I love the official Touhou fighting games collab between Twilight Frontier and Shanghai Alice. Never was a fan of button-mashing fighters, and the blend between bullets and melee there is excellent. But it just doesn't seem to retain the classic bullet-crazy gameplay in the original games (unless you're fighting Yukari in story mode. She still rains danmaku at you even where you don't have a tiny hitbox).
Then I heard of
Mystical Chain, a Touhou fangame by Lion Heart (awesome circle name, by the way). It's a single-player fighting-platformer game where you can play as two of the three playable magicians: Marisa "MASTER SPAAARK" Kirisame, Alice Margatroid, and Patchouli Knowledge, switching around between the two chosen characters as you like, preferably strategically.
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| Video is always better than screenshot for action-based game, but I don't have time to capture one, so... |
The game, last I heard, consist of 5 chapters, each with 4 regular levels and 1 double boss fight. The regular levels is where you get to fight random encounters like fairies and ghosts, each with different attacks ranging from downright incompetent to
really annoying. And when they get annoying, you will hate them. You will wish there's some way to just skip the whole level. You will wish that there's some way to spam Master Spark, assuming you're playing as Marisa.
But the boss fight is where the game matters. In each fight, you will usually get to battle a pair of bosses, who may or may not work together, who may or may not pay attention to where they are attacking. These boss fights will be split into spellcards segments, with the boss(es) using different attacks in each. And here, is where the bullets will splatter the screen.
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| Kaguya is trying to kill Mokou. You magicians have nothing to do with this. |
Obviously, with hitboxes that big, you're not expecting the bullets to be really heavy, are you? Well, these bullets also (usually) have a set pattern, just like in the original game. There will also be a point in the spellcard where the bosses will be at their most vulnerable, where they will be knocked out when hit. The goal here is to understand the pattern and to attack them as they become vulnerable, utilizing both characters, their abilities, and maximized teamwork. So it's basically more like a puzzle boss fight than a... fighting game boss fight.
Or you can just use your own (limited, but chargeable) spellcard when you want to end it quickly. You still have to attack them at their weak moment to end a spellcard, but it'll save you some time and rage.
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| Master Spark solves all your problems |
All in all, while I find the non-boss fight to be annoying and time-consuming, I really do enjoy this game. The heavy emphasis on bullets and spellcards in a platformer-fighting game is wonderful. And the character-switching mechanic makes it a whole more... strategical, I guess? If you want a bullet-esque single-player-only Touhou fighter with more emphasis on puzzling your way out than button-mashing, or something along that line, I'd recommend the game.
Just wish it has some kind of co-op. At least you can justify the whole teamwork thing. Makes no sense when you have to work together with yourself.
Handy Tip:
1. Never, ever, press the Escape button unless you really want to. It'll automatically turn the game off, no comma, no prompts.
2. Ignore your finger's common sense to press Escape when you want to pause, and press Space instead. You'll be happy you do.
3. Unless you've been to that level before, do not exit through the menu or the Escape button, as it won't save your progress
Download:
I highly suggest buying the original game if you like it, and if you can. No English Patch yet, but you won't have much trouble playing.
Link
