• Price: $24.99 USD (currently on sale for $22.49 until July 20th)
• Developer: Ankake Spa
• Publisher: XSEED Games
• Release Date: July 13, 2023

A review code was kindly provided by ONE PR Studio on behalf of XSEED Games and Ankake Spa. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Started by Japanese developer “ZUN,” the Touhou Project has apparently been around since the nineties! Touhou: New World is the latest game in the series, and it’s now available on PC and Switch. (PS4/5 to follow.) It’s categorized as an action RPG mixed with bullet hell gameplay.

The story is based in Gensokyo, “a small territory hidden away in the mountains of Japan.” Humans and youkai have lived there together for millennia, and eventually a barrier was placed to keep the youkai safe from the Outside World. Somehow a human named Sumireko knew about Gensokyo and managed to make her way there. She’s incredibly enthusiastic about exploring Gensokyo to add some excitement to her “boring” life with all the “normies.” 😯

Reimu, shrine maiden and main character of the Touhou Project, has the dubious pleasure of getting Sumireko back home. You can choose to play as Reimu, or you can control Marisa, a human sorceress/researcher. I played through the entirety of Reimu’s scenario, and some of Marisa’s side. It doesn’t seem like the story varies too much between the two characters, although their skills differ.

Sadly, an event occurs in the beginning that results in Reimu/Marisa losing some of their power. They go from level thirty to level one. You’ll have to train them back up again to get through the main quests and the occasional side quest. I did really appreciate that the game doesn’t really make you grind at all; you’ll get to the appropriate level just by completing all of the quests.

The combat is fairly simple. You can use regular attacks or one of four equipped skills to defeat your enemies. There is also a healing ability that can be used after a fairly brief cooldown period. All skills have these cooldown periods that force you to wait before using them again. As you play through the game, you’ll learn new skills and be able to customize your skill setup. Skills level up the more you use them.

I usually don’t play bullet hell games, but there are elements to this one that I like. The combat is challenging, but not enough to frustrate me to the point of stopping. I tend to button-mash a lot in action games, but here I had to actually shield and jump to dodge those hellacious bullets. 😈 Naturally, some of the bosses kept defeating me until I got in the habit of moving more strategically. What’s great is that they don’t force you to restart the whole stage if you’re defeated. If a boss kills you, you get the option to try again.

There are also some platforming elements. Whenever I fell off a cliff or something, I’d simply reappear in the spot I’d been before falling. You do have to time your movements just right here too in order to advance to the next part of a stage, but it’s not a big deal if you mess up.

As you defeat the enemies and do your best to avoid environmental hazards, you’ll occasionally receive some equipment from fallen enemies or treasure chests. You get a slot for a weapon, armor, and one accessory. Each piece of equipment has stats that affect your health, attack, critical rate/damage, item drop rate, skill regen rate, and “perfect guard length.” I had to decide how to prioritize each stat because many items would increase a few stats while decreasing others.

Eventually, you’ll unlock a store that allows you to sell off the unwanted equipment. Later on, you unlock the ability to use enhancement stones, which permanently increase your stats. And after waiting a little longer, the smithy can be used to reforge equipment and change their stats based on chance.

I did not like how long it took to unlock each function in the store – I thought everything should have been available from the start. I also wish we could have used our money to increase individual stats on equipment without any decreases.

Thankfully, the game’s performance is great, and doesn’t make you wait long when it loads. I did have some complaints about how zoomed out the screen is because you can barely see any detail in the character models. Several of the exact same stages are used multiple times for various quests, so the lack of variation is a little disappointing. Similarly, a lot of non-boss enemies seemed to be overused.

Some of the enemies and environments could be a bit dull, but there were a few that I thought were lovely. I also liked the different visuals for both my skills and the ones used by enemies. The animal-shaped attacks were really neat and creative. I think the character portraits are cute, and the soundtrack is incredibly upbeat and catchy.

When it comes to the artistic direction, I had some mixed feelings but mostly leaned on the positive side. The story was a bit bizarre and perplexing but serviceable for a bullet hell game. There are thirteen chapters and a fourteenth “Post-Clear” chapter; I’d say clearing either character’s playthrough will probably take you 10-15 hours before you start the other one.

I’m not really a master of this kind of combat, but I think the game can be just challenging enough. More dexterous and talented bullet hell players may find it too easy – there are no difficulty options. Touhou: New World isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a competent enough action RPG/bullet hell experience that respects your time.

7.5/10