Touhou Fan Games

Fan games are in a bit of a... Well, honestly a bit of a golden age for a lot of series. Advancements in modding tools and the building of communities to really foster this have really helped make this possible. But while some companies are hostile to these because of copyright laws and others are a bit more apathetic to them. There is ZUN and the Touhou Project being somewhat unique within the entire sphere of it all and one that I honestly think should be noted more.

It’s pretty simple. If you wish to make fan content, follow the guidelines and you can distribute it. Including for profit. It’s with these guidelines that honestly helped make the community grow and last as long as it really has. The roots of a lot of unexpected authors, artists, musicians and game developers have roots tracing back to Touhou because of these rules.

Where do you get fangames?

I'll be primarily focusing on PC for these. This might seem like a no-brainer but as while there are console releases, primarily on the Sony and Nintendo store fronts. Most of the digital releases aren't easily avaliable and physical ones are a bit more on the... Annoying side. For the digital side of getting a lot of fan games, there are four primary sites really used.

DLSite is one of the oldest services and as such, has become one of the de-facto sites for not only fan games but for fan works in general. Often this is where older games and games done by older circles are often published. As such, the majority of games on the site are untranslated and often need a bit of tinkering to get running. Often needing things like swapping the locale of the machine. However, there are a few games that are translated, either by DLSite themselves, by the developers or even via machine translation. If the game does have this, the language and misc tagging will alert to this. ~~Please ignore the +18 side. As much as I would love to talk about it. I'm striving for a mature rating only.~~

Because of the work of a Ran loving dog, Steam is a bit more of the modern host for a few fan games. But it's also Steam and as such, really suffers from the same issues. While the "Faith" tag has uh.. Unofficially been taken over as a bit of a pseudo Touhou related tag due to a large amount of the games being faith related, there isn't a good way to best search for everything. Plus unlike DLSite where translations are shown, often one must risk the purchase or the reviews for finding out. However, throwing Japanese into language options also throws open a few more games that while untranslated, are often playable with some effort.

Putting Booth against these two is basically putting a two well honed knives in front of you before putting a multi-tool beside them. Like yeah, it has a knife. But it can't fully compare. christ, i sound rural. But Booth is that multi-tool. As it's a bit like DLSite in handling a lot of doujin goods, but it also handles them in the physical side as well. And this is where it gets a bit annoying for things like languages. As it's effectively on the lines of something like Etsy, there isn't fully a method to find items that have translations. So often it's a gamble if they do or even mention them in the page itself. However, what makes up for it is that the games themselves are often DRM-free and more money goes to them.

And finally. Itch.io. As while Touhou is often well known for the projects done often by developers in Japan, I honestly do believe there is a great community that is underrated within a lot of the western sphere of works. Especially in the gaming side. And well, often Itch.io is the place where demos or even the projects themselves are posted. And because of this, often the projects are done natively in English.

But what if you want some physical copies of stuff? Well, that’s where it’s a bit annoying. First ignoring needing the proxy for a majority of stuff. I’ve already made mention of Booth. Some creators do offer their physical works on Booth. Another site that I haven’t made mention of that also offers digital downloads is Melonbooks, however they also handle physical sides of stuff. Some proxy services also have a hand in second hand offerings, like that of Yahoo Auctions and the second hand stores, Mandarake, run an online storefront for their stores that allows for shipping overseas.

Fan Games List

Look, I won't lie. As much as I am one of those types of people to try and play a lot of genres and I genuinely do love a lot of games. I uh... Kinda suck at Bullet Hell games. Which a lot of Touhou fangames, at least some of the lesser known ones are. So a lot of those genres will be more religated for the notables. However, the list will be broken down into specific sections for reading ease.

Recommended
Not Recommended
Noteable/Unplayed
Upcoming

These are games that I honestly just recommend to people wanting to either get into the series or wanting something a little different. Each recommended part will have a section dedicated purely to how easy they are for newer fans to understand. As some games are easier whilst others can be... Nightmares.

Touhou Luna Nights

Honestly, there really isn't much I can say about Luna Nights that hasn't already been said by others. It's a fantastic metroidvania that oozes with absolute style and charm done by a wonderful team that really understood it. It's no wonder it didn't just do extremely well in the community but did that well that is broke into the public zeitgeist and introduced people to the series and to it's local timetwisting maid, Sakuya Izayoi. But I'll give my small bit. It's honestly pretty damn great and while I do have some annoyances as a fan, which is primarily small shit. It's still a great thing. Aided by an amazing soundtrack alongside it. It's not often that a game has literally four remixes for a single character, all of them to drive the point home.

But that's also the thing. A lot of the smaller things in this are things that are kinda easy to overlook for newer fans and even older ones. And while it does do one of those annoying things of it primarily being the Touhou 6 cast, it is a rather easy game for newer fans to pick up.

Kubinashi Recollection

I honestly have bias for this game. Not because it’s based around Sekibanki but rather because the creator. ParaDot is a great musician and artist whom I found through their Full Flavour remixes and I actually then found out about this game. Issue is that uh... I suck at puzzle games that use logic in this way. Kubinashi is a bit like Baba is You but using your literal head for puzzles. While there is an easy mode option to increase the cap for every puzzle to have 99 heads... I uh. Still suck. I still enjoy the game and especially the music.

The issue with that is that I can’t really talk about the later stuff. Which does seem to go a bit deeper into lore, considering the music names. However, it is a bit deeper than average games considering the cast and even the very concept itself. It’s not the best entry point but it is a fun one.

Touhou ~Red Empress Devil.

Right. This is honestly a bit of a weird one for me to both recommend and review. Why? Because it shows more how easily I am entertained but also how I am accepting of things. Red Empress Devil is a very basic as shit Roguelite that really has a main selling point of having a rather large playable cast of characters. Issue being is that uh... The randomness that you would really find in a lot of roguelites isn’t there. The randomness is often more stats increases and the boss order is set. But I still enjoy it because the characters are rather varied and are actually do change entire play styles.

It uh... Also kinda barely has a story. So while some knowledge is wanted for things like why shots are like that and why characters act like they do. There isn’t really a whole lot. I am hoping that there is more in future updates but so far the updates have just been additional characters.

Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend

Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya

I’m honestly shocked that it took 20 years for this piece of lore to get a full game. Mystia’s Izayaka cart is something often brought up in fan works while also being a small part of the actual lore but there really hasn’t been many games which capitalize on the concept of being the local night sparrow who sells lampreys. Management games in this style and scale are rather rare in the community, especially ones that do get full translations. As such, not only did Mystia’s Izayaka break into the wider Touhou fandom community with that, it also broke into the general gaming zeitgeist because of it.

It’s also one game where I say regardless of your want of Touhou knowledge to really get. As while it is filled with some pretty deep cuts into the lore and fanon related stuff, especially in relation with the DLCs and character traits, it’s also one that really can be played a bit fast and loose with it all.

Touhou Hero of Ice Fairy

Let’s go... Hero...!

I have read tales of fairy tales done with a Touhou twist. Tales where Cirno is even the hero. But that’s the thing. I read these tales. And while Cirno has been playable, often her role is more comedic. But then you have this. You take those ideas. Take the most unlikely of all of the playable cast and give her a simple goal. A fairy tale of one. Rescue her princess. And what happens if you take the most unlikely of heros against what amounts to nigh impossible odds? You get this Cirno. But then you also get the effort into this game. Hero of Ice Fairy is another that broke the zeitgeist because it fucking deserved it. It legitimately feels like it could be an official spin-off game.

And that’s where it gets messy to recommend it to someone new. A lot of the design notes are new, meant to be a bit more grand. But also are a bit of a callback to their actual character. There are also small story things from designs and jokes from conversations and items that are more clear with knowledge of the community and well... Cirno.

Touhou Hero of Ice Fairy Prologue

And uh... That’s kinda why I have the prologue as a separate entry. It’s entirely free and functions as the prologue. It is a bit rougher around the edges but it is actually a perfect way to really try the game out and experience the story a bit. And yes, the base game has a demo as well. Prologue also effectively has two main bosses but with multiple “modes”. Meaning that there is technically... I think four fights? All of which can be done in the exact same ways that they can be done in the main game. Apart from Roguelite.

Due to the smaller cast size as well, it’s actually a better recommendation to get into as well. I am also not being biased as I like the two bosses. But rather because the scope is smaller and a lot of it leads into things.

Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia

First. Do you like classic SMT games? Talking before the Demi-Fiend started to punch everything. If you do. Grab this game. I’m not even being biased on the front of it’s a Touhou game. From the front of a SMT game, this is a great one. But, I’m talking Touhou. So lets do. You’d never think that throwing SMT and Touhou together would work, it’s one of those pipe dream things. Too many moving parts to figure out but Bar Holographic Otaku did it. Getting the right balance of both SMT goodness while still managing to actually keep a semblance of Touhou in there, which in turn actually makes Artificial Dream in Arcadia stand out from the classic SMT line-up. It feels more refined and with some customization stuff there, it’s great. Plus it legitimately has the roster of characters from the start of the series to 19. Which, at the time of the launch of AdiA, was extremely new.

And here is where as much as I can recommend it forever. It is one of the single most fucking dense fan games there are for references. Not fanon ones either, while there are a few here and there, a lot of the references are actually canonical ones and pulls from lore that I even I wouldn’t of expected to see. Plus also Sumireko can literally say “Sus amogus” as an answer to a question. This game is great.

Touhou Library Survivors

Touhou Double Focus

Gensou Ningyou Enbu

Beneath the Willows

Transcendence of Strange Dream

3rd eye

There are few games on this list I picked up purely because of the genre and artist being the perfect mix. 3rd eye is that unique one because of that. There are often little in the way of horror Touhou games. I’m also meaning actual horror games, not viral horror. But more on the lines of psychological horror. And what happens if you take a character like Koishi Komeiji and build a horror game from her eyes? You get the bones of something good. But then you get the art. The artist behind the game is the brilliant Kotoinari. Their fantastic painted and horror dripping style works wonders for this game, which is arguably what made me so interested in this.

And this is actually where I both gotta say that to really enjoy it, I can’t recommend it for newer fans. A lot of the designs are meant to reflect the characters and aren’t told to you straight up. Even the entire concept of the story is reflective of a concept that in this section would require a lot of explaining.

Yoiyami Dancers: Twilight Danmaku Dancers

Look. Just watch the fucking trailer.
No? Fine.

Yoiyami Dancers is something I recommend purely on two key factors. The music being extremely ZUN styled while being catchy as hell and well. It’s cute as hell! What other rhythm game allows you to dance with your enemies with unique sprites for it? Very little. Plus in turn, it still is able to tap into Touhou as while the danmaku blood still runs rather thick in the veins of the game, it just now runs with a bit of a beat.

And it’s actually rather weird in the lore side. As while there is some knowledge needed for a lot of the items used and why they’re working like that, alongside the story behind as it is. It isn’t fully needed to really enjoy it... Most of the time. Sometimes, it’s just fun to enjoy Rumia dancing away.

YuuYuu Jiteki No Yuukarin

Flan’s MS

Touhou Blooming Chaos 2

UDONGEIN X

UDONGEIN Cross is actually not the first of it's kind. As there has been quite a few Mega Man takes of Touhou, being that of the more classic ones and even the Battle Network games. But UNDONGEIN X takes that classic formula and brings one of the more obvious picks for characters fitting the role into the fray, alongside another of the Lunar Corps rabbits to work as functionally Zero within the DLC. And much like the older Mega Man games alongside Touhou... It’s uh. Rather hard. Having a total of three difficulties, with Lunatic being locked behind completion. Same developer behind Artificial Dream in Arcadia and with the completion of that, alongside this, work has been started on X2. Which, has an demo for the intro stage. Work has been done on it and much has changed since then however.

And much like Artificial Dream in Arcadia, this game is pretty deep in actual Touhou lore. A lot of characters from spin-offs and older titles are used alongside locations being used are slightly more out there. So while it is actually rather easy to start into, there are times where using the Wiki can be a little helpful to make sense why these characters are suddenly not so chill with our rabbit mains.

Touhou Spell Bubble

I'm not even joking that this is probably one of the single most funniest fan games there will ever be. While something like Danmaku Kagura has the legendary crossover of ZUN and Toby Fox. You have this. An official Puzzle Bobble spin-off with Touhou. What makes this so hilarious is the fact that ZUN worked for Taito when producing some of the original Touhou games. And now? Taito made a Touhou game. And honestly the best part of it is well... It's honestly a bit of a great one. Because it isn't what you'd expect from a Puzzle Bobble game. As if you’re more knowledgeable of them, they’re timed puzzle games mainly. So how do you get the danmaku flow of Touhou into Puzzle Bobble? You don’t. Rather the entire idea of Spell Bubble is that it is quite literally Puzzle Bobble versus with rhythm game mechanics. It works so damn well.

And that’s where it gets rather weird to recommend as an entry point because uh... It’s bad and good. It’s actually really good for an entry point for explaining things like spell cards and abilities due to how they work them into the flow of the gameplay. However, the characters are a bit on the odd side compared to their canonical counterparts. Alongside the offerings for the base roster clearly being cherry-picked to be fan-favourites from the earlier entries. Even the DLC additions are this, with a massive glaring one missing. You’d expect Sumireko, someone who is literally from the outside world from our time to be a rather easy pick. But nope. Rumia got in though. sonanoka?

Help Me Remember, Satori-sama!

Touhou: Heartful Threads

Not Recommended

There are often very few games that I don't recommend. But often the ones I don't recommend have their flaws totally outweigh their positives. I'm the type of person who often can see the positives in a lot of "flawed" media and even some of the worst games, I can find enjoyment in. So a lot of these games, are ones that while I can enjoy, I feel that those negatives are too much.

Gensokyo Night Festival

Touhou: Dreamland of Infinity

Touhou LostWord

I could really put LostWord in any of the parts other than Upcoming. It can be classed as any of them. As I enjoy the story enough to constantly be up with it and play it on the regular. It’s also notable enough within the community because it actually gets new unique songs alongside introducing newer fans into the community. But with all that. I’ve had to put it into Not Recommended over all of this because while my positives often out weigh some of the negatives, some of the negatives are nigh impossible to outscale.

Why? It’s a mobile gacha game. Not in the same category of bad as like... Fate/Grand Order (From what I’ve heard of it) but it is still on the bad side of it. While it does have pity, the amount of items required often range at minimum of 750 to 1,750 for a single character. And to max a single character, you need four. Luckily, there are items which act as generics for all characters. Thing being that those are also tied to their “rank”. Meaning that the stronger the character, the rarer the item. There are around... Five at this time. A few also ignore this and require more or don’t have generics.

So why do I still like it? It’s doujin love. Take the very concept of being a girl shunted into Gensokyo with the ability to summon friends and put into arguably the biggest incident there is. The Lost Word incident. Worlds collapse as a single concept of a word is removed and starts to collapse the world. And that concept instead allows for character designs and concepts that are historic. Vampire Hunter Sakuya. Rumia-EX. A Marisa without a Reimu. All of this tied with songs and art done by community members old and new. With even new songs purely done for the game with some unexpected vocalists.

LostWord is a good story. A great example of what Touhou doujin love is. But I still don’t really recommend it purely because of the gacha elements. Even if it isn’t the worst in the market.

Floral Aroma in the Shrine

Noteable/Unplayed

As much as I pride myself of being someone who enjoys a wide amount of Touhou content, official and unofficial. I am still a singular person at the end of the day. So while I haven't played everything, this list is meant to more cover those that are either notable in the community because of historical reasons or that for various reasons (Primarily genre) I cannot play. There are a few that do stand out, ones that while I have played but are in a weird position where I value their notability over my personal recommendations.

Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony Remaster

Now this is a bit of a relic. The original Touhouvania. Not a metroidvania or something on the lines of Symphony of the Night, as much as Remilia as Dracula would work. But an old school as fuck Classicvania. So why is this here? And not in the recommended as this is actually one of the few in this category that I've played. Well uh... I hate it. Genuinely, I don't really vibe with the older Castlevania style games and this is genuinely on the harder end of them. While the Remaster does add in some newer stuff to help that, I still ain't a fan. So rather, this is more in the Notable section as it's legitimately legendary in the community for a multitude of reasons. Things like the music, voice actors and designs are things referenced to this day.

Koumajou Densetsu II: Stranger’s Requiem Remaster

Touhou Mutsuigeki ~ Concealed the Conclusion

Touhou Soccer Moushuuden

Kaisendo

Gensou Shoujo Taisen

So. One of the things you’ve might of seen is that I have a tenancy to split games with multiple entries into separate points to better explain them. However, while I actually own a few of the physicals of this. I still haven’t played them so I really can’t. So this one might be a bit different.

Ever play or heard of the Super Robot Wars series of games? I mean, if you’re a mecha fan, I feel that they’re often one of those holy grail releases due to the absolute nightmare of licensing there is for them. So why am I talking about them? Well uh... Kinda puts the point across that the Gensou Shoujo Taisen series of games or to give its translated name, Fantasy Maiden Wars, are Super Robot Wars but Touhou. With a total of four entries, which each title using a fragment of an official Touhou thing as their subtitle. Being Kou, You, Ei and Yume. With the fifth entry being the Complete Box.

And well uh... It’s pretty much just Super Robot Wars but with Touhou. And some of the Touhou mechanics are translated into a way to really help with the more tactical side of the older SRW stuff. One other thing about that. This is also a love letter to Super Robot Wars. As there are so many Touhou-ified moves that basically nearly one to one remakes of actual moves from the SRW games, lovingly reanimated. Nothing else says awesome as Iku pulling out the Giga Drill Breaker, Shinki unleashing the Third Impact or Sakuya breaking all this and reminding everyone that this is Sakuya’s World.

Touhou Gensou Eclipse

Touhou Makuka Sai ~ Fantastic Danmaku Festival I

Touhou Makuka Sai ~ Fantastic Danmaku Festival II

Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost

How rare is it to see a free to play mobile game to get a second life? A true one. I’m not talking an offline mode done by the devs after everything or a final mode. A true effective second life.
Because Touhou Danmaku Kagura showcased something. A love for a community. A love for music was there. In the death of Danmaku Kagura. Something new arose.
Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost.

I’m also being serious about that. Ignore everything about the collaborations. Purely on that merit alone, Phantasia Lost is notable as it’s the continuation of the now defunct Mobile gacha game. A whole story new for it and all the music purely made for it alongside it now instead lost to the aether, is now available on PC.

But then you had the first collaboration. Something that kinda broke the community and another one a bit. Because it wasn’t a little like "Oh hey, we got a crossover with another property". No. They got a specific composer in for a song. They got Toby Fox in. But he couldn’t get really get a track going.
So Unknown X, the devs behind the game got him someone to collaborate with.
They got him ZUN.
And we got the first collaboration for the game. A Toby Fox and ZUN led effort, remixing two songs into one. That becoming the titular track, U.N. Owen Was Hero?. Future collaborations would follow. Crossing with Mystia’s Izyaka, the fan anime Hifuu Club Activity Record and the band fhána. Before once more, ZUN and Toby would reunite for another crossover.

And this is where Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost would really sit now. Putting out new DLC packs with some famous and well known tracks.

HakanaiBlue

Okay. This inclusion is here for a few reasons. A lot of these games do have translations. Often by the works of fans or by the works of the devs themselves. However. HakanaiBlue is a bit different. Mainly as they actually do translation work alongside the devs and as a Patreon goal. A good few games on this list alongside some pretty noteable ones have been done by them. As such, I'm more including them here as a bit of a "Hey, go watch for new translation projects that finish." and as a bit of a good place to go for specific games.

Upcoming

I do feel that this is arguably one of the simpler ones to explain. Rather it being upcoming games that I find rather interesting for one aspect or another. Primarily gameplay or developer related. However, there are a few in there that are here purely because of the visuals alone.