Line #27 VideoGame/TouhouReiidenHighlyResponsiveToPrayers


1	[[quoteright:257:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/touhou1boxart.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:257:The game that started it all, even if its gameplay wouldn't stick.]]
3
4	''Touhou Reiiden[[note]]"Wondrous Tale"[[/note]] ~ Highly Responsive to Prayers'' is a video game developed by ZUN Soft and published by Amusement Makers for the Platform/PC98 in 1997. It's the first installment in the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' franchise.
5
6	In the mountains of an eastern country lie a number of portals to Hell, Makai, and other terrible places. Long ago, a great gathering of mystics [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed their lives]] to [[BanishingRitual seal away]] countless demons and {{youkai}}, but over time their power has slowly weakened. For generations the {{miko}} of the Hakurei Shrine have [[BarrierMaiden stood guard]], honing their bodies and minds in order to [[HunterOfMonsters defeat anything that emerges into the human world]].
7
8	One day the shrine is destroyed by something inhuman, and its only inhabitant Reimu Hakurei enters one of the gates seeking payback. While her normal fighting skills are ineffective on the enemies inside, she's happy to find that hitting enemies with her Yin-Yang Orbs (an ancestral treasure of her shrine) still works quite well.
9
10	Unlike the BulletHell {{Shoot Em Up}}s which would compose most of the series, this game is an ''VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}'' clone where you [[BreakingOut bounce a ball around the screen to hit blocks and enemies]]. Reimu is capable of redirecting the ball and deflecting small bullets, either by swinging her gohei or by throwing {{Ofuda}}. Combinations of inputs allow her to perform a few types of SlideAttack or throw multiple ofuda at once. Finally, a limited number of times she can use a "spirit strike" which [[SmartBomb renders her temporarily invincible while destroying all bullets on the screen]].
11
12	If you're viewing this page because you wanted an introduction to ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' then skip ahead to the Windows games starting with ''[[VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil Embodiment of Scarlet Devil]]'', because EarlyInstallmentWeirdness abounds ([[ContinuityReboot and not just in the gameplay]]).
13	----
14	!!This game provides examples of:
15	* BossSubtitles: Played with. The bosses' names and titles don't appear in the boss fights proper, but rather during the EnemyRollCall after getting the good ending.
16	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: In the Makai route's good ending, [[spoiler:the yin-yang orb turns into a fairy that grants wishes. Reimu wishes, in order, for treasure, sweets, knowing the principles of the universe, and the destruction of the Earth. The fairy asks [[LampshadeHanging "Who would wish for something like that?"]]]]
17	* BreakingOut: There are many elements of this, for one thing swatting the ball away from Reimu so it won't kill her and breaking cards with it.
18	* ClippedWingAngel: A bit literally with Sariel, the Angel of Death and FinalBoss of the Makai route. After being seemingly defeated, Sariel adopts a second form and shoots flurries of danmaku, but this form has very little health.
19	* CollapsingLair: {{Implied\|Trope}}. In both routes, the screen shakes violently once the final boss is defeated.
20	* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
21	** PC-98 Reimu looks very different from her Windows design. She has purple hair instead of dark, and looks shorter, younger and fatter. Her clothing is also more accurate to that worn by real life {{Miko}}.
22	** She also has yet another design only in this game's results screen, where she looks older and taller than both of her regular designs, wears more red than white compared to her regular PC-98 design, and wears some sort of headband.
23	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Even when compared to the other PC-98 games:
24	** This [[OddBallInTheSeries isn't even]] a ShootEmUp. It's more of a weird ''VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}'' clone, with BulletHell elements in the boss fights. Not only that, but the game is far more generous with resources (getting one every 400 thousand with no upper limit unlike other games, on top of keeping bomb count ''and'' getting one on death; the game seemingly expects you to burn through these resources, making a Perfect/[=NoMissNoBomb=] run that much harder).
25	** The input for using a bomb is more elaborate than in later games, where you simply press the X key. Here, pressing X alone will make Reimu swing her gohei. Instead, to bomb you must either quickly press Z and X simultaneously twice, or simultaneously press Z, left and right.
26	** There's no dialogue between Reimu and the bosses. Not before and not after the fight. This changed from the next game onwards.
27	** The [[SoundTest music room]] doesn't contain commentary from ZUN on each track like it does in all other games.
28	* EarthShatteringKaboom:
29	** [[spoiler:{{Subverted\|Trope}} in the bad ending. The yin-yang orb starts glowing, and the world blows up... Only for Reimu to appear in front and say "Just kidding!"]].
30	** [[spoiler:In the Makai route's good ending, Reimu's wishes are graphically represented inside thought bubbles. Her last wish, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick the destruction of the Earth]], is represented as the world blowing up]].
31	* EnemyRollCall: After getting the good ending, the "staff roll" consists of names and pictures of all the bosses from the route you played.
32	* {{Engrish}}: When the clock runs out, the text "HARRY UP!" will appear on the screen before you get showered by bullets.
33	* ExcusePlot: Unlike later installments, where the stories are much more elaborate, all the plot we get in this game is that someone messed up the Hakurei Shrine and Reimu heads to either Makai or Hell to find and punish the culprit.
34	%%zce* {{Expy}}: Reimu to Sayo from ''VideoGame/KikiKaiKai'', a game from [[Creator/{{Taito}} the company where ZUN had worked]]. She would grow out of it in later games.
35	* GainaxEnding: In part due to the [[ExcusePlot barebones story]] and the almost nonexistent dialogue, none of the endings make any sense. In the bad ending, [[spoiler:the yin-yang orb [[EarthShatteringKaboom blows up the world]], except [[SubvertedTrope it didn't]] and Reimu was joking]]; in Hell's good ending [[spoiler:the orb turns into a round creature with legs that starts thrashing the shrine, leaving Reimu just as confused as the audience]]; and in Makai's good ending, [[spoiler:the orb transforms into a wish-granting fairy, Reimu starts making wishes with the last one being [[BreadEggsMilkSquick the destruction of the Earth]], making the fairy question why she'd ask for that]].
36	* GameBreakingBug: There's a crash that can happen if the player defeats a boss while diagonal lasers are still up... [[https://rec98.nmlgc.net/blog/2022-05-31 under very specific circumstances that most PC-98 emulators ignore.]]
37	* HereWeGoAgain: The events of the game started because someone wrecked the Hakurei Shrine. [[spoiler:In the Hell route's good ending, the Yin-Yang Orb grows legs and starts thrashing the shrine by itself all over again]].
38	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Making contact with your own orb will cost you a life, unless it happens while you're sliding, bombing, swinging your rod, or doing a flip kick.
39	* KaizoTrap: There is a slight delay between clearing the stage and the score screen. A careless or unlucky player could lose a life over getting hit by the Yin-yang orb or enemy shots. Thankfully boss battles avert this.
40	* ParryingBullets: You can swing your rod or perform a flip kick to clear bullets. Doing this repeatedly doesn't work too well if the bullets keep coming quickly enough.
41	* PictorialSpeechBubble: In the Makai route's good ending, [[spoiler:the yin-yang orb turns into a wish-granting fairy. Reimu's wishes are then represented as pictures inside a thought bubble. {{Downplayed\|Trope}} for her last two wishes, where the picture is accompanied by text describing the wish]].
42	* ShootTheBullet: If one of your amulets hits a bullet, both projectiles are destroyed.
43	* ShoutOut: The track "The Legend of KAGE", intended to have a "{{ninja}}-ish" feel, is named for [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfKage the Taito videogame]].
44	* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The title screen reads "''The'' Highly Responsive to Prayers".
45	* StalkedByTheBell: There's random bullets shooting at you if the clock runs out on any stage.
46	* ToHellAndBack: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hell route]]. Reimu heads there to find and punish whoever messed up her shrine, then goes back home.
47	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: [[InformedAttribute According to the manual]], Reimu is normally a BrilliantButLazy martial artist with strong spiritual powers. However, the Yin-Yang Orb is the only one of her weapons that's still effective against enemies on the other side of the gate.

Context VideoGame / TouhouReiidenHighlyResponsiveToPrayers