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Touhou Kourinden ~ Mythos of Phantasmagoria is a Touhou Project RPG that combines the gameplay of Undertale, Pokémon, and Final Fantasy. It was developed by Drillimation Systems, which at the time was known for games such as Chuhou Joutai and the Touhou Project NES Demakes.
Taking place in an Alternate Universe timeline during the Edo Period, it spans the course of thirty years from Marisa Kirisame's childhood to adulthood as she helps the silent protagonist Rinnosuke Morichika on his quest to become the Hero of Phantasm. Along the way, Alice Margatroid and Patchouli Knowledge join the two.
The beta released on June 2, 2023, with the full game releasing on May 3, 2024. More information on the game can be found here
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This game provides examples of:
In the gameplay
- Absurdly High Level Cap: The level cap for all characters is 100. Afterward, they no longer gain experience points but still gain effort value points.
- Action Commands: Doing better on attack prompts does more damage to enemies.
- Battle Theme Music: Has multiple. Using the names from the Bandcamp release of the game's soundtrack:
- You Move, I Fight ~ Combat That Comes and Go is the name of the actual battle theme. It is used in all regular battles.
- Eternal Victory is a Final Fantasy-style fanfare that plays after winning any battle.
- Bitter Temptation ~ Danmaku Trap is used for most boss fights.
- Attack of the Scarlet Devil is used for the first two times you fight Vladrouge Scarlet.
- Avaricious Gambit is the Elite Four battle theme.
- The final bosses of every act all get a unique theme.
- Checkpoint: All towns and cities serve as a respawn point should all members of the player's team faint.
- Cutscene: There's so many of them. They most often play before and after boss fights.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: All of the enemies essentially, as well as the Gensokyo Socialite Order's members.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Surrendering a battle after losing sends you back to the last town you visited, while they do appear quite frequently you will never be sent too far back. However, this ends up getting subverted on multiple occasions. The upside though is you do keep your levels, items, and experience points, with the exception of ryo which you'll end up losing. The game also has autosaving on by default.
- Dual Boss: There are a numerous boss fights that pit you against two at once, though some feature three or four.
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: For most of the game, normal battles are not that difficult. Correct input from action commands and type effectiveness can take out most enemies in one or two hits. Since enemies appear only on the field, battles can be avoided. While bosses early in the game are easy, they start to ramp up in difficulty once the player encounters the first Crimsonite grunts - they and others can inflict status problems. On the other hand, there aren't very many puzzles to solve, making dungeons easy on paper.
- Elemental Rock–Paper–Scissors: This game borrows the Pokémon elemental typing system, which applies to all attacks.
- Expressive Health Bar: The characters display a panicked expression when they are low on health.
- Final Boss: Vladrouge Scarlet, the one who causes all of the misery for Gensokyo and its residents.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: All of these appear as spells.
- The Goomba: Pacoonbas. They even resemble the enemy the trope is named after. They're the weakest enemy in the entire game.
- Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: All of the overworld sprites are this. Doesn't apply to the character portraits though.
- Healing Boss: Several enemies and bosses have the Cure spell which they could use on themselves or their allies.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Phantasm Equipment greatly increases the stats of its user. The Steam version even has an achievement by requiring Kourin to wear all of them at once.
- Level Grinding: Likely needed since the final boss is equivalent to a Level 60 party member.
- Level-Up Fill-Up: A battler's HP is fully restored when they grow a level. Same thing goes for their MP, and it also removes any status problems they have.
- Luck Stat: Used for determining critical hits and resistance to status problems.
- Mana: Physical Points are needed to perform special attacks, and Magic Points are needed to perform Magic Attacks.
- Mana Meter: Shows how many Magic Points a battler has for spells.
- Mana Potion: Ethers restore Magic Points. Enough said.
- Musical Spoiler: The background music changes whenever any characters enter a state of panic in a cutscene before a boss fight. Any encounters with Crimsonite grunts and other members of the Gensokyo Socialite Order get a separate theme.
- Now, Where Was I Going Again?: The game includes a map in the menu that tells players where they need to go next.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: Several tiles from Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess are reused in this game, as well as the bullet sprites.
- Pastiche: The game is essentially a clone of Undertale, as illustrated in its first act and battle system.
- Palette Swap: A lot of enemies in the game have multiple color variations, Dragon Quest-style. Same thing goes for a few characters and even background tiles.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: No matter how strong any of the characters are, enemies will always attack them.
- Trespassing Hero: The player can walk into any building, though not all of them.
- There Are No Tents: Inns are the only way to sleep. There are no other locations where you can do this.
- Turn-Based Combat: All battles play out like this, but the game uses the active time battle system.
- Underground Level: The Kinmyou Caverns, Senchu Cave, Mount Inaba, Mount Komeiji, and the first three sections of Champion Road are all set underground.
- Victory Pose: All members in the party do this when they win a battle.
- Warm-Up Boss: Myouren Hijiri is the first boss in the game with a low difficulty.
In the story
- Adopted into Royalty: As mentioned by Alice at the beginning of the third act, Goddess Shinki adopted Alice Margatroid after her parents died in the civil war that took place between the events of Acts II and III. She left after Shinki's death.
- Balcony Speech: Marisa gives one when she established the Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo after defeating Vladrouge Scarlet, where she names herself the queen and first ruler.
- Big Bad: Vladrouge Scarlet is the real enemy in this game, having been responsible for multiple horrible things, such as killing Mima early in the game and trying to eradicate the youkai-born population.
- Credits Medley: The song Into the Legendary Wonderland ~ And the Legend Began includes the songs Legendary Wonderland and Forest of Tohno from The Story of Eastern Wonderland and Arcadian Dream from Lotus Land Story.
- Crossover: Due to this game being marketed as "the Chuhou Joutai origin story", several enemies from that game appear in this game.
- Dance of Romance: In Act V, Satori invites the player characters for tea, and Satori asks Kourin to temporarily dance with her, which Marisa does not approve of.
- Dances and Balls: The endings for Acts II through V all feature one:
- Act II has one that takes place at Castle Pandemonium after Kourin and Marisa save Crown Princess Luna from a dragoon.
- Act III is in commemoration for Alice's victory in the Regal Danmaku Royale.
- Act IV is in commemoration of Marisa's 15th birthday, basically like a quinceanera. Just look at her gown.
- Act V is in commemoration of Kourin and Marisa's wedding, though it is only mentioned in the Act VI crawl text.
- Elite Four: The Gensokyo Socialite Order has one the player must defeat before getting to Vladrouge himself, consisting of Edmund Winder, Mikhael Gose, Camille Scarlet, and Flandre Scarlet.
- Ethnicity Monarch: The Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo is ruled by a human, the People's Kingdom of Gensokyo is ruled by a Lunarian, and the Democratic Kingdom of Gensokyo is ruled by a youkai-born.
- Evil Counterpart Organization: The Gensokyo Socialite Order is the rival of the Gensokyo Royal Defense Force.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Marisa wears one for her wedding to Kourin. It was only depicted as a sprite in-game, until Drillimation released a PC-98 remix of the entire ending suite
from Super Mario RPG on YouTube which features her wedding gown in detail during the Seeing Dreams Through the Window of the Stars number. - Fantastic Terrorists: The Gensokyo Socialite Order, essentially.
- Girlish Pigtails: Princess Estelle as a child wears her hair in this style.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: A lot of female characters in the game dress like this:
- Marisa receives one from the Palace of Eternity for her debutante ball on her 15th birthday. Alice and Patchouli also get them too. This makes sense due to the game being set in the Edo Period on the Drillimation Danmaku Universe timeline.
- Empress Kaguya and Queen Yukari both dress in 19th-century inspired gowns, since they are rulers of their own kingdoms. They both wear large crinolines, too.
- Reisen also wears an off-shoulder bodice that was common in the 19th century. Tewi subverts this, wearing a regency gown instead.
- Crown Princess Luna, Princess Estelle as an adult, and Camille Scarlet all wear the 18th-century Robe a la Francaise. Only Camille has the appropriate hairstyle that matches.
- Rosalyne Blancrouge is based on the Queen of Hearts from the story she originates from, so she has to have one. It largely resembles Marisa's debutante ball gown that she would wear at the end of the following act.
- The Regal Danmaku Royale, where Rosalyne is fought in, puts Yuka in this. Yumemi's gown is partly inspired by the ones typically worn at a quinceanera.
- Once you enter the Palace of Eternity, expect Satori, Utsuho, and Rin to be wearing these. Utsuho and Rin wear bustles.
- The High Queen: Empress Kaguya and Queen Yukari are the rulers of their respective kingdoms. Marisa becomes one at the end of the game.
- Human Sacrifice: Mima sacrificed herself to save her husband and daughter from Vladrouge at the end of the first act.
- Important Haircut: Though not shown, Marisa cuts part of her hair between the events of Acts III and IV, and even in IV's ending.
- Kimono Is Traditional:
- Master Kirisame is shown wearing only a kimono in the entire game, except with a hakama during his wedding to Mima at the start of the game.
- Youmu is also shown with a kimono and hakama.
- Meaningful Name:
- Vladrouge's name is taken from the Slavic word "vlad", meaning "ruler" or "lord", and "rouge", the French word for "red". All because he wants to rule Gensokyo.
- Rojo Blancrouge has the Spanish and French words for "red" in both his first and last name. This makes sense since he's a redhead.
- Missing Mom: Happens to Marisa at the end of Act I, with Mima being her mother according to the Drillimation Danmaku Universe canon. A melancholic version of Mima's theme from The Story of Eastern Wonderland even plays after she is killed by Vladrouge.
- Near-Villain Victory: After Vladrouge kills Mima, he thinks he's already achieved victory, until a police officer uses the Thunder spell on him, and he is subsequently arrested.
- Posthumous Character:
- Shinki's husband was killed during the events of Act I, which the player only hears of during Act II.
- Alice Margatroid's parents were killed during the civil war that took place between the events of Acts II and III.
- Prim and Proper Bun: Marisa during the game's final act has her new super long hair all tied up in a bun.
- Princess for a Day: Happens multiple times in the game:
- Marisa does this when Crown Princess Luna invites her and Kourin to a ball as a reward for saving her at the end of Act II.
- Alice is required to dress up like one as part of a contest in Act III. Same thing goes for Yuuka and Yumemi.
- Rapid Hair Growth: Partially subverted. Marisa has to do this with keratin vitamins that Yagokoro Pharmaceutical supplies to her so she could be ready for her wedding with Kourin. These vitamins only grow hair at a rate of two centimeters per week. It takes Marisa a couple of months before her hair is floor-length.
- Rearrange the Song: Several songs in the game's soundtrack are arrangements of themes from the official Touhou Project games as well as the Chuhou Joutai series.
- Save the Princess: When Kourin and Marisa learn from Princess Estelle that her mother went missing, Goddess Shinki sends them out to find her, which just so happens to be in a tower, like in a lot of other media. Shortly after defeating the dragoon, Marisa frees Luna from her prison, and it's actually revealed that the dragoon actually used the Sleep spell on her and took her to the tower after falling into a deep sleep.
- Shout-Out:
- During the ending cutscene of Act IV, Marisa claims "the only thing that's glittering on me is gold", referencing one line from the chorus of the song All Star by Smash Mouth.
- The city of Yakumoshi is largely based on the typical Magic Kingdom-style park.
- After Vladrouge is defeated, his last lines before Kourin kills him references the outburst made by Blue at the end of Pokémon Red and Blue. Blue had been champion for only a few hours, while in Mythos of Phantasmagoria, Vladrouge had been the Scarlet Devil of the Order from its founding until his death.
- The ending credits is largely based on the one from Dragon Quest III. Heck, the song that plays is even similar to Into the Legend.
- Speaking of Dragon Quest, one move in the game's data is named Kamikazee, used by Creepers. It even has the same effect. That enemy's name and habit of exploding sound familiar...
- Storming the Castle: The player characters do this when they confront the Elite Four and Vladrouge.
- Take Over the City: The city of Kanjotaki, located near the Scarlet Devil Mansion, ends up serving as the de facto headquarters of the Gensokyo Socialite Order.
- This Cannot Be!: Many characters have an outburst of this nature when they are defeated
- Unexpected Successor: Flandre becomes the Scarlet Devil of the Gensokyo Socialite Order after Vladrouge is killed.
- Weddings in Japan: Master Kirisame and Mima have a Shinto-style wedding at the beginning of the game, and the end of Act V gives Kourin and Marisa a Western-style wedding, set in a Catholic Church that was built in honor of Mima.
