CAVE is making a Touhou game

[KennyMan666]

So you might know CAVE, the company that codified the bullet hell genre with the 1997 DoDonPachi and went on to make some more of the best shmups ever produced, such as DoDonPachi DaiOuJou and Mushihimesama (a fantastic port of which was recently released on the Switch eShop (all regions) for like twenty bucks and will be followed by ports of Espgaluda II and DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu, so grab it if you haven't already). To this day, Mushihimesama Futari Black Label is the title I come back to when talking about my favourite game of all time.

Anyway.

As part of Touhou's 25th anniversary, CAVE has acquired a license to produce a Touhou game to be released next year (the tweet says they have acquired "the licensing rights of Touhou", which is a bit misleading—they don't own Touhou now, they just have a license to make A game. ZUN is also on record as saying it'll basically be a fangame).

This would be really hype for me, my two favourite shmup things coming together, if not for that it's almost assuredly going to be a mobile game—the latest thing CAVE made that wasn't a mobile game was DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, and that was almost a decade ago. So it'll probably be something like a Touhou version of Gothic wa Mahou Otome, a mobile gacha shmup CAVE released in 2015.

But, hey, maybe we'll at least get some cool character art out of it, and at least worth discussing. I was a little surprised there wasn't a thread for it already.

[Suspicious person]

A bit surprised that there aren't a lot of conversation about this tbh

As someone who is a bit on the optimistic side _{(and also not so big on mobile releases)}, I'm REALLY tempted to believe that announcement to be about a proper, non mobile Touhou derivative work.

Mobile games may be somewhat notorious for not requiring as much ressources as proper full fledged games in order to develop, but they'll still take some time and ressource from their part ... if the idea was to make use of the Touhou IP as a means to garner interest in what they are planning to release, if it was gonna be a mobile release I believe having something like Touhou character guest appearance or a Touhou crossover inside of their already available mobile game titles make much more sense to me. There are already precedents for Touhou collabs like in Rakugaki Kingdom and Dandy Dungeon (among others), so such thing is feasable and arguably more efficient than developping a whole new mobile Touhou title.

Not saying it's impossible, especially considering CAVE's recent-ish releases, and the fact that a number of their employees from back in their Shmupening days are not there anymore, and the fact that most of the recents announcements of Touhou licensing were generally about mobile titles ; but imo, only something like THE Shmup company making a comeback into the Shmup scene with a game from THE most prolific Shmup Series would prefectly capture the magic of the moment and make the 25th anniversary something a bit more special ...

_{(dark clouds of skepiticism begoooone, begoooone I say)}

I'd still check it out even if it's a mobile game, but c'mon, I just want a super cool game ...

[Branneg Xy]

So you might know CAVE, the company that codified the bullet hell genre with the 1997 DoDonPachi and went on to make some more of the best shmups ever produced, such as DoDonPachi DaiOuJou and Mushihimesama (a fantastic port of which was recently released on the Switch eShop (all regions) for like twenty bucks and will be followed by ports of Espgaluda II and DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu, so grab it if you haven't already). To this day, Mushihimesama Futari Black Label is the title I come back to when talking about my favourite game of all time.

Anyway.

As part of Touhou's 25th anniversary, CAVE has acquired a license to produce a Touhou game to be released next year (the tweet says they have acquired "the licensing rights of Touhou", which is a bit misleading—they don't own Touhou now, they just have a license to make A game. ZUN is also on record as saying it'll basically be a fangame).

This would be really hype for me, my two favourite shmup things coming together, if not for that it's almost assuredly going to be a mobile game—the latest thing CAVE made that wasn't a mobile game was DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, and that was almost a decade ago. So it'll probably be something like a Touhou version of Gothic wa Mahou Otome, a mobile gacha shmup CAVE released in 2015.

But, hey, maybe we'll at least get some cool character art out of it, and at least worth discussing. I was a little surprised there wasn't a thread for it already.

A bit surprised that there aren't a lot of conversation about this tbh

As someone who is a bit on the optimistic side _{(and also not so big on mobile releases)}, I'm REALLY tempted to believe that announcement to be about a proper, non mobile Touhou derivative work.

Mobile games may be somewhat notorious for not requiring as much ressources as proper full fledged games in order to develop, but they'll still take some time and ressource from their part ... if the idea was to make use of the Touhou IP as a means to garner interest in what they are planning to release, if it was gonna be a mobile release I believe having something like Touhou character guest appearance or a Touhou crossover inside of their already available mobile game titles make much more sense to me. There are already precedents for Touhou collabs like in Rakugaki Kingdom and Dandy Dungeon (among others), so such thing is feasable and arguably more efficient than developping a whole new mobile Touhou title.

Not saying it's impossible, especially considering CAVE's recent-ish releases, and the fact that a number of their employees from back in their Shmupening days are not there anymore, and the fact that most of the recents announcements of Touhou licensing were generally about mobile titles ; but imo, only something like THE Shmup company making a comeback into the Shmup scene with a game from THE most prolific Shmup Series would prefectly capture the magic of the moment and make the 25th anniversary something a bit more special ...

_{(dark clouds of skepiticism begoooone, begoooone I say)}

I'd still check it out even if it's a mobile game, but c'mon, I just want a super cool game ...

Thank you warmly for sharing This Touhou (25th Anniversary)+CAVE(Company) Novelty+The First Insights/Highlights " on Maidens of the Kaleidoscope and for all "enthusiasts" . Moreover and Hopefully :
 complementary "pick-out among a few" https://kotaku.com/shootem-up-developer-cave-announces-a-totally-new-shoot-1847279777 but not a bad one at all .

[AngryEclectus]

CAVE and Touhou aren't exactly 2 words I would expect to be put in the same sentence.  It's a suprise, definitely, but that doesn
't mean it's bad!

I also hope it's not a mobile game, because as much as some of those mobile games are great, like Lost Word, the games don't have as much recognition as you would expect. The most well known games are Lost Word and EoSD (Barely, it's more like the characters and music get recognized.)

But enough rambling!

 

[Suspicious person]

https://twitter.com/cavegames/status/1430092533682511875

CAVE put out a questionnaire of sorts (link in the tweet) to get a better understanding of Touhou fans for the sake of making a game that should prove to be satisfactory.

It's a pretty simple, short and straightforward questionnaire so yeah, probably check it out or something.

There being mention of other users and other mobile game titles kinda makes me suspect that what they are developping may probably be a mobile game, hmm.

[buchsen]

The favorite mobile game section is pretty scary, no more gachapon pls CAVE.

on less negative subjects, who'd you vote for in the characters you want to see, i'm fairly sure Sakuya is going to be in anyways, so i voted for Youmu, Reisen, and i really hope Toramaru Shou becomes playable in some way.

Who did you vote for in the questionnaire?

[Suspicious person]

on less negative subjects, who'd you vote for in the characters you want to see, i'm fairly sure Sakuya is going to be in anyways, so i voted for Youmu, Reisen, and i really hope Toramaru Shou becomes playable in some way.

Who did you vote for in the questionnaire?

Voted for Tenshi, Yukari, and Youmu

The playstyle of the regular non-Youmu playable girls won't probably be particularly exotic, so I'm more interested in seeing how characters that are less usual but not out of left field could be implemented. For example, a Tenshi whose options can defend her to a certain extent, a Yukari with gap gimmickes (beside screen teleport), and a Youmu.

If any of them do get implemented anyway.

[easy_breezy]

CAVE and Touhou aren't exactly 2 words I would expect to be put in the same sentence.  It's a suprise, definitely, but that doesn
't mean it's bad!

I also hope it's not a mobile game, because as much as some of those mobile games are great, like Lost Word, the games don't have as much recognition as you would expect. The most well known games are Lost Word and EoSD (Barely, it's more like the characters and music get recognized.)

But enough rambling!

 

I doubt it would be on mobile. Steam is more plausible.

[Reimu6]

is it a SHUMP or a game like LW or somehings?

[Suspicious person]

https://gamebiz.jp/news/352975

While no details about the game is out, it is confirmed at the very least that CAVE is working together with Nada HD (whoever they are) to make a Touhou smartphone game.

So yeah, that ship's sailed so no use complaining about it. Out of all the smartphones games to be released, CAVE's announcement is about the only one that hasn't given us much info about what it's gonna be, not even some kind of PV nor even an illustration. Aside from the general consensus that it's probably gonna be a shmup kind-of game, there's no much detail to go aside from it coming out this year 2022.

Dunno much about these fellahs that the CAVE folks are working with, so can't speculate on what is gonna happen for this release.

[Branneg Xy]

https://gamebiz.jp/news/352975

While no details about the game is out, it is confirmed at the very least that CAVE is working together with Nada HD (whoever they are) to make a Touhou smartphone game.

So yeah, that ship's sailed so no use complaining about it. Out of all the smartphones games to be released, CAVE's announcement is about the only one that hasn't given us much info about what it's gonna be, not even some kind of PV nor even an illustration. Aside from the general consensus that it's probably gonna be a shmup kind-of game, there's no much detail to go aside from it coming out this year 2022.

Dunno much about these fellahs that the CAVE folks are working with, so can't speculate on what is gonna happen for this release.

(Google Translated) : " また、ナダHDが保有する技術、ノウハウ、知見を活用し、アジア圏を始めとした海外マーケットにおける需要を取り込み、事業の拡大を図ることも目的と明かした。/ (Subject: The CAVE company) It also revealed that it aims to expand its business by utilizing the technology, know-how, knowledge possessed by Nada HD to capture demand in overseas markets such as the Asian region.".
By that description it seems " Nada HD " is some sort of well-built Japanese digital-distribution marketing & research & advertising  agency (?) .

[Suspicious person]

SUPER LATE on this, but finally something concrete for this game came out :

https://gamebiz.jp/news/367197

Basically it's gonna be a side scrolling shooter, and it's slated for release on the 22nd November of 2023. So uuuh yes, that's it.

The enemies I see in those pictures are really, REALLY not Touhou like, so I'm kinda worried about what kind of worldview this game is gonna give us. These look WAY too edgy for our usual fairy laden, fluff ball ball obstructed, yin yang and shiny flame ghost having fantasy world

[chapter]

CAVE games are, at least in my experience, way harder than touhou so I wonder what the difficulty would be like?

[williewillus]

CAVE games are, at least in my experience, way harder than touhou so I wonder what the difficulty would be like?

All of CAVE's original shmup design staff have basically left or retired at this point. The only thing they do is 1) make weird mobile games and 2) port their old shmups to new systems.

So I wouldn't be too optimistic about the design for this game. And it's a mobile game too.

[Suspicious person]

SUPER late on this, but the game's finally got a proper title and it's gonna get called Gensou Eclipse
https://twitter.com/gensoueclipse/status/1702555359624478863

Going what's been twee- uh, what's been XXXXed up, the game's is surprisingly gonna be a RPG. Considering the previous screenshots filled with bullets, I sorta expect the game to play somewhat like Azur Lane (the other non-traumatic boat gacha)

Official(?) site here, with very, VERY pretty illustrations from Uu Uu Zan :
https://gensoueclipse.jp/

Release date is set to be on 22 november 2023 if there's no issues

[Suspicious person]

Super, SUPER late, but the Cave guys finally released PVs of sorts for the game :

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VciQ2lhoyO4
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqM6MPbplao
Basically music PVs (by SOUND HOLIC I assume), but hey, it's a thing.

Game should come for good in the 22nd november of 2023

Gomaotsu / Gothic wa Mahou Otome didn't have an english localisation, so I suspect that this game woumdn't benefit from something like that either.

[KennyMan666]

And to nobody's surprise it's a live service gacha game, apparently with a mechanically annoying gacha system, so, meh.

It's really kind of amazing how they've managed to make me not have the slightest bit interest in a Touhou game made by Cave.

Well, guess there might at least be some good music to hit up on Youtube eventually.