Unknwn/Touhou

東方

Touhou Project (東方Project) is doujin bullet hell shoot 'em up series of games, which became phenomenon within otaku sphere, gained huge following, and spawned lot of fanworks, including derivative shmups. This is an overview page of Touhou series, since it's way too huge to embrace. Everything you want to know about Touhou, gameplay strategies and mechanical details, you can find on TouhouWiki.

Official Games
Most of Touhou games made by ZUN are build with same model in mind. Everything below is mostly true to Windows generation games, starting from "the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil".

Controls

 * Arrows - movement
 * Z - Fire, confirm
 * X - Use bomb, previous menu
 * C (some games) - Special ability
 * Shift — focus (slow movement and concentrated fire), shows hitbox
 * Esc - pause

Basic gameplay
In mainline Touhou games you control your character troughout 6 stages, shooting anything that moves, avoiding bullets and confronting bosses at the end of each stage. To achieve victory and good ending you must complete game without continues on Normal diffuculty or higher. It will also unlock Extra stage with additional boss.

Shot
A character's "shot" is the player's primary method of attacking enemies. The shot's attack area and behavior varies depending on the character and attack type the player has chosen, as well as the player's power level and whether the player is focused or unfocused.

Bomb
A character's "bomb" is the player's limited-use method of getting out of difficult situations. A bomb's attack area, duration, and power varies depending on the character type the player has chosen, but it typically deals heavy damage to every enemy it touches, in addition to canceling out any bullets in the bomb's way. The player's character becomes invincible during and for a short time after the bomb's effect wears off.

Deathbombing - After being hit by a bullet, the player is given a very brief window of time to bomb and negate their death. The "death" sound effect will play, and the bomb will then activate.

Lives
With default settings, you will start off with 3 lives. You can lose a life by getting "hit" by an enemy attack.

The hit box for your character is quite small in comparison to your on-screen sprite, approximately only 5 pixels by 5 pixels in size. If you hold Shift, a white dot will appear, showing the hitbox precisely. If the hit box of your character's sprite comes into contact with the hit box of an enemy bullet, laser, or the enemy itself, then you have been hit.

Way of obtaining extra lives is often unique for each game scoring system.

Point of Collection
There's a line most of the way up the screen called the point of collection. If you move your character at or above this line, all items on the screen will be drawn to your character. As with "Mountain of Faith" onward, you don't need to have full power or focus to use the POC – it's always available.

Boss Battles and Spell Cards
The main challenge and the main attraction. Each boss has multiple lives, which are represented by multiple health bars shown at the upper left of the screen. Bosses usually alternate between attacking normally and attacking with Spell Cards, switching once with each health bar. Coloured sections on the health bar indicate the start of a Spell Card attack when the boss' health is depleted that far.

Normal attacks are incrementally stronger versions of the boss character's basic attack. Spell Card attacks bedazzle the player with combinations of complex patterns that often involve the use of projectiles and obstacles crafted especially for use with that Spell Card. If the player manages to defeat a Spell Card attack without getting hit or using any bombs, a substantial score bonus is rewarded for the feat.

Each attack is accompanied by a timer. When time runs out, the boss will switch to their next attack pattern even if their health bar isn't empty. Waiting for a boss character's attack pattern to self-destruct may be enough to beat them, but mere survival won't earn the player any score bonuses.

When fighting a boss, a position marker shows up on the bottom margin of the screen, indicating where the boss is on the horizontal axis. Since your target can be completely obscured by bullets at times, use this marker to help you aim your shots.

Spell Card Bonus
Occasionally, a boss will attack using a spell card. You'll know this is happening when the background changes and the spell card's name appears in the upper right corner of the screen. If the boss's health bar is depleted within the time limit and without getting hit or using a bomb, the spell card bonus will be added to your score.

Grazing
"Grazing" is the act of having a bullet pass near one's hitbox. You can only graze a bullet once, so you won't gain any additional points or graze by following a bullet. Lasers can be continually grazed throughout their duration, but once again, moving around will not gain you any additional points or graze.