Touhou Suimusou ~ Immaterial and Missing Power., commonly abbreviated as IaMP in English speaking circles, is a versus fighting game collaboratively developed by Twilight Frontier and Team Shanghai Alice released in 2004. It is numbered as the 7.5th installment in the Touhou Project because the events in the game take place between Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night, although it was released after Imperishable Night.
Gameplay
IaMP is unique within the Touhou Project series in that it is a fighting game instead of the usual bullet hell. The game is also unique among fighting games for its heavy slant towards projectiles, tracing the series' shoot 'em up roots. IaMP has a "graze" function, unique among the versus fighting genre, that allows the player to dash through projectiles unharmed provided the character has enough energy to do so. Not all projectiles can be grazed, however. Spell cards, in this game, are s that have to be announced before they can be used. Each character can choose 1 out of 3 normal spell cards and 1 out of 3 overdrive spell cards to use before a match starts. The overdrive spell card replaces the normal spell card when the player's character has been defeated once. Also, when a spell card is announced, the player's HP replenishes for a certain amount. In the story mode, there are spell cards that are available only to the enemy characters. A spell card can be "collected" when the player defeats the enemy character in a limited amount of time when the enemy's spell card is in effect, and that collected spell card would appear in a gallery in true Touhou fashion.
Plot
In the beginning of summer in Gensokyo, a reclusive realm in the far east, there occurred an incident called the Night Parade of Ten Thousand Demons Every Four Days. In this incident, the cherry trees have since shed their blossoms, but the hanami kept on going, with feasts being hosted day after day with no end in sight. Adding onto that, every time the feast is held, an unknown restless spiritual aura in Gensokyo also increases; however, nothing happens even while the spiritual aura rises, but when the spiritual aura rises, not a single person attempts to stop the feasts. As such, everyone who goes to the feast, be it human or yōkai, appear to be very suspicious. Three days before the next feast, the heroines set out, each on their own, and attempt to investigate.
Characters
Eleven characters are available for play; all but one are returning characters from previous games.
Reimu Hakurei : The miko of the Hakurei Shrine and perennial protagonist of the Touhou Project. She is troubled by the constant feasts in the shrine that she has to host, and goes to attack whoever she thinks is making her host all the feast.
Marisa Kirisame : A magician who is another long-time protagonist of the Touhou Project. She acts as the secretary in charge of the feasts, though she has no idea why Gensokyo's having so many feasts.
Alice Margatroid : Another magician whose speciality is puppets. This is her first try at exorcism. She was originally from the PC-98 game Mystic Square but her current design and characterization was from Perfect Cherry Blossom
Patchouli Knowledge : A witch of the Scarlet Devil Mansion who does not usually go out of her library. This time, however, she took responsibility in investigating the mist that has been blanketing Gensokyo.
Youmu Konpaku : A half-human half-ghost introduced in Perfect Cherry Blossom. Like Reimu, she goes slashing the suspects with her sword.
Remilia Scarlet : A vampire who is thought to be one of the prime suspects in creating the strange mist, because she did it once before in The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
Yuyuko Saigyouji : The ghost princess of the netherworld from Perfect Cherry Blossom. She is another one of the prime suspects.
Yukari Yakumo : A wandering yōkai who was introduced in Perfect Cherry Blossom who was never invited to the feasts but comes anyway.
Suika Ibuki : The new character of Immaterial and Missing Power, she is an oni who loves drinks, feasts, and competition like the rest of her race. Despite her small size, she is strong in strength, speed, and mystic powers; she is also several hundred years old. Using her ability to control density, she can gather people to form a banquet, or she can scatter herself to become mist. In Immaterial and Missing Power, she made the residents of Gensokyo have feasts one night after another, intending to draw the joyous oni from hiding.
Hong Meirin : A Chinese-like yōkai returning from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil that was included in one of the new patches of the game. She has no story mode.
Production
Unabara Iruka of the Twilight Frontier team had wanted to make a fighting game with aerial battles similar to and Astra Superstars, but felt that creating a whole set of characters and the setting just for the game would be too overwhelming. Unabara felt that such a game would not feel out of place in the setting of Touhou, and so he sought out ZUN, the sole member of Team Shanghai Alice, to collaborate on a Touhou fighting game. Unlike the main line of Touhou games where the character artwork is drawn by ZUN, the dialogs, character sprites, and ending artwork in Immaterial and Missing Power are drawn by alphes from the Twilight Frontier team. Team Shanghai Alice was responsible for character design, the plot, stage design, system graphics, spellcard naming, and a portion of the soundtrack while Twilight Frontier took care of the rest. On April 1, 2004, Twilight Frontier announced they would make a Touhou fighting game named Exciting Touhou 2. In its introduction page , the group provided a trailer and screenshots of that game, which appeared to be a version of WWE SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain with Touhou characters. A day after the April Fool's Day, Twilight Frontier announced the production of IaMP with Team Shanghai Alice. The soundtrack of the game was compiled into an album named Gensōkyoku Bassui which was sold on August 14, 2005. A significant portion of the soundtrack were remixes of existing Touhou songs.
