Fans of the Touhou Project rejoice! For there is a new installment brining you back to the magic-filled realm of Gensokyo. Get ready to grab your strongest traps and spell cards! Gensokyo Defenders is not only sweet-talking the shmup genre, but also tantalizing tower defense now too. The question is: is it a fairy-filled flop or will you yearn for more youkai?

Developer: Unties

Official Site*: Gensokyo Defenders

Hours Played: 5 hours // Review Copy Provided // Price: $19.99 USD

I’m going to be honest – I have not read any of the Touhou Project manga, nor played previous games. To try and understand the backstory of what is going on in Gensokyo Defenders is, well, a bit of a reach. But that won’t stop me. As always, I’m putting my best foot forward and utilizing the power of the interwebs!

Gensokyo Defenders is my first introduction to the series. I’m excited to say it is a surprisingly positive one at that too. That all being mentioned, throughout this particular review I’ll have a unique perspective aided in part by information from the Touhou Project wiki found here. Enough talk – let’s review!

ZUN

The Touhou world is vast and quite incredible. Even more so if you take into account it was created by one person. This one person, simply known as ZUN (or Team Shanghai Alice), has sparked an amazing fire of followers. What started as a simple Japanese PC-98 game back in the 80’s flourished into decades of mythologically-inspired (both creator and fan-made) stories, games and art. To say that fans love the idea and series is an understatement.

But what is Gensokyo? Literally translated to “fantasy village”, or “fantasy land”, Gensokyo is a disconnected area; disconnected in the way that this fantasy realm is sealed off from all other parts by magical and mysterious means. Neither mainland nor realm can truly confirm each other’s existence, resulting in its own unique civilization and lifestyle. Among its inhabiting life are humans and youkai.

The balance of human life and youkai beings are what help maintain Gensokyo’s stability and structure. Seeing that neither can leave the realm, it’s probably best that everyone try to tolerate one another. On the other hand, perhaps the feeling of being trapped can cause a bit of restlessness – and a need for something greater. Can’t we all relate?

Complex

Gensokyo Defenders initially follows Cirno, an ice-type fairy with a Napoleon complex. As a character, she is smaller in stature but has the confidence of war general. The only issue is most people tend to write her off due to her unintimidating appearance. Because of the constant judgement, Cirno walks around with a permanent chip on her shoulder. She is repeatedly looking to play war games with whoever crosses her path. Talk about playing a dangerous game.

These ‘war games’ (as they’re referred to in Gensokyo Defenders’ translations) are essentially a battle between the protagonist and other fairies and youkai beings. Your goal as the player is to successfully defend your shrine from the barrage of attacks from youkai creatures and other monsters looking to “storm your base”. It incorporates a mixture of shoot ‘em up style gameplay with tower defense, taking place on an isometric plane. Pair that with light-hearted background music, and serviceable 3D graphics and you have Gensokyo Defenders in a nutshell.

No Pushing

I’ll be the first to admit that Gensokyo Defenders doesn’t push any boundaries. Its graphics aren’t anything to write home about, the translations are sub-par at best, and I had no idea what the characters were referring to half of the time. If you aren’t familiar with the Touhou Project, more than likely you will be in the same boat. They reference characters by name and many of them seem like they have some history, unbeknownst to me, which would bridge some of the metaphorical gaps.

To top it off, despite how underwhelming the previously mentioned elements are, Gensokyo Defenders seemed to eat my battery pretty heavily. I suppose there can be quite a bit going on onscreen at any given time, but still. I want to be able to enjoy a game in handheld for an extended period of time and not have to worry about not being able to play more without charging it. Lastly, it seems when this title is put into sleep mode during battle, you will not be able to continue.

This is a major complaint from me. Multiple times I played Gensokyo Defenders at work and had to quit mid-battle. No problem, right? I always thank Nintendo for the genius implementation of sleep mode right before I hit that magical night-night button. It turns out that the land of Gensokyo doesn’t believe in rest. Upon picking up where I left off, I come to find that none of the buttons (other than the home button) will respond, and the smile was wiped from my face. This happened every time. Fix this!

Tower of Power

Rant over. This may come as a surprise considering how I just bashed this game but I actually really enjoyed Gensokyo Defenders. “But Mikey, you just – “ I know what I just said. This game may not break boundaries, or even include 30 second captures (just . . . why?), but its core gameplay is actually pretty excellent. I’m not even a fan of tower defense, but I can truthfully say Gensokyo Defenders got it right.

Allow me to explain. (Very) Generally speaking, tower defense games allow you to set up stationary structures that will auto-attack hordes of things coming to attack your base. In my opinion, it’s sort of . . . just boring. Shmups, on the other hand, are hyper-active and overwhelm you with colors, patterns, and brutal difficulty. Gensokyo Defenders takes a middle-of-the-road approach resulting in a balanced, strategic experience.

First of all, the player will have their choice in which character they plan to play as. This choice will affect which abilities you may be able to use, thus altering play styles with each fairy or fairies. Second, you are able to custom load your fairy with specific traps that can be laid on the battle grid. It’s nice to be able to pick and choose what you need to suit either the map or your particular play style. This can include traps such as springs, spikes, brush, turrets, etc. Lastly, maps will vary in size (both length and widths), pattern, and environment. You must use all factors to your advantage, and success will often come down to proper planning and quick reflexes.

Would You Like to Play a Game?

Most war games in Gensokyo Defenders consist of four waves. Each wave will toss out more enemies, progressively more aggressive. Clear all four waves to win. It is good by design in that each battle is eased into, allowing you to adapt your defenses for the next wave. Clearing waves in combos will result in more money earned, thus allowing the setting of more traps in between waves.

There are a few minor aspects that I love in this game’s approach. One is that money is not carried with you after battles, so you can relax and spend every penny every time (treat yo’self). Two, is that resale of traps is allowed, and you earn back exactly what you spend on each trap. So if you fat-finger it and accidentally lay the wrong trap, or too many, there are no worries. Thirdly, you yourself are mobile and attack wherever you need to. Yes! THIS is how you make a great tower defense game.

The game allows you to strategically lay down traps prior to a wave with no time limit. This is all in preparation and estimation at best. Though you are given an indicator as to where most enemies will spawn from, you don’t know how they will proceed, how many, or what type of enemy. Because you don’t know fill, you will inevitably in the gaps with your own basic and special attacks as necessary. Special attacks are more powerful, can inflict various debuffs, and are limited by a special meter that is refilled over time.

Shoot ‘Em Up!

Filling in the gaps is exactly where the shmup aspect comes into play. As you are in battle and roaming freely to fight your enemies, they fight back. You’ll have to dodge barrages of blasts, youkai looking to spear you, and other monstrosities by the throngs. All the while, making sure nobody gets past you to attack your shrine. Protect it at all costs!

Don’t forget to protect yourself too though. The only downside to the fighting is that there is no clear noise or indication when you are hit, aside from seeing your health meter go down. I wish your character at least blinked or something, because with so much focus on the rest of the screen, sometimes you are almost dead by the time you realize it. One death typically won’t mean you lose, but it definitely swings things at crucial moments in the match. Look on the bright side, if you end up losing a battle you’ll unlock easy mode!

Touhou it May Concern

Wow, we’ve gone over a ton of information! After all of my time with Gensokyo Defenders, I have many thoughts. In terms of technical feats, I’d say it’s a shoe short. There is an online mode, which is nice to see, however it seems to be pretty dead. In fact, I waited until after release to write this portion specifically to see if anything changed. I hope a community forms, because it would make the harder levels a lot more fun.

If we’re talking musical score, UI, and all the smaller details of the game, it would also be a short conversation. In three words I would describe them all as “basic but functional”. As stated before, what makes this game truly shine is what really matters (in my opinion) – the core gameplay. In the market for a new twist on tower defense? I recommend this game. Are you a fan of Touhou Project? This may be right up your alley. If you can’t stand manga or the . . . exaggerated female form, then you may want to skip out on this one. The bottom line is that despite all of its flaws, I still had a good time with it!

Hey reader! Thanks so much for joining me in the essay of a review. I enjoy taking my time and educating both myself and the reader before throwing out my subjective thoughts. If you appreciate these reviews, please share them! We here at Nindie Nexus have a Subreddit, a YouTube channel, a Twitter account, and a Discord server for all of your Nindie needs! If you want to support further, we also have a Patreon and Ko-fi as well. Until next time!