Touhou Youyoumu: Perfect Cherry Blossom

HISTORY

Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (Japanese: 東方妖々夢 〜 Perfect Cherry Blossom; lit. "Bewitching Eastern Dream") is a 2003 vertically scrolling shooter bullet hell video game developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the seventh game in the Touhou Project series. Playable characters include returning protagonists Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame, with Sakuya Izayoi featuring in her first playable appearance. The story centers around the chosen heroine traveling to Gensokyo's Netherworld to stop Gensokyo from being stuck in an eternal state of winter when spring fails to arrive.

The full game was first released on August 17, 2003, at Comiket 64. The game introduces many gameplay changes over its predecessor Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, many of which would become staples of subsequent Touhou Project entries, including the ability to visualise the player's own hitbox.

Gameplay

Perfect Cherry Blossom is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up bullet hell game. Similarly to the previous game, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the game consists of six regular stages with four levels of difficulty. Perfect Cherry Blossom also features a practice mode to play through previously completed stages, a replay mode for watching saved game replays, and a music room to listen to the game's soundtrack and view ZUN's comments on each song.

If the player completes the game without using a continue, they are shown the "good ending" of their particular shot type, and unlock an additional "Extra Stage"; otherwise, they are revealed a "bad ending" and are unable to save a replay. Unlike the previous game, the player is not prevented from reaching Stage 6 and achieving the good ending on Easy difficulty.

The player can enter "focus mode" by holding the focus button, which slows the player character's movements, alters their shot, and shows their hitbox, making it easier to dodge enemy attacks. The player can also use bombs, which grant temporary invulnerability, clear the screen of bullets, and deal varying amount of damage to enemies depending on the shot type. The player has a limited supply of bombs per each life, with each individual shot type featuring two different bombs (one fired while unfocused, the other while focused). Upon being hit by an enemy bullet, the player can avoid losing a life by using a bomb within a small window of time (the timing determined by the chosen character), a technique known as "deathbombing."

The game offers three playable characters to choose from with two shot types each: Reimu Hakurei starts with three bombs, has the smallest hitbox, and the longest time in the game to deathbomb, with either homing amulets or strong but narrow needles. Marisa Kirisame is the fastest character, and has a lower boundary to collect all items onscreen, with strong but narrow attacks that are either vertically traveling projectiles or lasers that pierce enemies; she also starts with only two bombs. Sakuya Izayoi has the largest area in which she can graze enemy bullets and a lower Cherry point penalty for dying, and fires knives that can either lock onto enemies in front of her or have their angle manually aimed and then locked depending on the shot type; she starts with four bombs.

Throughout the course of the game, enemies drop Power Items, which increase the damage and rate of fire of the player's shot, Point Items, which increase the player's score and Point counter and grant additional lives at increasing numeric thresholds (unlike Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, in which extra lives are awarded directly based on score) and Cherry items, which contribute to the Cherry mechanic. When the player reaches maximum shot power, all bullets on-screen are canceled and converted into points; while at full power, the player can move to the top of the screen to collect all onscreen items, and any additional Power items dropped will instead be Cherry items. The player will also receive a point bonus if they can "capture" an enemy spell card: completing it without dying, bombing, running out of time, or breaking a Supernatural Border.

Perfect Cherry Blossom's game-exclusive mechanic is the "Cherry" system. Shooting enemies and collecting cherry blossom petal items dropped by enemies increases the "Cherry Points" (displayed as "Cherry" and "Cherry+" in-game), but using a bomb, dying, or failing to defeat a boss's attack before time runs out decreases it. The maximum value of Point Items is determined by the Cherry level; Point Items are worth an amount equal to the Cherry level near the top of the screen and decrease in value the lower on the screen they are collected. When a total of 50,000 "Cherry+" points are collected and the player is not currently invincible due to bomb or respawning after a lost life, a "Supernatural Border" (森羅結界, Shinra Kekkai) will be triggered, a shield that lasts for nine seconds. While active, all items are automatically collected (with Point Items giving their maximum value no matter where on the screen the player is), and the player is protected from one enemy attack. If the player is hit while the border is active, or if the player manually cancels the border by pressing the bomb button, a "Spirit Strike" (霊撃, Reigeki) is unleashed; this removes all onscreen bullets and converts them into small cherry petal items (which are worth a fixed, non-scaling amount, unlike the regular ones, which award additional Cherry for each Spell Card captured), but ends the shield prematurely (without consuming a bomb stock if the button was pressed). If the player is able to survive for the entirety of the shield's duration without being hit or breaking it manually, an additional "Border Bonus" is granted to score (as well as a very brief period of invincibility). The Cherry value has an upper bound, dictated in-game by the number depicted after the slash, which can be increased by achieving a Border Bonus or grazing (having enemy bullets reach the edge of the player hitbox) when the Supernatural Border is active. Additionally, each bullet grazed independently adds to the player's score and gives a score bonus at the end of the stage. Depending on the selected difficulty level and the initial number of lives, a multiplier bonus or penalty is applied at the end of each stage; at the end of the final stage, additional points are awarded for each remaining life and bomb in stock.

Among new features introduced in Perfect Cherry Blossom are visualizing the player's hitbox when focusing, changing a shot type's behavior more drastically when focused compared to Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, including a cursor on the bottom margin of the screen during a boss battle which tells the player where the boss is currently located, and having a consistent time in which to perform a deathbomb. Unlike the previous game, the practice mode grants the player the maximum amount of lives, and it is possible to save a replay of an attempt made through this mode. ZUN has stated those features are meant to make the game more user-friendly after observing the positive reaction and increasing fanbase of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. Although not explicitly stated within the game itself, an additional "Phantasm Stage" is unlocked for characters that have cleared the "Extra Stage" once the player has captured 60 unique spell cards across all characters and difficulties; the Phantasm stage contains the conclusion to the game's story.

Erroneously, the version of the game's manual hosted on ZUN's website contains a mix of information from the game's earliest trial versions (such as extra lives being granted by score instead of collecting Point Items or practice mode giving player the default amount of lives) and content only present in the full release (such as unlocking the Extra Stage).

Plot

Setting and prologue

In the spring of the 119th season of Gensokyo, an event later known as the Spring Snow Incident (春雪異変) occurs. Gensokyo is stuck in an eternal winter, with snowstorms continuing well into May. The three heroines, each for their own reasons, set out to resolve the incident and return spring to the land. Reimu Hakurei is motivated by the cold temperature making her life at the shrine miserable. Marisa Kirisame finds a cherry blossom petal in her home in the Forest of Magic and sets out to see if winter is affecting the outside world as well. Sakuya Izayoi is forced to act to prevent the Scarlet Devil Mansion from running out of supplies and fuel. Canonically, Reimu is the one that resolves this incident.

=== Main scenario ===…

STORY

PROLOGUE

In Gensokyo, people relax and bask in the calm of a winter without end. Spring has shown no sign of arriving even though it's already May, and in fact the snowstorms are continually getting worse. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, is tired of being cold day in and day out and wants to find the source of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame, a black-clothed magician, sees a cherry blossom petal float down outside her warm house and wonders if spring is happening somewhere else. Sakuya Izayoi, the maid leader of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, knows that their winter supplies are diminishing quickly, and wants to end this prolonged winter before they run out completely. Depending on who you choose, only one of these three heroines actually goes out and investigates.

MAIN STORY

The heroine starts off her journey by heading off into the snow-covered forests in search of clues. She battles the ice fairy Cirno and the winter spirit Letty Whiterock in the forest, and the nekomata Chen in the village of Mayohiga, without any progress in her search. Finally, after defeating Alice Margatroid and her dolls, the heroine finds a lead when she notices several cherry blossoms blowing around in the sky. The heroine follows the trail of cherry blossoms high above Gensokyo, breaking through the greetings of Lily White, eventually reaching a great magical boundary and the poltergeist musicians Prismriver Sisters. After silencing the Prismriver Sisters, the heroine crosses the boundary into the Netherworld.

After fighting off several ghosts, the heroine is confronted by human-ghost gardener Youmu Konpaku. Youmu explains that she had been stealing the essence of "spring" throughout Gensokyo in order to make the Saigyou Ayakashi, a youkai cherry tree, bloom perfectly with the rest of Hakugyokurou's gardens, as per her master's orders. The heroine defeats Youmu and hurries to Hakugyokurou to get Gensokyo's spring back. Now at the end of a long journey, the heroine comes face to face with Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghost princess of Hakugyokurou. Yuyuko reveals that she wanted to revive a certain soul that has been sealed within the Saigyou Ayakashi from before her existence. In order to break the seal, the youkai cherry blossom tree needed to bloom fully and completely. Yuyuko and the heroine wage a fierce battle, to get the last "spring" contained in the heroine needed for the Perfect Cherry Blossom, and to reclaim Gensokyo's spring, respectively. After the heroine defeats Yuyuko, the Saigyou Ayakashi starts to lose its health. However the seal has been weakened from the near-complete bloom, and the sealed soul is temporarily unleashed. The soul is actually Yuyuko's. The heroine dodges attack after attack until Yuyuko's soul is finally sealed once more.