Touhou Genso Wanderer Review – A Frustrating Dungeon Crawl

<p>The<em> Touhou<&sol;em> series of games has been a popular &&num;8216&semi;Bullet Hell&&num;8217&semi; series in Japan for quite some time now&period; In North America we haven’t had the opportunity to experience this series&&num;8211&semi;until now&period; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is being released both on the Playstation 4 and Vita &lpar;as well as <em>Touhou Double Focus<&sol;em>&period;&rpar; so you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to play it both at home and on the go&period; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is a rogue-like dungeon crawling RPG that provides the <em>Touhou<&sol;em> characters and humor&comma; in a challenging and unique gameplay experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> puts players in the role of Reimu Hakurei&comma; a shrine maiden that has to save her home from the dark powers of an orb that now controls her friend Rinnosuke&period; It is up to Reimu to resolve this latest mishap and bring peace back to Gensokyo&period; During her journey&comma; she is joined by Futo Mononobe&comma; a young girl that has recently set out on a quest to become a first class sage&period; The people of Gensokyo have been cloned and turned into aggressive combatants that Reimu must face along her journey&period; To make matters worse&comma; Rinnosuke’s shop has been replaced by a giant tower&comma; which Reimu must scale if she hopes to save her home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120959" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120959" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120959" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;10002507&sol;GW&lowbar;ss02&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Touhou Genso Wanderer&comma; NIS America&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120959" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Touhou Genso Wanderer&comma; NIS America&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> incorporates a turn-based format&period; When Reimu moves or takes an action&comma; other enemies move and attack as well&period; Some enemies can perform long-range attacks&comma; while others have to get in close to hit you&period; Reimu has two resources you need to keep an eye out for&comma; HP &lpar;which is her total health&rpar; and her Tummy bar&comma; which depletes as you take actions&period; If her Tummy bar runs out&comma; Reimu will lose HP&period; Eating food will replenish the tummy bar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reimu will level up as you defeat enemies&comma; increasing her stats and her overall HP&period; Additionally&comma; as you fight with equipped weapons&comma; armor&comma; and accessories&comma; they will level up as well&period; This makes it easier for you to progress through each floor of the tower ahead&period; Futo Mononobe works as your partner&comma; fighting things alongside Reimu&comma; and enabling you to manage her equipment and capabilities just like you can with Reimu&period; Futo also levels up like Reimu&comma; but is affected by Danmaku attacks that Reimu uses&period; You will need to be careful not to cast your Danmaku spells carelessly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120960" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120960" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120960" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;10002635&sol;GW&lowbar;ss01&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Touhou Genso Wanderer&comma; NIS America&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120960" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Touhou Genso Wanderer&comma; NIS America&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Danmaku are special attacks that allow you to use power points to provide multiple effects which can range from attacking every enemy surrounding you to hitting enemies from long distances&period; Danmaku can save you from any number of dangerous situations&comma; so using it to get out of a bind can be greatly helpful&period; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is very unpredictable&comma; as all of the items you pick up &lpar;such as potions and food items&rpar; will be unidentified&period; This requires you to either find items to identify them or risk having a negative effect by eating or consuming them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you find a beneficial potion or item&comma; you can synthesize more using Nito Fusion&period; Nito Fusion allows you to either create items from materials or fuse equipment together in order to enhance your capabilities&period; Sadly&comma; fusion isn’t free&comma; you have to have Nito Points &lpar;which can be collected from defeating enemies and exploring&rpar; in order to utilize the service&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is a fun game&comma; but the dialogue carries on far too long &lpar;even for a story-driven gamer such as myself&rpar; and usually is just nonsense with a little bit of useful information sprinkled in&period; It is incredibly difficult as well&comma; requiring quite a lot of trial and error in order to progress&period; Despite that&comma; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> has this sense of satisfaction that comes when you progress deeper into its depths&comma; and each time you die there is a hunger to get past the area that caused you trouble&period; This is made easier by the fact that <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> has a cross-buy function&comma; meaning that if you buy the game on both Playstation 4 and Vita&period; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> plays beautifully on both platforms&comma; and with the cross-save function you can play at home&comma; save your game&comma; then carry the adventure on the go with your Playstation Vita&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is a decent game&comma; sadly though it is frustrating to the point that the fun of exploring and experiencing the procedurally generated dungeons makes the fun factor somewhat diminished&period; Combining that with the nonsensical storyline and annoying characters&comma; <em>Touhou <&sol;em>Genso<em> Wanderer<&sol;em> is limited and held back from as great as it could truly be&period; I enjoyed what I played of it and there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of potential&comma; but it doesn’t seem to have what it takes to keep players interested for longer than a few sessions of play&period; The cross-play function extends that a bit more&comma; but it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t save the game from its shortcomings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Touhou Genso Wanderer Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita review keys were provided by NIS America for the purpose of this Review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;