Touhou Project 08: Imperishable Night

GAME: Touhou Project 08: Imperishable Night
DEVELOPER: Team Shanghai Alice
PUBLISHER: Team Shanghai Alice
PLATFORM: PC (Windows 98/ME/2000/XP)
RELEASE DATE: August 15, 2004
GENRE: Danmaku "Bullet Hell" Shooter

 

Cover art, showing the silhouettes of a couple characters.

 

Short Review:

Addictive gameplay and charming characters will keep you coming back for more, despite the punishing difficulty.

 

Long Review:

Imperishable Night is the eighth official game in the Touhou series. For those that don't know, Touhou is a vertical shooting game made by one-man-developer-team Team Shanghai Alice, made famous in Japan for its large cast of characters, addicting gameplay mechanics, amazing soundtrack, and of course, ridiculous difficulty.

 

GAMEPLAY

 

The term "danmaku" literally means "curtain-fire". As in, a lot of bullets. The main gameplay premise is simple; use the arrow keys to move, hold Z to fire, X to unleash a spellcard (bomb), hold Shift to focus (focusing slows your movement and changes your attacks), and try your best not to get hit by the oncoming onslaught of bullets. However, that last part can be quite the problem when your entire screen is covered in bullets, lasers, beams, and whatever else your enemies are trying to kill you with. Getting hit even once results in a loss of a life.

 

A typical boss fight in Touhou. Keep in mind, this is NORMAL MODE. There's two difficulties higher than this.

 

While Imperishable Night's gameplay is highly similar to earlier Touhou games, two new features set it apart from other games in the series. The first is that rather than controlling one character, you control a team of two characters; one human, one phantom ("phantom" being used as a general term to describe the non-humans on the team; could range anywhere from ghosts to youkai to vampires). When you're not focusing, you'll be using your human character; when focused, you switch to your phantom character. This is represented by the phantom gauge in the bottom-left corner of the screen; when you fire, kill enemies, or collect items as a human, the mark on the gauge moves to the left (towards -100%). When you do those things as your phantom, the mark moves to the right (towards 100%).

 

Which brings me to the next new mechanic; time. The game begins at 11 PM, and each time you clear a stage, one hour is taken off the clock. Each time you lose all of your lives and choose to continue, a half-hour is taken off. If the clock reaches 5 AM before you beat the game, you lose, and must start over. It is, however, possible to reduce the time taken for each level from one hour to a half-hour. On the right side of the screen, there's a fraction marked "Time", which shows you how many time orbs you have, and how many you should try to get during the stage. You can get time orbs with a few methods; most can be acquired by performing well during the boss fights, but you can also get many through proper manipulation of the phantom gauge. When it's below -80%, you can acquire time orbs simply by attacking enemies. When it's above 80%, you can get time orbs by grazing bullets (moving close enough to a bullet so that your character touches it, but their hitbox does not).

 

The gameplay also changes a little depending on your team. They each have different attacks, movement speed, and general behavior, as well as some special features that distinguish them from the others. For instance, one team specializes in homing attacks and has a smaller hitbox than the others, which makes them great for dodging more dense danmaku.

 

All in all, the gameplay is simple, yet addictive and difficult.

 

Did I mention it's difficult?

 

STORY & CHARACTERS

 

Stories in Touhou generally aren't the most enticing, but they're always charming, humorous, and well-written. Imperishable Night, however, does have an enticing story to back it up, mainly based on the old Japanese folklore of Kaguya-hime (which you can read about here if you'd like).

 

The story and character interaction changes slightly depending on what team you pick, and Touhou is often praised for its great characters. Your choices for teams are:

 

Illusionary Border team: Made up of the shrine maiden/main protagonist Reimu Hakurei, and her friend Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries. Yukari's shikigami (familiar) Ran Yakumo also tags along. Arguably the canon story, and has the most serious dialogue.

Aria of Magic team: Made up of the powerful magician Marisa Kirisame and her loner friend Alice Margatroid. The most humorous dialogue, due to Marisa's lying, bragging nature and Alice's general disdain for other people.

Scarlet Devil team: Made up of the elegant maid Sakuya Izayoi and her mistress Remilia Scarlet, who is an alleged descendent of Tepes (Dracula). Due to the circumstances (specifically, the never-ending night) and her nature as a vampire, Remilia is often mistaken to be the culprit behind the current problems.

Netherworld Dwellers team: Made up of the half-ghost swordswoman/gardener Youmu Konpaku and the netherworld's princess Yuyuko Saigyouji. Situations involving the two of them are quite weird, due to Youmu's serious nature and strong sense of justice contrasting with Yuyuko's childlike behavior, naivety, and ditziness.

 

The playable cast of Imperishable Night, conveniently placed next to and outlined with the same color as their teammate. Pink = the boundary team (not pictured: Ran Yakumo), yellow = the magic team, red = the scarlet devil team, and blue = the netherworld team.

 

DESIGN & PRESENTATION

 

ZUN's (the creator of Touhou and sole member of Team Shanghai Alice) artwork and style are beautiful, as shown by the gorgeous environments and 3D backgrounds... unfortunately, his penchant for art doesn't extend to drawing people.

 

Well, sure, the people aren't well-drawn... but look at the pretty background!

 

As I said before, the soundtrack is to die for. Each and every character that you fight (as well as a couple player characters) has their own amazing theme song. Coupled with the great stage-specific music, even the pickiest gamers will love Imperishable Night's soundtrack. Some songs such as Lunatic Eyes ~ Invisible Full Moon have even gone on to become internet phenomena.

 

VALUE

 

It'd be hard to determine the value of a rare, somewhat old, Japan-exclusive indie game. From what I've seen, games can range from around $20-$40 USD (not bad for a game that has to be imported). While Imperishable Night's main story doesn't have all that much content, it has great replay value, four difficulties (though despite their names, they can all be considered hard), and a few extra modes for you to challenge. It's actually quite a lot of content for the price.

 

THE VERDICT

 

Generally speaking, Touhou is probably the best game you've never heard of (most people tend to think it's an anime). There's very little wrong with the game, so it nets an impressive and well-deserved 9.5 out of 10.

 

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10