What If, Bullet Hell But On A Grid? A Touhou Spell Carnival Review

By Janette

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5

I actually quite like Touhou. I've played many of the core bullet hells, and several of the spinoff games (did you know there's a Touhou tower defense??), and I think ZUN is incredible and very talented. What he's achieved with the franchise since his start is nothing short of amazing. I also really enjoy strategy RPGs a la Fire Emblem and the likes. I fully platinum'd Unicorn Overlord earlier this year, because it was such a great game I couldn't put down. So the idea that Touhou Spell Carnival, a fan game combining Touhou characters and many of the bullet hell gimmicks the core series is known for with a strategy RPG, would be coming to the US, I was excited at the chance to play it.

First things first: Touhou Spell Carnival finds everyone's favorite shire maiden Reimu and second favorite witch Marisa discovering pillars all over the island of Gensokyo. They come to find the pillars mean the Spell Carnival has started, a festival hosted by the mysterious Yukari Yakumo. The main focus of this carnival is battles where competitors are at risk to lose their spell cards. To uncover the truth of Yukari and her goals, Reimu and Marisa put their spell cards on the line to join the fray. The game features music and characters from across Touhou's history, voice acting, and pretty cute art of all the girls. You might find it hard to pick and choose which characters to pick up when, but you'll eventually get them all.

The core gameplay loop is your basic SRPG conceit of "pick party members, prep for battle, fight on a grid", with your story delivered in-between. While there are some dialog differences based on who you pick, the core of the story doesn't change. Where TSC tries to differentiate itself is on the battlefield. Despite the field coming off often as very basic, there's a lot going on. Spell cards and other effects Touhou fans are very familiar with find their way here as attacks, bombs, and more. A set of systems and gauges to unleash overwhelming attacks and even recover health can keep one quite busy. And there's nothing like the familiar stress of a seemingly infinite stream of bullets headed your way, but this time your movement isn't as free.

But if I'm honestly, it was a let down. There's so much going on, but it feels so inconsequential. In a effort to chase what makes the Touhou games what they are, some of the most spectacular gameplay is diluted down to noisy visuals and overly complex interacting systems that just feels bad. You don't really need to bother with expanding your roster of characters unless you really like a particular girl, because odds are once you find one heavy hitter, why bother with anyone else? And maybe this is more of a me issue, but too much going on on the screen really slowed down my Switch, even in docked mode. The story wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention and make me strive to get to the next level. It just felt like a slog with Touhou wrapping paper.

Which is a shame. The idea is ambitious and unique and I think has legs. The voice acting is great! The music is full of classics from the franchise, and we all love those! Who doesn't want another version of U.N. Owen Was Her? The visuals are also pretty good! During your story bits, all the characters get lovely 2D art, and in battle they have charming 3D chibi versions. There's even a photo mode to capture how great the visuals are, with some customization available. But maybe being a 'fan game' with some studio backing isn't enough. This isn't the first Touhou spinoff I've played that feels like a half-baked game that got covered with Touhou art to ensure sales. And yet, I know I'm not the only one whose bought more than one. I sure would like one of them to feel as fully realized as any of the one-man-show games ZUN built in a cave with a box of scraps.

I don't think I'd recommend this to anyone except the most hardcore of Touhou fans, or those with the money to burn to be curious about it. Good music and good visuals aren't enough to save a jumbled mess of bloated and unfinished concepts in an uninspiring game.

Check Out More on Touhou Spell Carnival: ifi.games/touhouspellcarnival/

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Story: C
Gameplay: C
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: B+
Value: C

Overall: C+

Pros:
+ Music bops!
+ Large range of characters from across Touhou's history, all fully voiced
+ A variety of spell cards, skills, and more available allows for a lot of experimentation with achieving your goals
+ The designs for the characters are actually pretty cute, and the photo mode allows you to enjoy that up close without the visual noise
+ Ambitious game idea

Cons:
- No amount of ambition can overcome that this is an okay at best mashup of the two genres
- Story is okay at best (but it's not like a lot of folks play Touhou for the story)
- Game can get pretty choppy on a Switch when there's a lot going on visually
- Levels can feel repetitive real fast

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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