Touhou: What do you people think?

[Technetium]

I honestly think it's AMAZING! And I think it's one of the most challenging game series ever!

But what do you think?

[Wyrm]

It's okay, but FAR from the most challenging bullet hell game.

[Nemkoon]

But it's not the easiest.
Giga Wing is the easiest.

[Technetium]

I never said it was the hardest.

[lizard81288]

I played the fighters, and the Youtube Videos are very funny.

[Mistral]

They're rather entertaining. I listen to the instrumental remixes (classical by preference, obviously), have some of the art lying around to use whenever I want a new avvie or sig, pick up some of the interesting doujin games like Sengoku Gensokyo and Labyrinth of Touhou, and once in a very, very rare while, I'll actually try to play the games. Of course, since my reflexes are so terrible that I can lose to Easy Mode Cirno, that impulse usually goes away fairly quickly.

[TheRealSpiders]

They're okay, I play them when the mood strikes me. They're definitely not the most difficult game ever though they do provide a challenge on the higher difficulties.

The only one that really got me was Subterranean Animism, beat it on hard, never touched it again.

[Technetium]

Fair enough. Each one to his/her own.

[The Almighty MegaMan]

I adore them.
One of the best experiences on bullet hell I've had.
- The patterns are FAIR, which means they're hard only if you can't read them. It's even between "DODGE THE FUCK OUT OF EVERYTHING AT MACH SPEED" and "MOVE CAREFULLY BETWEEN 10 BILLION BULLETS!"
- The music's excellent and there are thousands (not exaggerating) of excellent fan-made remixes of whatever genre fits your mood.
- They have neat (although somewhat simple) plotlines and all characters have back stories.
- I like how the sceneries are varied, not just "desert level, sea level, space level".
- 1CCing the games... em, feel? a lot better than any other shmups. In fact I never tried to 1CC any game before playing Touhou.

Overall, I think they're excellent. None too hard, but entertaining enough to keep coming back to them over and over until you beat them.

Since we're at it... ZUN, Mima as final boss in Touhou 13 please.

Oh and the fighters are good too. I just don't like girls beating the living shit out of each other.
There are also spin-offs in which you don't just shoot, but freeze/take pictures of your enemies' bullets to survive.

EDIT: Mention worthy, the western fanbase is 37 different kinds of retarded. Fact.

[Slacker Magician]

I can't stand them.

[Aeolus Aeneas]

Too much porn of the series. I mean really, over 100,000 images. And don't even get my started on yukkuri shiteitte ne...

I WILL NOT TAKE IT EASY.

[GearNagaX]

Touhou was the only reason i went back to playing Shmups again. So many boring clone spaceship shooters, I know DoDonPachi etc are good... But its been done to many times before.

I may have missed all the games in between Spaceship shooters To Magical witches on brooms etc, But Touhou seems the most interesting and of a high quality overall.

Its nice that characters have some humorous story for why they are doing what they do, Tho its not a driving factor to play the game. The levels are varied that they dont particulary look like normal levels... more just plain art itself with pentagram type imagry.

The music is just legendary, Its hard to hate any of it..

All the animations and effects are excellent, Just enough and pretty to look at.

Oh and lot and lots of things to dodge!!!!! Which keeps you on your toes constantly, I think shmups are the only games that make me consentrate these days.

And with each difficulty adding how many bullets and how fast, Different patterns etc. There is always a good challenge that feels do-able even when its tricky that makes you want to try again.

After playing quite a few bullet hell games Touhou seems to be the best... I've played Everything from exceed series -> Gradius -> Ikaruga -> Mushihime-sama_Futari etc

Its just balanced fun, fun characters and great music.

My favourite Touhou games are all the shmups from 6-(soon to be 13) , Hisotensoku (The fighting game with Scarlet weather rapsody expansion) And the Touhou castlevania type games Koumajou 1 + 2.

[Dr Mario]

They're reasonable enough. The apparent need to switch mechanics every game has led to some very badly balanced/thought out systems making it into certain games and cutting the quality somewhat but the actual base engine has always been solid.

[Su-Sa]

Good stuff - no pro, but I'm fairly decent. Only bullet hell game I've played (Imperishable Night). Very entertaining to watch (good) players making hard runs.

I like how the bullet positions are randomized, so while you can develop a general strategy for each one, you can't simply memorize the exact position you need to be at all times.

As for the music - it's nice, great at times, same goes for the remixes. Too many people who've been Mc'Roll'd have no idea they've listened to a Touhou remix.

[The Almighty MegaMan]

For the matter of the thread, I guess it'd be mandatory to draw the line between the games done by the brain behind the main series and EVERYTHING ELSE. EVERYTHING.

Gotta love how people who don't like the series blame whatever they can - the fanbase, the non-canon games, the music, etc. Hell, Aeolus mentioned porn and a meme.

Be fair, ZUN ain't responsable for any of that.