“No new incidents today?”
Let’s face it: Touhou is starting to feel like the Japanese Economy. The franchise is losing its rush, leaving most of the fans stuck on a certain game without any prominent motivation on trying the next one. Now, some of you might object, seeing how the constant release of Touhou games and content keep you preoccupied. But think: How many more games do we need before we get to the official thirteenth game?
There are a number of factors that contribute to the slowdown:
- Storyline concepts are too vague. There are too many possibilities for a world of fantasy. To define (and provide) a good stream of content from a creative standpoint is hard enough. No wonder ZUN is getting suggestions from people now.
- Recent game semantics were met with mixed feelings. I know a lot of people who had a thing or two about the bomb semantic that both Subterranean Animism and Mountain of Faith used (reduce power, emit bullet-erasing shockwave). A few more noted the inability to damage latter bosses with bombs. There’s just too much new stuff that the original and simple shoot-’em-up concept of the past games is slowly being lost. Fortunately, ZUN is currently fixing that. That’s the reason I recently fell in love with Fairy Wars.
- Gensokyo is now too big for a single man to handle. Too much characters, too many places to visit. If we were to define even more people or places than what we already have, Gensokyo is going to be a very big and complicated world. However, ZUN is famously known to define new characters and locations in order to create an incident, which is used as the concept for a new game or spin-off. It’s also worth noting that spin-offs are the only games that recycle characters and locations. Maybe the thirteenth game will revolutionize how the future games are going to be made.
- Gensokyo is now too big for the fans to handle. I’m not saying this in a negative way, though. It’s just that, considering how big the Touhou universe is now, fans are more likely to get stuck in a certain game’s fanbase rather than move on to a new game’s. That affects the games that a certain fan will play in the future. As for my fanbase, since Reimu almost always appears in every game (playable or not), it isn’t much of a problem for me. I don’t know for the rest of the other guys.
Hopefully we can get a good concept and storyline for the thirteenth game, which is currently in the works. This only means we’re having progress. Hopefully, it goes fast enough for us to move on, and interesting enough for us to eagerly anticipate.
YES I AM STUCK IN SCARLET DEVIL MANSION FANBASE NOOOOOOO
I also crawl over to the Forest at times.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t actually stuck in a fanbase.
… Well… I did intentionally skip Subterranean Animism and Mountain of Faith because the bomb system and latter boss bomb immunity is terribad.
Um, do you know the reason why ZUN makes the games? He’s said its just to make games he likes to play, and he never intended the fandom to happen. And, each time he makes the games he puts in a new mechanic, he doesn’t want to create the same game over and over again. Also, have you noticed that the games are in segments? 6-8 then shoot the bullet. (2002,3,4, then 5(and 9 in the same year)) That was on one engine. Then, 10-12 and double spoiler. (2007,8,9, then 10) Thats the new engine. In fact, after 9.5, he was saying he was thinking of stopping. (one year gap, 2006) But, he continued, and he decided to make a new engine to try out new things.
Now, i expect 13 to be distinctly different and newer than the past 2 windows segments. Also, If anything, ZUN is MORE productive than before, year by year. I’d be VERY suprised if 13 came out in 2010, since DS just did. AND another bonus game. Going by past history, you shouldn’t even expect 13 until 2012. You should be thankful of the fact that he’s even talking about 13 now.
Your sense of time is probably warped by just knowing about all the pervious games at once, then hearing about the new games from after you starting following Touhou in real time.
Making a whole new game engine takes a lot longer than just taking the same engine and adding new characters, which is what happened inbetween 6-8 and 10-12. Also, you do know that the photography games like i mentioned earlier are basically summaries of the past arc? And, that they are more like the original plan for touhou, only bosses nothing else.
1. Storyline concepts too vague. Have you read any of the novels or comics? There are a ton out already.
2 I already answered.
3. Like I said, ZUN just wants to try out new things, and creating new characters to go with new spell cards is one way to do that. Do you want to fight the same 6 characters every game? That wouldn’t be Touhou. Again, the games aren’t (mainly) for the story, he just added them to make a full package. You can go read the novels and comics for that, it probably takes less time for ZUN to give the story to a mangaka than programming a whole game to tell the story. You do want as much story from him as possible, right?
4. That’s the fans’ own fault. ZUN likes to try out new things. As you said, I don’t really consider it a bad thing, only bad for people who like completion set bonuses. Again, Touhou wouldn’t be Touhou if it was the same 6 characters every game.
Welcome! This is your first time visiting, yes?
First of all, I never denied ZUN being very productive. It’s just that the transition of the official (emphasis on official, as in the major incident ones) games were never this slow compared from when he changed engines from 6-9.5 to the latter games. It was definitely shorter, I can say.
Second, when I said the storyline concept is too vague, I mean it’s way too vast to be exactly defined. Besides, it’s never constant. We sometimes get informed of stuff and tidbits from the past games via official novels or manga that were recently published. If ZUN is focusing too much on content, there’s a lot to be given depth in that regard.
Third, trying out new things is fine, it’s just that in order to keep the fans clamoring for more, the new semantic must always keep in touch with the basic and core concepts from the past iterations of games. It never hurts to go back to your roots. This is why Undefined Fantastic Object was better than the last two games that it preceded: It brought back the old-fashioned bombing semantic, which made people enjoy playing again.
Lastly, I don’t feel my sense of time warped. Besides, my fanbase is never tied to a single game.
# 東方紅魔郷 ～ Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Team Shanghai Alice 2002)
# 東方妖々夢 ～ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Team Shanghai Alice 2003)
# 東方萃夢想 ～ Immaterial and Missing Power (Collaboration with Tasogare Frontier 2004)
# 東方花映塚 ～ The Phantasmagoria of Flower View (Team Shanghai Alice 2005)
# 東方文花帖 ～ Shoot the Bullet (Team Shanghai Alice 2005)
# 東方風神録 ～ Mountain of Faith (Team Shanghai Alice 2007)
# 東方地霊殿 ～ Subterranean Animism (Team Shanghai Alice 2008)
# 東方星蓮船 ～ Undefined Fantastic Object (Team Shanghai Alice 2009)
# ダブルスポイラー ～ 東方文花帖 (Team Shanghai Alice 2010)
# 妖精大戦争 ～ 東方三月精 (Team Shanghai Alice 2010)
I took out the fighting games. He’s on schedule for 2011. Which, technically, is going to be one year early. I still don’t see what you’re compaining about for speed.
from http://touhou.wikia.com/wiki/ZUN.
Notice the double for both 9 and 12.8. He’s not slower or faster than before.
Or, a little faster since there have been 1.5 fighting games instead of 1. And, the new one has much more characters and many that were dropped.
For one, I like how the spinoffs recycle the existing characters, and I acknowledge the continuous stream of projects despite the seeming lack of major progress. I’m talking about months here, not years.
Also, Touhou Suimusou (Immaterial and Missing Power) is a spinoff… and a fighting game. Maybe you meant Imperishable Night? They got released on the same year anyway.
Oops, I must I saw “I” and then highlighted the wrong one.