Best order to play the Touhou games in for Windows?

[CaptainAhab]

Howdy,

Thanks for all of your help in an earlier thread I made.

I'm interested in giving some Touhou games a go on Windows 7; which game(s) would you recommend? Is there any particular order in which I should play them?

Sorry if this has been asked a lot in the past, but I used the search function and couldn't find anything. Maybe I'm bad at searching.

Cheers! Hope you're all having a good New Year's Day.

[Squire Grooktook]

A lot of people I hear from seem to recommend Undefined Fantastic Object and Mountain of Faith as easy to get into.

[systematic]

TH08 and TH06 I think are the easiest. But all of them are a lot of fun. I've never read any of the story or anything so I don't know off its important or not.

[Wyrmnus]

I'd say Imperishable Night is the easiest game, followed by Ten Desires. As for story, don't bother. ZUN's the worst plot writer I've ever seen.

[Squire Grooktook]

Touhou's plots are meant to be funny and silly, and there's little or no continuity so don't worry about that.

Also I think people should recommend based on both "easiest" and "best". Ten Desires is supposed to be easier but a lot of people don't really like it at all from what I can tell.

[Wyrmnus]

*Shrug* More of an opinionated thing if you ask me.

[Jeneki]

I'm guessing we are excluding the pre-windows games? As I recall TH06 has the least extra game mechanics if you want to start simple.

[BulletMagnet]

Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night are the two that got me into 'em, but that was back when they were the newest ones out (though they're still my personal favorites). I think there are demos for pretty much every Windows-based Touhou game out there, so it's not like there's much risk in giving the whole lot a shot and picking your favorites from there.

[CaptainAhab]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll check out the ones suggested in this thread, and I'll just go in chronological order.

[KennyMan666]

Undefined Fantastic Object [...] easy to get into.

Are you high

Imperishable Night is usually considered the easiest and I would say that it's indeed the most beginnerfriendly.

[Squire Grooktook]

Undefined Fantastic Object [...] easy to get into.

Are you high

Imperishable Night is usually considered the easiest and I would say that it's indeed the most beginnerfriendly.

Well I was more thinking in that it's hard but gives you the option of ufo's for bombs and lives, and it seems to be pretty highly regarded overall. Doesn't Imperishable Night have a more complex scoring system though?

[chum]

Fairy Wars is one of the easiest and most beginner friendly games, not to mention most fun.

The mechanics are rather easy to grasp, as are the tricks, and It's a game where you can "think on your own" rather than copy existing routes, and whatever existing routes you find aren't too complicated to comprehend at least bits and pieces of. It's a game where you know how well you're doing and you can figure out on your own how something can be improved. When you use a freeze the game tells you exactly how much it was worth, it is a more plainspoken and immediate game than most of the other Windows games. You can play it at your own pace and you don't need to worry about your potential in the final stage just because you didn't have a great first stage. There are no "point item value gimmicks". the only thing you need to know is that point items are worth nearly nothing and frozen items are worth more - but the value for either is always the same.

For those that enjoy the random dodging you find in Touhou, there is plenty of that to be had in Fairy Wars, but at the same time, by learning how to use the ice well you can remove so much need for dodging. In short, if you enjoy coming up with strategies on how to make patterns easier or how to increase your score, Fairy Wars does let you do that on your own and there is so much depth to the game that there is always more room for improvement in terms of score - not to mention that the game has 6 different routes across 4 difficulties, so plenty of stuff to do. There is an enormous volume of different patterns, all of which can be approached differently both in terms of dodging and scoring. The scoring gameplay difference between the lower modes (Easy and Normal) and the higher modes (Hard and Lunatic) are so enormous and there is simply so much to the game and it sucks that people just ignore it.

[chum]

Well I was more thinking in that it's hard but gives you the option of ufo's for bombs and lives, and it seems to be pretty highly regarded overall. Doesn't Imperishable Night have a more complex scoring system though?

UFO is not friendly to complete rookies to the genre, but it is very beginner friendly for someone who does play shmups otherwise.

The system is flexible from a glance (the flexibility is dampened a lot during scoreplay, however) but some people can't be bothered to "chase" the UFO tokens and leave the bottom of the screen. It just depends on if the player feels confident that they can leave the bottom or not. If they can, it is indeed a rather friendly game at first - just be wary of the strict as fuck scoreplay.

Imperishable Night is a bit more complicated just to "understand", but it is certainly an easier game in terms of patterns (most patterns can be memorized and even without memorization can be sight read, in UFO the few memorizable patterns are trickier and most of the patterns are more random) it is much, much less strict. You can die, bomb, fail a shitton of stuff and still come out on top if you have some high-tier strategies. In UFO, failing just one thing means you might not even be able to finish the run.

[CaptainAhab]

I played a few hours of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night last night (awesome New Year's Eve celebration haha). I first tried both on easy mode, and blew through quite a bit of each game after a couple tries. The only thing I have trouble with is choosing a team in Imperishable Night -- they all seem to play pretty differently. I played with the Ghost team and the focus shot spreading more than the normal shot really threw me off.

All in all they're a joy to play, and I can't wait to dive more into these games, more Touhou titles, and the shmup genre.

[trap15]

TEN DESIRES

[dxk]

Double Dealing Character is one of the easiest and most beginner friendly games, not to mention most fun.

The mechanics are rather easy to grasp, as are the tricks, and It's a game where you can "think on your own" rather than copy existing routes, and whatever existing routes you find aren't too complicated to comprehend at least bits and pieces of. It's a game where you know how well you're doing and you can figure out on your own how something can be improved. When you use a bomb the game tells you exactly how much PIV it was worth, it is a more plainspoken and immediate game than most of the other Windows games. You can play it at your own pace and you don't need to worry about your potential in the final stage just because you didn't have a great first stage. There are no "UFO gimmicks" and "point item value dropping randomly". the only thing you need to know is that gray point items are worth nearly nothing and yellow items are worth more - but the value for either is always the same as your PIV.

For those that enjoy the random dodging you find in Touhou, there is plenty of that to be had in Double Dealing Character, but at the same time, by learning how to use the bomb well you can remove so much need for dodging. In short, if you enjoy coming up with strategies on how to make patterns easier or how to increase your score, Double Dealing Character does let you do that on your own and there is so much depth to the game that there is always more room for improvement in terms of score - not to mention that the game has 6 different characters across 4 difficulties, so plenty of stuff to do. There is an enormous volume of different patterns, all of which can be approached differently both in terms of dodging and scoring. The scoring gameplay difference between the lower modes (Easy and Normal) and the higher modes (Hard and Lunatic) are so enormous and there is simply so much to the game and it sucks that people just ignore it.

[yorgje]

I played a few hours of Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night last night (awesome New Year's Eve celebration haha). I first tried both on easy mode, and blew through quite a bit of each game after a couple tries. The only thing I have trouble with is choosing a team in Imperishable Night -- they all seem to play pretty differently. I played with the Ghost team and the focus shot spreading more than the normal shot really threw me off.

All in all they're a joy to play, and I can't wait to dive more into these games, more Touhou titles, and the shmup genre.

Glad you enjoyed them! If you're playing IN as one of your first touhou games, I would recommend maybe starting with border team. Homing reduces the amount of memorization you need to get through the stages safely, and also allows you to focus on dodging rather than damaging during the boss patterns.

If you're set on ghost team, remember that it's not dishonorable to stay focused for most of the stage portions: even though it's bad for your score, it makes survival much safer.

Also, consider starting on Normal mode if it's not too overwhelming.

[CaptainAhab]

I tried Imperishable Night on normal mode, and the farthest I got after about half a dozen attempts was the second boss, heh.

[CaptainAhab]

Double Dealing Character is one of the easiest and most beginner friendly games, not to mention most fun.

The mechanics are rather easy to grasp, as are the tricks, and It's a game where you can "think on your own" rather than copy existing routes, and whatever existing routes you find aren't too complicated to comprehend at least bits and pieces of. It's a game where you know how well you're doing and you can figure out on your own how something can be improved. When you use a bomb the game tells you exactly how much PIV it was worth, it is a more plainspoken and immediate game than most of the other Windows games. You can play it at your own pace and you don't need to worry about your potential in the final stage just because you didn't have a great first stage. There are no "UFO gimmicks" and "point item value dropping randomly". the only thing you need to know is that gray point items are worth nearly nothing and yellow items are worth more - but the value for either is always the same as your PIV.

For those that enjoy the random dodging you find in Touhou, there is plenty of that to be had in Double Dealing Character, but at the same time, by learning how to use the bomb well you can remove so much need for dodging. In short, if you enjoy coming up with strategies on how to make patterns easier or how to increase your score, Double Dealing Character does let you do that on your own and there is so much depth to the game that there is always more room for improvement in terms of score - not to mention that the game has 6 different characters across 4 difficulties, so plenty of stuff to do. There is an enormous volume of different patterns, all of which can be approached differently both in terms of dodging and scoring. The scoring gameplay difference between the lower modes (Easy and Normal) and the higher modes (Hard and Lunatic) are so enormous and there is simply so much to the game and it sucks that people just ignore it.

I will definitely check it out, thanks! Once I have had my fill with a few others that I have lined up (Th07, Th08, Th10, Th12).

[Pteriforever]

My recommendation would be to play PCB first. Fun mechanics, fairly low difficulty, and it's basically the "quintessential" Touhou.

TD is definitely one of the /funnest/, but it has pretty punishing deaths even by Touhou standards, so it's not really that beginner-friendly.

DDC seems to rely on weird gimmicks a lot, and forces you to play risk-and-reward to get lives and bombs, which makes no sense from a design perspective.

FW is completely AWESOME, but it's way different from the others and so probably won't give a beginner a very accurate idea of how the average Touhou plays out.

[Squire Grooktook]

and forces you to play risk-and-reward to get lives and bombs, which makes no sense from a design perspective.

What? Since when has risks to get extends or bombs ever not made sense in a shmup? Having to take some risks to score higher and get extends is pretty common place and intuitive.

And not making sense from a design perspective? It makes perfect sense. Want some extra resources so you can use them to get through some stuff later? You'll have to earn them by doing something cool now. Makes perfect sense, and it's pretty much a fundamental concept of not only shmups but almost every genre.

[trap15]

TD is definitely one of the /funnest/, but it has pretty punishing deaths even by Touhou standards, so it's not really that beginner-friendly.

Wot? Deaths are hardly punishing in TD, in fact that might be part of why I really like it. Hell, if you die you get to go beat the shit out of things for ~10 seconds until you explode, and you don't even lose bombs for dying. Coupled with how many extends and bombs you get, it doesn't seem that punishing at all.

play risk-and-reward to get lives and bombs, which makes no sense from a design perspective.

Except pretty much every STG does this? Like... score = resources is a huge thing for Raizing games. And getting that score means you generally have to risk.

[Pteriforever]

and forces you to play risk-and-reward to get lives and bombs, which makes no sense from a design perspective.

What? Since when has risks to get extends or bombs ever not made sense in a shmup? Having to take some risks to score higher and get extends is pretty common place and intuitive.

And not making sense from a design perspective? It makes perfect sense. Want some extra resources so you can use them to get through some stuff later? You'll have to earn them by doing something cool now. Makes perfect sense, and it's pretty much a fundamental concept of not only shmups but almost every genre.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. It just seemed a little out of place there, but I think you're right. Even so, I think it makes the most sense for scoring and survival play to oppose each other (i.e. On some level you need to choose between score and resources, or risk one to gain the other), but yeah, I guess it really isn't too big an issue.

I'm most likely wrong on this, but I /think/ the max lives you can get in TD is 7, which is quite a few but still less than most of the others. The trance bar resets when it's used on death, just like if it had been used normally, and getting the lost power back is a slightly bigger deal than in most of the earlier games. Idk, that's just how I feel, in reality it's probably not that bad.