After playing the latest Tohou game from Unties Games and developer Souvenir Circ titled ‘Azure Reflections’ and I was impressed - and not by what you would expect. First, this game takes place after the Scarlet Mist incident, so we begin with an unnatural scarlet mist appearing without warning, covering much of the land. It is strong enough to block out the sun, causing the affected areas to become dark and cold. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden working at the Hakurei Shrine, and Marisa Kirisame, a magician, set out to find the source of the mist.

The beginning playable character is Reimu but you can unlock Marisa later by clearing the game. Later you can unlock more characters as you progress. Trust me this is no easy task because on top of the difficulty level you also have other goals you must achieve or conditions you must meet just to continue the story mode. This sounds ok but how you beat the boss will determine which storylines are revealed and some will be dead ends. This means you might have to start all over again. Don’t worry too much because when you are defeated, you get some hints on how to clear that part on your next attempt. While these suggestions work well in Easy and Normal modes, the Hard mode is still challenging. The game also provides a practice mode where you get to pick certain bosses you have faced and allows you the ability to practice fighting them. Here you learn the attack patterns of that boss so when you play in Story Mode you will be ready to take them on and meet the required prerequisites to advance to the next level.

I do have mixed feelings in regards to the graphics. I really enjoyed some parts while others were not my cup of tea. Let’s begin with the story cutscenes before and after each level. These were similar to a visual novel where you had the characters on screen and voiced dialogue (with the voice actresses returning to reprise their roles). In certain situations, their facial and body expressions would change along with the dialogue. This was enjoyable due to the funny dialogue in some scenes and dramatic events in others. The visual background of the levels was dynamic in that it changed as you kept progressing throughout the level. There was nothing really ground-breaking, but at the same time, it was in a sense hypnotizing which fit with the overall story. One thing I am going to complain about is that the attacks and movements of the enemies in the levels seem repetitive. Some I could tell were just re-skinned spirits that had appeared seconds ago but with different colors or different attacks. I would have liked a little variety along with the level design.

I do understand this is a shoot ‘em up game with a side-scrolling play mode rather than being vertical scrolling. This style of gameplay didn’t make sense in certain stages where it was a maze, and instead of going from right to left, the gameplay changed halfway through the stage to go in different directions,So in my opinion, it would have made a more enjoyable game if the stages would have changed directions to make it flow seamlessly. . I also would have preferred more variety in the enemies to fight against.

The controls were similar for those who have played a shoot ‘em up games, or any Touhou game before. You have the shooting buttons, along with a spell card button (similar to the emergency button) which either makes all of the bullets onscreen disappear or begins a bomb attack. nd You also have a danmaku dash move. All of these can be combined to inflict damage on the boss or minimize damage taken from the boss. You’ll need to learn how to use and combine them in order to beat the bosses which allows you to s to progress in the story. So here is where that practice mode I mentioned earlier comes in handy. You might think you have this in the bag since you played similar games before. If so, then good for you, but don’t let your guard down. I thought the same thing. once I was done with the tutorial and congratulating myself.I was soon going back to the practice and easy modes until I had it down.

So yeah, it is challenging especially when you have to clear particular bosses under a certain time limit or with a specific attack - all while making sure to dodge the oncoming attacks. What I love about this game is that you can feel confident in your skills but then you really checked and you have to go back to the practice mode. For those who will complete this game with no problem, I tip my hat to you. You are hardcore. But for those of us that have to work on our moves over and over, that makes this game fun because of the replay-ability of it. So I really enjoyed this game and I kept going back to play it not because I needed that finish it but because it was enjoyable. Mind you that it could have been better if the stages were to change directions as the level progressed, or even have an extreme mode where the stage would be backwards with different elements. At different parts of the game, it would blackout and the only thing you would see would be the enemies bullets coming at you. Overall it was an enjoyable game with a good story that made references to past stories from the Touhou lore.

SCORE:

{REVIEW};label=Overall;decimal=1;max=10;Visuals=7.5;Gameplay=8;Audio=6.5;Lasting Appeal=8;Story=8;{/REVIEW}

 Review copy courtesy of Unties