You’ve probably never heard of theTouhou Projectseries. Even if you have, there’s a good chance you haven’t played any of the games. Although the series has always been stuck in the confines of its cult classic status,Touhouhas played a monumental role in shaping the modern gaming landscape, and many of your favorite games wouldn’t exist without it.
What IsTouhou?
Touhou Project—better known as just “Touhou”—is an indiebullet hellseries created by solo-developer Jun’ya Ōta (known to fans as “ZUN”). The series originally debuted in 1997 on PC-98 systems withTouhou Reiiden ~ The Highly Responsive to Prayers, a mostly bog-standardBreakoutclone with a few creative gameplay twists inspired by retro shoot ‘em ups. It wasn’t until the second game—Touhou Fuumaroku~ the Story of Eastern Wonderland—that the series’ identity truly began to take shape.
Beginning withthe Story of Eastern Wonderland, mostTouhougames have been frantically fast-paced and immensely difficult bullet hell shooters. Each entry has you flying through a series of challenging stages, shooting down waves of airborne enemies and narrowly avoiding bullets until you reach a boss fight at the end of each level.
While you’re dodging bullets, you’ll also strengthen your own magical projectiles by gathering power-ups from defeated enemies. Fully-upgrading your firepower can turn some stages into a breeze, but it’s never enough to make any ofTouhou’s boss battles feel like pushovers. Every boss attacks with uniquely tricky bullet patterns that will test your reflexes and memorization. At various points during their fights, boss characters can also activate “spell cards,” special attacks that flood the screen with a continuous stream of bullets.
Thankfully, you can also strike back with your own spell cards to obliterate a large chunk of their health bars. LaterTouhougames introduced the “graze” mechanic, which allows you toraise your scoreby narrowly avoiding—or “grazing”—enemy projectiles. Some of the sequels have shaken up this formula with the additions of new playable characters and creative gimmicks, but you can always expect to find the same style of bullet hell goodness in each entry.
Unlike many earlier bullet hell games,Touhouplaces its world and characters at the forefront of each game. EveryTouhoustory takes place in the mystical land of Gensokyo, where humans and mythological creatures known as “youkai” live together in harmony… at least, for the most part. While the series featuresmultiple protagonists, mostTouhougames follow a powerful human shrine maiden named Reimu Hakurei, who frequently finds herself being dragged into various incidents to stop the youkai from stirring up trouble.
Touhou’s stories rarely take themselves seriously and often fit into a very formulaic structure: Reimu faces off against a roster of new characters and familiar faces in a series of bullet hell battles, occasionally drops blatant death threats (especially in the early entries; PC-98 Reimu was oddly bloodthirsty), and beats some sense into the big-bad at the very end.
Despite their simplicity, the series' eccentric cast of characters and endlessly imaginative conflicts are always a joy to experience. Whether you’re following Reimu (or one of the other playable protags) as she stops a family of vampires from trapping Gensokyo in an endless night, investigates the sudden appearance of a mysterious UFO, or interferes in a war between an army of fairies and a secret society living on the moon, it’s surprisingly easy to get invested in the lighthearted adventures ofTouhou.
Over the years, theTouhoufranchise has expanded into fighting games, rhythm games, and even a few photography-themed spinoffs. There’s a lot more toTouhoubeyond the original bullet hell shooters, but its influence on gaming as a whole begins with the franchise’s earliest entries.
TouhouWas the Original Face of Indie Games
The late 90s and early 2000s marked a rough time forindie studios and solo developers. In contrast to the 80s and early 90s—which saw many small studios build themselves up through shareware and moderate successes—the rise of game consoles and rapid commercialization of the gaming industry allowedAAA releasesto easily eclipse lower-budget titles.
During this time,indie game developmentbegan to seem less viable as a career. At best, self-published games were a potential gateway to being hired at a larger studio, but many solo devs pursued indie game development as a hobby, first and foremost. This was also the case for ZUN, who developedHighly Responsive to Prayersas a way to practice his programming and music composition skills while attending college. The series' PC-98 titles were only sold at Comiket Market—a Tokyo-based convention where independent creators can sell self-published works—with the first two games selling less than 100 copies, combined.
However,Touhouquickly attracted a small fanbase with each new installment. Over the course of the series' PC-98 games, all five of which were released between 1997 and ‘98, the series’ climbed from tens to hundreds of copies being sold per game. After a brief hiatus, during which ZUN graduated from college and began working at Taito, he returned to the series in 2002 withTouhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
Besides being the first game released for Windows, the sixth game is also where ZUN refinedTouhouinto a masterclass in bullet hell design. Many fan-favorite levels, characters, songs, and game mechanics were introduced inThe Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. The game went on to sell thousands of copies and helped cement theTouhouseries as a true cult classic.
Touhoucertainlywasn’t the first indie gameto see this type of success, though most of those other successes—at least in Japan—were dating sims or other types ofvisual novels.Touhouwas an obvious outlier, which made it all the more surprising when it single-handedly revitalized the bullet hell genre, inspiring many games that modeled themselves after the series' unique mechanics and cutesy anime aesthetic.
In many ways,Touhouwas the underdog story that indie developers needed during the early 2000s. While it was far from a mainstream hit, theTouhouseries proved to be much more successful than anyone would have expected from a solo-developed bullet hell shooter. A few years afterThe Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil, we started to see more games created by small teams and solo developers, such asCave Storyin 2004,Darwiniain 2005, andDwarf Fortressin 2006. Between these releases, there were also hundreds of lesser-known indie games that never received the same level of attention asTouhou, but still showed that the series had inspired independent creators to break out of their shells.
To be fair,Touhouwasn’t the only thing that helped spark the indie game resurgence. Around the same time, Valve launched Steam—everyone’s favorite PC storefront—andFlash gameshad just begun to populate the web. However,Touhouwas the first major indie release of the 2000s to prove that passionate creators were still capable of making a name for themselves without the help of a larger studio.
Touhou’s Journey from Indie Fame to Internet Icon
It’s not hard to understand why theTouhouseries attracted a cult following in Japan, but the series' evolution into a global success is a lot more bizarre. None of theTouhougames were ever officially released outside of Japan, and most fans of the series have never even tried its games. That may sound confusing at first, butTouhou’s popularity begins to make more sense when you consider the era of its release.
Touhouowes much of its success to the rise of internet fandoms. Ever sinceTheEmbodiment of Scarlet Devil, theTouhouseries has been a magnet for fan art, song covers, online videos, and just aboutevery other type of fanwork imaginable. AsTouhou’s online influence became more widespread, people unfamiliar with the series were drawn into theTouhoufandom thanks to the series' iconic characters andamazing soundtracks.
It didn’t matter if they even knew about the original games; many early internet denizens were exposed to the series through its inescapable presence on forums and video-sharing sites like YouTube or Nico Nico Douga. In those days, it wasn’t rare for videos or songs you found online to somehow be connected to theTouhoufanbase. Personally, a video of someone playing “Night of Nights” (a boss theme fromEmbodiment of Scarlet Devil) on their phone’s keypad ended up being my gateway into bullet hell.
Touhouis one of the rare cases of a series' fanbase eclipsing the official releases. There are countless unofficial games, comics, anime adaptations, merchandise, and fan conventions dedicated to theTouhouseries. Unless you are already familiar with the mainline series, you probably wouldn’t even realize that nearly all the most popular works associated withTouhouare entirely fanmade. EvenTouhougames that received international console ports and videos with millions of views are usually made by fans.
While it often overshadows ZUN’s work,Touhou’s fanbase is the series' greatest strength. It has brought more people into the series than the original games could have ever reached on their own, and allowedTouhouto explore all sorts of genres and different mediums. That’s not to disregard the official games—they’re still going strong withthe 20th mainline entryarriving later this month—but much ofTouhou’s current identity and cultural relevance stems from its community. Today,Touhouembodies far more than a niche series of bullet hell games, and that wouldn’t have ever happened without its devout fanbase.
Touhou’s Influence Extends Beyond Its Fanbase
In the same way thatTouhouonce represented what indie gamescouldbe, it’s also become a shining example of what more game seriesshouldbe. Part of the reasonTouhou’s fan community blossomed the way it did was largely due to its creator’s willingness to support fan projects. Unlike many modern game companies—especially those whose namesstart with “Nin” and end with “Tendo”—ZUN has always embraced theTouhoufanbase’s creativity, even allowing indie creators to monetize their fanmade projects based on the series.
Because of this, fans have been able to reimagineTouhouin other genres and concepts that the official releases probably never would. It’s also allowed other creators to turn their love for the series into original works unashamedly inspired byTouhou, including the massively popularUndertaleandDeltarune.
Today, many gaming companies are more protective of their IPs than ever before, even when it’s detrimental to the rest of the gaming industry. While it makes sense for them not to encourage cheap knock-offs or blatant bootlegs, it’s obvious that companies aren’t solely interested in protecting their reputation when they start attackingfan remakes likeAM2R,competitors likePalworld, or entire fangame archives on websites like Gamejolt.
Meanwhile,Touhou’s fangames include everything from kart racers,Metroidvanias, strategy games, dungeon crawlers, and light gun shooters, among many other genres. Many of these unofficial games have introduced new fans to the series, and it’s likely thatTouhouwould never have exploded in popularity if ZUN had adopted the same hostility towards his fanbase as Nintendo seemingly holds for its own. Fortunately, not everyone in the industry is as stubborn as Nintendo, and studios such as Bethesda and Valve have (mostly) supported mods and fangames such asSkyblivionandBlack Mesa.
TouhouIs a Testament to Indie Greatness
Today, indie games are thriving like never before thanks to all the amazing releases that have replacedTouhouas the face of indie gaming. Likewise, fan games and heartfelt homages to specific series are still common, despite Nintendo and other companies' recent attempts to change that. But even after all these years,Touhouremains one of gaming’s most important series, even if it doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves.
Thankfully, theTouhouseries has become more accessible in recent years. The latest entries are all available on Steam, and most of the older games have received fan translations. Even if you’re not a hardcore bullet-hell fan, it’s worth trying outTouhoujust to experience one of the most underrated series in gaming history.
