History VideoGame / TOUHOU

* VagueAge: Basically everyone that isn't the Scarlet sisters, who have known ages. We have a rough idea of what centuries Mokou, Kaguya, and Byakuren came from, and that's about it. Even the normal humans have so little past and such rough art that's hard to tell.

* MultipleTailedBeast: With the game's focus on youkai, it's not surprising that this shows up. There are Ran, a nine-tailed {{kitsune}}, Chen, a twin-tailed [[{{Catgirl}} nekomata]], and, somewhat oddly, Orin, a [[{{Catgirl}} kasha]], who looks just like a nekomata despite the fact that they're mythologically unrelated.

Like ''CaveStory'', it's also outstanding in that the entirety of the games, including the sprite graphics, 3D graphics, character portraits, dialogue, story, music composition, programming, bullet-patterns, and concept are all done by one person [[ReclusiveArtist known only as]] [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/ZUN "ZUN".]]

* BerserkButton: The fandom has one in the question "What anime is this?" as well as when someone on Youtube claims that ''Touhou'' stole from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh71hePR8Q the McRoll.]] For the uninitiated, the [=McRoll=] is based on Flandre's theme.

* BerserkButton: The fandom has one in the question "What anime is this?" as well as when someone on Youtube claims that ''Touhou'' stole from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh71hePR8Q the McRoll.]] For the uninitiated, the [=McRoll=] is based on Flandre's theme. Pad jokes are slowly getting there.

* MythologyGag: [[WildMassGuessing Arguably]] all of the references to the PC-98 games in the Windows games.

** How fast can the fandom create artwork of a new character? First artwork for Ten Desires was created ''before the Comiket it was released on ended.''

** ''Fairy Wars'' gives golden medals for capturing cards [[BeyondTheImpossible without dying, bombing or freezing any bullets]]. That was probably ZUN's idea of a joke.

* MoreDakka: And how! [[StalkedByTheBell Taking your time]] in some of ''Imperishable Night'''s last words will eventually result in the bosses [[BeyondTheImpossible reaching the bullet limit]], causing some of the patterns to glitch up. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-u7zCjquM This]] is just about the closest you can get to having enough dakka.

** All of the above are put to complete and utter shame by the GaidenGame ''Shoot the Bullet'', which is 11 levels of the most sadistic, multi-layered spell cards in the whole series. Unlike any of the other games, [[BeyondTheImpossible you have no extra lives, no bombs, you lose when you time out, your only weapon is a camera that needs to be charged and manually aimed for long distance attacks, and some bosses are only vulnerable for a fraction of a second]]. Lastly, the difficulty ''is not adjustable at all''. You do take on each spell card individually and have infinite retries, but the incredible difficulty makes clearing it impossible for most people.

* OhCrap: Most players do this when Luna Child pulls out [[BeyondTheImpossible Gengetsu Rape Time]] in her final boss fight in ''Great Fairy Wars''.

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud and Rinnosuke, who is an ExpandedUniverse character. The PC-98 games had Genji, who doesn't count on the fact of being a turtle, and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* PinkBishoujoGhetto: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud and Rinnosuke, who is an ExpandedUniverse character. The PC-98 games had Genji, who doesn't count on the fact of being a turtle, and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* PinkBishoujoGhetto: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud and Rinnosuke, who is offscreen. The PC-98 games had Genji and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud, and Rinnosuke, who is an ExpandedUniverse character. The PC-98 games had Genji and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* BeamSpam: Every single goddamn character.

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud and Rinnosuke, who is offscreen. The PC-98 games had Genji and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* PinkBishoujoGhetto: The entire cast ''just happens'' to be female with the apparent exception of Unzan, although he's less of a person than an angry cloud and Rinnosuke, who is offscreen. The PC-98 games had Genji and [[GenderBender half]] of Shingyoku as well.

* BerserkButton: The fandom has one in the question "What anime is this?" as well as when someone on Youtube claims that ''Touhou'' stole from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh71hePR8Q the McRoll.]] For the uninitiated, the [=McRoll=] is based on Flandre's theme.

* CuteGiant: Suika is normally pretty small and adorable, but has the ability to change her size at will. She's still adorable when she's huge, but you're probably not thinking such as you're trying to avoid getting squashed by her!

* NeverBareheaded: Everyone, except two minor characters in spinoff games.

''Touhou Project'' ("Touhou", 東方, meaning ''Eastern'' or ''Oriental'') is a series of {{Doujin}} scrolling shooter games in the "BulletHell" subgenre, developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is notable for its high difficulty level, intricate bullet patterns, and the fact that nearly every character in the series is a LittleMissBadass, CuteMonsterGirl, or CuteWitch, and wears some degree of ElegantGothicLolita clothing. Much of the popularity of the series, however, comes from its large {{Doujinshi}} and {{Shipping}} community. This is unusual in that the community is creating doujinshi based on doujinshi. In the case of amateur music videos made with doujinshi arrangements of the in-game music tracks, this is taken to yet another level. Indeed, most of the characters are [[OCStandIn given only a framework personality in the games]], traditionally leaving most of the details up to {{Fanon}}. However, the series creator has written quite a bit of [[ExpandedUniverse manga, stories]], and [[AllThereInTheManual general information]] for it as well.

Nearly all the games in the series have a plot along these lines: In the MagicalLand of [[FantasticNatureReserve Gensokyo]] - a FantasyKitchenSink in Japan, which exists halfway inside AnotherDimension thanks to a powerful magical barrier - some AntiVillain with a lot of AppliedPhlebotinum on their hands thinks messing with the laws of nature to fulfill a not really evil plan would be a good idea. {{Miko}} Reimu Hakurei or [[CuteWitch magician]] Marisa Kirisame, due to annoyance and greed, respectively, must go out and fix the problem, occasionally with playable versions of bosses from previous games thrown in for kicks. They spend the first 2 levels wandering aimlessly and defeating random monsters/people that have no relation to the Big Bad. The third boss, however, happens to know something about the incident and points them in the right direction. The fifth boss is the Big Bad's BattleButler, and the sixth boss is the Big Bad herself. After defeating the Big Bad, the main character will have a [[DefeatMeansFriendship tea party]] with the Big Bad and their Battle Butler, and then be asked to perform some task which involves defeating the Big Bad's Rival, which takes the form of the game's ultra-difficult [[BonusDungeon extra stage]].

For those who are interested, a list of crossovers with ''Touhou'' can be found [[Crossovers/{{Touhou}} here]], and for more information than anyone could possibly want [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki here is the]] [[TheWikiRule Touhou Wiki]]. While you're at it, check out ''SeihouProject'', a sister series of sorts to the Touhou Project.

'''NOTE''': Only general tropes for the series are listed here. For character-specific ones, check out the '''[[Characters/{{Touhou}} character sheet.]]'''

* CastHerd: Given the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters enormous number of characters]], it isn't surprising they tend to be split into distinct groups. Sometimes this is done per game, but other times, it's done based on location (Eientei/Moriya), based on intellect ("[[{{Baka}} Team 9]]"), and so forth. Tends to be subverted over time as each group stars in [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Inaba_of_the_Moon_and_Inaba_of_the_Earth works that]] [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Cage_in_Lunatic_Runagate elaborate on]] [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Silent_Sinner_in_Blue their members']] [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Eastern_and_Little_Nature_Deity_/_Strange_and_Bright_Nature_Deity characterizations.]]

* [[CityWithNoName Village With No Name]]: The Human Village. Somewhat [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that there seems to be only the one.
** This is oddly common throughout Gensokyo, averted only formally by Mayohiga. Makai and Higan can be aversions if they contain actual cities but a very recent confirmed addition is the Former District of Hell. There's a Tengu City somewhere up Youkai Mountain and a Lunar Capital on the Moon, but they may just be a product of people only talking about it indirectly (popular petnames).

* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: Goes from vampires causing mischief in ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', to a ghost trying to awaken a demonic cherry tree that had been [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]] in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'', to someone stealing the ''Moon'' in ''Imperishable Night'', to fighting a '''''god''''' who plans to amass Gensoukyou's faith in ''Mountain of Faith'', to stopping a celestial being who has been toying with the weather and causing various natural disasters in ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody''. Seemingly peaked in ''Subterranean Animism'', in which the FinalBoss has the power of nuclear fusion and wants to use it to '''''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt incinerate Gensoukyou]]''''' in its entirety.