If you are a Touhou Project fan, you will be exuberant to learn that Touhou Arcadia Record has recently launched in Japan for the mobile platform. Following the shutdown of Touhou Danmaku Kagura, it’s kind of worrying whether Arcadia Record will follow its precedent’s footsteps and be suspended within a year. Published by Klab and developed by Damo Games, the game itself is advertised as a side-scrolling shoot-em-up for players to collect their favorite Touhou characters. But is that all? Let’s see what else Touhou Arcadia Records has to offer.
▍Revive Your Memories in a Heartfelt Story
Touhou Arcadia Record’s storyline is nothing special, to say the least. Players can expect a standard 1-way dialogue with limited interaction with the players. Most of the story is delivered through dialogues with some battles in-between to make sure players understand the combat system as well. Credit where credit is due, the entire storyline features professionally voice-acted girls from the Touhou universe.
Our story starts as we met with a nameless boy whom we are role-playing. Found near an old shrine in the land of Gensokyo, you were found by the series’ center girl Reimu Hakurei with your memory loss. Clueless about what’s happening, you decide to go on a mission to regain your memory. On your journey in this fantasy world, you will meet other mysterious girls from the Touhou universe through the main story quests and stages.
▍Casual Shoot Em’ Up Combat System Get You Hooked
Touhou Arcadia Record really shows what a good combat system for a casual game can look like. Despite being a casual shooter RPG, the innate strategic depth and mechanics change the way the game can be played by veterans and casuals alike. During battles, players will build a team of up to five different characters and send them on an expedition.
The battles take place in an automated instance where players can move their characters up and down by tapping the button on the sides or swiping the phone. Tons of enemies will be coming your way while your girls will automatically use their different skills and abilities to clear the enemies. Clear the stage and fulfilling the stage requirements will give you extra premium currency.
As the characters have different abilities and skills, the combination of your characters definitely makes the stages more interesting. Some characters carry buffs that can help your team to defeat the enemies faster or survive the strong attacks from enemies.
These buffs include the Attack Up Buff where the player’s basic attacks will split into multiple bullets to target more enemies on the screen. The Defense buff creates a shield around the character to defend them from incoming damage. Players can also make use of the terrain advantages to dodge incoming attacks and clear the stages efficiently.
Touhou Arcadia Record has a large map with different quests and contents that awaits you to discover. Players will be able to access different types of main story stages from the chapters in-game. Each chapter is a new land that is represented by a map. This world is divided into different stages, denoted by the stage numbers. Clear all the stages will give you plenty of premium currency as unlock more stories and meet with the unique girls from the franchise. These stages also describe how the story moves forwards along with unlocking more content in the game. Hence, it’s advised for new players to focus on clearing these main story stages first.
Just like any other casual game, Touhou Arcadia Record features a handy Skip button that unlocks after players clear Chapter 2 Stage 7. Players can easily skip the grind and get all the resources according to the number of runs set up in an instant. This undoubtedly helps players to focus more on developing their favorite girls and increasing their combat power!
▍Start Collecting Your Favourite Touhou Girls!
Touhou Arcadia Record is a hero-collector game that makes use of gachapon mechanics to provide players with an ample chance of obtaining their favorite girls from the Touhou franchise.
The rates of summoning are quite average with the highest rarity of girls (3-Stars) having a 2.5% chance of being summoned. Apart from just collecting the girls, players can also increase their strength so that they can assist fairly in battles. The routine of training is basically the same as other anime gacha games. You collect resources from the daily dungeons or from the main story stages and use them to level up the girls.
Players can enjoy collecting many girls from the Touhou franchise such as Remilia Scarlet, Sakuya Izayoi, Reimu Hakurei, Cirno, and Flandre Scarlet. Each girl is represented in their own pixel-art chibi form in battles. Players can also view their full-fledged 2D art by going to the illustration’s menu. All the girls are having their original Japanese VAs recorded aiming to provide the collectors with a joyful experience.
▍Touhou Arcadia Record is a Casual Shooter That You Can Pick Up Anywhere Anytime
Touhou Arcadia Record is highly recommended for players that like the Touhou franchise and expect a casual fun-filled experience. The thrill lasts for a few minutes every day and the game is a perfect fit for players who want to fill their time while traveling or taking a break. However, for players who like highly strategical and flashy combat experience, Touhou Arcadia Record may not be your top priority considering the limited content it has to offer. The gameplay also finds similarities to other mobile shooters, so don’t expect anything new or innovative if you decided to dive into this recent mobile game adaptation of the Touhou Project.
