Oh wow, the announcement was expected as we are nearing the titular announcement beriod before Reitaisai, but never would have thought that this time we would receive a phantasmagoria-style game (which incidentally may stop getting called phantasmagoria games with this one). The screenshots this time seems to be pretty stacked with bits of pieces of informations :
First things first, seems like we're gonna have
19 characters ! That's about 3 more girls than in PoFV and about the same amount of playables as in aocf ! Not to mention the fact that we're getting first timers in the characters of Aunn, Nazrin, and Seiran, not coming with quite the new drip but enjoying a new ZUNart, which is quite lovely. This small lineup plus the plot's suggesting the involvement of the beasts has already led to speculations that part of the cast this time might have something to do with the Chinese zodiac animals. If we're gonna speculate on that aspect, imo we might end up with something like this :
- Rat = Nazrin
- Ox = Urumi ?
- Tiger = Shou ?
- Rabbit = Seiran
- Dragon = Kicchou ?
- Snake = ??? (or Kasen ?)
- Horse = Kurokoma ?
- Goat = Toutetsu
- Monkey = ??? (or Kokoro ?)
- Rooster = Kutaka ?
- Dog = Aunn
- Pig = Marisa ? (c'mon, her bow looks like piglet ears)
Might prove interesting but that would obviously pose problem against game representation per character
Nothing to take seriously there, and even big assumptions aside, it's reasonable to expect a somewhat large cast of new characters for this one since not only it's a mainline title, but even it's, uh, "predecessor" gave quite a bit of new girls (as in Aya, Medicine, Yuuka, Komachi, and Yabadabadoo). That means that even if the Chinese Zodiac Animals theory comes into fruition (and even remove Reimu and Marisa from the count), we'd have 2 slots for Reimu and Marisa, 12 slots for chines zodiac fitting characters, and 5 slots for brand new girls, some of which could either be fitted in the chinese zodiac or occupy a different place ; and if it doesn't ... we're gonna get a very crazy lineup.
As far as Touhou stories go, the ones with settings that aren't fully explored in one game but properly solved in another generally tend to be major (ie : ULiL into LoLK, WBaWC into SHoSS) : this game seems like it's gonna tie together the happenings from a Hell invasion game AND a marketing one, this is gonna be interesting at the very least
In these next two screenshots, we get to see PoFV-like PoFV sights where Reimu's bloodied yin yang orbs pop up in Marisa's side while some of Marisa's lasers get to pop up next to Reimu. Also a sneaky but noticeable NEW REIMU BOSS SPRITE
Also, worthy of mention, back in the Seiran and Marisa screenshot, there seems to be icons reminiscent of TH 18 and TH 18.5's ability cards right below the girls's texts, suggesting that these cards may still come into play this time : Aunn's cut-in might take a big chunk of this other screenshot, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that Nazrin (yes, that's Nazrin) seems to be firing a sneaky Marisa laser, probably due to a certain equipment card.
It is not certain from the screenshots how exactly are the ability cards gonna be put to use this time, like how many are you going to have, are they all gonna be available from the get go, and whether they are going to have something to do with the stars at the bottom-ight of the UI (I believe there weren't any stars back in PoFV)
I might not have played PoFV, but even I have heard tales of how ... slightly differents controls were, considering how the game was meant to be played, and I wonder if the addition of the stars (which looks like consumables that shouldn't count as life points since these are represented by hearts in the upper middle of the screen) would add another button to press top do stuff. Can't be so sure what they're gonna be used for, especially if bullets clearing is gonna work the same as in PoFV, where it happens as you release your Spells.
Still on the PoFV likeness side of things, since it's 2023 and since this game seems to feature a vs mode, I wonder if this game's VS mode is going to NOT end up going down in infamy and be serviceable without requiring outside tinkering, cuz that would make this game a little bit more interesting. Not so sure how much ZUN has evolved as far as netcoding goes, but I think I'm going to keep my expectations a bit on the lower side as when it comes to the early days multiplayer aspect of this new game. Touhou mainline games are first and foremost single players, making them a delight for single player experience seeking players and friendless basement dwellers alike. Competing with a flesh and blood creature may prove a bit relaxing compared to competing with a judge of the dead AI that fairly unfocus dodges through clumps of bullets, so something to look forward on this aspect too.
And a little bit more on the speculation side of things, as far as story goes, if this is gonna be a tie-in of sorts for the events of TH 17 and TH 18, which it seems to me, and I wonder if it could be an opportunity to re explore part of TH 17's settings that were not explored yet, just like in TH 17.5, namely the last and secret gang of the animal realm (also is it just me or the shadowy thing behind Reimu in the Title screen picture is oddly reminiscent of the shadowy thing from WBaWC ?)
Anyway, it's is always a good sight to see a new entry into this franchise. PoFV is notorious for being a bit of an outlier in various ways, and I'm expecting this game to receive a similar treatment too, somewhere down the line.
