Touhou Juuouen: Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost.

94%
Game Brain Score Based on 887 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • music
Touhou Juuouen: Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost. Game Cover
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Touhou Juuouen: Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost is a bullet hell shooting game, the 19th installment in the Touhou Project series. It features a familiar screen layout from Touhou 9, with improved controls and bullet patterns that cater to fans of the series. The game offers a variety of story modes for single-player and the option to play as COM for battles, ensuring enjoyment even without friends. The story revolves around the impact of the market opening, resulting in the loss of land ownership, leaving it to nature and spirits to reclaim, if not for the greedy beasts lurking.

  • PC
  • Windows
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

94%
Audience ScoreBased on 887 reviews
story59 positive mentions
replayability3 negative mentions
  • The game features a large roster of characters, each with unique abilities and storylines, providing a lot of replayability.
  • The music is fantastic, with new themes and arrangements that fit well within the Touhou series.
  • The gameplay is fun and accessible, making it a good entry point for newcomers to the Touhou franchise.
  • The game suffers from significant balance issues, with some characters being overpowered while others are nearly unplayable.
  • There is a lack of essential features such as scoring, replays, and a functional online multiplayer mode, which detracts from the overall experience.
  • The story mode can feel unbalanced and frustrating, as AI opponents often do not take damage and the gameplay mechanics can be unintuitive.
  • story237 mentions

    The story in this game is praised for its depth and character interactions, effectively expanding on both new and returning characters while weaving a complex narrative that connects to previous entries in the Touhou series. However, the storytelling suffers from balance issues in story mode, where AI mechanics can undermine the experience, and many character themes are not utilized, leading to a less immersive experience. Overall, while the narrative is engaging and well-crafted, it may be challenging for newcomers due to its reliance on prior knowledge of the series.

    • “The story is fantastic and one of, if not the best one that ZUN has written so far, the way the characters interact with each other, how their personalities get to be explored, and the role of everyone in this incident is so fantastic to see displayed.”
    • “The game has a really good story here too which really gives the opportunity to expand on many of the older characters and have solid writing on the new ones.”
    • “With non-linear storytelling, we can explore the incident on a longer time scale and from more characters' points of view.”
    • “Sadly, this is one of the main aspects as to why I wouldn't recommend this to a newcomer, as the story is strongly connected to the incidents that happened before. Unless you have some basic knowledge about these characters, chances are you are going to be so confused and might find the story bad.”
    • “The story mode is terrible. In story mode, most of the time you just get a generic 'early story' and 'middle story themes' for the early stages. They're good, but I would rather hear character-specific themes; even the different final bosses all just use Zenmu's theme.”
    • “The obvious big problem here is that this game has a very unbalanced story mode. Because of the way Zun decided to design the power scaling in the story mode, pretty much all your special attacks that have the purpose of flooding the enemy's screen are completely useless, while any defensive skill is absurdly useful and sometimes even trivializes matches.”
  • gameplay138 mentions

    The gameplay of the latest Touhou title has received mixed reviews, with some players enjoying the return of the vs mechanic and the unique character abilities, while others criticize the lack of traditional features like scoring and replays, as well as character balance issues. Many find the mechanics unintuitive and challenging to grasp initially, but once understood, the gameplay can be fun and engaging, especially for newcomers to the genre. Overall, while there are notable improvements and enjoyable elements, significant shortcomings prevent it from reaching the heights of its predecessors.

    • “Good starting point for shmup beginners since it's the easiest series in its genre, and this game has the easiest mechanics yet combined with shorter run times.”
    • “The gameplay is very fun and no characters feel exactly alike.”
    • “This game is great, like I love it, it's so much fun to play and the mechanics mesh together well enough to create a pretty good experience.”
    • “However, the game does have many issues. Firstly, it lacks many important features previous games had, like scoring and replays, both of which were core mechanics that are a staple in the series, which is really disappointing to see.”
    • “The gameplay mechanics were very unintuitive and took a long time to grasp.”
    • “The game balance is wack, and there are several basically random mechanics which can (and do!) lead to impossible situations.”
  • music134 mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its quality, featuring a mix of new themes and arrangements of classic tracks that resonate well with fans. While many reviewers highlight the innovative use of different instruments and catchy melodies, some express disappointment that not all character themes are featured prominently in the main story mode, often relegated to versus mode. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout aspect of the game, maintaining the high standards expected from the Touhou series.

    • “The music also slaps really well too, both from the new themes and arrangements of older themes for most of the returning characters.”
    • “Zun really experimented a lot with the new music here, using different instruments as well as having a different feel, but it still fits well into the series as a whole.”
    • “To conclude, the music in this game is phenomenal; the arrangements add little things to the original songs that make them all the more charming, and the original songs are neat too.”
    • “The music isn't as good; of course, this game definitely has some bangers in it, but a lot of tracks just didn't quite hit the mark with me here.”
    • “My only complaint is that the main campaign reuses the stage themes a lot, and leaves most of the OST limited to a few instances or directly unheard unless you play vs mode or go directly to the music room.”
    • “You can't select the stage/music in vs mode, which is a real bummer (you could do this in previous vs entries).”
  • humor27 mentions

    The humor in the game is highlighted by its quirky character designs and amusing interactions, such as the antics of a "funny little rat" and various other whimsical creatures. Players find joy in the absurdity of situations, like being defeated by a comical chupacabra or the hilariously underpowered character Sanae, which adds a lighthearted touch to the gameplay experience. Overall, the game's humor is a significant draw, enhancing the enjoyment of both casual and competitive play.

    • “Even getting killed due to a funny chupacabra deciding to spawn fire inside me was still fun to experience.”
    • “It has great music and Touhou character sprites are always hilarious to look at.”
    • “Update: very fun, Nazrin hard counters three characters and I think that's very funny.”
  • replayability18 mentions

    The game boasts immense replayability, largely due to its extensive roster of both new and returning fan-favorite characters, which encourages players to explore different playstyles and challenges. Players appreciate the opportunity to tackle higher difficulties and set personal challenges, enhancing the overall experience. Despite some concerns about the series' direction, the engaging gameplay and character variety keep players coming back for more.

    • “Replay value is immense and you're really getting your money's worth here.”
    • “The replay value comes from higher difficulties and self-imposed challenges to improve one's skill rather than leaderboards.”
    • “The wide roster of characters offers a lot of replayability.”
    • “I loved the music, the different shot types, the characters, etc. This was so fun to play and I can't stop replaying it (literally extra points for replay value, ZUN, I don't know how you managed to top TH18 and TH18.5 but you did).”
  • stability10 mentions

    The game's stability is criticized for being buggy and unbalanced, with issues particularly noted in character performance and online functionality. While some players find it enjoyable despite these flaws, others feel that significant improvements are necessary to enhance the overall user experience. Additionally, technical problems related to high-resolution displays contribute to the instability.

    • “Touhou Juuouen ~ Unfinished Dream of All Living Ghost is a perfectly balanced game with no glitches.”
    • “Buggy, very unbalanced characters, and unusable online mode.”
    • “-zun was never good at handling high res and widescreen games, so you have to enable GPU scaling to avoid fullscreen glitches (it looks funny on a 49 ultrawide).”
    • “Game is unbalanced and sort of buggy, but still fairly fun, all things considered.”
  • grinding6 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game is perceived as less challenging and tedious compared to previous titles, thanks to new features like the barrier that ease the difficulty. However, the absence of replay functionality makes it cumbersome for players to record and share their gameplay experiences. Overall, traditional fans of difficult shmups may find this game lacking in the memorization and challenge they seek.

    • “If you're a big fan of traditional, teeth-grindingly difficult, memorization-rewarding shmups, this may not be for you.”
    • “The new features like the barrier are really nice and make the story feel a lot less hard and grindy than POFV.”
    • “There's also no replays, which makes recording and sharing your runs very tedious.”
  • character development6 mentions

    Character development in the game is highlighted by its vibrant and wacky character designs, which are complemented by impressive spritework and character portraits. Players appreciate the depth of the story and lore, although some express frustration with language barriers that hinder full comprehension. Overall, the combination of strong character aesthetics and emotional music enhances the narrative experience.

    • “The spritework is very well done (was outsourced this time around) and character portraits are pretty great, and the new character designs are strong.”
    • “The music made me tear up in some places, the new character designs are gorgeous and so are the returning ones; the story is probably awesome but I can't read Japanese.”
    • “I love the new wacky character designs and piecing together the story was pretty cool; I was honestly surprised by some of the lore I got.”
  • emotional4 mentions

    Players highlight the emotional aspect of the game through its unexpectedly wholesome moments, despite acknowledging the developer's lack of polish and balance in gameplay. This contrast between gameplay challenges and heartfelt experiences adds a unique emotional depth to the overall experience.

    • “An unexpectedly wholesome moment.”
  • monetization2 mentions

    The game is praised for its fair pricing model, with no additional costs from DLC or microtransactions, providing a straightforward purchasing experience.

    • “The game is fairly priced; there are no DLCs, no microtransactions, nothing.”
  • graphics2 mentions

    The graphics of the game are highly praised for their unique ZUN art style, which resonates strongly with players. The new character designs, referred to as "scrimblos," are also well-received, adding to the overall visual appeal.

    • “This game is so good! The Suika in ZUN art style is everything to me, and all the new scrimblos are so awesome. I love it!”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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