Game:

Story of Eastern Wonderland (1997)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 36:23

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1

Tell nothing: I perfectly know how bad I am at Touhou. But for Kirisame Marisa's sake, these games are so damn hard. I barely managed to get the good ending on the easy difficulty level... Playlist with all my Touhou Project games playthroughs:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM547j96LR9QmbjI0MuCTP8Jf8astPLxr

This is the second part of the Touhou series (don't ask me to beat the first one, and don't ask why), but at the same time it is the first danmaku of the series. It is created solely by Zun, which most likely is a genius. You can see it by yourself: even nowadays this retro game can stand out of many, it has simple, but good and funny plot, charming female characters, some yuri hints, weapon variety, action gameplay, and godly awesome music! In other words, everything that is popular in anime games now. It is as if Zun knew what was going to become popular amongst otaku.

The series takes place in Gensokyo, mysterious place separated from the real world with a magic barrier. Gensokyo is a crossroad of worlds where reality and dreams intertwine, where everything supernatural can live that cannot survive anywhere else. That's why Gensokyo is filled with yokai and has connection with Hell and Makai, the world of demons. At least, this is the PC-98 conception.

The story of this particular game is simple: someone messed up the Hakurei shrine with ghosts and monsters, and Hakurei Reimu, the main and only shrine maiden of the shrine, is heading off to find out who is behind this. She will meet the following characters:

- *Rika, a tank engineer* (Touhou 2 exclusive)
Rika doesn't have any deep motives, she just puts a test for her machines. She is also a boss of the Extra mode of the game.

- *Meira, Samurai of Darkness* (Touhou 2 exclusive)
Meira wants to get the power of Hakurei. Successfully got trolled by Reimu's lesbian hints.

- *Kirisame Marisa, Magician of Red Dreams* (a core character of the series, but only in this game she is red-haired)
Marisa is a greedy witch obsessed with power and magic, most likely, this is reason why she became Mima's pupil. In this game she got her first music theme - 21:33 - which went a long way after.

- *Mima, Vengeful Spirit* (a core character of the PC-98 gen Touhou games - ZUN, WHERE IS MIMA?!)
Mima is aiming vengeance against the entire human race. Became a little softer in later games where she was aiming vengeance against Reimu alone.

In fact, this is first story of the series ever, since the first Touhou game doesn't have a story at all (we only know that Reimu is doing her job as a shrine maiden, and she ended up in Hell or Makai chasing spirits... it is more like a trailer or a preview rather than a part of the series story).

I played as Reimu in Defensive formation. Unlike other Touhou games, there is no character selection, instead there are three different combat styles: Offensive, Defensive, and Mobile. And Defensive is where Reimu's famous tracking projectiles appeared which became one of her core features later.

When it comes to current Reimu's personality there is no much that can be said. She is a talanted shrine maiden, that's why she hates training. Other than that, she is quite a good girl, unlike later games of the series... Well, if you close your eyes to the fact how arrogant she behaves to a person much older than she is... And to the fact that she exhibits lesbian behavior...

Music is godly. It is always good in Touhou, but some of the tracks were going a long way after their games. In this particular game it is Kirisame Marisa's theme - 21:33

Flaws of the game... Yes, every game has its flaws, and even this one is not an exception. The first flaw, which is fixed in later games, is lack of the focus mode. Try to dodge everything without being able to slow the character. Enemies projectiles fly fast and absolutely unpredictaly, unlike other Touhou games where the patterns are much easier to understand. And when there are too many of the projectiles, the game starts work slower. You can say it is a typical thing for games, like more objects - less FPS, but no, it is NOT: only Reimu became slower while the enemies projectiles remain their speed. It is like the game decided to turn on its own focus mode. Although it can be a problem of the emulator I use.

Other than that, this is a perfect example that a retro game can remain to be a masterpiece even decades later.

Timecodes:

Intro - 0:00

Stage 1 - 0:33
Dialogue 1-1 - 3:09
Boss 1 - 4:11
Dialogue 1-2 - 4:46

Stage 2 - 5:18
Dialogue 2-1 - 8:03
Boss 2 - 9:40
Dialogue 2-2 - 10:35

Stage 3 - 11:33
Dialogue 3-1 - 14:20
Boss 3 - 15:00
Dialogue 3-2 - 16:17

Stage 4 - 16:37
Dialogue 4-1 - 19:19
Boss 4 - 22:32
Dialogue 4-2 - 25:04

Final stage - 25:52
Final dialogue - 26:19
Final boss - 28:32
Final boss (last stage) - 30:24

Ending - 31:20

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