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touhou ~ concealed the conclusion.

hello! welcome to my ramble on the touhou fangame, concealed the conclusion!

if you don't know anything about touhou, feel free to read but a LOT of things won't make sense to you, so just be weary! also this is a fangame and isn't official.
OBVIOUS SPOILERS FOR THE GAME AND STORY!!!

you have been warned!



so, where do i begin? conceal the conclusion is basically a doujin game for touhou project, featuring marisa kirisame as the only playable character, though she has multiple shot types, each showing different scenarios of the story. i didn't play the game myself, but i watched a playthrough of someone playing it on lunatic difficulty, and my god it is NOT easy. of course there's battles that are significantly easier than the majority, but it always keeps you on your toes in a way.

in the story, reimu hakurei has gone missing, and she's not at home. marisa finds this out and seeks to find her, discovering that reimu has died, and that gensokyo is crumbling at the seams. it's based on the theory that if reimu, the hakurei shrine maiden, were to disappear through any means, gensokyo would be thrown into absolute peril. this is due to the fact that the hakurei shrine, i'd imagine, welds the power of the great hakurei barrier, the barrier that separates gensokyo from the outside world. if the shrine is not maintained and its power is weakened, gensokyo will fall.

so, basically throughout all of the scenarios, marisa goes to different areas to try and find reimu. here's a quick summary of the main events:
in scenario A, marisa goes to the scarlet devil mansion, to go see if remilia scarlet, the vampire mistress of the mansion, knows of reimu's whereabouts. she is unsuccessful, later going to the library in the mansion, meeting the librarian, patchouli knowledge. patchouli tells marisa that reimu has died, and has been for a while. she says it's possible to revive her, but it'll be quite difficult due to how special reimu is. marisa afterwards goes to hakugyokurou.

in scenario B, marisa goes to eientei, eventually going through fighting mokou, kaguya, reisen, and eirin, before meeting tewi, the lucky rabbit of the bamboo forest. surprisingly, tewi tells marisa the correct direction to go, and says that marisa, like reimu, is also dead. also, tewi makes a matrix reference in this scenario, which i thought was funny.

in scenario C, marisa goes to muenzuka, eventually meeting the yama of hell, eiki shiki, who directs marisa into the right direction, but also takes times to lecture her, as she is known for doing. marisa then leaves to do her final good deed.

in scenario D, as marisa heads off, she encounters mima, an evil spirit who was once marisa's mentor, who of which wants to play with marisa. refusing to be mima's servant once again, marisa barely wins against her and flees to yuuka kazami's mansion, mugakan, where marisa and yuuka briefly battle. she then goes to makai, meeting alice margatroid, a puppeteer magician. alice says that the link between makai and gensokyo is closing, and invites marisa to stay in makai with her. marisa refuses, insistent on finding reimu, and they both fight. afterwards, alice says she fought to remain in marisa's memory, then finally revealing reimu's location.

at the end of these scenarios, marisa heads over to the netherworld, climbing the endless staircase to hakugyokurou, eventually meeting yukari yakumo, the gap youkai, who desperately stops marisa from trying to find reimu. marisa asks her to revive reimu, but yukari says it would be meaningless, and after marisa wins a fight with her, yukari leaves. marisa then meets yuyuko saigyouji, the ghost "princess" of hakugyokurou, who informs marisa that gensokyo is nothing but reimu's dream, and that she is finally ending it. marisa thinks yuyuko is lying at first, but eventually accepts it as truth. yuyuko tells marisa that there is nothing she can do to stop it, though reimu will still be in gensokyo until sunset. yuyuko and marisa fight, afterwards yuyuko leads marisa to reimu, but not before fighting again, this time with yukari. this fight is actual hell.

after the fight with yukari and yuyuko, marisa finally meets reimu, the shrine maiden of the hakurei shrine, who she has been searching for all along. reimu is wearing a completely white shrine maiden outfit, different from her usual red and white outfit. marisa requests to spend some time with her, but reimu refuses, as all in gensokyo are even as of today. reimu confirms that gensokyo is ending, and marisa requests they have one last danmaku battle, one final battle to decide the fate of gensokyo. reimu hesitates at first, but accepts.


oh, you want me to tell you the ending? too bad, go play the game yourself or watch an english translated version of the game. wouldn't be as impactful if i told you the ending, right?

in place of the ending, i'll put the conversation that happens between reimu and marisa after yuyuko and yukari's fight, since i love it a lot. marisa's speech will be in blue, and reimu's speech will be in red.




"Give me a break.
How long are you going to run around, Reimu?"

[reimu hakurei enters.]

"I am here.
You have heard from Yukari and Yuyuko, correct?"


"Ah, thanks to them,
I want to ask you so much I'm getting dizzy."

[wonderful shrine maiden of paradise, reimu hakurei.]

"There is almost no time left."

"I know that already, but... if there's really only a little time left,
I'd like to drink some tea together, and leisurely talk together.
You're sneaky to run off like that telling me nothing."

"I can't show favour only to you. All of you are equals to me.
It's cruel, but I knew it from the beginning. And I didn't tell the truth to anyone."

"You're treating me the same as those evil spirits back there?
... how cruel."

"That's good. I am the Hakurei Shrine Maiden."

"Hey, Reimu, is everything really going to disappear?
Is there nothing I can do even now?"

"I have always said this from long ago,
that there is nothing as useless as effort.
Thank you for dealing with my selfishness, until now.
And, I'm sorry."

"......"

"... So, this is going to be the end soon...
Don't you have something you want to say?"

"... Fine, enough. I get it.
If there's no way to avoid it, and this is truly fate,
then having you as my final dueling partner must also be fate."

"You wish to defeat me?
Or do you wish to be defeated?"

"Of course I want to win... or...
I want to win when you are giving 100%!
To bet on Gensokyo's eternal fate,
I propose a final danmaku duel!"


"Although I can probably last here like this until the sunset if I stay calm,
Starting a danmaku battle will be the end, for my body,
and there would only be a few minutes left at worst. "

"......"


"...... Fine, I understand if that is your wish..."

BGM: G Free ? Final Dream

"A battle to decide the eternal struggle,
... I accept!"

"And now, Reimu,
you'd better not hold anything back!"

"As you wish."

"Gensokyo is mine, I will not hand it over to you!"
"
Gensokyo isn't just yours, you can't take it away!"



the game uses a lot of rearranged music from the touhou games and doujin music albums, some of them being used in quite strange areas that don't make a lot of sense, such as the fight with mid-boss flandre scarlet in scenario A stage 1 using hong meiling's music, the boss fight with remilia scarlet using flandre scarlet's music, the (boss?) fight with kaguya houraisan using fujiwara no mokou's music (which is funny, not only because of the character's relationship with one another but because kaguya's fight is literally after a mid-boss fight with mokou), etc etc. but it uses its music in reimu hakurei's fight so, so beautifully.

the song that plays when you first fight with reimu is "G Free
? Final Dream", the song that plays when you fight with reimu a second time is "G Free ? Ultimate Dream". the both of these songs are arranged from the following: "G Free" from the official touhou doujin album Magical Astronomy, "Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle" from the eighth official touhou game, Imperishable Night, which is also notably reimu's own theme within the game, and last but not least, "Eternal Shrine Maiden", the very first song used in a level in the entire touhou franchise, originating from the first ever touhou game, Highly Responsive to Prayers. if that doesn't kill you, i don't know what will.



aaand, that's the end of my long ramble!
thank you for reading, and i hope you have a fantastic day/night.

tldr: funny 2hu game made me cry.



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nail

nail's profile picture

Aya has a great soundtrack in this one


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TRUE!!

by apollo?!; ; Report

Mouse

Mouse's profile picture

wow that sounds awesome!! we're new to touhou but we really enjoy luna nights and scarlet devil, who's your favorite characters?


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ooooh, that's a tough one! flandre scarlet is probably my top favourite, but i love all of the characters a ton. some other top favourites include marisa, nitori, kokoro, chen... there's too many to pick! and welcome to touhou! :D

by apollo?!; ; Report