Rock Paper Shotgun has the latest preview for Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic – the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, a remastered edition of the classic Touhou Project bullet hell shooter from developer Shanghai Alice Reprise and publisher Alliance Arts.
Touhou Project is Schrödinger’s shoot-em-up series: simultaneously a decades-running, 20-game strong (not counting spinoffs) multimedia juggernaut spawning one of the most active fan communities of the post-Trekkie age, and also some weeb curiosity that no-one I’ve ever spoken to has ever heard of. Either way, it’s been around for yonks, and has just seen the launch of its first official remake, of foundational 2002 entry Touhou Koumakyou: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic – the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is a bullet hell, shoot-em-up with an emphasis on taking advantage of character abilities in battle to survive and run up the highest possible score. The updated classic features higher resolution graphics and a new mode allowing for playing with unlimited lives. Taking on the role of the shrine maiden Reimu and the magician Marisa, players will have to duck and dodge numerous projectiles to survive the Scarlet Mist incident.
Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic is a collaborative effort between original solo dev ZUN, who’s provided a remastered soundtrack, and developers behind several of the higher-profile Touhou fangames (more on this later). It once again casts you as either a shrine maiden or a kleptomaniac witch as you seek to beat up a troublesome vampire, who’s been blocking out the sun like a photosensitive Mr. Burns. It is an interesting franchise, in any case: boss characters are usually inspired by creatures and characters across Asian and Western folklore, ranging from Embodiment’s vampires to Shinto deities and the cast of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic – the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil is out now on PC Via Steam
