Which Is the Annoying Touhou 16 Character Again
Touhou 16: Hidden Star in Iv Seasons
August 16, 2017 - Video Games
It's been exactly two years (equally of the writing of this review) since the last primary entry in the Touhou series was released. I've never made it whatsoever kind of hush-hush that I disliked almost everything about Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, which I found to accept a lazy back finish and a bluntly insufferable core gimmick that devoured the residue of the gameplay. Because I was also put off by Ten Desires, that Double-Dealing Character felt lukewarm at its best, and that I don't play any of the side games, I've been on something of a cold streak with the franchise since 2011.
When I received the news yesterday that it had been released, I hoped that streak had come to an end. I eagerly procured a re-create through ways best not discussed and settled in for some proper bullet hell action. What I got…
Alright, look, I could bury the lede, but I may as well go this out of the way: Hidden Star in Iv Seasons is an adequate just fairly flavorless entry that sets no goals for itself and arguably lowballs some of the important bits. Now that that's out of the way, feel free to stick around so I can get into the hows and whys.
Let'southward showtime with gameplay: it's the classic top-down danmaku shooter, and HSiFS is polite enough to keep its small novelties out of the role player's manner. Gone are the distracting UFOs, perplexing and ugly spirits, and that encarmine-minded Pointdevice Mode – no infinite continues this fourth dimension. Instead, the gimmick is "seasonal energy," produced as drops from enemies too as spawned for grazing bullets. Collecting seasonal energy powers up the abilities associated with your secondary season (effectively 4 subweapons common to all four characters), providing more offensive capability. Furthermore, charges of seasonal energy can be released as a momentary barrier that nullifies bullets and converts them into more than seasonal energy – generally this is diminishing returns, but equally a secondary shield it's overnice to have. The defensive aspect of the mechanic recalls a similar gimmick from Perfect Crimson Flower, and adds more skill to your countless confrontations with hellish barrages of kaleidoscopic death.
That's right, I'm a large fan of the main gimmick; the worst affair I can say about it is that the collectibles tin clutter the screen. I'thou a bit less happy with the fact that all iv girls utilize the same 4 "shot type" selections; aye, that's 16 permutations, but I really dislike the Autumn selection – it feels like a lackluster hybrid of Summer and Winter to me rather than having the distinctive graphic symbol of shot types past. Spring provides Reimu's homing bullets, Summer Cirno's diagonal barrage of icicles, Autumn Aya's piercing wind gust projectile things (they're tremendously ugly) on either side in a forward barrage, and Winter Marisa's chilly frontal laser. Further, each season uses the release effect somewhat differently; for example, Summer is a pocket-sized barrier but expends only a single accuse when fired.
Musically, HSiFS simply… never tries to distinguish itself. The soft pulsate pad that then disgusted me in 10 Desires is still kicking around, and ZUN's obnoxious electric guitar likes to show up from time to fourth dimension, but by and large HSiFS is content to evoke better themes from better games and sit back to permit y'all relish in your quasi-familiarity. Stage one'southward theme is essentially "a Stage ane theme" with some Song of the Night Sparrow undertones. The Stage ane boss theme could be another stage theme and I doubt anyone would question it (I probably would accept preferred it that way, to exist frank). Stage 2'southward theme reminds me of a knockoff Lunate Elf with some unfortunate Ten Desires elements. The boss theme brings in the grimy electric guitar and in doing then channels Sekibanki'due south theme. And so it goes, with the balance of the soundtrack channeling "qualities" of Touhou by more than charting its own grade.
The side by side office discusses the plot and characters, so spoiler alarm here. Bond out if you so desire.
Gensokyo is being flooded with seasonal free energy that is throwing the balance of its weather all askew. Hakurei Shrine is drowning in cherry blossoms, Youkai Mount is gripped in the throes of autumn, and the Woods of Magic is blanketed in snow. Reimu and Marisa prepare off to investigate considering that's what they do; Aya jumps in because the disturbance is affecting her mount; and Cirno, flush with seasonal energy every bit a winter fairy, is oddly superpowered and wants to go take her powers for a shakedown of whoever's throwing things out of whack. The chosen protagonist crosses the summery fields and meets Eternity Larva, a butterfly fairy who's too been juiced up by seasonal free energy. From at that place, they head up Youkai Mountain, pop over to Hakurei Shrine, and then terminate upwards in the Forest of Magic. That'south when things go weird.
Permit's talk characters; I feel as though Eternity Larva won't go down every bit one of the more memorable Stage i bosses, though her blueprint is somewhat interesting – representing growth and metamorphosis, she combines elements of butterfly, pupa, and caterpillar. Her "power" is to release smelly danmaku from her antennae when she senses danger. Wriggle Nightbug did the Stage 1 insect better and with more than interesting spell cards to kicking; you lot tin essentially stand still and watch as Eternity all but completely fails to even attempt to trouble her blind spot.
Nemuno Sakata is a yamanba, a mountain hag with a large meat cleaver whose ability creates holy ground. Her "chopping" spell bill of fare and dagger bullets are a flake interesting, just the character herself has what I've come to refer to every bit "hair color distinctiveness," which is when the rest of the pattern is then bland that ZUN gives the character an unlikely shade of hair to compensate. Aunn Komano, a komainu with a duplication trick, has the distinction of being the friendliest enemy the girls always fight (to the point that they apologize for attacking her) but reminds me of Ten Desires character designs and has a largely unmemorable boss fight outside of her dissever attack.
Narumi Yatadera is the fourth dominate, though not the next character we run into – and as the representative of the winter stage, she's picayune more than another pointless thinly-designed obstacle, in this case a living Jizo statue who can control living things (why aye, this is a massive missed opportunity). Her battle is distinguished by one truly obnoxious spell card that recalls one of Clownpiece'southward more irritating attacks in the previous game, as Narumi summons a massive bullet-spewing danmaku that hunts you downward before returning to her in a shower of additional bullets. Mostly, she matters because on her back is a portal to Ushirodo-no-Kuni, the "Country of the Back Door."
In the realm across are the paired bosses, Satono Nishida and Mai Teireida. With similar hairstyles and designs, I tin't actually tell y'all which is which – even though they each carry a different plant shoot. Each one is the midboss of either Stage 4 or v, and their gimmick is that they alter upward their spell card selection based on which of them you defeat first during their partnered non-spell card attacks. This would be interesting with more distinctive characters or a better musical theme, but every bit it stands they feel like Stage iv holdovers trying to ape the Tsukumo sisters from Double Dealing Graphic symbol or the Prismrivers.
Taking the cake for lazy graphic symbol design, still, is the game's last boss, Okina Matara, a blonde-haired woman wearing a long-sleeved wearing apparel with a bright tabard and a curved hat, with peppery shapes abaft behind her… wait a minute, that's just Junko from the previous game! Okina is a secret goddess who wants to get less secret; intended to evoke comparisons to Yukari, she is also a Sage of Gensokyo and one of the people involved in the creation of the barrier (the game's characters appoint in a surprising amount of "Remember the New Daughter"). Her nigh distinctive attack is her finale, in which she copies the protagonist's season to… well, fling more projectiles at you. I suppose I'll take to refight her to determine the relevance of this threat, but the game throws up alert text as though it's an earth-shattering revelation.
I hate to be that guy, but Satori did this better.
Anyhow, this is all a run-up to the reveal of the Extra Stage boss…
…Okina Matara.
Yes, her again. Different sprite, different theme, different attacks, same character. The Actress Phase resolves the leftover threads from the game'due south main plot, people tell me, as though that excuses this kind of lazy doubling. Perhaps it's some other Yukari reference, of a sort? I don't know. I just know it leaves me more irritated than it should, and feeling shortchanged somehow.
I'thou at the signal now where I legitimately cannot tell if before entries had amend music and character designs or if information technology was all just rose-colored glasses. I have a friend who assures me that Imperishable Night represented a meaning investment of creative resources in a higher place and beyond ZUN'due south normal standard, simply fifty-fifty Perfect Cherry Flower and Mountain of Faith felt and so much meliorate executed than this. I might put it somewhere in the range of Undefined Fantastic Object, though it must be said that while I've always personally had a handle on that game'due south baroque gimmick, I think HSiFS does a better task with overall gameplay.
In any event, I suppose information technology'south time to sit dorsum and expect to see if the next entry will wow me. In the concurrently, there have been worse parts of the Touhou main series, though that'southward not every bit loftier a bar to clear every bit it once was.
Source: http://themerlinfiles.com/touhou-16-hidden-star-in-four-seasons
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