Developer: Ankake Supa
Publisher: XSEED/Mediascape
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Platforms: PS4
Remilia is bored, but one can expect boredom to set in after 5,000 years of being a vampire. Fortunately, her maid, Sakuya, brings to her attention newspaper articles talking about monster sightings. Monster hunting? Now that would certainly be a cure for boredom, and off Remilia (or Sakuya if you prefer) go to seek out said beast and do battle. Along the way there are plenty of fairies, wolves, frogs, and mushrooms to sharpen those fighting skills on. And so forms the crux of the game that is Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, an action RPG with bullet-hell elements that serves as the latest offering in the long running Touhou franchise.
The Touhou franchise has been around since the 90s, but this was my first interaction with the series. Known mainly for titles featuring bullet-hell gameplay, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity changed things up a bit by going the action-RPG route. The game is a sequel to Touhou: Youyou Kengeki, and first appeared on PC in 2014 through publisher Marvelous USA, with XSEED now bringing the digital offering to the PS4. The main characters, the vampire Remilia Scarlet and her maid Sakuya Izayoi, have been around since the series sixth installment, Touhou Koumakyou: The Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, causing havoc across the land of Gensokyo. For Scarlet Curiosity, players take either control of Remilia or Sakuya, and lead them through 10 chapters in search of a monster who has destroyed their mansion. Each character has their own trophy set, equipment and skills, and dialogue will differ depending on which character you play as. But each one will traverse the same areas doing battle with the same enemies, and completing the game with either character opens up an optional twenty floor dungeon. Defeating the boss there grants you an alternate ending, so the game is good for at least a couple of playthroughs.
Gameplay is fairly simple, but some strategy does come into play when equipping yourself with your items and skills. The Square button provides your basic attack, with X enables you to jump. Specialized skill attacks are mapped to the Triangle and Circle buttons, and you need to charge them up by filling small blue diamonds underneath the health bar. R1 launches a powerful spell attack, dealing a great amount of damage. (A large purple diamond to the left of the health bar needs to be filled to use it.) As the characters level up, new skills and spells are learned, and you can swap them in and out through the Pause menu. As you level up, you’ll gain more blue diamonds, meaning you can use your skill attacks multiple times. There are three equipment slots: one for a weapon, one for an article of clothing, and one for a gem. Each item carries its own stats, and can boost things like base attack power or item drops. You’ll encounter plenty of items with the same name, but it helps to check their stats, as they may vary. Making sure you’re equipped well and have the most powerful Skills at your disposal becomes more crucial as the game goes on, as some later game bosses can provide a decent challenge. The combat does get a bit repetitive but at least is fun, and bosses do follow patterns, which you can use to your advantage.
Visually, the game does have some nice environments with some nice details, but your common enemies are fairly simple. One issue is that some of the enemy sprites are small and can blend in with the environment, sometimes making them hard to detect. A fixed camera can also work against you, as sometimes scenery hides the action until you move a bit farther along. Boss fights mainly take place on a larger arena, which may not appear fully on your screen, leaving your foe offscreen and harder to pick up when they launch their attacks. The bullet-hell elements come into play with the boss fights, and they launch plenty of deadly missiles in your direction for you to dodge. Add to that some have an attack which can suck you in and deal heavy damage, and recognizing those attacks is crucial. The boss battles do have two to four health jars in the arena, so you do have some respite should you get hammered by an enemy’s attack. Those jars don’t replenish, however, and the boss’s health bar is twice as long as yours, so you need to use them wisely.
In addition to combat the game does feature some platforming sections, which can go from side scrolling to full 3D. The platforming is generally pretty basic, jumping from moving platforms, utilizing discs that give you a lift to higher spots, and in one late game level has you avoiding spinning spiked arms or walls of fire. Remilia seems more suited out of the two characters for these sections, as I found Sakuya to be a bit more floaty and easier to overshoot a platform during a jump. Checkpoints are not too generous, but aren’t completely terrible, but if you do fail you often have a bit of ground to travel again to get back where you were. The game autosaves each time you go to the world map, though you can also go back to the mansion’s library and save with the magician Patchouli. Levels are pretty linear, but not all provide you a map to follow. It’s generally easy to find which way to go, and there are some side paths which can be worth your while to explore as they often contain treasure chests that can hold a valuable item. The game’s merchant doesn’t serve much purpose other than to provide Remilia with a very important item. Selling off extra inventory gains you money, but there’s nothing really worth spending it on. All of the characters are generally likeable, but you’ll be reading all that dialogue, as there is no voice acting. Which for a title like this, that may be a very good thing. There aren’t many cut scenes (one at the beginning and one at the end), and they’re just a static image. The music is lively enough, and made an enjoyable enough backdrop to your adventures. The story is decently written, and has a fair amount of silly humor.
In all, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity proved to be a pleasant surprise for me. I wasn’t familiar at all with the franchise, but this first experience was good enough that I may seek out and try other titles. It’s a fairly fun action-RPG, and though it can get a little repetitive in spots the story keeps things engaging enough to encourage you to keep playing. A bad camera angle on occasion and enemies blending in with the scenery can cause brief little frustrations, but they don’t last long enough to ruin the overall experience. It has likeable characters who don’t wear thin over the 10 hours or so it can take for a playthrough of the game’s 10 chapters. A 20 floor bonus dungeon adds to that gameplay, and I found it to be worth its asking price. It may not be a must play title, but if you’re looking for something a little different it’s worth checking out. After all, monster hunting can be a fun cure for boredom, and if it’s good enough to amuse a 5000 year old vampire, it may provide a few hours of entertainment for fans of action-RPGs.
8/10
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