Bored of Touhou? So do I...

[SeroVich]

We know that if we enjoy the same thing for a longer period of time, eventually we'll feel bored and tired of it, and go out to find new interesting series that catches our eyes (or return back to the old series we used to enjoy). Sooooooo, I'm feeling that fatigue with Touhou right now, not even playing Touhou 1 that much :P. I am now just into other stuff, like Higurashi, maaaybe the Law of Ueki, bits of Seihou Project and I wanna play Devil May Cry (even though I don't have physical copies, and getting the games on Steam is nothing but a dream, due to the prices .). So, how you guys get over this kind of fatigue?

[CyberAngel]

Coming back in a month or a few helps. Works for me even to improve gameplay skills due to relearning everything and seeing stuff I couldn't before.

[SeroVich]

Coming back in a month or a few helps. Works for me even to improve gameplay skills due to relearning everything and seeing stuff I couldn't before.

Useful advice. Thanks! 

[nAd]

It's kind of sad to see yourself growing bored of a long-time fixation, but like you said, it's bound to happen sooner or later, no point in trying to go against it.

Still, touhou has a way of sticking with you, fanart of the characters online, or the music and its many covers. For me at least these things inevitably, given enough time, build up the nostalgia needed to pull me back into the games for a while.

Though I'll probably never play them with the same vigor as when first discovering them.

[williewillus]

It's kind of sad to see yourself growing bored of a long-time fixation, but like you said, it's bound to happen sooner or later, no point in trying to go against it.

Still, touhou has a way of sticking with you, fanart of the characters online, or the music and its many covers. For me at least these things inevitably, given enough time, build up the nostalgia needed to pull me back into the games for a while.

Though I'll probably never play them with the same vigor as when first discovering them.

Yeah, the way I like to think about it is, your love for it doesn't really ever go away, it just becomes a part of you. Like I don't play the official games for hours on end nowadays, but I used to, and those are still lovely memories and time well spent, and I'll still be excited for new games and fangames to come out.

[Vance_croowa_08]

I don't know why or how, but i just can't seem to get tired of Touhou. It has been my hyperfixation for almost 3 years now (which is honestly something i did not expect) and i am so emotionally attached to the characters that i just can't stop loving it! My mind has been Touhou hijacked basically lmao

[jankop]

You will naturally return after some time, usually one or a few months. I just started playing Touhou games again after a few months of doing other things like watching anime and playing Summer Pockets RB (amazing visual novel btw). Yesterday I 1cc'd Dream Logical World (on easy tho :( ) and I'm still thinking about the last spellcard from stage 5.

[nav]

Maybe try exploring some Touhou music in genres you didn't ever think you'd normally enjoy. I generally dislike jazz, but last year I spent quite a bit of time listetning to Touhou jazz - think SWING HOLIC and DDBY. Folky Touhou tunes are great too if you never tried those. I dislike traditional music, but Japanese artists can do wonders with pipes and strings.

[High-Tension Yuuritsu]

Aside from being a robot anime fan, I was rather similar to a blank page before I knew of Touhou, so Touhou pretty much shaped my personal tastes and interests. Touhou showed me that life as I have known it up until that point isn't just about giant robots fighting and saving the world. For the first time, I became interested in female characters, which eventually led to Touhou shaping my taste in female character design (I can't seem to like any other female character that isn't a Touhou character).

After learning Japanese and getting exposed more to the Japanese side of the Touhou community, I came into contact with lots of diehard fans of the series who have been following only Touhou for several years, even up to 10-20 years. I admire them a lot, and so I became even more attached to Touhou. I enjoy everything about it, the games, the print works, the fan works, the community with its annoying memes, everything.

I think I'm gonna stick with Touhou for a looooooooooooooooong time. It's been over 6 years now, and that number will definitely increase.

[z2ys]

I've never found anything that I like being boring after sometime. Actually, when moments where my feeling about something stop burning so brightly, I found it even more impressive - how can something catch my interest in such intensitivity like that?

I don't believe we really grow tired of things we like, more like your feeling stop burning. I don't know if this makes any sense, but when we find something that we like, every time we interact with it we found a burning feeling of "I want to experience this again", "I want to learn more about it", "I want to burn this in my brain" and such. If we keep doing what we like, we won't really burn out or grow annoyed at it, at least that never happend to me. If we keep on experience we like, we are bound to find even more things to grow more excited about it, be the smallest things, be it big. Just about anything will make your feeling be re-ignited.

There's been many times where I thought I couldn't bear seeing a game in front of me, but when I thought "Why not replay it? For old time sake" I would play the game until finishing it or pass the entire morning, afternoon, night and evening, and when I'm finished (because I would be sleep) I wouldn't leave the game from my mind.

I've come across some people saying passions and things like that are short lived things for only that period, but I think that is a person dependent thing. Some people may get bored of things they like after sometime, but I don't and most people I know also don't. Most of the time, people just shift their focuses from one thing they like to another, which is totally fine. Focusing on other medium or interests is fine and you may learn a lot of things you would like to know before liking one medium you like (for example, me learning a little bit of music theory after already listening to Demetori), however learning it so late about something new also make your passion for something burn even brighter. You gain a certain appreciation you couldn't see/hear/read.

Anyway, this post has go on for a while already - for a post that's already dead for some months -, hopefully this is useful in someway, may encourage you to continue liking what you like or not feel "guilty" about "abandoning" one thing you really like. Don't feel bad about it, if you really need sometime before consuming something again, that's fine and when you come back, it's gonna still be right there, just as gracious as you left it.

[SeroVich]

Anyway, this post has go on for a while already - for a post that's already dead for some months -, hopefully this is useful in someway, may encourage you to continue liking what you like or not feel "guilty" about "abandoning" one thing you really like. Don't feel bad about it, if you really need sometime before consuming something again, that's fine and when you come back, it's gonna still be right there, just as gracious as you left it.

That's actually helpful, especially since I've to take break from reading Higurashi, because I got bored and for the sake of my mental health. Even though I don't feel really guilty of dropping Higurashi (heck, I could go back to reading Watanagashi where Miyo is dropping some lore dump onto K1), I still felt kinda crappy, since I didn't even finish reading Watanagashi yet, and want to know how it will end. But alas, I need to relax and unwind a bit. So, right now, the visual novel I'm reading is Never7. Just started before in the morning, and maybe tomorrow I'll read it.

And thanks for posting in this thread!!

[Hanes04]

Yeah honestly good advice all around. I've been on and off on Touhou since I started ca. July 2023, I've beaten the games up to 7, currently trying 8. I still have to 1cc 2 (without extending my lives), and 5. Besides 8, I mean.

I've had similar experiences with "abandoning" a franchise such like Fire Emblem or Pokemon, though I've learned to feel less guilty about them in time. Certain many other interests come back eventually too.

[Velociraptor]

I also think it's kind of like Pokemon or Minecraft? It's one of those franchises that you set aside and come back to once or twice a year when new content drops. Personally I think it's good to take breaks and explore other games and genres!