I have always been a big fan of the games published by Idea Factory International and the Touhou Project games, so seeing Touhou Spell Carnival excited me. We were getting the RPG elements of Compile Heart and the bullet hell gameplay that Touhou Project games, which made me concerned going in.
Game Name: Touhou Spell Carnival
Platform(s): PS4, PS5 (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch
Developer(s): Idea Factory, Compile Heart, STING
Publisher(s): Idea Factory International
Release Date: November 19th, 2024
Price: $49.99
Touhou Spell Carnival starts with the Reimu Hakurei noticing a bunch of pillars popping up around Gensokyo. As she figures out why these pillars came to be, Marisa Kirisame talks to her about the new event known as the Spell Carnival. Turns out Yukari Yakumo is hosting a special carnival that requires participants to battle each other with spell cards. The victor gets the loser’s cards and then the winner gets to add the loser to their team for the Spell Carnival. The Spell Carnival is a 30-day event and each battle represents a day.
The Good
The best part of Touhou Spell Carnival is the artwork. Each one makes the Touhou Characters look fantastic. This is the best art in a Touhou Project game. The CG scenes look beautiful and have each character brimming with lots of personality. The Japanese voice acting fits the art well too!
The gameplay loop is simple but it has a variety of choices. Each day you go through the visual novel-type scenes done in wonderful live 2D. Early on you get to have a few choices that will take you to see different characters from the Touhou universe. You can battle them with the game’s unique bullet hell combat and if you win, you add another character to your main party.
In Tohou Spell Carnival you can have five characters in your main battle party. Combat is on a grid. Each unit has its moving speed. You wait until your AP charges and every time the gauge fills you get an AP point. Using spell cards utilize a set amount of AP points. The same applies to your enemies on the grid as well. When they get an allotted amount of AP points they may turn red indicating they are about to launch an attack. Enemies have spell cards that will launch bullets or skills across the grid.
Since this is a bullet hell game, it is important to dodge as much as you can. Attacks can some time to move which gives you some leeway to move whichever unit you need out of the way. You also can utilize your skills to block incoming attacks which helps in case you can’t dodge anything coming your way.
When you unlock a party member in the story, you also gain their information in the gallery. This will let you see who they are and what they do in the Touhou universe. There are a good chunk of characters from the Touhou universe in this game and it is worth it to test out each new character as they can change your strategy greatly in combat.
The Bad
Touhou Spell Carnival has a unique battle system. For the most part, it has a lot of deep mechanics. Once you start adding more than three party members in your battle formation though, it gets hectic. You have to pay attention to the bullets and skills homing in on all your units and it can quickly get hard to follow. The bombs you are given at the beginning of a battle are helpful but you have to be conservative with how you use them. It takes a while before they build up again. When things get hectic it’s worth it to use your AP for stopping any shots fired your way.
There are side episodes with each character you find in the game. After several victories, you will get more and more of them unlocked. Due to the choices you make, you will get certain characters earlier or later. This can confuse some side episodes as you won’t know about the characters or why they are in one of your members’ side episodes.
Touhou Spell Carnival generally has the victory conditions of each map as defeating the main boss of the enemy’s lineup. This is not consistent and requires you to make sure you know what the victory conditions of the battle are. It isn’t difficult to check at the beginning of the match but if you skim and instantly go to attack the boss, it can be frustrating to defeat the boss but still get bombarded from the other units on the map.
The Verdict
Touhou Spell Carnival is a great time if you are someone who loves RPGs and the bullet-hell gameplay of Touhou Project games. It was awesome digging into the mechanics and figuring out strategies to bombard the enemy while keeping my party safe from harm. Sometimes it would feel like too much was going on though especially in the later maps where bosses would get a lot of revive moves that required you to deplete their health to zero several times. This is not a game I would recommend if you get frustrated easily. If you like the Touhou Project games and want to see a different spin on the bullet-hell gameplay then this is worth a playthrough.
Touhou Spell Carnival releases November 19th, 2024 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Review Disclosure Statement: Touhou Spell Carnival was provided to us by Idea Factory International for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Touhou Spell Carnival does a decent job blending RPG mechanics into the bullet-hell formula of Touhou Project. It can get overwhelming with everything on screen and having to protect five characters.
Pros
- Deep mechanics that enhance the bullet-hell experience.
- Stunning artwork
- A good chunk of the Touhou cast looks the best they ever have.
Cons
- Mixing RPG mechanics and bullet-hell can be frustrating.
- The choices don’t seem to impact much of the actual story. Just the order you unlock characters.
