!!Examples that pertain to the story, {{Fanon}}, fandom, or other non-gameplay elements:
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Since 80-90% of material related to the series is fan-created, this happens quite a bit. We have a [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=12914835130A21108100 forum thread]] dedicated to collecting them.
* AngstDissonance: Parsee's entire existence revolves around her being miserable. This is played for laughs, [[{{Tsundere}} especially]] [[ButtMonkey by the]] [[ChewToy fandom]].
* AngstWhatAngst: There are a fair number of characters with grim or even tragic histories, and hints that a few others have their troubled sides, but very little angst occurs onscreen (with a few exceptions, mostly involving [[WhoWantsToLiveForever Mokou]]), and the tone of the series [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism tends towards carefree]].
* BrokenBase: The fandom will never stop arguing as to what's canon, whether Touhou is canonically grimdark or not, or over popular interpretations.
* CanonSue: Watatsuki no Yorihime and her sister Toyohime to some extent. Feats include [[TheAce besting four of the primary characters in combat]], being able to summon the power of gods [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter more properly than]] Reimu, and [[NoSell blocking a Master Spark with her sword]]. {{Lampshaded}} in ''Symposium of Post-Mysticism''.
* CounterpartComparison:
** Shou with Ran. Ever since she appeared and was revealed to be Nazrin's master (though not originally), everybody started looking at them as the new Chen and Ran. Both Shou and Ran serve "Old Maids", Byakuren being the latest addition to said group, both are animal youkai and both are masters of a type of youkai you wouldn't exactly [[hottip:expect at first.:Ran is a kitsune/fox, the same family as a dog, and her shikigami Chen is a cat. Shou is a tiger, a feline, and her servant Nazrin is a mouse.]]
** Nue with Flandre. Despite their only similarities being the fact that they're both extra stage bosses with bizarre wings and vaguely similar themes, Nue is compared to Flandre, some fans even going as far to call her a rip-off.
** Koishi/Flandre is somewhat popular due to the fact they're both odd, hated sisters of a feared woman who own mansions, occasionally depicted as AxCrazy.
* CoveredUp: While Ran's theme, Necro-Fantasy, came first and Yukari's theme, Necrofantasia, was meant as a re-arrange, the latter is vastly the more popular, and Ran's become more associated with Charming Domination (her stage theme) instead.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome[=/=]EarWorm: Both the games themselves and the fan works around them have some [[AwesomeMusic/TouhouProject awesome music.]]
* DeconstructionFic: The fandom contains plenty of this; the piles of FridgeHorror regarding the nature of many youkai and their relationship with humans, as well as most characters being selfish, belligerent, and very much insane, provide a lot of material. [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Doyora A Bad End]] is a BlackComedy take on this.
* DesignatedHero: Canonically, Reimu tends to be more... cavalier than one might hope from the hero.
* EnsembleDarkHorse: At least one per game.
** Mima of the PC-98 games has become the embodiment of this. Fans wanted her to return to the windows games after so many years.
** Shinki is probably the second most popular PC-98 only character, mostly due to EpilepticTrees about her relationship with Alice. (Being a goddess of demons and having a Sakuya {{Expy}} as a maid doesn't hurt either)
** Flandre, despite only appearing in a few games, is far more well known than her more prominent sister Remilia.
** Hong Meiling, Cirno, and Sanae all got primary roles in Hisoutensoku because of their popularity with the fans.
** Merlin's GameBreakingBug has led to her becoming the most popular of the sisters, exemplified by being the only one of the three to make the character filter in [[FanfictionDotNet Fanfiction.net]]'s ''Touhou'' section.
** [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Chen has become a beloved character on]] [[{{Imageboards}} certain websites]], mainly thanks to [[{{Doujinshi}} bkub's]] [[PlayedForLaughs offbeat]] [[{{Yonkoma}} comics]]
** Since the full release of Ten Desires, Futo has been gaining quite a bit of popularity too.
* EpilepticTrees: A lot of them.
** The lightning connecting the five eyes of [=YuugenMagan=] forms the vague shape of a woman. Who is this woman? The real "brain" of [=YuugenMagan=]? Someone else, controlling it? Just a coincidence?
** Elis. No one is really certain what she is. Vampire? Magician? Demon? The stages preceding her have "Oriental Magician" as their background music... which is otherwise associated with Marisa.
** Mima's and Marisa's relationship. There's debate as to whether Mima's her teacher or mother or what. She is generally agreed to have taught Marisa some of her spells, since they have some shared or similar attacks.
** Konngara is sometimes thought to be an Oni, as she has a horn, and drinks sake while fighting, like Yuugi would do later in the series.
** Fans are divided on whether Rika and Rikako from ''Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream'' are the same person or not. Both are more scientifically-minded than most Gensoukyou residents.
** Kurumi may be related to the Scarlet sisters. Her boss theme is called "Scarlet Symphony ~ Scarlet Phoneme".
** The relationship between Alice and Shinki (similar to Marisa and Mima above). For that matter, any attempt to reconcile Windows Alice with her PC-98 appearance.
** Eirin's character profile says she was surprised to see Sakuya in ''Imperishable Night'', but [[RiddleForTheAges never explains why.]] {{Fanon}} has explored several possible connections between them, including Sakuya being a Lunarian, Eirin having made her Luna Dial, or the two characters being related in some way. There's also a lot of speculation about how and why Sakuya became Remilia's servant.
** Reisen's ears have what look like buttons at their base, which led to speculation that she wears fake ears. However, in ''Silent Sinner in Blue'', the other rabbits in the Lunar Defense Corps have the same buttons too, except for Reisen II, their new recruit. Perhaps the buttons are [[BlingOfWar rank insignia]] of some kind?
** A popular fan theory has Maribel and Yukari Yakumo being the same person. The basic idea is that when Maribel sleeps, she dreams she is Yukari. And when Yukari sleeps, she dreams she is Maribel. It doesn't help matters that they look very similar. Or that both have boundary-related powers. There may be some evidence suggesting she is Yukari's past time-displaced self. Although Maribel is from the future, Perfect Memento in Strict Sense mentions that a note she wrote was found in Gensokyo several centuries in the past. Another common association is with Marisa, again because they have similar appearances and in this case similar first names as well.
** Fandom has taken to associating Renko with Reimu the same way they do Maribel with Yukari.
** Her name, title, and the fact she has a shackle with a broken chain around her left arm, have all fueled speculations that Kasen Ibara is one of the four Devas of the Mountain - specifically Suika's daughter / lover, if you go by the original legend. Japanese mythology, which ZUN takes great liberties with anyway, does include oni hermits. And that's before you get to her mysterious relationship with the Hakurei Shrine or the thing with her right arm.
* FanDumb: Specifically, see "Elitism" and "Mad Bride".
** Often in the arguments over {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s, SuperWeight, [[TheRashomon how canon one ending or another really is]], and what difficulty level you have to beat without continues or [[CrackIsCheaper how many of the games you must pay money to import]] to be a "real fan", among an unending list of other things. The last item tends to be the inverse too - actually buying the games instead of pirating them will cause many a fan to believe you're about as smart as Cir[[TheDitz no]].
** And there are fans who dismiss other BulletHell shooters as ''Touhou'' [[OlderThanTheyThink ripoffs]].
** And there are people who insist all fanon is ''canon'', despite the dialogue in the games saying otherwise.
** Following up on FanDumb, there are people who ''hate, hate, HATE'' [[HateDumb one character for one reason]] and turn them into [[RonTheDeathEater a psychotic jackass.]]
* FandomRivalry: Many fans of the shmup genre frown upon ''Touhou'' and its fanbase, especially ''Touhou'' fans who don't play the games. Although, it's rare to see a ''Touhou'' fan be dismissive of fans of the genre.
* {{Fanon}}: ''Touhou'' basically ''runs'' on fanon, with enough sheer fan material in it to make the average fan's head ''explode''. Some of it [[SureWhyNot has even been actually adopted into the canon by the author]].
* FanonDiscontinuity:
** Borderline case for ''Silent Sinner in Blue''. Mainly for introducing two (possibly intentional) {{God Mode Sue}}s who defeated popular characters in ways that can be best described as either DeusExMachina or outright cheating.
** There's also disagreement within the fandom over how much ''Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth'' counts. It's the only official ''Touhou'' production that wasn't actually written by ZUN himself, and some of the characterization differs from his - especially since it's a gag series that plays fast and loose with such things to begin with.
* FanMyopia: Part of this stems from the sheer volume of fan material. Of course, most of the fan material comes from Japan -- where ''Touhou'' actually ''is'' that well-known.
* FirstInstallmentWins: Averted with the whole series, but played straight with Windows era games, where ''[=EoSD=]'', ''PCB'' and ''IN'' and their casts usually have much, much larger fanbases than the later games.
* FreudWasRight: Koishi Komeiji's "Embers of Love" attack, formed of [[CardiovascularLove heart-shaped]] danmaku flying point-first and leaving a trail behind them, looks a little like [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a different body part]]. The fandom did not fail to notice, especially since her ability is manipulation of the subconscious.
* GeniusBonus: Many spell cards are named after obscurities related to science, literature, folklore, and the like.
** Mokou's boss music, "Reach for the Moon, Immortal Smoke", is a reference to "the smoke that rises to the moon even to this day" at the end of ''The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter''.
** Kaguya's third card from ''Shoot the Bullet'' references the seamless ceiling of the Kinkaku-ji temple... though whether it's truly seamless or not is disputed, as it has been ''burned in a fire''.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While the whole series is still wildly popular in Japan, it's also popular in (of all places) in China and Taiwan, despise, at least in the Chinese case, the whole franchise is about mostly Japanese creatures, and taking into account [[WorldWarII the turbulent story between China and Japan]]...
** It's also popular in the English-speaking world and also mildly popular in the Spanish-speaking world, mainly Spain and Mexico.
* HilariousInHindsight: Byakuren often got saddled with the nickname "Touhou Jesus" and variants. Come a certain fangame, and we're [[http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,13077.30.html given the ACTUAL Jesus Christ as a Touhou.]]
* HypeBacklash:
** A majority of shoot-em-up fans, who feel that ''Touhou'' has driven attention away from other shmups, particularly those with more mechanical visual styles.
** Non-shmup fans, who are utterly baffled by the popularity of a simple shmup series and really don't dig {{Moe}}, {{Animesque}} fanart, or the ImprobablyFemaleCast.
** People who discover ''Touhou'' through the fandom and then [[ItsHardSoItSucks get frustrated to the point of ragequit]] by the BulletHell genre.
** People who get frustrated, disgusted, or scared away by the enormous FanDumb.
* [[ItsPopularNowItSucks It's Popular, Now It Sucks]]:
** The fact that fan works and characters draw in many fans, who have never played the games themselves, doesn't sit well with a lot of people.
* [[JustHereForGodzilla Just Here For The]] {{Cute Monster Girl}}s:
** A number of fans don't really play the games so much as read doujinshi or indulge in character fanart.
** Some part of the audience is here for [[AwesomeMusic/TouhouProject its soundtrack]].
* FanPreferredCouple: Quite a few. See under "Video Games" in that article.
* MagnificentBitch:
** Yukari is a slight heroic example. She led a youkai invasion to the Moon and let them get routed... just to teach them that greed and expansionism is bad. And then we have ''Silent Sinner In Blue''. [[spoiler:Turns out the whole invasion this time was a distraction so that Yuyuko could steal lunar treasures. Yuyuko found the treasures boring and brought back sake instead, but that still pissed off the Lunarians who were supposed to be protecting that stuff]].
** Toyosatomimi no Miko set up Buddhism to cow the population, setting herself as something of a holy saint, while actually on the side of the Buddhists' sworn enemies. Countless people died just to ensure that no one can endanger her prospect of becoming immortal. She can give [[FinalFantasyTactics St. Ajora]] a run for her money.
* MemeticBadass:
** Cirno. She's the strongest AND a genius! Some of this seems to be finding its way into canon lately.
** Inverted with Remilia. In canon, she's a powerful vampire. In fanon, well, the fact that she has [[http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=923358 a specific pose for cowering]] (the [[FanNickname Charisma Guard]]) should tell you all you need to know. It's her [[http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yos_piyo/20080709/1215614296 low blocking animation from the fighting games]].
** Minamitsu Murasa. She's either CAPTAIN MINAMITSU MOTHERFUCKING MURASA, or she's {{Popeye}}'s [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/503850/ Daughter.]]
** Shiki Eiki, [[NoIndoorVoice YAMAXANADU]], mostly due to [[CloudCuckooLander bkub's]] comics. (Such portrayals include a Gundam and ''Batman''.
* MemeticMutation: [[{{Memes/Touhou}} Many, MANY examples]], a few of which have [[SureWhyNot become actual canon]].
** FountainOfMemes: Spawned an absolutely incredible amount of memes and in-jokes for a single series. {{IOSYS}} remixes in particular have a tendency to spawn more.
** WatchItForTheMeme: ''Touhou'' as a whole can claim any number of new fans drawn in by its loads and loads of memes. In fact, because of all the memes, a great number of fans were drawn to the series ''because'' of the all-encompassing fandom itself. This odd cycle of fans being attracted to the ever-growing fandom has been described as a "bizarre ouroboros" or a "positive feedback loop".
* {{Moe}}: Fan depictions of the girls have a natural tendency to play up either the girls' moe-ness or badass-ness. Bonus points if they can pull off [[BadassAdorable both at the same time.]]
** Generally, ZUN tries not to give his characters stereotypical moe personalities, but the {{fandom}} will do so in the absence of any canon stating otherwise, such as with Koakuma and Momiji shortly after they were introduced. The [[AllThereInTheManual guidebooks]] tend to subvert the moe portrayals by fans, most notably when ''Symposium of Post-Mysticism'' showed Kisume to be a CreepyChild.
** [[MemeticMutation Kogasa is the new youkai moe~]], due to the umbrella she carries (like Yuuka - the first youkai moe~), her {{chew toy}}/{{woobie}} status, and a high level combination of moe factors. This ultimately results in fanart that looks like [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/677175/ this.]]
* NeverLiveItDown: Because of "I GOT CAVED BY EX-KEINE!", it will be a long time before Keine is taken seriously again. {{IOSYS}} [[RunningTheAsylum effectively turning it into]] a ForcedMeme didn't help.
** Shou is portrayed by fans as always losing things because she lost her pagoda during the events of UFO. Ironic, considering her ability is to attract treasures...
* RonTheDeathEater: Sanae's newly discovered interest in youkai extermination[[hottip:*:Where "extermination" really just amounts to ritualized playfighting]] has led to fans [[{{Flanderization}} taking it a bit far]] and giving her a sadistic streak and a fanatical zeal for it.
** Alice gets turned into a creepy loser often, for whatever reason.
** Koishi is turned into a psychotic murderer by fans who take "subconscious reading" as [[TheMindIsATerribleThingToRead a very bad thing.]]
** Byakuren, of all people, is either depicted as a loony or a genocidal murderer. Or both. Mostly from suspicion that people who try to be good aren't, and further exacerbated by SOPM.
* {{Shipping}}: Too complicated to explain here. See the [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Relationshipping Touhou Wiki]] for details and {{Portmanteau Couple Name}}s. Commonly used ShippingTropes include:
** CrackPairing:
*** Since he's almost the only straight option in Gensokyo, there are a lot of crack pairing pictures with Rinnosuke and one of the girls. Somehow, a few fans even manage to slash him despite the rather limited options. The most common person he is slashed with? ''ZUN''.
*** Wriggle is often paired up with ''[[AxeCrazy Yuuka]]'', of all people.
*** Mokou and Mystia, in spite of Mokou claiming to run a [[CarnivoreConfusion yakitori stand]]. Though Mystia is a sparrow, not a chicken.
** EveryoneIsGay[=/=]LesYayShipping: The inevitable consequence of an ImprobablyFemaleCast. There's even fanart of the girls trying to hit on an obviously uninterested Rinnosuke.
** LauncherOfAThousandShips: Marisa gets paired with Reimu, Mima, Alice, Patchouli, Flandre, Nitori, and [[MemeticSexGod many, ''many more'']].
** ShipMates: Reimu x Marisa shippers will pair up Alice and Patchouli for this reason (or Reimu/Alice). See the example on the ShipMates page for how ridiculous this can get.
** ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Usually based on game locations (bosses for adjacent stages, a boss and the midboss of their stage) or possible common interests.
** SiblingIncest: Any pair of sisters will have fanart showing them in a relationship.
* SpoilAtYourOwnRisk: ZUN specifically requested that the endings to the games not be posted on the Internet to avoid spoilers; fan sites have managed to follow this request, but once in a blue moon, the content will pop up ''somewhere''.
* StopHavingFunGuys:
** Admitting to playing using a pad tends to elicit harassment from some players who think you should be using a keyboard instead.
** Mocking those who play "Easy Modo" is incredibly common, [[EasyModeMockery including in the games themselves]], and stating "it's unforgivable to play Easy Mode unless you're a grade school kid" is one of the fans' many memes. Some take it further and insist that the only difficulty mode is Lunatic. [[FanDumb This is, of course, a mainstay in shmup fandom.]]
*** How serious this in particular is depends on where you are on the internet. Here, danbooru, or imageboards? Not so much. A shmup site? You better be able to 1cc Lunatic.
* TastesLikeDiabetes: While every character can be {{moe}}, Chen may just get the most of [[SelfFanservice this treatment from the fandom]], despite her actually being rather devious and mischievous. Her mere presence can often drive Ran into massive {{nose bleed}}s with sheer cuteness.
** CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!
* TearJerker: Several characters like Yuyuko, Byakuren, Mokou, and the Prismriver Sisters have had tragic events in their lives, [[AllThereInTheManual none of which are mentioned in or greatly affect the games proper.]]
* UnpopularPopularCharacter: The Aki sisters are considered to be the least notable of the Windows era characters, below even midbosses like Daiyousei and Koakuma, which leads to a MemeticMutation where they are called {{original character}}s. [[http://danbooru.donmai.us/post/show/520570/ Their unpopularity is their popularity.]]
* UnfortunateImplications: In ''Symposium of Post-Mysticism'', Akyuu notices how her three interviewee are, in one way or another, "recent immigrants to Gensokyo". She also notices that the only thing preventing them from making problems is the tension between them. The interview ended with the interviewee being chased away by Reimu-- the ''face'' of the establishment. The worst part: all three interviewee are religious hardliners and they seriously consider fighting each others, even if it will imperil Gensokyo!
* ValuesDissonance: Something not readily apparent to western viewers. Byakuren was originally motivated by fear, then love (the two extremes) and used deception to make youkai and humans equal. She's an ''extremely'' lapsed Buddhist. The Japanese are also critical of the western take on "equality". If you treat the strong and the weak the same way, the strong will have an advantage. Needless to say, quite a few grimdark doujinshi turn her into some sort of evil mass murderer who genocides "weak" beings.
** The same goes for Miko, who is similarly lapsed: Taoism is about letting things be, not actively meddling in everything.
* ViewerGenderConfusion: Meira, Wriggle and Shou are sometimes mistaken for males by the fandom. Wriggle wearing pants and a tomboyish look could easily be mistaken for a boy at first glance. In Shou's case, her masculine-sounding name and appearance didn't help things either.
* WhatAnIdiot: On Easy difficulty, Cirno's Icicle Fall spell card has a blatant blind spot ''right in front of her.''
** PlayedForLaughs in Touhou Soccer [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO3xhnz-Q8s where Letty warns her to use normal level or above]].
* TheWoobie:
** Cirno. Though some might argue she has it coming, she is treated rather harshly by other characters, particularly in ''Hisoutensoku'' when a purposeful misdirection by Marisa nearly gets her killed. As much as a fairy can be killed, at least.
** Hong Meiling gets this in fanon a lot, especially by making Sakuya out to be abusive.
** Flandre. Willingly or not, enduring almost complete solitary confinement for ''several centuries'' is not known to have many benefits, while her ability ensures that even at best everyone will always keep her at a metaphorical arm's distance.
** Yuyuko. Though she is much better now, the circumstances that led to her becoming a ghost, as well as the desire to resurrect the person under the Ayakashi because she could only bring death and never life, fall well into this trope.
** Reisen. Often played for comedy in fanon. Possibly of the [[IronWoobie iron]] variety due to her desire to protect her masters and subordinate despite how they treat her.
** Kogasa. She's an unwanted umbrella who can't even use her power to surprise people properly. In ''Double Spoiler'' her title is ''"Pitiable Illegally Dumped Object"''. [[spoiler:And for Ten Desires, it's ''"Greatly Troubled Lost Article"''. There, she's seen trying to get the help of the protagonists, as she can't deal with that stage's boss. And then the protagonists beat her up anyways]]. Fanart often takes it to ButtMonkey status, sometimes even going so far as to put her ''crying on a pile of trash while dressed in tattered clothes''.
** Byakuren, even more so than Flandre, though definitely of the IronWoobie subtype, remaining dedicated to her self-imposed mission.
* YourCheatingHeart: Marisa Kirisame of is a noted {{Memetic Sex God}}ess, and has been shipped with virtually every character she's ever teamed up with, plus other characters like the protagonist Reimu, TheOneGuy Rinnouske thanks to him being [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend a part of her childhood]], and EnfantTerrible Flandre. Thanks to this rather large "harem", and her KleptomaniacHero status, she's often portrayed as sometimes outright taking her friends and lovers completely for granted. A meme revolving around her is even called "Marisa Stole the Precious Thing", based on a comic where Patchouli saying that Marisa stole a spellbook from her was [[PoorCommunicationKills misinterpreted]] to mean that Marisa stole Patchouli's virginity, setting Alice off on a [[ClingyJealousGirl jealous rage]] against Marisa before she could hear the full story, and later an {{IOSYS}} song by that title.


!!Examples in the games' gameplay:
* BreatherLevel: While the final bosses are devastating, the final ''stage'' tends to be mercifully short, often with enemies that drop full powerups. Reisen is infamous for being one of the easier stage five bosses.
* GameBreaker:
** Marisa in ''Mountain of Faith''. Her B-type shot has a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] that makes it insanely powerful under the right circumstances, earning it the FanNickname of [=MarisaBugged=].
** Much less severe, but Marisa's teamup with Alice in ''Imperishable Night'' has access to another highly damaging exploit, which fans have dubbed the [[PortmanteauCoupleName Malice Cannon]].
** Sakuya's A-type shot in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom'' is considered this by some since its unfocused mode covers the top of the screen, while the focused concentrates it entirely on single target and is homing withing a relatively wide angle. She also has ''four'' bombs per life with the same properties.
* GoodBadBugs:
** [[PortmanteauCoupleName MAlice]] Cannon in ''Imperishable Night''. Lasers in the earlier ''Touhou'' games were somewhat laggy in their hit detection. In ''IN''[='=]s case, this meant that you could switch between Alice and Marisa rapidly, and Alice's full damage would go through, the lag on the laser covering the time as Marisa.
** Marisa B(ugged) in ''Mountain of Faith''. Whenever Marisa B has between 3.00 and 3.95 power, the central laser does ten times the appropriate damage value when unfocused.
** In ''Subterranean Animism'', Reimu C ([[AwesomeButImpractical Reimu and Aya]]) and Marisa B ([[AwesomeButImpractical Marisa and Patchy]]) can destroy the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnM-r1ewCws 3rd]] (only in the demo, she can't be destroyed in that way in the full version), [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANspUlv_odk 6th]], and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn-eZUYqwA4 extra stage]] midbosses just by bombing them as they appear.
** A lot of these bugs can be found [[http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php/topic,9080.0.html here]].
* GrowingTheBeard:
** ''Lotus Land Story'', where most of the standard ''Touhou'' gameplay features were introduced.
** ''Embodiment of Scarlet Devil'', with the introduction of the Spell Card system.
* ItsHardSoItSucks: Many fans who got into ''Touhou'' through {{Fanon}} or MemeticMutation first find the games to be stupidly hard, if not impossible. [[NotHelpingYourCase It really does NOT help]] that people who are competent at the games like to show the games off on [[HarderThanHard Lunatic difficulty]] or through [[BonusDungeon extra stages]], which only makes the games look [[NightmareFuel even worse]].
* ItsShortSoItSucks:
** A popular opinion of ''Ten Desires'', which ZUN intentionally made easier to attract a wider audience.
** Mostly averted. Despite each game taking on average no more than 30 minutes to complete, the series has a very big following, especially for a {{shmup}} series.
* ScrappyMechanic:
** The tenth game, ''Mountain of Faith'', generated discontent among fans because of the significant gameplay changes, such as linking the bomb system to weapon powerups, not having individualised bombs for each of the shot types, and making the continues send you back to the beginning of the level. Most notable was the removal of the "graze" system, where one is rewarded for getting close to bullets as often as possible without getting hit. This was thankfully put back in for ''Subterranean Animism'', where's it's actually the basis of the scoring system.
** ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' heralds the return of more classic features, such as the separate bomb bar and character-unique spell cards, but the ''[=UFO=]'' mechanic for this game proves annoying to many players, especially since using said mechanic is one of the few ways to gain more power, bombs, points, and lives. And by "one of the few" we mean "basically the only really effective way."
** The scoring system in ''Ten Desires'' requires that you spend most of the time near the top of the screen, meaning you have to rely on luck and memorisation to avoid getting hit, rather than skill. The game also gets rid of the deathbombing, another hallmark of the ''Touhou'' series.
*** Deathbombimg is actually possible in ''Ten Desires''. It just has what is probably the [[UpToEleven most sadistically small time frame ever]] for it in the history of Touhou. You basically need to have an instance of SuperReflexes to do it, by predicting your death and bombing ''just'' as you're hit. Otherwise, you'll just enter Trance mode (if applicable) and die.
* SurpriseDifficulty:
** Players familiar with fanworks come into Cirno's fight expecting it to be a joke. [[WakeUpCallBoss Then they eat icicle shotgun]]. And, while Icicle Fall ~ Easy deserves its memetic status, the version on normal is actually fairly nasty. It's basically the same thing, except Cirno ''also'' fires a spread of larger bullets in front of her, meaning you actually have to navigate the icicles, which is harder than you'd think.
** [[BrickJoke Kogasa]].
* ThatOneBoss: Enough examples for [[{{ThatOneBoss/Touhou}} their own page]].
* TierInducedScrappy:
** Fans often describe [[OneManParty Alice solo]] as the worst playable character in ''Imperishable Night'' because of her narrow range of attack and terrible spell damage. [[CannotStandThemCannotLiveWithoutThem Possible justification]] of the [[PortmanteauCoupleName Malice]] Cannon, and maybe even the [[{{Shipping}} pairing]].
** Utsuho in ''Hisoutensoku'' is a SkillGateCharacter with extremely powerful (and surprisingly quick) melee attacks as well as immense and incredibly dense strong bullets. She's also one of the more popular characters, making her the bane of most players just starting out.
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