While Touhou 16 (東方天空璋 ～ Hidden Star in Four Seasons), the first of the series to come to Steam despite being the 25th currently released entry to the Touhou Project series, is not my favorite game title of the series, but is part of one of my favorite game series of all time. It's not for everyone, so this review is targeted for those jumping into the world of Gensokyo for the very first time.

First of all, let me say that if you are trying this game for the first time, play the game on Easy. This is not one of those games that's beginner friendly on Normal, and the Easy difficult is designed for people who have never played a Shoot 'em Up (shump) genre game before, and even if you have, Touhou's different enough from the genre to warrant an Easy playthrough to see what you're getting into. To put it as the YouTuber NakaTeeleli did: "Easy is hard, Normal is really freaking hard, Hard is tearing-your-hair-out hard, and Lunatic is... actually quite fitting." This is essentially Touhou in a nutshell for many beginners.

There is a dedicated English patching program out there found here[www.thpatch.net] and it's what I will be judging the dialogue of the game on (also good to read the in-game manual with). Simply put, the genre of the game makes dialogue and story really simple and straight-forward, sometimes leaving meanfulness behind. Even with the four different characters to choose from, dialogue is quick, straight forward, frank, and even blunt at times. The game has a story prologue found in the physical manual of the game, but is translated here[en.touhouwiki.net], and gives some intro insight into the game's story proper if you get into it English patched so you aren't totally lost in the narative.

Those four characters to choose from are based on the various seasons, and each character has their own choice of four sub-shot types also based on seasons. This gives the game variety in shot types, but as many who play this game can tell you, certain combos are better than others, so a good way to get a feel for each shot type is to play each character with their sub-shot matching their respective season. Gameplay basically consists of many mostly slow projectiles attacks (referred to in the series as "danmaku") woven in intricate patterns requiring players to dodge in a various manor of ways with some being static patterns, projectiles aimed at your position, or a mixture of both. In-game, your player character's hitbox (shown by pressing Shift if you're using keyboard controls) must not get hit by the danmaku projectiles or you will lose a life.

Difficulty curbes in the later half of the six stages outside of the unlockable Extra Stage which is unlocked upon a full clear of those stages. In-game, you start with a set of two lives (represented by hearts, more gained by scoring at values under the hearts), three bombs (represented by stars), 1.00 Power (maxes at 4.00 w/ "P" items), 10,000 point's score value (represented as "点" items), and the last value being "Graze" which increases when a danmaku projectile passes close by your character (having more multiplies score the more you graze). The goal the game sets is for players to clear the game without running out of all your lives by the end of stage six. While you can continue after a game over, which is highly recommended for practice, beating the game under a continue results in a Bad Ending, so the goal is to get the Good Ending across the multiple difficulties. Don't expect to beat the game your first try difficulty go because a lot of the game has pattern memorization that's really needed for some attacks, so make use of those Practice and Spell Practice modes; they're a godsend in overcoming some of the difficult hurdles every player faces. Easy to understand as this is, this game is still very difficult, and I mean REALLY difficult. It may take you years of practice to reach a high difficulty levels. For some folks this kind of struggle isn't worth it, but for others, myself included, getting to that level of skill is one of the most thrilling/rewarding/gratifying gaming experiences out there today. It is for this reason I highly recommend playing the Touhou Project series, more than just this game too; there are entries out there, and all have their own mechanics, quirks, and charms!

To close this review piece, one of the major things to note about this game is the music. While many will say with good reason that all the games, even the first five games back in the NEC PC-9801 system have great music, this game's score in particular is considered exceptionally great, and a wonderful listening experience (even as I write this review, I'm listening to music in the in-game music room!). Touhou is the kind of game with such memorable music. It's spawned a phenomenon in game music alone with millions of fan arrangements. The music of the original games is still music that has such a stand-out unique style to it, and is brilliantly composed. Even if the game isn't for you, it's very worth your time to hear the soundtrack to this game and the rest of the series. Seriously, GO LISTEN TO THE TOUHOU PROJECT'S MUSIC, IT IS SO OUTSTANDING.

I very highly recommend playing the Touhou Project series if it's your cup of tea. You can actually buy a physically copy of the game also, but if you buy it on Steam, it's more direct support to the series' creator Jun'ya Ota (who goes by the pseudonym ＺＵＮ). This series is not only prolific with plenty of games to its name, but the mainline series of shump games are made exclusively by ZUN; he acts as a one-man team which gives these game a true charm for they are games he wanted to truly make. The series has also a fair share of fighting games if you're a fan of those games handled by Twilight Frontier, too (東方憑依華　～ Antinomy of Common Flowers by them is coming to Steam too!). The creator has inspired so many where he not only made the game's engine and programming by himself from scratch, but also composed, drew, wrote, and tested (sometimes with help) the games he made all by himself. He's also a successful story writer who has written one fiction novel, nine amazing official comics spanning of four series, two short stories and comics (as bonus material to his works) and 6 artbooks. While all the art in this literature from artists brough on to help (two of which have their art featured in official games). The fact that ZUN's influence has allowed for artist to speak their wonderful personal stories of working with ZUN and how great it is to work with him, it speaks volumes on the influence ZUN has had on people with his series.

ZUN's works has changed lives and inspired countless fan contributed work all of which ZUN allows under his series' Terms of Use[en.touhouwiki.net]. He helped popular fan games come to consoles like the Playstation 4 and the Nintendo Switch, and set wonderful attitude towards fan works that game designers of today should absolutely take notes on. The Touhou Project is more than just a game series folks, it is a varitable phenomenon the likes of which this review will never do full justice.

With that all said, I hope you enjoy Touhou. Its creator is my personal hero, and I'd like to thank him, the people that work with him, the fans that asked Touhou to come to Steam, for the success this game alone has had on Steam, the Touhou Patchers who keep releasing English patches to enjoy, the Touhou Wiki (that I linked to) for being such a fantastic resource for all information Touhou, a good friend who helped me proofread this review, and to the fellow fans who enjoy Touhou with me.

Thank you in advance for the reading my first review, folks! Have fun playing Touhou! ^^

After all these years I can finally buy ZUN a beer.

Not an English speaker, be patient please. :)

If you love game, please don’t miss this game!!!
This game is not only a game, but also a symbol of the Doujin game culture!!!!

I am also a Touhou doujin game developer. I have been making Touhou for more than 8 years. Now we have a team of about 10 people, we are keep making games happily every day!

We have spent years to build a Touhou doujin game, just because we love creating games, and we love Touhou.

What Touhou attracts me is not only because the gameplay and story, but also the spirit of the developer ZUN ---- His attitude about game creation keep encouraging us to make our game become true, and we made it!

I’m sure that Touhou is going to making doujin game great again, and steam is going to make Touhou great again!

This game appears on steam also meanings, more and more doujin game will be able to be on steam, it’s absolutely a big milestone for doujin game circle!!!!

We enjoy Touhou, and we enjoy making Touhou doujin game. Thank you! ZUN!
We will never regret following you.

After we get ZUN's approval, our own Touhou doujin game might be on Steam too! Welcome and have a try at that time! (It's very hard though~)

PS:
Also big thanks to Mediascape's people who made big efforts on putting this game on steam. :P

I owe ZUN a lot more than $15

The more Touhou we buy, the more beer ZUN can buy.
The more beer ZUN can buy, the drunker he gets.
The drunker he gets, the more Touhou he makes.
And the cycle begins anew.

Born too late to explore the Earth,
Born too early to explore the universe,
Born just in time to play 2hu legally on steam

Welcome to the world of Touhou.

I absolutely love this series and am happy for it to finally be available on steam. Be aware that the game is in Japanese, but there are easy ways to patch the game. I recommend gatting the one here:
https://www.thpatch.net/wiki/Touhou_Patch_Center:Download

Is it the best Touhou? No.
Is it the worst Touhou? No.
Is it easily obtainable outside of Japan? YES.
Here's hoping for more Touhou on Steam.

Yes! I can finally give some beer money to Zun.

Give ZUN his well deserved beer money. I pray that in the future they add achievements and trading cards.