The Disappearing of Gensokyo

About

"The Disappearing of Gensokyo" is a 2D side-scrolling action game set in the Touhou Project universe. Players control several magical girl characters as they investigate the sudden disappearance of Gensokyo's residents. The game features fast-paced combat with a variety of enemies and intense boss battles. Exploration and puzzle-solving are also important elements as players uncover the mystery behind the disappearance.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

84%

Audience ScoreBased on 525 reviews

story36 positive mentions

grinding12 negative mentions

The game features a diverse cast of characters, each with unique abilities and playstyles, making gameplay varied and engaging.
The soundtrack is outstanding, featuring remixes of classic Touhou music that enhance the overall experience.
The graphics are visually appealing, with well-designed environments and character models that capture the essence of the Touhou series.

The game suffers from significant difficulty spikes, especially in boss fights, which can feel unfair and frustrating due to lack of invincibility frames and inconsistent hitboxes.
The English translation is often poor, with numerous grammatical errors and awkward phrasing that detracts from the story and character interactions.
There are issues with camera angles and visibility during combat, making it difficult to dodge projectiles and navigate certain boss fights.

story
161 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
68%
9%
The game's story is generally considered to be shallow and often nonsensical, with many players noting its reliance on Touhou lore that may confuse newcomers. While some appreciate the humor and charm in the dialogue, others criticize the poor translation and lack of depth, leading to a linear and predictable narrative. Overall, the story serves more as a backdrop for gameplay rather than a compelling element, with mixed opinions on its execution and coherence.
- “The storyline is primarily trying to figure out the oddities of what's going on in Gensokyo, which is why finding Reimu becomes important to the plot as she is quite familiar with resolving these incidents.”
- “The story is well made, the gameplay is classic Touhou, and the background music is amazing as expected.”
- “I love the concept, the well-made characters, and the story.”
- “The storyline doesn't make sense; from the opening, a gap opens which is what Yukari does, yet Yukari doesn't appear at all in the game, so Reimu suddenly goes to the moon and asks Junko for purification?”
- “The plot is absolute nonsense (the bad translation doesn’t help); I couldn’t tell you what happens exactly.”
- “Overall, the game might look good on the outside but don't let it fool you; the game tries so hard to reference things that are unnecessary and out of character, the story doesn't make sense at all.”
music
153 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
39%
2%
The music in the game has received widespread acclaim, with many players praising its high quality, catchy tunes, and faithful arrangements of classic Touhou tracks. The soundtrack enhances the gameplay experience, setting a fitting atmosphere for battles and often leaving players humming the melodies long after playing. Overall, the music is considered one of the standout features of the game, appealing especially to fans of the Touhou series.
- “The game has amazing soundtracks.”
- “I really love the Touhou music arrangements, and this is coming from a music arranger myself.”
- “The music sets the perfect atmosphere for the intense battles and is so good that players might find themselves humming the tunes even outside the game.”
- “It has far too many rough edges to even have the music and setting soothe, in my opinion.”
- “Wont buy a cheap touhou game again however as they seem to either sacrifice art, soundtrack or gameplay.”
- “The soundtrack consists of mostly rearranged versions of previous themes for stages and characters, but also some tracks that I believe were made specifically for this game. I personally prefer the original versions for the most part, but the music is still nice to listen to and generally fits the game well.”
gameplay
143 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
60%
3%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its fun mechanics, character variety, and challenging boss battles, while others criticize issues such as hitbox problems, unbalanced character abilities, and frustrating design choices. Many players appreciate the blend of bullet hell and action RPG elements, but note that the game lacks polish and can be hindered by mechanical flaws and a confusing narrative. Overall, while the gameplay offers enjoyable moments and a solid soundtrack, it is marred by inconsistencies and a need for refinement.
- “I would recommend because the gameplay is great, and the difficulty is decent!”
- “Gameplay wise this game is pretty fun and feels quite fresh, I enjoyed it.”
- “The gameplay is biased towards the 'ARPG with a barrage style', which is more suitable for new players outside the 'oriental' circle.”
- “Sadly, the game has many problems mostly related to the gameplay, and even worse, related to some of the game’s core mechanics and design choices.”
- “This game is so full of bullshit mechanics!”
- “The gameplay is really badly done for a bullet hell/shmup (even if it's designed to be half ARPG).”
graphics
92 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
37%
3%
The graphics in the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the beautiful art style and solid visuals, particularly for a doujin or fan-made game. However, some users note issues with excessive bloom effects that can obscure gameplay, and others mention that while the graphics are decent, they may not hold up against larger titles. Overall, the game is praised for its appealing aesthetics and character designs, though performance can vary based on settings.
- “Undeniably amazing soundtrack, interesting plot, beautiful graphics, a myriad of playable characters.”
- “The graphics are solid, with detailed 2D character designs and modest but appealing animations.”
- “The soundtrack is stellar, and the game's visuals are simply beautiful.”
- “There are stages where you have to lower the graphics quality because it becomes unplayable with how much the environment glows, obfuscating everything.”
- “It forces you to play as certain characters that have a shield (reisen and kogasa) just because you can't understand where to avoid the attacks or makes you lower the graphics to be able to see the attacks.”
- “However, the graphic effects on max are somewhat overly done, in my opinion.”
humor
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
96%
11%
The humor in the game is a mix of charming and quirky elements, with many players appreciating the funny dialogues, character interactions, and absurd situations that evoke a unique sense of humor typical of the Touhou series. While some jokes land well, others fall flat, leading to a varied comedic experience that can be hit-or-miss. Overall, the game is described as having a lighthearted tone, filled with inside jokes and playful references, though it occasionally veers into cringeworthy territory.
- “Everyone frantically dodges, weaves, and fires back, shouting and laughing.”
- “The translation is better than most other doujins I've played and the story, while kind of nonsensical (kind of normal with doujins from my experience), has tons of charm and funny moments.”
- “This game is pretty much one giant inside joke; it doesn't try to follow canon at all, so the plot makes little sense and is very humorous.”
- “The humor feels forced and often falls flat, relying on outdated memes that don't land well.”
- “The jokes are so predictable that I found myself cringing instead of laughing.”
- “The attempts at humor seem more like inside jokes that only a select few would understand, leaving the rest of us confused.”
grinding
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
92%
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive and tedious, requiring significant time investment to earn points for character upgrades and unlocks. Many reviews highlight the need to repeatedly defeat bosses or farm early levels to accumulate the thousands of points necessary, leading to a frustrating experience that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay. While some appreciate the core mechanics, the grind is often seen as a major drawback.
- “The game can feel a bit grindy at times, but the rewards make it worth it.”
- “Grinding is a necessary part of the experience, and it adds depth to character progression.”
- “While there are moments of grinding, the sense of achievement when leveling up is incredibly satisfying.”
- “On another note, the points and shop system is way too grindy. Many characters require thousands of points to max out abilities, while missions only provide a few hundred for each completion. This just results in repeatedly killing bosses for hours to make your characters better.”
- “Grinding for points to unlock characters and skills is needlessly long.”
- “Lots of grinding required if you want upgrades and new playable characters, unless you have a cheat engine to skip the hassle.”
replayability
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
38%
23%
The game offers significant replayability through a diverse roster of characters, new game+ options, and various difficulty settings that encourage experimentation and skill improvement. However, some players note that certain character requirements can limit the experience, and higher difficulty levels may deter casual play. Overall, the combination of character variety and challenging gameplay provides ample opportunities for replay.
- “This game has a lot of replay value.”
- “The game offers a new game+ option after you beat it, which adds replay value to the game.”
- “With a variety of difficulty settings and multiple playable characters to unlock, the game provides excellent replay value for those seeking a true test of their skills.”
- “Tenshi is always required even after beating the game, which limits replay value and makes the big roster harder to use.”
- “Not much replay value unless you want to torture yourself on lunatic.”
- “Character DLCs are recommended as they add a lot of variety and replayability, even if not all characters are created equal and some of them are clearly better than others.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The game's optimization is generally criticized, with users reporting performance issues such as frame rate drops during fullscreen and boss fights, even on capable hardware. While some players experience no significant problems, the overall consensus highlights a need for better optimization and smoother controls to enhance the gameplay experience.
- “The performance of this screen is at an ordinary level in the fandom of the game, but the producer seems to have confidence in this, adopting the god's perspective and allowing the player to zoom in and observe the character, and in order to shape the depth of field effect, the game is given in high quality.”
- “The way to advance is to complete the map task, and there is a plot performance after each level.”
- “-no performance issues whatsoever”
- “The game is also unoptimized; fullscreen and boss fights wreck the otherwise constant 60 fps, and that is on an upper-medium grade GPU.”
- “Somewhat spotty optimization and floaty controls, but it's a decent doujin game for 2hu.”
- “Note: this game is unoptimized to the core.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game has been criticized for its stability, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unbalanced characters that detract from the overall experience. While some players still find enjoyment in the game, many agree that it feels unpolished and not ready for release.
- “Overall a buggy game that isn't fit for release.”
- “Good concept, but not all that impressive gameplay, plus quite buggy.”
- “The hitboxes, the instakills, the bugs, the glitches.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game's atmosphere is largely praised for its beautifully crafted music, which enhances the intensity of battles and leaves a lasting impression on players. However, some users find the overall atmosphere to be comforting despite frustrations with gameplay, while others criticize it as flat and lacking nuance, indicating a mixed reception.
- “The music sets the perfect atmosphere for the intense battles and is so good that players might find themselves humming the tunes even outside the game.”
- “Music is beautifully made throughout, definitely gives off a good atmosphere.”
- “I find this game's atmosphere to be very comforting, while its gameplay leaves me rather frustrated at times.”
- “A halfway-decent game marred by questionable game design choices and a big lack of nuance, made worse by how flat the overall atmosphere presented is.”
character development
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The character development in the game is highly praised for its adherence to original designs, showcasing detailed 2D character art and appealing animations. Players appreciate the depth and engagement of the characters, contributing to an overall enjoyable experience despite the game's shorter length.
- “Though this game is somewhat short, I loved every moment of playing it and enjoyed the character development, the boss fights, and the various music tracks as well!”
- “By far one of the best Touhou fangames out there, brilliant character designs that stay true to the original designs, and good music.”
- “Good character design and great boss fights.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The game features a pay-to-play model that incorporates pay-to-win microtransactions, leading to concerns about fairness and accessibility for players.
- “Yes, it's a game that costs money to play and is designed around pay-to-win microtransactions.”
- “The monetization model is frustrating, as it feels like you can't progress without spending extra money.”
- “It's disappointing to see a game that could be great overshadowed by aggressive monetization tactics.”