Small thoughts on 東方紅魔郷 ～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Windows, 2002)

Hello! Recently I've been replaying a game from my middle and high school days: Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil! This came out for Windows PCs in August 2002. If you're familiar with Touhou, then you already know how it goes as this is probably the most popular Touhou game. For those that aren't, this is a vertical danmaku (bullet hell) shooting game that started back on the PC-98 series of home computers and are some of the most popular doujin (self-published) games. Think of games like DonPachi or other CAVE shooting games (What? You don't know those either!? Do you people even play video games?). This is the sixth game in the series.

Anyways, the game's plot is there is a sudden red mist that appears during a summer in Gensokyo that blocks out the sun and changes the climate of the land. The source of the red mist is from the vampire mistress of a western-style mansion called the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The red-white Hakurei Shrine maiden, Hakurei Reimu, and her black-white best friend that's a magician, Kirisame Marisa, go out and investigate. Yeah, Touhou plot is kind of simple and the characters are too, but it's a shooting game made to be like the ones in old school arcades so I don't mind too much.

As I've said before, this is THE Touhou game. It's basic compared to games we have now, but this was the first game after the PC-98 era, so it kind of takes after those while being fresh at the same time. You have your two bomb types alongside two playable characters. Reimu A is good against regular enemies, Reimu B has a screen wipe (making her the best choice in this game), Marisa A is a boss killer, and Marisa B is very bomb focused. In the Afterword file of the game, series creator ZUN says that he wasn't a fan of the danmaku shooting games that were coming out at the time, so he strived to create a nice and simple game while just focusing on making dodging bullets fun. I think he achieved that goal quiet well otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here talking about this game LOL.

Now I will be going over the characters as that's kind of the main appeal of Touhou:

STAGE 1 BOSS: 宵闇の妖怪 Rumia
Stage BGM: ほおずきみたいに紅い魂
Boss BGM: 妖魔夜行
A child-like youkai who can manipulate darkness. Nothing much to say about her because she's easy. Her boss BGM is catchy though and it's very silly which fits Rumia.

STAGE 2 BOSS: 湖上の氷精 Cirno
Stage BGM: ルーネイトエルフ
Boss BGM: おてんば恋娘
Ice fairy who can use the powers of cold, but often uses them for pranks and other shenanigans. Very stupid and weak. One of the most popular characters in the fandom and I honestly don't really like her all that much. I think she's annoying, but it's crazy how badass ZUN made her look in her art LOL. She never looks like this ever again outside this and the next game.

STAGE 3 BOSS: 華人小娘 Hong Meiling
Stage BGM: 上海紅茶館 ～ Chinese Tea
Boss BGM: 明治十七年の上海アリス
Youkai that's extremely skilled in martial arts who's the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She has a tendency to be lazy though... Anyways, being Chinese is kind of her main gimmick. However, she's one of my favorite characters in the series and I hate how underrepresented she is and the fandom makes fun of her a lot. Her stage BGM is one of the best songs in the series despite the fact it's not that Chinese sounding and her boss BGM is pretty good too. She's a whole ass Street Fighter character which makes sense because Street Fighter II is one of the games that inspired ZUN the most to compose game music.

STAGE 4 BOSS: 知識と日陰の少女 Patchouli
Stage BGM: ヴワル魔法図書館
Boss BGM: ラクトガール ～ 少女密室
Scarlet Devil Mansion's own librarian who's a witch. Because of how much magical ability she has, she cannot perform much physical tasks. I think her stage is really annoying. I like when fanartists draw her thicc LOL.

STAGE 5 BOSS: 紅魔館のメイド Izayoi Sakuya
Stage BGM: メイドと血の懐中時計
Boss BGM: 月時計 ～ ルナ・ダイアル
Throwing knife-wielding head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion who has the ability to stop time. Another one who's one of the most popular characters in the series. She's pretty much Dio mixed with one of the maids from Sarai (which her design was plagiarized from). Otherwise, she's one of the most mysterious characters in the series as we still don't know all about her back story. My theory is she's a former vampire hunter who was made to submit to her mistress due to her knives having been revealed to be made of silver in one of the series' supplementary works. Anyways, ZUN calls her boss BGM "poetical private rock" styled which I guess makes sense since her spell cards are references to the Jack the Poetical Private novel series.

STAGE 6 BOSS: 永遠に紅い幼き月 Remilia Scarlet
Stage BGM: ツェペシュの幼き末裔
Boss BGM: 亡き王女の為のセプテット
Good old Remilia Scarlet. She's the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and responsible for the red mist. She's a vampire who can seemingly manipulate fate (I don't buy it though considering that she didn't manipulate fate so that she could win against Reimu LOL). Anyways, she's what makes this game Castlevania: The Shooting Game. Even her boss BGM is super Castlevania-like (I'm positive ZUN highly respects Castlevania music like most Japanese game BGM composers as he puts references to it in a lot of his songs). Said BGM is also another one of the best Touhou tracks ever made. Speaking of Castlevania, Remilia claims to be a descendent of Vlad Tepes (Count Dracula), but ZUN says she's lying LMFAO.

EXTRA STAGE BOSS: 悪魔の妹 Flandre Scarlet
Stage BGM: 魔法少女達の百年祭
Boss BGM: U.N.オーエンは彼女なのか？
The most popular character in the series. She's Remilia's sister who has overwhelming power that she doesn't know how to control, so she's often locked in the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Her Boss BGM is also probably the most popular BGM in the series as it's been memed to death. Even if you don't know Touhou Project, you probably heard this song. The McDonalds Donarudo MAD on NicoNico Douga is probably what most people know of this. It's a good tune, but I find it overrated. I think she's only had 2 appearances in official games...

Anyways, thanks for reading my short and sweet look back at Touhou 6. I don't really play Touhou at all anymore and don't interact with the fandom as they probably all forgot about me LOL, but I do have fond memories of the games.