Worth buying?

[Vantezzle]

I've recently been getting into roguelikes, and this one seems to have great Steam reviews, but the price is somewhat steep, so...Is the game worth it?How much content/replayability is there?

[Azami]

I'd say it's worth buying, maybe not at full price, but at a discount, yes.
There's enough content to keep you busy, even when you're done with main story because of Innocent Heart. (a 1000 Floor Dungeon.)

Lots of Player Characters to choose from and lots of partner synergies to fool around with.

Lots of items to use, and the soundtrack alone is really, really good.

[piccolo255]

I'd also say it's worth it. Many hundreds of hours of gameplay (then again, grindiness it's kinda inherent in roguelikes). There are many, many dungeons to unlock and items to find, craft, and improve (most dungeons allow bringing in items).

The game is also very, very polished, and the translation is superb. I speak fluent Japanese, so I can actually compare the JP voices with the EN text, and I seriously didn't know Japanese->English translations can be this good, heh. Just for that it would get my sincere recommendation :)

One thing to consider is that if you're not at least somewhat familiar with Touhou and/or Japanese mythology, you'll miss out on a lot of references, characterizations, and story elements. There's some explanation in the in-game "library", but I'm not sure how much it will help. The game kinda presupposes you know the personality and history of the characters. Like, if you're playing a Star Wars fan game, it's unlikely to have a detailed introduction for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo :)

If you're in it for the gameplay and the story is just a bonus, it doesn't matter much, although knowing the characters helps you remember the enemy special abilities (e.g., Yukari is a "gap youkai", so she can take stuff out of your storage gaps, Marisa steals stuffs, etc.) and weaknesses :) If you get interested and wish to fill in the gaps (heh) later, try https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Category:Characters .

Another thing: you don't need almost any of the DLCs. Most of them unlock new player characters and/or add a couple of items, which you'll want only if a) you're a die-hard Touhou fan (hi!), or b) get bored with the vanilla character selection. There are enough unlockable characters in vanilla to last you a while, so you can get DLCs later. The "Side story & Player character 'Sakuya Izayoi'" DLC is the only one that adds several new dungeons and a story, so that one may be worth a shot.

TL;DR: Get the base game (possibly on a sale). If you like it, get the Sakuya DLC. If you decide Touhou is awesome, get the rest of the DLCs and the original games -- they're on Steam now :)

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by Azami:

I'd say it's worth buying, maybe not at full price, but at a discount, yes.
There's enough content to keep you busy, even when you're done with main story because of Innocent Heart. (a 1000 Floor Dungeon.)

Lots of Player Characters to choose from and lots of partner synergies to fool around with.

Lots of items to use, and the soundtrack alone is really, really good.

Sounds good, appreciate your help!

Originally posted by piccolo255:

I'd also say it's worth it. Many hundreds of hours of gameplay (then again, grindiness it's kinda inherent in roguelikes). There are many, many dungeons to unlock and items to find, craft, and improve (most dungeons allow bringing in items).

The game is also very, very polished, and the translation is superb. I speak fluent Japanese, so I can actually compare the JP voices with the EN text, and I seriously didn't know Japanese->English translations can be this good, heh. Just for that it would get my sincere recommendation :)

One thing to consider is that if you're not at least somewhat familiar with Touhou and/or Japanese mythology, you'll miss out on a lot of references, characterizations, and story elements. There's some explanation in the in-game "library", but I'm not sure how much it will help. The game kinda presupposes you know the personality and history of the characters. Like, if you're playing a Star Wars fan game, it's unlikely to have a detailed introduction for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo :)

If you're in it for the gameplay and the story is just a bonus, it doesn't matter much, although knowing the characters helps you remember the enemy special abilities (e.g., Yukari is a "gap youkai", so she can take stuff out of your storage gaps, Marisa steals stuffs, etc.) and weaknesses :) If you get interested and wish to fill in the gaps (heh) later, try https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Category:Characters .

Another thing: you don't need almost any of the DLCs. Most of them unlock new player characters and/or add a couple of items, which you'll want only if a) you're a die-hard Touhou fan (hi!), or b) get bored with the vanilla character selection. There are enough unlockable characters in vanilla to last you a while, so you can get DLCs later. The "Side story & Player character 'Sakuya Izayoi'" DLC is the only one that adds several new dungeons and a story, so that one may be worth a shot.

TL;DR: Get the base game (possibly on a sale). If you like it, get the Sakuya DLC. If you decide Touhou is awesome, get the rest of the DLCs and the original games -- they're on Steam now :)

I am very much interested in the gameplay, and if you say there's hundreds of hours(I assume that like in most roguelikes, there's a lot of replayability and random generation?), that's actually amazing!

Translation quality is quite important so that's great.

But, admittedly you got me quite worried, as I don't know absolutely anything about Touhou(I've actually never heard about it), and I know very little about Japanese mythology, so I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it now...?

DLCs got me quite worried too, but I'm glad to hear that they aren't necessary.

Do you know how often the game goes on sale?

Either way, thanks for your detailed reply!

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

I am very much interested in the gameplay, and if you say there's hundreds of hours(I assume that like in most roguelikes, there's a lot of replayability and random generation?), that's actually amazing!

Indeed. I'm ~90 hours in, and barely scratched the surface :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

But, admittedly you got me quite worried, as I don't know absolutely anything about Touhou(I've actually never heard about it), and I know very little about Japanese mythology, so I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it now...?

Didn't mean to worry you! I believe that the game is good enough to stand on it's own; however, as a long-time (admittedly casual) Touhou fan, I'm not in a good position to judge that particular point :)

Just be aware that there is much unstated background behind the characters, so you'll miss many references to past events and such. It shouldn't impact enjoyment much -- it is a roguelike, after all -- but you may need additional reading if you want to fully grasp character interactions :) Thankfully, basics are explained in the in-game pedia.

Touhou itself is a series of "bullet hell" shooting games, famous for good music, interesting characters (almost exclusively female, naturally), and very difficult gameplay (I'm terrible at it, never clearing a single main series title :P). You can check out Steam screenshots (linked in my previous post) or Youtube, ~10 seconds is enough to understand the type of game it is. It got popular, and the creator is very easy-going, so there are hundreds of thousands of fan-made games (this being one of them), comics, music remixes (this game, of course, includes many), anime series, etc. It even has dedicated conventions[en.wikipedia.org].

As for Japanese (and Chinese) mythology, many characters are taken from there. The main character is a Shinto shrine maiden, there are Shinto Gods, youkai[en.wikipedia.org] (~demons, spirits), Buddhist priestesses, moon rabbits, etc., with a few western archetypes like vampires and magicians mixed in. You can mostly ignore the details, though there's a bunch of items and descriptions that use related terms. It can be useful for some variety and to broaden cultural horizons -- most roguelikes are based on European mythology :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Do you know how often the game goes on sale?

Sorry, I don't. I bought it during this year's summer sale, though, so I'd guess it goes on sale at least for the big sale events. IIRC, there's some website where you can check past sales for Steam games, so Googling that may help.

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Either way, thanks for your detailed reply!

You're welcome :)

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Originally posted by Tezzle:

I am very much interested in the gameplay, and if you say there's hundreds of hours(I assume that like in most roguelikes, there's a lot of replayability and random generation?), that's actually amazing!

Indeed. I'm ~90 hours in, and barely scratched the surface :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

But, admittedly you got me quite worried, as I don't know absolutely anything about Touhou(I've actually never heard about it), and I know very little about Japanese mythology, so I'm not sure if I'll enjoy it now...?

Didn't mean to worry you! I believe that the game is good enough to stand on it's own; however, as a long-time (admittedly casual) Touhou fan, I'm not in a good position to judge that particular point :)

Just be aware that there is much unstated background behind the characters, so you'll miss many references to past events and such. It shouldn't impact enjoyment much -- it is a roguelike, after all -- but you may need additional reading if you want to fully grasp character interactions :) Thankfully, basics are explained in the in-game pedia.

Touhou itself is a series of "bullet hell" shooting games, famous for good music, interesting characters (almost exclusively female, naturally), and very difficult gameplay (I'm terrible at it, never clearing a single main series title :P). You can check out Steam screenshots (linked in my previous post) or Youtube, ~10 seconds is enough to understand the type of game it is. It got popular, and the creator is very easy-going, so there are hundreds of thousands of fan-made games (this being one of them), comics, music remixes (this game, of course, includes many), anime series, etc. It even has dedicated conventions[en.wikipedia.org].

As for Japanese (and Chinese) mythology, many characters are taken from there. The main character is a Shinto shrine maiden, there are Shinto Gods, youkai[en.wikipedia.org] (~demons, spirits), Buddhist priestesses, moon rabbits, etc., with a few western archetypes like vampires and magicians mixed in. You can mostly ignore the details, though there's a bunch of items and descriptions that use related terms. It can be useful for some variety and to broaden cultural horizons -- most roguelikes are based on European mythology :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Do you know how often the game goes on sale?

Sorry, I don't. I bought it during this year's summer sale, though, so I'd guess it goes on sale at least for the big sale events. IIRC, there's some website where you can check past sales for Steam games, so Googling that may help.

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Either way, thanks for your detailed reply!

You're welcome :)

Yeah, explains why I've never heard about it, I absolutely hate bullet hell games :( Hopefully I'll enjoy this one though, as its not bullet hell..

Would you say it's worth full price?

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Yeah, explains why I've never heard about it, I absolutely hate bullet hell games :( Hopefully I'll enjoy this one though, as its not bullet hell..

I like 'em, but I have terrible reflexes, so I usually play turn-based games like this one :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Would you say it's worth full price?

I'd say so, yeah, if your wallet allows it.

I got it on sale, but with all DLCs, so even with a decent discount it was something like ~1.5x the full price of the base game :)

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Yeah, explains why I've never heard about it, I absolutely hate bullet hell games :( Hopefully I'll enjoy this one though, as its not bullet hell..

I like 'em, but I have terrible reflexes, so I usually play turn-based games like this one :)

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Would you say it's worth full price?

I'd say so, yeah, if your wallet allows it.

I got it on sale, but with all DLCs, so even with a decent discount it was something like ~1.5x the full price of the base game :)

Yeah, I'm actually physically disabled, so..Bullet hell games are impossible for me, I'm too slow.

I'm seriously tempted to buy this full price, especially with so much playtime potential..

[FusionDjango]

Well I've got almost 400 hours into the game and i still haven't done everything, there's a decent bit of grinding but a great deal of story as well.

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by FusionDjango:

Well I've got almost 400 hours into the game and i still haven't done everything, there's a decent bit of grinding but a great deal of story as well.

400!? And haven't done everything?How's that possible?

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Originally posted by FusionDjango:

Well I've got almost 400 hours into the game and i still haven't done everything, there's a decent bit of grinding but a great deal of story as well.

400!? And haven't done everything?How's that possible?

Equipment gets exp and levels up. Most dungeons, you can take items when going in (not very roguelike-ish, but it gives a sense of progression). There are hundreds of equips, and some of them "evolve" at certain levels, or can be used as materials to create other items, and sometimes recipes require items above a certain level (= exp grinding).

Equipment can also be "fused" with other items, to transfer seals (similar to socketed gems, they give items stats and abilities), exp, and bonuses.

There are many dungeons; their design is fairly simple, but there is a lot of visual variety and many different enemies with many different abilities. A 1000 floor bonus dungeon was also mentioned in the first reply -- I imagine that alone adds several hundred hours :)

(And considering there are some very difficult dungeons where you can't take items in, a.k.a., purely skill- and luck-based, you could possibly get the traditional roguelike "I've played this game for 10 years and never cleared it" experience I sometimes hear about nethack & co :) )

There are a lot of events, fully voiced (in Japanese). At least several dozen hours of dialogue.

From what I understand, it's also a kind of an "omnibus" title, it collects several previous games (and their DLCs) by the circle as side stories. (So far I cleared 3 of them.) Imagine if Blizzard made Diablo 4, and included the entire D1~3 as fully-functioning side areas you can play :)

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Originally posted by Tezzle:

400!? And haven't done everything?How's that possible?

Equipment gets exp and levels up. Most dungeons, you can take items when going in (not very roguelike-ish, but it gives a sense of progression). There are hundreds of equips, and some of them "evolve" at certain levels, or can be used as materials to create other items, and sometimes recipes require items above a certain level (= exp grinding).

Equipment can also be "fused" with other items, to transfer seals (similar to socketed gems, they give items stats and abilities), exp, and bonuses.

There are many dungeons; their design is fairly simple, but there is a lot of visual variety and many different enemies with many different abilities. A 1000 floor bonus dungeon was also mentioned in the first reply -- I imagine that alone adds several hundred hours :)

(And considering there are some very difficult dungeons where you can't take items in, a.k.a., purely skill- and luck-based, you could possibly get the traditional roguelike "I've played this game for 10 years and never cleared it" experience I sometimes hear about nethack & co :) )

There are a lot of events, fully voiced (in Japanese). At least several dozen hours of dialogue.

From what I understand, it's also a kind of an "omnibus" title, it collects several previous games (and their DLCs) by the circle as side stories. (So far I cleared 3 of them.) Imagine if Blizzard made Diablo 4, and included the entire D1~3 as fully-functioning side areas you can play :)

I guess that makes sense really, sounds like I should definitely get the 30€ worth in content/playtime. :D

[FusionDjango]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Equipment gets exp and levels up. Most dungeons, you can take items when going in (not very roguelike-ish, but it gives a sense of progression). There are hundreds of equips, and some of them "evolve" at certain levels, or can be used as materials to create other items, and sometimes recipes require items above a certain level (= exp grinding).

Equipment can also be "fused" with other items, to transfer seals (similar to socketed gems, they give items stats and abilities), exp, and bonuses.

There are many dungeons; their design is fairly simple, but there is a lot of visual variety and many different enemies with many different abilities. A 1000 floor bonus dungeon was also mentioned in the first reply -- I imagine that alone adds several hundred hours :)

(And considering there are some very difficult dungeons where you can't take items in, a.k.a., purely skill- and luck-based, you could possibly get the traditional roguelike "I've played this game for 10 years and never cleared it" experience I sometimes hear about nethack & co :) )

There are a lot of events, fully voiced (in Japanese). At least several dozen hours of dialogue.

From what I understand, it's also a kind of an "omnibus" title, it collects several previous games (and their DLCs) by the circle as side stories. (So far I cleared 3 of them.) Imagine if Blizzard made Diablo 4, and included the entire D1~3 as fully-functioning side areas you can play :)

I guess that makes sense really, sounds like I should definitely get the 30€ worth in content/playtime. :D

Definitely, i've beaten all the story plus the dlc side story but yeah still got a few dozen dungeons, the 1000 floor dungeon, equipment plus achievements to get and if you like it there's also trading cards.

[Vantezzle]

Originally posted by FusionDjango:

Originally posted by Tezzle:

I guess that makes sense really, sounds like I should definitely get the 30€ worth in content/playtime. :D

Definitely, i've beaten all the story plus the dlc side story but yeah still got a few dozen dungeons, the 1000 floor dungeon, equipment plus achievements to get and if you like it there's also trading cards.

Well, ended up buying the game! If I'll get at least a quarter of your playtime, I'm happy.

[piccolo255]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Well, ended up buying the game! If I'll get at least a quarter of your playtime, I'm happy.

Good luck! If you have any questions about gameplay or setting/characters, feel free to ask :)

If you find the opening somewhat confusing, I suggest giving at least a cursory once-over to the following articles:
Gensokyo[en.touhouwiki.net] (setting)
Great Hakurei Barrier[en.touhouwiki.net] (setting)
Reimu Hakurei[en.touhouwiki.net] (main protagonist)
Rinnosuke Morichika[en.touhouwiki.net] (first boss)
No spoilers, just some background information (unless you wiki-walk to this game's page, I guess :) ).

[FusionDjango]

Originally posted by Tezzle:

Originally posted by FusionDjango:

Definitely, i've beaten all the story plus the dlc side story but yeah still got a few dozen dungeons, the 1000 floor dungeon, equipment plus achievements to get and if you like it there's also trading cards.

Well, ended up buying the game! If I'll get at least a quarter of your playtime, I'm happy.

Good to hear, i hope you enjoy the game.