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The emulator I used to play this game was kinda broken and garbled a bunch of text but I honestly think that it contributed to the vibe of this game in a very positive way funnily enough. I absolutely love how this game looks and sounds, having these harsh messes of colours forming abstract backgrounds all while these catchy melodies that are washed out by really abrasive, crunchy tones that contribute to a very surreal atmosphere. The gameplay has a similar thing going on, where it feels like so much of Touhou's core identity is already present here, but just warped with its unique characteristics that separate it so strongly from what the series would become.
The mix of bullet hell and breakout is something that doesn't entirely work at first, especially with how janky it all feels, but the systems behind it really start making sense in time and the way the encounters are designed complement these ideas very effectively to make things rarely feel unreasonable while having a lot that's still insanely difficult. The inbetween levels that literally just feel like breakout are kinda dry, but thankfully short, but the boss encounters that incorporate an element of combat into the mix is really where this shines so strongly. These encounters are pretty creative both visually and mechanically with using the dynamics in play to make for a lot of really fun moments that remain engaging even when being repeatedly obliterated for a solid chunk of time, and in general this is just a sorta fun game with the kind of vibe that I really, really connect with. The final bosses both feel absolutely impossible too on a separate note, they're beatable for sure but my god, it's a nightmare to do it.
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The basic mechanics are extremely solid. Fast, smooth, consistent, if perhaps unintuitive at first. Once you've learned what you're doing the game just feels good to play, especially with the cool backgrounds and great music. There are some questionable elements though that make it hard to take the game too seriously. The biggest problem is the power of bombs, which clear away random tiles all over the screen. They totally break the game, which is why a lot of my playing has been challenge runs that forego the use of bombs entirely. Other issues are the existence of teleporters, which are more random than the player can possibly account for, certain obstacles bouncing the orb awkwardly, and some levels just being very poorly designed.
Now let me talk about my experience with doing score runs in this game. The first and most important goal is preventing the orb from ever hitting the ground, as this resets your tile combo. This, just working with the basic mechanics, is very fun to do. Slide kicks are your simplest move. These send the orb at the same angle every time, with a horizontal speed that almost matches Reimu's. The gohei is harder to use but allows greater control of the angle, hitting with more force at the start of the animation and weakening over time. This lets you send the orb at a number of angles depending on your timing. Amulets are very hard to use and are generally not needed just for keeping the orb in the air, though they have utility in some advanced scoring techniques. Reimu has a few other moves but there's not much practical use for them.
So this is all well and good, but unfortunately bombs take the effort out of 90% of the stages. Even though Reimu is immobilized while using a bomb, it's easy to set up situations in which the orb lands right on her head during the bomb animation, which bounces the orb back up as if she'd swung the gohei. There are a few levels with teleporters that can randomly screw you over, but keeping the orb airborne for the whole game can ultimately be done quite easily with proper bomb use.
However, there is another element that can add a lot of depth to score runs: the point items. These appear from broken tiles, slowly fall to the ground, and then quickly disappear. Their value starts out so small that it's meaningless, but each item you collect without missing one increases the value of the next, up to a certain limit. If you can collect them consistently, the items become a crucial aspect of the scoring in this game. Further, since using a bomb would cause tiles all over the screen to break and drop several items at once, collecting the items requires you to clear the tiles without bombs. Of course, this is extremely difficult. You need to manage the orb such that it doesn't break too many tiles too quickly, or you'll have too many items falling, and you can't let it get too far from any item that's about to reach the ground, since naturally you can't be in two places at once. This is where the amulets become extremely useful. Suppose for instance that you've just kicked the orb and one the first few tiles it breaks drops an item. If you stay where you are to collect the item, the orb hits the ground on the other side of the screen. Follow the orb, and you miss the item. There is a third option though. If you hit the orb with an amulet partway through it's arc, you can bounce it back the way it came, and thus have it land in the same area as the item. But then, some levels have such a barbaric layout of obstacles that there's no sensible way to approach them without bombs, so you can only go so far with this.
All in all, I think it's a game with a lot of potential but is too flawed to take seriously. Some of the obvious fixes would be to nerf or remove bombs, remove all teleporters or make their behavior predictable, and in general design the levels more responsibly. I think a refined version of this game's basic idea could be something really spectacular.
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