ Hidden Star in Four Seasons released

[KennyMan666]

ZUN's blog

So, Touhou 16. From the screenshots, we have the playable characters Reimu, Marisa, Aya and Cirno. Tanned Cirno. Seems like there's a seasons thing going on, unsurprisingly from the name, tanned Cirno being summer (hence the SUMMER in the background of that character select picture) and with Marisa wearing a scarf and gloves that definitely hints at winter. Possibilities include each character representing one season, or different seasons being different shot types or something. Edit: Given that Cirno is literally listed as Suntanned Cirno, different characters being different seasons seems more likely than seasons being shot types.

There's a gauge in the lower left with an icon above it that hints at some more seasons shenanigans - in the screen with Aya, it's definitely a snowflake, and in the one with Reimu, it looks like a pink butterfly, but might also be cherry blossoms. So the gimmick of the game is definitely tied to it in some way. Edit: And with the background and trees and shit being red in the Aya picture, it seems like it's autumn there, and winter, as denoted by the icon, is coming. Or something like that.

Someone else will have to translate if there's any more concrete info about anything.

Edit: Demo incoming at Reitaisai, unsurprisingly.

[Ikazu-san]

Hopefully no more damage sponges.

[AxelMill]

I'm definitely not one to talk, but isn't the artstyle really really crap in this one?
I know ZUN isn't the best artist on the planet - he knows it, too, IIRC - but Touhou 15, for example, had decent portraits.
These resemble some sh*tty R34 sketches made in MS Paint by a 12-year-old with a broken mouse.

[KAI]

I can already hear those suntanned doujinshis approaching fast.

[Legendary Hoamaru]

I'm definitely not one to talk, but isn't the artstyle really really crap in this one?
I know ZUN isn't the best artist on the planet - he knows it, too, IIRC - but Touhou 15, for example, had decent portraits.
These resemble some sh*tty R34 sketches made in MS Paint by a 12-year-old with a broken mouse.

I dunno I kind of like them. Well it's definitely not his worst but I'm not sure that is saying much

[Shepardus]

The character art isn't ZUN's best but it's certainly better than MoF Reimu. The screen frame isn't as hideous as LoLK's too.

I can already hear those suntanned doujinshis approaching fast.

Already saw an artist I follow on Pixiv post fanart of suntanned Cirno.

[Despatche]

Fucking finally dude. I almost thought he'd break the pattern for laughs.

I'm definitely not one to talk, but isn't the artstyle really really crap in this one?
I know ZUN isn't the best artist on the planet - he knows it, too, IIRC - but Touhou 15, for example, had decent portraits.
These resemble some sh*tty R34 sketches made in MS Paint by a 12-year-old with a broken mouse.

See, this is why it's so easy to defend ZUN; the people who rag on him keep flip-flopping. These super tiny screenshots look exactly like what he's been doing for years. I have no idea what you're seeing in LoLK that you're not seeing here.

He's finally using Busorama, sweet. That's the big one he's consistently failed to use until now.

Aya as a playable outside of PoFV? Game of the year!

[AxelMill]

I'm definitely not one to talk, but isn't the artstyle really really crap in this one?
I know ZUN isn't the best artist on the planet - he knows it, too, IIRC - but Touhou 15, for example, had decent portraits.
These resemble some sh*tty R34 sketches made in MS Paint by a 12-year-old with a broken mouse.

See, this is why it's so easy to defend ZUN; the people who rag on him keep flip-flopping. These super tiny screenshots look exactly like what he's been doing for years. I have no idea what you're seeing in LoLK that you're not seeing here.

I think I should have inserted a few hundred thousand asterisks after that "decent", and "relatively" before it, yeah.
By "decent" I actually meant "compared to some s*tty R34 sketches made in MS Paint by a 12-year-old with a broken mouse". At least Lunatic Kingdom's portraits kind of resemble human beings. Cirno, in this one, looks like one of those stickmen I drew in kindergarten, with their clothes and hands drawn around their limbs.

Call this flip-flopping, too, if you wish.
I'm just trying to avoid starting yet another war with the more touchy Touhou fans, with all that thread locking and splitting and user banning. I'm already kind of responsible for at least two of those.

[Despatche]

It's a bad meme is what it is. Stop and actually think about your bizarre comparison, and how stunningly overbearing it is for some simple cartoon art in a small indie game. I don't know what happened in that other thread, but I'm the only "touchy" Touhou fan around here. I have never said that ZUN is some top-tier hidden gem artist, and I never will. I have always said that I've seen too many people give art that's much worse than ZUN's a free pass (and I've seen this art in commercial works), and I always will. I see zero need to "justify" anything he does. I'm convinced that he's just being lazy, because these are not professional releases with big money behind them; that ZUN does this entirely for fun, and that's why he stays doujin. This is all the more relevant now that he has a family. The artstyle itself is inherently valid; look at his PC-98 pixel art and his old website stuff, and look at artists like huyusilver.

[Special World]

Their poses and faces look stiff but imo they're perfectly serviceable... I actually quite like the colors and design of the blue one. The HUD/overlay looks quite nice as well. That witch's pose is really not doing anything though, looks like she's trying to carry an invisible pail of water. You'd think for such a fanservicey series the character portraits would be the most important part of the design process, but I dunno, at least they're recognizable characters. I don't find them significantly more offensive than Espgaluda 1's character portraits. Even though those are obviously better designed, I always go "huh?" when I see that art in a Cave game.

Credentials: I post weirdass miserable eroguro on instagram and I have briefly played two Touhou games

[Shepardus]

Touhou has never been a "fanservicey" series, it just has an Improbably Female Cast and solid, recognizable character designs, both of which contribute toward its receiving mountains of (often sexualized) fan-created works.

[Special World]

Well yes, I suppose that is a major distinction. The fans service themselves, I guess.

[seraph]

The fans do service themselves. Trust me.

[KAI]

Damn 2hufans, they ruined 2hu.

[Squire Grooktook]

I miss back when Zun traced over Slayers art.

[Despatche]

Trial's out. Really cool title BGM, Mothra-tan, boobs, etc. Once again ZUN has claimed that this game will go back to basics and be really simple, except this time the gimmick is completely crazy. I'm just gonna post this.

[Shepardus]

Once again ZUN has claimed that this game will go back to basics and be really simple, except this time the gimmick is completely crazy.

Every time he says this I believe him a little less.

[KennyMan666]

Well, "acquired" the trial version and gave it a few spins. So here's the impressions and deets. I'll put it in a spoiler block for safety's sake.

Spoiler

- Each character represents a season but you also get to pick an additional season that'll give additional options with smaller versions of that character's shots. Reimu/Spring has homing petals, Cirno/Summer has a wide spread of weak icicles, Aya/Autumn has some kind of yellow projectiles I couldn't really get a read on if they're strong or not and Marisa/Winter has lasers, the extra of which is a single beam in the middle.
- You can stack up to 6 of the seasonal options, and hit C to "release" them. Different seasons have different functions on release, and is like a small extra bomb. But it will cost you the extra seasonal shot options, most of them drain all your season options on release. Spring and Winter definitely did, Summer I think didn't, Autumn probably did? I know one didn't.
- New characters are Caterpie, crazy homeless woman on meth with a knife and hornloli.
- What?
- Okay, so it's Eternity Larva (spelled as "Etarnity" ingame, an obvious misspelling which I'm sure already is a meme) the fairy (not actually a butterfly, Touhou fairies are embodiments of natural phenomena and she embodies the life cycle of butterflies), Nemuno Sakata the mountain hag (yes, really) and Aunn Komano the lion-dog.
- Gameplay seems mostly straightforward, but I probably say that because I haven't figured out the intricaties of the system yet and have been playing for survival rather than score. After a few plays I figured it was better to just keep the season options as extra firepower instead of releasing them. It's less bullshit than LoLK, at any rate.
- On that note, "HSiFS" really doesn't roll of the tongue very well.
- I got some weird lag at times. I don't know if that's just me.
- Seriously, "Eternity Larva". And I thought Clownpiece was a silly name.
- Stage 2 is short, midboss battle goes straight into the boss battle afterwards.
- Curved lasers return, but at least on Normal there's a bit of a safespot (though you have to dodge the other projectiles of the card).
- Hands and feet aren't actually terrible this time around. I'm impressed.
- So yeah it's a good game so far

[Bananamatic]

too many shot types, not enough good design
boring stages that are just randomly placed shit that's either streaming or standing still, game vomits extends as usual
poorly balanced bosses (why does the stage 2 boss have nonspells that are literally just aimed shots with huge gaps and she does the same thing twice?)
stage 2 overall feels like an early alpha
16 main games and it still doesn't detect arcade sticks properly

let's be real, no one would give a shit about this game if it didn't have the touhou name
at least the game engine is nice

[schleichfahrt]

16 main games and it still doesn't detect arcade sticks properly

This is bad. Especially since like 9 out of 10 arcade sticks use a 360-compatible PCB anyway.
I wonder how something like that slips by, given that the rest of the engine seems technically decent enough.

[Bananamatic]

stick support for doujins is generally weird as hell
for some reason it's always the low profile games made by unknown devs with zero experience that play the best and have sticks working perfectly
makes me wonder if it's really that hard to add or if they just can't be arsed

[seraph]

Zun is the ultimate dadposter.

[Bananamatic]

but dads love sticks

[Squire Grooktook]

Ten Desires = Zun's Jump The Shark moment.

[seraph]

Agreed.

[cj iwakura]

16 main games and still no official localization, but the flood gates are open for doujins! It's close enough, right?
(Bite me, ZUN.)

[shoryusatsu999]

I wouldn't call them completely open just yet. There's only 6 or so localized Touhou fangames, and most of them seem to have done pretty badly. It probably doesn't make sense for ZUN to try and localize his games right now, especially when only one of them's actually hit consoles, and another got slammed for being released digitally without any translation whatsoever.

[seraph]

There are 26 official Touhou games, including spinoffs. All of them have been translated by fans. None of them have been officially translated. To my knowledge, only one of them has ever seen an official release outside of Japan, and it was untranslated.

[cj iwakura]

There are 26 official Touhou games, including spinoffs. All of them have been translated by fans. None of them have been officially translated. To my knowledge, only one of them has ever seen an official release outside of Japan, and it was untranslated.

Yeah, and that's the problem. Maybe the failure of the fangames will send a message, but it'll probably be the wrong one. ("No one wants Touhou games, guess we better not bother" instead of "Guess we should localize the actual ZUN games".)

[null1024]

I played normal and thought it was pretty crappy with meaningless patterns all around. Stages are a yawn fest.

Then tried hard. Now this is good, very good. Normally Touhous are already enjoyable at the normal difficulty; this one's different. I actually couldn't beat hard on my first try, that's a good sign.

I really don't think the game needed 4 characters, they all play very similarly. There is something weird going on with the season options, I tried 3, don't they all do the exact same thing, small shield thingy? Why some release one by one, others all at once, and still do the same thing?

The releases are all kind of dumb in their own ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmuge5vwodE winter [look at that boss killing speed, it's actually absurd]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBgyE0mrjJk fall [500+ million points], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvxx0YVlqAw [700+ million points] [edit:] maybe this game is actually going to become giga wing [1 billion+]
summer is ez-mode for survival [and like the other releases, it does obnoxious damage to things on contact], haven't seen an interesting video for it [edit] I lied, this one's hilarious
no idea about spring, it acts more like a true regenerating bomb and you're actually invincible during it [and seems to fail spellcards immediately no matter where on screen it's used, unlike the rest -- I've seen people mention that you can use it on a spellcard without failing it but I haven't gotten it to do so [edit:] those people are fucking liars -- spring definitely fails spellcards, fall fails them on contact, the rest don't], haven't seen an interesting video for it either