Why cute girls as characters in Touhou-style shmups?

[silkworm944]

I'm not new to the world of PC Japanese shmups as I've been a big fan of games produced by Siterskain, Blue & White, Twinklesoft and Astro Port (Dark Hell Company) for quite a while now but have recently delved into the world of Touhou shmups, namely Imperishable night and Banshiryuu. The main thing i've noticed that differentiates these titles with the games I was used to playing is that my tough looking space or war craft has been replaced with a cute young anime-style Japanese female character.

Forgive my ignorance, especially all you hardcore Touhou/Shanghai Alice fans, but I was wondering if someone could take the time to give me a brief insight into the history/culture behind this style of game and its use of characters?

I must say that these curtain fire style of bullet hell shmups play exceptionally well, offer a great challenge and are a game type I can see myself playing alot and exploring more in the future, I just want a bit of an understanding as to their make-up.

Sorry if this topic has been covered previously.

[ZOM]

Now that was different, usually it's the other way around.

[alastair jack]

Some guys prefer to play as cute/hot girls and some prefer to play as a tough/awesome male.

[silkworm944]

Some guys prefer to play as cute/hot girls and some prefer to play as a tough/awesome male.

First thing that surprised me with this sub-genre is that you don't get the choice of being a big strong angry dude or a demon or something hardcore. Samidare is the only sort of Touhou-style game I've played where you are a space craft.

[Observer]

Some guys prefer to play as cute/hot girls and some prefer to play as a tough/awesome male.

First thing that surprised me with this sub-genre is that you don't get the choice of being a big strong angry dude or a demon or something hardcore. Samidare is the only sort of Touhou-style game I've played where you are a space craft.

Piloted by cute little girls. Ok, not really little but you get the idea. They are called C22 (Regular mode) and C23 (Extra Stage). RefRain is the same.

http://www.rebrank.org/products/smdarc/main.htm

Although you only see the portraits at the end of the game/final dialogues in extra.

You can have ships but the all-female (and traps) theme is still there, heh.

Try Ketsui. It's as manly as it gets. Brutal mechanical carnage at its finest, Vinogradov included.

Also check Cloudphobia, Ether Vapor and Zen-Ichi. All feature ships/mechs.

[Plasmo]

Samidare is a Touhou-style game...?

CAVE once said that using little girls gives them better sales. Keep in mind, that 99% of the gamers are male and probably a younger generation. Having cute little girls makes sense.

[silkworm944]

Some guys prefer to play as cute/hot girls and some prefer to play as a tough/awesome male.

First thing that surprised me with this sub-genre is that you don't get the choice of being a big strong angry dude or a demon or something hardcore. Samidare is the only sort of Touhou-style game I've played where you are a space craft.

Piloted by cute little girls. Ok, not really little but you get the idea. They are called C22 (Regular mode) and C23 (Extra Stage). RefRain is the same.

http://www.rebrank.org/products/smdarc/main.htm

Although you only see the portraits at the end of the game/final dialogues in extra.

You can have ships but the all-female (and traps) theme is still there, heh.

Try Ketsui. It's as manly as it gets. Brutal mechanical carnage at its finest, Vinogradov included.

Also check Cloudphobia, Ether Vapor and Zen-Ichi. All feature ships/mechs.

Yeah, you're right, they are chicks in those crafts. I play Ether Vapor and Zen-Ichi all the time, just downloaded the demo for Cloudphobia yesterday so will check that out shortly... haven't heard of Ketsui but will give it go on your advice. If you like mech games, there's a decent horizontal scroller by Astro Port called Armed Seven.

Also, I don't have an issue with playing as a cute chick but was just curious as to why the character focus is such in these games?

[silkworm944]

Samidare is a Touhou-style game...?

CAVE once said that using little girls gives them better sales. Keep in mind, that 99% of the gamers are male and probably a younger generation. Having cute little girls makes sense.

No, Samidare is not a true touhou-style game but was the most similar thing I could think of where you play as a craft instead of a character.

That's interesting what CAVE said.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

The otaku types go mad for a bit of loli and by far out number the number of shmup fans. Most ppl into touhou probably have only seen you tube videos or cant get past stage 1 and are more into the touhou fighting games or the platformers. Imo they dont enjoy playing the shmups but like the idea that touhou (and shmups in general) are seen as the hardest of hardcore and want to be part of this "cool" fad. This would also explain why on every shmup video theres a touhou tard proclaiming that the shmup in the video is piss easy compaired to touhou. What many are really saying is touhou is hardcore and im hardcore for been a fan (even though i dont play them.)

Anyway ill stop myself from ranting about the fans and get back to the topic. Would touhou be as popular as it is if the characters were spaceships or men? not a chance.
The professionals like Cave have noticed this and thats why so many of their latest shmups are lolis. As loli sells. And although touhou/ loli tards piss many shmuppers off, it cant be argued that they bring more money to the genre and are the main reason imo why shmups have made a bit of a comeback latley.

So all us shmup fans when we encounter a touhou tard, instead of wanting to rip him a new arsehole we could give him a hug

[Observer]

It definitely doesn't have anything to do with shooters alone, in fact, I think shooters were one of the last bastions that survived the shift. It affects manga, anime and such. Perhaps it's because they offer more "emotion"/"feeling" and something pretty to look at so the player can relate more to that rather than a bald space marine inside an invincible ship, shouting one liners all over?

Personally, I don't know who's to blame, perhaps Card Captor Sakura or Heidi. Only god knows.

It's a big shift in paradigm. It's not overly general but it became the norm, especially in site design. Entering Melonbooks Doujin Store or Tora No Ana just to name a few is a recipe for an overload of pastels and cutesy. Of course and like everything, there are exceptions.

By the way, people, don't go mad at him.

Samidare, like Touhou and CAVE games and everything that shits incredible amounts of bullets in pretty patterns/mazes of doom, are all part of the "bullet hell/danmak/curtain fire" genre.

[silkworm944]

Thanks TrevHead (TVR) and Observer for your posts.... very interesting info and insight.

I've been playing shooters since the days of the Amiga so have have got very used to being a cool spacecraft, helicopter, tank etc and until recently, out of habit I guess, have always chosen games featuring these. However, the bullet patterns and game mechanics in these touhou games is something different that I'm willing to give a go and hone my skills at.

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

Dunno... Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, Keio Flying Squadron, Twinkle Tale, KiKi KaiKai, Magical Chase? The ladies in 2D shooters must've been around since the eighties.

[sunburstbasser]

There was Mao Mao in Aero Fighters, basically a J-Pop princess. She flew an airplane, but did have a portrait at the select screen.

Cave had Iori in ESP Ra.De. That was 1998. You actually play as the character, they aren't a pilot in Ra.De.

And in Guardian Legend, you play a space babe who turns into a spaceship.

[BulletMagnet]

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

Shameless plug!

[silkworm944]

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

Shameless plug!

Huh?? Was that a game on the VIC-20??

[MX7]

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

Shameless plug!

Looks like a cool article BM; I look forward to reading it!

I have been interested in representations of gender and sexuality in videogames for some time now. I did an essay on representation of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered videogame characters at university, funily enough it was the highest mark I ever recieved while doing my undergraduate (76! My lecturer must have been smoking crack )

Keep on meaning to beef it up and stick it on one of my blogs. It's a fascinating subject. I always see the emergence of female characters in STGs to be somewhat analogous to the emergence and popularity of female characters in fighting games. Generally older fighting games were exclusively populated by aggressive looking mypermasculine character archetypes, but the popularity of characters like Mai and Chun-Li in the early to mid 90's saw a higher and higher percentage of female characters populating fighting games. This finally came to its logical conclusion in games like Melty Blood and Arcana Heart, where the vast majority of characters/all of the characters are female respectively.

Pretty much exactly the same happened in the shooting game circuit, and now we have popular indie titles like the Touhou series and the Deathsmiles franchise that feature all female protagonists (with the odd trap). Why? Popularity of the lolita-esque characters, of course. Examining Cave's output provides a nice little microcosm of the changing preferences of arcade goers. We start off with warlike masculine games like Donpachi, see selectable female characters in Progear and Guwange, and work towards the all-girl lineup of games like Dai Ou Jou, Pink Sweets, Muchi-Muchi-Pork! and of course Deathsmiles.

Of course, it could be argued that Cave games haven't really shifted towards a feminised perspective, merely one that is more mindful of characterisation in general. In the first two 'Pachis, you had no idea who you were piloting (save for a static outro screen). Also, the games seem to to be using female characters to target certain fetishistic tendencies, rather than a female audience. You only need to look at the fetishistic artwork for PinkSweets and Muchi Muchi Pork! to see that.

Touhou is kind of different. The sexuality is far less overt, though it seems to strike a chord with the Loli-Peado crowd, as the plethora of doujin pornography based on it would seem to suggest. I think the main reason for using young girls in these games in particular is to add a more emphatic mode of address to the player. The attractive character designs and more elaborate stories make it easier for players, even casual ones, to make an emotional investment in the game, one that could not perhaps be achieved if your avatar was a rusting lump of steel and guns.

[silkworm944]

Out of interest, when did cute female player characters start appearing in shmups?

Shameless plug!

Huh?? Was that a game on the VIC-20??

Sorry BulletMagnet, just realised that "Shameless plug!" is a link (I'm new to the forum) to an article. Thanks man, will read it now.

BTW, I shouted out to a mate what "Shameless plug!" was and he said he thought it was a game on the VIC-20, that's where that came from.... I think he was joking around with me, a VIC-20 probably wouldn't even play Pong.

[silkworm944]

Geez Obiwanshinobi & sunburstbasser, you guys know your shooters.... I haven't even heard of most of those games you listed!

Awesome info MX7... thanks!! Do you think there's a possibility that the Touhou series will get progressively more hentai in its imagery? Or would that not appeal at all to the bulk of their target market?

[BulletMagnet]

Do you think there's a possibility that the Touhou series will get progressively more hentai in its imagery? Or would that not appeal at all to the bulk of their target market?

Off the cuff I doubt that ZUN is interested in anything like that for the actual games and other stuff he puts out - if he really wanted to go in that direction and cash in on it, he surely would have done so by now. Of course, there are already plenty of "unofficial tributes" out there for anyone who wants 'em, so even if ZUN wanted to get in on it he'd probably find it too tough to break into the market to be worth it.

[gs68]

I'm more predisposed to playing as a ship, but if I have to play as a witch who looks to be in her mid-teens I'm cool with that.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

BTW when did things change from the classic cute style like cotton and parodius to the slighty pervy loli cute em ups we see today. Was it Touhou that was the first to do it or were they just the games that made it popular?

[ncp]

BTW when did things change from the classic cute style like cotton and parodius to the slighty pervy loli cute em ups we see today. Was it Touhou that was the first to do it or were they just the games that made it popular?

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Parodius and Cotton are both 10x more "pervy" than all of the Touhou games combined.

[Observer]

BTW when did things change from the classic cute style like cotton and parodius to the slighty pervy loli cute em ups we see today. Was it Touhou that was the first to do it or were they just the games that made it popular?

No, no. If you look at the PC-98 games their art style looks like it comes from the '80s and the enemies were much more varied and weirder, even including ground targets and such. But that it contributed a lot later on, hell yes. Not the games per se but the truckload of artists making hentai doujinshi and cutesy artworks and feeding them everywhere like repeating stations.

Like I said above, you have to look outside of the games and the genre to find the answer because the "lolification" was a way to adjust to the current fad and sell or die a slow death if we put it in Cave words. I think GaijinPunch already mentioned that the Death Smiles and Espgaluda II location tests were ridiculously packed of people and that "this shit sells".

I am not sure when did this shift grew in power, perhaps in between the transition from the PSX to the PS2 and the death of the Dreamcast? One would have to look at the series on TV, trendy mangas, evaluate the doujinshi material (graphical) released to find out the turning point.

Or something like that.

[silkworm944]

I've been playing Imperishible Night and Banshiryuu this past few days, basically my first experiences with Touhou-style shmups. They are both top games, lots of fun to play, and I've found it a bit of a novelty to play as these young girls and the cutsey imagery on the whole. However, I have to be honest and say that I still prefer the style and themes found in games like, Kamui, Reflex, Patriot Dark, Blue Sabers, Zen-Ichi etc.... maybe that stems from being a Raiden II and Demonstar fan in the past and I'm a creature of habit, or maybe I just like ships and darker, more mechanical themes. I will continue to play some good touhou-style titles though, and might also look at some Ikaruga-type shmups like Exceed 2nd Vampire Rex... it's always good to branch out I think.

Also, thanks for all your posts so far guys... has been interesting reading and good learning.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

BTW when did things change from the classic cute style like cotton and parodius to the slighty pervy loli cute em ups we see today. Was it Touhou that was the first to do it or were they just the games that made it popular?

?????????????????????????????????????????????

Parodius and Cotton are both 10x more "pervy" than all of the Touhou games combined.

yea you are right about that. hehe. i think to me that old cute em ups seem less pervy because they seem more cartoony wheres modern shmups seem more into tune with todays anime styles and more pervy with the touhou cutscenes and the box art of other games and marketing to the outaku scene

[Skykid]

I just want to know why all the artwork in Touhou games is so shit.

[lmagus]

Let's all blame Clamp and Chobits for the lolification of our favourite genre.

Touhou art is lame because ZUN is a "musician" and a programmer, not an artist.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Clamp? Don't they cultivate that "shy, clumsy heroine and her tomboyish girlfriend supporter character", or "whiny, clumsy heroine with a sweet tooth", or just "clumsy heroine" field? I watched only one episode of Angelic Layer (because it was made by BONES) and it seemed to fit that pattern. Girlish stuff through and through, unlike shooty games in general. I've yet to sense this vibe in any shooter. Clamp are women, aren't they? ZUN is a bloke.

[silkworm944]

Touhou art is lame because ZUN is a "musician" and a programmer, not an artist.

Are there any Touhou clones that have better artwork?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Apparently one Touhou game (don't remember the name) has got better looking artwork by someone else than ZUN.