The Disappearing of Gensokyo

About

The Disappearing of Gensokyo is a single player role playing shooter game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by MyACG Studio and was released on January 11, 2018. It received positive reviews from players.

"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

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84%

Audience ScoreBased on 502 reviews

story35 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 excellent, featuring remixes of classic Touhou themes that enhance the overall experience.
The graphics are visually appealing for a fan-made game, with well-designed environments and character models.

The game suffers from significant difficulty spikes, especially in boss fights, which can feel unfair and frustrating.
There are issues with hit detection and hitboxes, leading to instances where players feel they are hit by projectiles that should have missed.
The English translation is often poor, with grammatical errors and awkward phrasing that detracts from the story experience.

story
155 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
69%
8%
The story of the game is generally considered to be mediocre, with many reviewers noting its lack of depth and coherence, often feeling like a collection of inside jokes and references that may not resonate with those unfamiliar with the Touhou universe. While some appreciate the charming characters and humorous dialogue, the translation issues and linear plot progression detract from the overall experience, making it feel shallow and at times confusing. Despite these criticisms, the game offers a fun gameplay experience that can overshadow its narrative shortcomings.
- “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 really like this game and it is fun to play, but the story line is amazing.”
- “The plot holes I can see are how this game doesn't have a proper prelude.”
- “Story-wise, this game isn't anything worth mentioning really.”
- “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.”
music
146 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
56%
42%
2%
The music in the game is widely praised, with many reviewers highlighting its high quality, engaging soundtracks, and effective arrangements of classic Touhou themes. Fans appreciate the variety of tracks, including remixes and original compositions, which enhance the game's atmosphere and overall experience. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature, contributing significantly to the game's appeal, especially for Touhou enthusiasts.
- “The music is beautifully made throughout, definitely gives off a good atmosphere.”
- “The soundtrack is stellar, and the game's visuals are simply beautiful.”
- “I love touhou for its music and this game does not disappoint me in its selection of music.”
- “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 (mostly in the latter part). 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.”
- “Also there plenty good as the character, the soundtrack, everything is fine but it lacks animation, also the animation is hideous tbh.”
gameplay
138 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
60%
4%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some praising its fun mechanics, fluid controls, and challenging boss battles, while others criticize issues like hitbox inaccuracies, unbalanced character abilities, and frustrating design choices. Players appreciate the variety of gameplay styles and character interactions, but many express frustration over certain mechanics that detract from the overall experience, such as ammo limitations and lack of checkpoints. Overall, while the game offers enjoyable moments and a solid soundtrack, it suffers from a lack of polish and clarity in its mechanics.
- “It's like a Gensokyo carnival where every booth offers a different flavor of gameplay.”
- “Gameplay wise this game is pretty fun and feels quite fresh, I enjoyed it.”
- “An incredible game with intense gameplay, super deep interesting lore, charming character interactions, and a unique Touhou-brand sense of humor.”
- “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.”
- “The existence of this mechanic does nothing to make the game any more challenging or fun and instead makes the game more annoying.”
- “The gameplay is really badly done for a bullet hell/shmup (even if it's designed to be half ARPG).”
graphics
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
59%
38%
3%
The graphics in the game receive mixed reviews, with many players appreciating the beautiful art style and solid visuals, especially for a doujin title. However, some users note issues with excessive bloom effects that can obscure gameplay, leading to a recommendation to adjust settings for better visibility. Overall, while the graphics may not compete with major titles, they are generally considered above average for fan-made games, contributing positively to the overall experience.
- “Undeniably amazing soundtrack, interesting plot, beautiful graphics, a myriad of playable characters.”
- “The graphics are nice, the soundtrack is amazing, and the gameplay feels smooth.”
- “Superb graphics, music and presentation (especially for a so-called amateur work), great, and even hard, but fair, gameplay, funny storyline, and good characterisation.”
- “There are stages where you have to lower the graphics quality because it becomes unplayable with how much the environment glows, obfuscating everything.”
- “However the graphic effects on max are somewhat overly done, in my opinion.”
- “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.”
humor
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
96%
11%
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating its quirky dialogues, charming character interactions, and a unique sense of humor that often leans into absurdity and inside jokes. While some jokes land well and contribute to the game's charm, others are seen as cringeworthy or overly referential, leading to a varied reception of the comedic elements. Overall, the humor adds a lighthearted touch to the gameplay experience, though its effectiveness can be inconsistent.
- “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 characters are well portrayed and colorful with just the right amount of humor and sass.”
- “The humor feels forced and often falls flat, relying on outdated memes that don't land well.”
- “The jokes are so poorly executed that they come off as cringeworthy rather than funny.”
- “It's like the writers tried too hard to be funny, but ended up creating a series of awkward moments instead.”
replayability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
50%
21%
The game boasts significant replayability, primarily due to its diverse roster of playable characters and the introduction of a New Game+ mode, which encourages players to experiment with different strategies and character combinations. However, some players note that certain requirements, like needing specific characters for progression, can limit the overall replay experience. Additionally, while the game offers challenging content for those seeking difficulty, it may not appeal to everyone looking for varied replay options.
- “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.”
- “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.”
grinding
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
92%
Players consistently find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive and tedious, particularly in relation to farming points for character upgrades and abilities. Many reviews highlight the need to repeatedly defeat bosses or engage in time-consuming missions to accumulate the thousands of points required, which detracts from the overall enjoyment of the gameplay. While some appreciate the engaging core mechanics, the grind for upgrades and new characters is often seen as a significant drawback.
- “The grinding can feel a bit repetitive at times, but it also provides a satisfying sense of progression.”
- “While the game has its grindy moments, the rewards make it worthwhile and keep me engaged.”
- “I appreciate the grind; it allows me to fully immerse myself in the game and develop my character.”
- “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.”
- “Not much stuff to do other than grinding or going through the story.”
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 the visuals and depth of field effects are appreciated, the overall experience is marred by floaty controls and inconsistent performance. Despite these shortcomings, some players still find it to be a decent fangame.
- “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
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is frequently criticized for its instability, with users reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and unbalanced characters that detract from the overall experience. While some players still find enjoyment in it, the consensus is that the game is not polished enough for a proper release.
- “Overall, a buggy game that isn't fit for release.”
- “The hitboxes, the instakills, the bugs, the glitches.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
33%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its beautifully crafted music, creating a comforting ambiance, though some players find it undermined by frustrating gameplay and a lack of nuance. However, others criticize the overall atmosphere as flat, suggesting a disconnect between the game's design and its intended emotional impact.
- “The music is beautifully composed throughout, definitely creates a great atmosphere.”
- “I find this game's atmosphere to be very comforting, even though its gameplay can be frustrating at times.”
- “The overall atmosphere presented in the game is quite flat, which detracts from the experience.”
- “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.”
monetization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
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.”
- “I feel like the game is more focused on making money than providing a fair experience for all players.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its emotional depth, highlighted by a powerful choral remix that enhances the experience. Players describe it as a magical adventure featuring stunning graphics and a climactic finale delivered by the character Junko, which leaves a lasting emotional impact.
- “It's a magical adventure filled with bullet hell, beautiful graphics, and Junko, the goddess who delivers an epic, emotional finale.”
- “Cue the incredible, beautiful, powerful, choral, epic emotional remix of the Pure Furies song.”
character development
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the character development in the game, highlighting its engaging design and the emotional connection fostered throughout the experience, despite the game's shorter length. The combination of well-crafted characters and exciting boss fights enhances the overall enjoyment.
- “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!”
- “Good character design and great boss fights.”