Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. is a Scrolling shooter game developed and published by Team Shanghai Alice. It is currently the 15th installment to the long-running Touhou Project series. The demo was first released in May 10, 2015 with a full release on August 14, 2015 at Comiket 88. It was released on Steam on April 1, 2019.
Gameplay
Like the previous games in the series, Legacy of the Lunatic Kingdom followed the previous main games within the Touhou Project series, with a spell card based danmaku system. The gameplay theme is neither novel nor retro. It is a "2000's neo-retro Danmaku shooter", creating simple gameplay while removing a lot of the complicated game mechanics. Four characters can be selected, each with their own storyline and their own shot system. Another new feature is the option to choose between Pointdevice Mode or Legacy Mode. In Pointdevice Mode, whenever the player dies, they have the option of restarting from the previous checkpoint, with almost no penalty, as many times as they like. Legacy Mode, on the other hand, plays like the rest of the games in the series, with the character given a set number of lives to clear the entire game. Pointdevice Mode makes it easier to clear the game, because a player can keep trying until they succeed, but aside from this feature, the game is much more difficult than normal. The author stated that he was inspired by games such as I Wanna BeThe Guy, which feature extreme difficulty combined with the ability to freely retry each stage. Also in the game is the chapter record feature which evaluates the overall score of the player in each stages. It works by recording how much the player grazes or took down enemies without retrying and getting shot. Percentage of the score depends on how much the player perform, which can give certain bonuses such as heart and bomb fragments.
Plot
Following the events of Urban Legend in Limbo, a weird probe crashes into Youkai Mountain and started to roam around. Reimu and Sanae decided to investigate the probe and found out it was of otherworldly origin. And worse, trees withered and mist fades as the probe passes by. At Eientei, Eirin and Kaguya are fully aware that this day would come for the Lunarians to take action to invade Gensokyo. In response, they prepared a special medicine and asked Reisen to deliver it to Reimu and her friends. Meanwhile, Marisa is still studying about the Occult Balls, finding out why one of them is different as Reisen appears with the medicine. With Gensokyo facing a new crisis, Reimu and the others must stop the one behind the incident.
Characters
Playable characters
Reimu Hakurei
Marisa Kirisame
Sanae Kochiya
Reisen Udongein Inaba
Boss characters
Seiran - Stage one boss. The moon rabbit Seiran is a military infiltrator of the Lunarians and member of the "Eagle Ravi" squad. She usually communicates to her kin via telepathy and makes Mochi for her comrades.
Ringo - Stage two boss. The moon rabbit Ringo is an informant of the Lunarian military and member of the "Eagle Ravi" squad. Being laid back and often chewing on mochi, she rarely fights her opponents until given permission.
Doremy Sweet - Stage 3 boss. Doremy Sweet is a baku and the manager of the dream world who has the power to control, erase, and create dreams. She guards the dream world herself for its order not to be disturbed.
Sagume Kishin - Stage 4 boss. A high-ranked Lunarian and goddess who has the power to reverse any situation just by speaking. This means that she always has to watch what she says.
Junko - Final boss. Junko is the embodiment of all hatred towards the Lunarian race, especially Chang'e, whose husband shot down the sun and killed Junko's son. She is friends with Hecatia Lapislazuli who sympathized with her as she holds a grudge against Chang'e as well. Based on the Chinese mythological figure Chunhu, who was one of the wives of Houyi, the sun-shooter.
Hecatia Lapislazuli - Extra Stage boss. Hecatia Lapislazuli is a goddess who governs the Hells of the Earths, the Moons, and the Spirit Worlds. Like Junko, she also has a grudge against Chang'e, whose husband shot down Apollo and indirectly weakened Hell, as Hell wouldn't be able to exist without the sun. She's friends with Junko, and lent her Clownpiece, her subordinate, to fulfill her plans. Based on the Greek goddess Hecate.
Development
ZUN first announced the game on his blog on April 22, 2015, confirming the title and the characters. He himself said that the game will have a huge departure from the original game's formula, and implementing "different" and challenging gameplay changes yet retaining the core elements of the series.
