Touhou 12: Unidentified Fantastic Object

If you’ve never heard of Touhou, it is a Japanese bullet hell game.  Most of the main releases (2D) are made by one guy who goes by the name of ZUN/Team Shanghai Alice. The Touhou project began in 1996 and has continued to prosper since then. Now it has become hugely popular and is loved all over the world. Unidentified Fantastic Object was released on August 15th, 2009 at Comiket 76. The video above is stage 1 and 2 on hardest difficulty. I’ll be going over PC keyboard commands, but you can also hook up a controller and play it that way.

Basic Gameplay:

Z – Shoot

X – Use a bomb

Arrow Keys – Move

Shift – Focus/Hit box mode

Esc – Pause menu

Focus – When in focus mode a dot will appear in the center of your character showing you your hit box, if any of the bullets on screen hit you here, you lose a life. The speed of the bullets will slow slightly, and your fire power will become more concentrated.

Bombs – Your bomb count is displayed on the right hand side of the screen. When you use a bomb it clears all bullets on the screen and delivers a powerful attack. (This varies slightly version to version). Your bomb count also determines your over all fire power, when a bomb is used, your attack is reduced.

Power ups – Power ups are the little blue and red squares that appear once you defeat an enemy.

Item collection line – Near the top of the screen, there is a line (you can’t see it) that if you go past, all power ups on the screen will be collected.

Grazing – Grazing is when your character brushes up against a bullet but is not hit, and you receive extra points for it.

Death bombing – Basically if you get hit, you have a very small window of time afterward to release a bomb and keep the life you would have lost otherwise. It will use 1 spell card. These windows can be slightly different depending on the version.

Playable Characters + Bosses:

Characters -

• Hakurei Reimu
• Kirisame Marisa
• Kochiya Sanae

Bosses (In order of stage) -

• Nazrin
• Tatara Kogasa
• Kumoi Ichirin & Unzan
• Captain Minamitsu Murasa
• Toramaru Shou
• Hiziri Byakuren
• Houjuu Nue (Extra Stage Boss)

UFOS: (Exclusive to this version)

Some enemies will release little UFOs on death, by collecting certain colors you can obtain different bonuses. Item saturation is when the UFO has been filled with power ups. A ring around the UFO indicates its fullness.

Green UFOs:

• Maximum multiplier x2.0
• On Destruction: Grants 1/3rd of a bomb
• Item saturation: Grants a full bomb

Red UFOs:

• Maximum Multiplier x1.0
• On Destruction: 1/4th of a life
• Item Saturation: 1 life

Blue UFOs:

• Maximum Multiplier x8.0

Multicolor/Flashing UFOs:

• Maximum Multiplier x4.0
• On Destruction: Color changing UFO
• Item Saturation: Color changing UFO

So there you go! That’s basic gameplay, if you want to look up some strategies they are on the web. There is also a Touhou wiki. I highly suggest you try this game. If it still seems rather difficult then I would recommend starting with Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith.