Video Game / Touhou LostWord

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A turn-based Touhou Project gacha RPG fan game developed by NextNinja for smartphones that launched in 2020 in Japan before a global release on 11 May 2021. It follows a player-named girl, ostensibly from the Outside World, who unexpectedly finds herself inside Gensokyo, carrying a journal which only she can open and read. Upon meeting a handful of the main cast, it becomes apparent that her abrupt appearance is linked to the phenomenon of Seal Crystals popping up all around the region... and thus begins a new, cross-dimensional incident.

Although licensed by Team Shanghai Alice, the game is made without ZUN's involvement and instead freely interprets the world of Gensokyo with various fan interpretations of characters.

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This game provides examples of:

• A Twinkle in the Sky: Can happen if you defeat your opponent using a Spell Card that sends them flying, resulting in them becoming a twinkle after they're blown away.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Cirno, Daiyousei, and Lily White from the martial arts universe are much more physically powerful in a fight than their usual selves, given that their world uses hand-to-hand combat as their fighting form of choice rather than bullets.
  • Luna Child, Sunny Milk and Star Sapphire from another universe are also this, as they're not only the incident solvers of their world, but they imply they resolve way more incidents than others (though it might be downplayed if one considers not only do they cause also many incidents there, but gods and youkai don't seem too different from humans in their world). In fact, Sword Master Youmu mentions that every fairy that ends up on the Hakugyoku Arena are exceptional in some way or another.
  • The main universe Cirno is also this. If you make it up to floor 80 of the Scarlet Devil Tower, she'll join your group, and it's stated that she got that far by herself. Considering how hard it is to get that far, that's impressive.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The L1 characters are intended to correlate with the canon Touhou, but not all of them are one-to-one with their canon selves.
  • Aya tends to act much dumber than she is in canon. The second cheerleader event even has her grouped on a team with Utsuho, Saki and Kokoro, with the joke being that they're all extremely fast but also birdbrains.
  • Seiran and Ringo both are still shown to be very fond of the moon, even though in canon they outright deserted it.
  • Toyohime, Yorihime and most other Lunarians do not exhibit the extreme need for purity they do in canon, likely so they can appear in Gensokyo more.
  • Some events depict Sakuya as being much more of a Team Mom to the other residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion than she is in canon. One event even has Remilia afraid of being scolded by her in stark contrast to both her and Sakuya's personalities in canon, especially given how it's implied Remilia won Sakuya's loyalty by defeating her in battle.
  • In another example regarding Sakuya, two of her home screen quotes have her complaining about the work Remilia has her do and another has her openly disparaging her mistress, whereas in canon Sakuya is wholly subservient to Remilia and shows no signs of being discontent with the work Remilia gives her. One of these quotes also has Sakuya lamenting being unable to tease Remilia, even though in the canon games Remilia and Sakuya are shown to playfully chide and tease each other.
  • Yukari and Hecatia are both depicted as much more petty and vindictive than they are in the canon games, with a recurring gag being their feud over the Famicom.
  • Jo'on and Shion are portrayed as a cooperative Sibling Team. In the canon games, Jo'on is extremely abusive towards Shion, and the only reason she lets her tag along is because Jo'on benefits from it.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • In universe E9, Flandre is more mature than her original childlike self, and sports purple hair instead of blonde.
  • Similarly, in Code Bm3, Rabbit 1 (AKA Reisen Udongein Inaba) is wholly allied with Junko and aids in terrorizing the moon she once called home, and has blonde hair and yellow eyes instead of purple hair and red eyes.
  • Rin and Utsuho (S5) have a more mature personality compared to their standard counterparts. Their abilities are also altered to match their world's situation, with Rin handling fairies as a nursemaid and Utsuho dealing with charcoal instead of nuclear fusion.
• A Day in the Limelight: Events tend to move the focus to a secondary or minor character. Many scenarios include but are not limited to Youmu filling in for Sakuya as a maid, the onis overcoming their bean weakness, Nemuno entering a cooking competition, Eirin making a wellness video, Kokoro forming a band, Yuyuko trying to hatch a large egg, a competition involving sister duos, and Kosuzu searching for a missing book.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head
  • Discussed in one of Nazrin's home screen quotes. She grabs a box just so she can stand on it to pat the protagonist.
  • In the interlude, Nemuno and Sannyo compete against each other in giving the protagonist headpats. The feud between them got so fierce that Mike had to intervene.
  • Home screen quotes from some nuturing friends (like Keiki and Alice (Cherry Blossom)) for completing a task has them reward you with a headpat.
  • Youmu (Cherry Blossom)'s victory animation has her give pats to her phantom half's bulbous end.
• Affectionate Nickname
  • The other fairies affectionately refer to Clownpiece as simply "Piece".
  • The localized version has Seiga's nickname as "Seiga Nyan Nyan"^note pronounced similarly to her original nickname "Seiga Niang Niang" (Lady Seiga). The original intention remains, as Okina demonstrates in Chapter 3.
• Almighty Janitor:
  • One of the individuals Seiga employs at her bar is Junko, a divine spirit powerful enough that she nearly brought about the destruction of the Lunar Capital.
  • The "Consultation Crew" Seiga forms to work at the bar in the associated event is comprised of Flandre Scarlet (immensely strong vampire), Satori Komeiji (ruler of the underground who keeps a nuclear raven as a pet) and Okina Matara (powerful deity and one of the sages who created Gensokyo).
• An Adventurer Is You: Characters are sorted into 8 archetypes: Attack (Pure DPS), Destroy (Nuker), Speed (Scrapper), Defence (Tank), Support (Buff), Debuff (Exactly What It Says on the Tin), Heal (Healer) and Technician (Status Effects). Sometimes a character’s kit doesn’t exactly fit their archetype, such as Rei’sen having mostly healing spells but considered a Destroy type, or the Lunar War Shaman being considered a Technician while her kit mostly focuses on a mix of extreme damage and solid survivability.
• Alice Allusion: "The Rebellious Mini-Fantasia" is practically a homage to the book. The event kicks off with the protagonist eating a piece of chocolate despite being told not to, causing her to shrink. Then she meets up with a shrunken Seija with Shinmyoumaru, who follow Chen, who is dressed in white, into a forest. And that's only the first arc of the event.
• Alternate Universe: A key feature of the story. An update later classifies units by which universe they come from. So far, several different universes have been classified:
  • The L-type universes, which are varied in content but largely treated as the 'default' universes.
    • L1, the primary universe where most events take place, and correlating to the default canon of Touhou, although the L1 characters aren't always one-to-one with their actual canon counterparts.
    • L80, the universe depicted in the music videos, and where their related Relic units come from. The Ruins of Memory chapters heavily imply that this is a universe that has been consumed by the Lost Word incident.
    • LR1 and LM1, universes created by Mima and Shinki when they bonded with Renko and Maribel respectfully, and became their Fighting Spirits. Not to mention giving the two a costume change.
  • The B-type universes, which feature the Lunar War taking center stage.
    • B2, the universe which the Tiny Space Horror comes from.
    • B3, the universe in which the Hifuu Scenario "Code B3 - You of the End" takes place.
    • B5, the universe where the blonde Reisen allied with the Tiny Space Horror comes from. B5 is also the setting of the lunar portions of Chapter 4, with a La Résistance led by that universe's Alice.
  • The R-type universes, which center around the characters from Hakugyokurou. In particular, R2 diverges sometime around Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom.
    • R2, the universe in which "Chapter 3: Hakugyoku Arena" takes place.
    • R8, the universe where the Mysterious Sword Master comes from.
  • The E-type universes, which center around the characters from the distorted Scarlet Devil Mansion.
    • E1, the universe where Hunter Flandre, Vampire Killer Sakuya, Demon's Gate Meiling, Advanced Magic Compendium Koakuma and Elemental Mage Patchouli come from.
    • E9, the universe in which the Hifuu Scenario "Code E9 - Pseudo Paradise" takes place.
  • The Z-type universes, which aren't well-explained but diverged sometime around Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.
    • Z1, the universe in which "Chapter 2 - Scarlet Devil Tower" takes place.
    • Z3, home of the magical girl Alice.
  • The F-type universes, which are still largely unknown, but diverged sometime between Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith and Touhou Hisoutensoku ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe.
    • F1, the universe where the Reimu clad in blue and the Koishi clad in white come from.
  • The C-type universes, which are still largely unknown, but usually contain high amounts of water.
    • C3, the Universe in which Chapter 4 takes place, a Gensokyo trapped in an eternal summer that takes the form of a beach paradise.
    • Cz1, created by The Witch of Scarlet Dreams when she acclimatized to the C3 universe during her arc in Chapter 4 EX.
  • The S-type universes, which are still widely unknown, though it hints at a Gensokyo with a Hell that is completely closed off.
    • S2, the universe where the Tiny Underworld Queen Satori comes from.
    • S5, the universe where the charcoal maker Utsuho and zombie fairy caretaker Rin comes from.
  • The H-type universes, where remodeled characters come from.
    • H5, home to the cell-fused kaiju, along with her creations.
  • The T-type universes, where bullet battles are typically fast-paced.
    • T5, home of bike rider Byakuren and Tenshi.
  • The A-type multiverse, featuring A6, A7, A8, A9, A10, A11, A12 and A13 which are the universes that the "retro" units come from: A6 is (Scarlet), A7 is (Cherry Blossom), A8 is (Eternal), A9 is (Flower), A10 is (Faith), A11 is (Subterranean), A12 is (Fantastic) and A13 is (Desires). The units hail from alternate timelines in which the incidents from their home games went unsolved.
    • Thus far, A7 is unique, in that it can be divided into two sub-universes in A7A and A7B, which are differentiated by the primary attack types of their incident resolvers.
  • Lr, a composite universe Yukari created for the sole purpose of giving the protagonist strong allies to fight for her without the use of her journal. This universe was made by extracting everything shared between the L and R-type universes, combining them into one. So far, shikigami of Aya, Nitori, Kokoro, and Flandre come from this universe.
• Amateur Film-Making Plot: The "Gensokyo of the Dead" event revolves around Eirin making a short educational film about cleanliness with a horror movie aspect.
• And the Rest: "The Anti-Misfortune Grand Prix" has Marisa give quips for Minamitsu, Parsee, and Kogasa... and lumps the other five teams together with no introductions due to time. She gets called out from the contestants for it, prompting her to give proper introductions to the other teams.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The game offers a "safety net" with its Premium Currency of choice, God Crystals. When using Seal Crystals, rolling 100, 150, 250 or 350 times on a banner allows players to choose one featured character of their choice (standard, Festival, or Ultra Festival and Relic, respectively), and when rolling with God Crystals 10 times, you are guaranteed a Unit. God Crystals can mainly be obtained through real-life purchases, first-time mission completion, or time-sensitive errands. Prior to Reimu (C3), Epic Prayers didn't have this "safety net"; after her introduction, a maximum of one copy can be obtained after 400 rolls.
  • When setting out for a quest, only two of the SP you would spend will be consumed at the start. The rest will be spent only if the mission is successful.
  • One adjustment in the 1.5 Anniversary patch is the ability to instantly clear Mirrors of Rebirth stages if you got one 3* clear on them. Considering how difficult and time-consuming they are on Lunatic, this is a godsend.
• Apocalypse How: Different kinds depending on the Lost Word being taken, but all of the worlds that have lost it could succumb to them if the Lost Word isn't found on time. The Hifuu Code B3 side story shows the outcome of one such world that didn't manage to restore its Lost Word on time.
• Arc Villain:
  • Chapter 2 has the Witch of Scarlet Dreams, although she turns out to not be evil, or at least not willfully so. She just can't control her powers.
  • Chapter 3 has the reborn Saigyou Ayakashi, which possessed that world's Youmu to use her as a host for its return.
  • Hifuu E9 "Pseudo Paradise" has the mysterious hunter targeting that universe's Remilia and her staff. Who turns out to be an alternate version of Sakuya.
  • While events typically avert this due to no ill will from any of the characters, one exception is "Dark Nurse of News", which puts Yukari in the role with a plan to bring fear and despair to Gensokyo. Ultimately subverted as Yukari's real plan is simply a kimodameshi event held at Eirin's infirmary, while the villainy was just a façade to fool the tengu investigating the matters.
  • The event "Yakumo's Ambition" has the culprit who hacked the game and took over Yukari and several other players' avatars, eventually turning out to be Hecatia Lapislazuli, who wanted to use the game to make a movie.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Chapter 3's explanation for the long-standing mystery of where Youki Konpaku went, at least in the R2 universe. Although it isn't known where he is in Touhou canon, chapter 3 explains that he mastered swordsmanship to such an impossibly high degree he essentially bypassed the rest of his mortal lifespan and entered nirvana. When Yuyuko tells Youmu of this, she expresses the desire to achieve this someday, herself.
• Ascended Meme:
  • A couple of infamous doujin arrangements by COOL&CREATE were licensed for the game as character themes. These include "Final Savage Sister Flandre S" for Flandre, "Night of Nights" for Sakuya, and "Help me, ERINNNNNN!!" for Kaguya. IOSYS also gets in on it with the Lunar War Soldier's theme, which is the rather well-known remix of Reisen's theme commonly known as "Overdrive". Same with Z3 Alice, which is the instrumental version of "Marisa Stole the Precious Thing".
  • A common meme among Touhou LostWord is doing pulls on banners (or the Forever Prayer), only for Sunny Milk to show up. In Dev Letter #11, done for the Global Version's first anniversary, the devs acknowledged this by showing a statistic of showing just how many times Sunny Milk was rolled. (At the time, it was 315,007 Sunny Milks.)
  • The Story Card "Impregnable Defense" references Remilia's memetic crouching animation from the fighting games.
  • Doremy's "Welcome to Doremyland" costume has a headpiece that heavily resembles a yukkuri.
• Background Music Override: When a spell card activates, the music switches for the character using the spell card. By default, it's an arrangement of the card user's leitmotif, but it can be changed in the character's profile.
• Barrier Maiden: In chapter 3, Okina acts as the guardian of the door connecting the upper realm and the lower realm, forbidding anyone to pass down to the lower realm due to its danger
• The Battle Didn't Count:
  • In Chapter 3 Act 2, you fight Okina Matara, who despite being defeated in terms of game mechanics twice in a row, barely even flinches against the protagonist's and friends' assault.
  • Happens again in Chapter 3 Act 3: You fight the Blue Reimu from another world, who tests the protagonists to see if they can resolve the Lost Word Incident. Though you defeat her in gameplay, it still acts as if the protagonists were thoroughly trounced.
• Beach Episode: Chapter 4 takes place in an alternate Gensokyo that became a summer paradise complete with sandy beaches. Even that dimension's Yukari and Rinnosuke were donning swimsuits.
• Beam-O-War: The story card "Overwhelming Firepower" depicts Yuuka and Marisa firing at eachother with their respective Master Sparks.
• Bequeathed Power: Sword Master Youmu has the memories and spirit of the original Youmu from the R2 world, who passed them on to her before she became the vessel for the reborn Saigyou Ayakashi and vanished.
• Big Ball of Violence: Mamizou's Last Word, "Belly-Drumming of Infinitely Infinite Tanuki", has a cloud of smoke appearing as a bunch of tanuki dive into the foes out of nowhere, while Mamizou joins in. As the smoke clears, six tanuki leave behind bombs to finish the foes off.
• Bland-Name Product: According to Seiran's Fantasy Rebirth story, those who hail from the moon have their own YouTube, called MoonTube.
• Boring, but Practical: In the "Dine & Dream Nemunoki" event, Nemuno wants to start a restaurant. She's quite a good cook, though her food is lacking in presentation to the point that it looks very plain.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In "Ruins of Memory: Blue Goodbyes", Rika, who designed the tank structure for Kanako (L80), comments on how her designs have been called crazy, dangerous, or crazy dangerous, though that does not bother her.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: If you have Ran set as your favorite character, her login dialogue has her mention that Yukari told her to tell the player to play in a well-lit room. Given that this is Yukari we’re talking about, it’s probably not completely out of nowhere.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: God Crystals. Although somewhat easily farmable through Errands, God Crystals are mainly obtained through spending actual money. God Crystals are used for Prayers and to buy costumes; buying with God Crystals is actively incentivised, providing players with guaranteed Units and giving Fortune Dust, which is the main currency used to obtain Divine Paper Dolls, Relic Paper Disks and Epic Paper Dolls. Divine Paper Dolls are the only way to uncap Ultra Festival Units without a duplicate copy. Divine Paper Dolls can only otherwise be obtained through purchasing monthly or event packs, with a couple given out for free sparingly. Relic Paper Disks and Epic Paper Dolls are similar to Divine Paper Dolls, just used for Relic and Epic units instead. Although you can obtain Fortune Dust through events, the amount you can receive is quite little compared to outright using God Crystals.
• Brick Joke: The "Oni, Maids, and Chocolate" event ends on Kasen wondering if Sumireko knows anything about the "bean sweets" they've been making. Much later, one of Sumireko's home screen quotes says that she gave Kasen some sweets she bought at a convenience store, stating she really enjoyed them, and "was even cuter than usual".
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
  • In R2, the residents identify Seal Crystals as "Dazzles".
  • During the "Oni, Maids, and Chocolate" event, everyone refers to chocolate as "bean sweets". This is lampshaded at the very end by Kasen, who wonders if Sumireko knows anything about them.
• Call-Back:
  • Countless ones to Touhou's canon games as well as its various spinoff manga, such as Reimu bringing up one of Meiling's very first lines in the series about "shrine maidens being the kind of humans that are okay to eat" in Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil when they meet up in the Prologue.
    • Likewise, if Marisa is your favorite character, one of her lines has her ask if you can remember how many slices of bread you've eaten (13 in her case), a nod to her dialogue with Remilia in the same game.
  • More come in the form of the costumes that are able to be bought in the shop with God Crystals—aside from the event costumes, the time-limited costumes that rotate availability are all of the characters' various outfits from Touhou canon, such as Yukari's and Reisen's unique outfits from the fighting games, Aya's newsboy outfit from Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery, and Alice's long-sleeved dress from Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom.
  • The biggest of these, though, come from a series of units whose designs and spell cards are based on their debut game. So far, there are, not counting units that are only available in Japan right now, thirty such units which collectively fall under the A-Type banner (alongside four A-Type units based on characters who don't appear in the game they're representing). More on that in the A-type character page.
  • Sword Master Youmu, the blue-clad Reimu, and the Witch of Scarlet Dreams are based off of popular alternate colors for Youmu, Reimu, and Marisa that appeared in Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and Touhou Hisoutensoku ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe.
  • Yorihime's Fantasy Rebirth stage is a two-wave battle, the first wave being against Reimu and Marisa, the second being against Remilia and Sakuya. This is a call-back to Touhou Bougetsushou, and specifically to Silent Sinner in Blue, where the four characters faced in the battle are the ones Yorihime duels against in SSiB.
  • In-game events tend to reference other earlier events.
    • In "Oni, Maids, and Chocolate", Youmu's brief maid stint in "Phantom-Human Maid for a Day" and the fairies' Shichi-Go-San in "The Steps to Achieve Fairyhood?!" were brought up in the event.
    • "Myouren Detectives: The Phantom Sniper", a sequel to "Princess Joon: The Chivalrous Phantom Thief", starts off with the game console being gummed with chocolate after the events of "The Maid's Chocolate Hell".
    • "Disciples of the Sword", a sequel to "Spring Festival of Swords", has the Masked Dancer Rebellion (from the event with the same name) seek a slot for the festivities.
    • "Hakurei Shrine Academy Remilienteering": The end of the non-combat stage "Dozing Off" features Chocolate Maid Rin and Utsuho from "The Maid's Chocolate Hell", reborn and cooled off, with a nod to that event.
    • "Dreaming in Doremyland": Seija shoots down Sagume as revenge for ruining her Morbies sceme in "Capsule Crazy Gensokyo".
    • "Cooking in Xanadu ~With Veggies & Prayers~": Kutaka shows up in her Supportmates uniform, still doing food deliveries, calling back to "Gensokyo Delivery Service Supportmates".
    • "The Beast Dream Salon!": Keine mentions children playing with sea urchin menko, a major plot point of "The Legendary Mokele-Mbembe!".
• Calling Card: Deconstructed in "Princess Jo'on the Chivalrous Phantom Thief". Jo'on, Yachie, and Yamame leave a card at the Moriya Shrine with an intent to steal one of Sanae's possessions. Despite visiting in their civilian guises, the card blows their cover as Jo'on's name was on it.
• The Cameo:
  • Characters hailing from the PC-98 era without an appearence in more modern releases make guest appearances in Ruins of Memory as they help the subjects of the stories. Of those, only Shinki, Yumemi, Mima, Chiyuri, and Yumeko have visible portraits, though Shinki and Mima were later Promoted to Playable with the release of "Code L?".
  • Tokiko often appears in events alongside other mooks, usually hanging out with fairies. Since she's one of the only enemies with a unique sprite, she's very easy to spot during waves. Naturally, her blurbs more often then not mention her interest in reading. She finally got acknowledged with her own Story Card, "Book-Reading Youkai".
  • Before she was Promoted to Playable, Rei'sen would often appear in waves alongside other rabbit soldiers. The fact that she shares the same sprites as them was also carried over.
• Characterization Marches On: The protagonist was originally just an Audience Surrogate when the game was first starting out. Though, the events started giving her a personality of being a Badass Pacifist who doesn't talk much outside of the occasional one-liner. However, she's still given a backseat role most of the time, and doesn't get to contribute all that much to whatever story is being told.
• Coat Cape: All of the E9 units wear coats fastened around their necks by chains.
• Colony Drop:
  • Misumaru's Last Word, Yin-Yang Planet, has her summon a planet-sized Yin-Yang Orb and striking her foes with it.
  • Similarly is Tenshi's Last Word, Trillion-Ton Keystone Drop, where she summons an utterly massive keystone and drops it on the foe.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each Mook's hair color indicates the essence it is associated with: red for fire, orange for metal, yellow for star, green for wood, blue for water, purple for moon, brown for earth, white for sun, and black for non-elemental.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Each character has a limited amount of spellcards, and when they use a Last Word, they can't use any more spellcards for the rest of the fight. The enemy, however, can use any number of spellcards, even after using a Last Word.
• Continuity Nod: The event "Yakumo's Ambition" takes place in the same instance of Gensokyo as the one from Chapter 1 of the main story. The folding that has ravaged that instance still hasn't straightened out fully even with the Lost Word found, leading to shortcuts to other major areas. The events, however, happen in a video game simulation.
• Continuity Porn: "Hakurei Shrine Academy Adventure Remilienteering" was made to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the game's initial launch in Japan, and as such, it doubles down on the Call Backs, with various references to previous events, and every main universe character that was available at the time making an appearance.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • One of Sakuya's home screen quotes has her lamenting being unable to tease Remilia, even though in the canon games Remilia and Sakuya are shown to playfully chide and tease each other (see the Team Scarlet scenario for Imperishable Night).
  • "An Oh-So-Cheesy Affair" suggests Chimata is friendly with Megumu and Tsukasa, when in Unconnected Marketeers she was well aware she was being used by them and their relationship sours by the end.
• Crappy Homemade Gift: When Utsuho (S5) headed the Happy Holiday login bonus, she mentions wanting to give her homemade charcoal as a gift, but Rin won't let her, even though Utsuho means well. In Christmas tradition, coal is associated with those who have been naughty.
• Culture Equals Costume: Fantasy Rebirth costumes tend to link to a character's culture.
  • To show her traditional Japanese roots, Reimu Hakurei's costume is a standard oriental wedding dress, complete with headwear.
  • Hong Meiling's Fantasy Rebirth attire features a qipao, a traditional Chinese dress.
  • The four moon rabbits (Reisen Udonge, Rei'sen, Seiran, and Ringo) receive white military uniforms to reflect their roles as soldiers.
  • The Scarlet sisters, who hail from the west, are decked in ball gowns with parasols in hand.
• Cypher Language: This is sometimes done with dialogue and blurbs.
  • In Hakugyoku Arena, Morse Code is used on the shadows' dialogue and blurbs.
  • In the "Code Name: Picara - Five Tails" event, the Glitch Entity version of Yuyuko exclaims excerpts using a QWERTY cypher.
• Daywalking Vampire: There have been occasions in which vampire sisters Remilia and Flandre were out and about in broad daylight, with no parasol. This gets lampshaded on occasion, and they Hand Wave it by mentioning use of a type of magic sunscreen made by Patchouli. This also applies to their C3 versions.
• Deadly Game: "The Secret God Games" features games taken up a notch with Stuff Blowing Up. Losers find themselves on the receiving end of explosions. Even the commentators Aya and Nitori aren't safe!
• Deal with the Devil:
  • In Chapter 2, Marisa is revealed to have made one of these in the past to have enough power to stand side-by-side with Reimu, with the payment being her name and the disappearance of Reimu herself.
  • In Chapter 3, it's revealed that The original Youmu of that world made one of these as well to try and save her Yuyuko, gaining the power to cut through time, at the cost of that world's Yukari disappearing alongside the Saigyou Ayakashi itself.
• Depending on the Writer: Exactly how accurate characters such as Yukari, Remilia, Sakuya and Aya are to Touhou canon can vary depending on the event, to the point where their portrayals in different events can almost feel like separate characters.
• "Dinner, Bath, or Sex" Offer: Sanae does this when the player accesses the Shrine Office.
  Sanae: What are you looking for? A prayer or charm? Or are you here for me?!
• Don't Try This at Home: The Flavor Text for Sumireko's Gun Sign "3D Printer Gun" includes a warning that reads "Do not copy this!", likely due to firearms being outlawed in Japan.
• Downer Ending: The Hifuu Code B3 ends with Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Youmu, Sanae, and Reisen presumably dying in their last stand against the lunar invasion and the world collapsing with their failure to find the Lost Word in time.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Before she first appeared properly in the Chapter 3.5 Interlude, Kisume cameoed in Koishi's "Wandering Rose" costume, where she's found in a nearby well.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The game features an elemental system with eight "essences" - five based on the Eastern elements (Fire, Water, Metal, Wood, Earth) and three based on celestial objects (Star, Moon, Sun). The latter three follow a simple pattern (Star > Moon > Sun > Star), while the former five interact based on the Eastern elemental system: each essence resists the essence it has a generating interaction with^note Fire > Wood > Water > Metal > Earth > Fire and is weak to the element it has a overcoming interaction with^note Fire > Metal > Wood > Earth > Water > Fire. Most friends (except a select few whose affinities are based on Logical Weakness instead) have two essences, one from each category, relating to their abilities and personality.
• Enemy Mine: The Extra scenario of Chapter 1 sends the protagonist to the moon, where it's revealed that the space folding incident has become so dire that Junko, a woman who tried to genocide the Lunarians, is working with the Watatsuki sisters and the other Lunarians to find a way to stop it.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Story Card "Book-Reading Youkai" calls Totiko simply "The Book-Reading Youkai". The Flavor Text justifies this by stating that no one knows her real name anyway.
• Expressive Ears: While this is implied to apply to Kagerou in canon, it's confirmed here. Her ears move downwards when she's happy or sad, and she suggests they twitch when she's nervous.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: In "Princess Jo'on: The Chivalrous Phantom Theif", Jo'on, Yachie, and Yamame attempt to pose together after their grand introductions... only for everyone to fall over.
• Failed a Spot Check: In Hifuu Code E9, Renko and Maribel keep observing the SDM inhabitants' strange behaviors that are blatantly fantastic in origin (such as Koakuma's wings, Remilia's blood-drinking, and Patchouli discussing magic) and brush them off as simply some strange quirks.
• Fallen Hero: An alternate version of Marisa (one of many known incident resolvers), who fashioned her mini hakkero into a sword and carries a small dragon with her, outs herself as the Lost Word Incident's mastermind in Chapter 4 part 2.
• Fanservice Pack: The girls tend to be quite a bit more attractive in this game than is usual seen in a Touhou fangame. To name but a few examples, Reimu is often clad in outfits that show a lot of midriff, Kasen's art shows a generous helping of her legs, Patchouli and Yorihime's art shows quite a bit of focus on their posteriors, Sanae’s miko garb is semi transparent, showing her bust, and some of the more mature characters, in particular Yukari, Kanako, and Byakuren, are quite well endowed. The C3 versions of Yukari and Hecatia run wild with this, being Walking Swimsuit Scenes.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • In the events during Hifuu Code E9, Remilia and her entourage changed residence to the mansion to avoid persecution caused by her condition. The Sakuya of that dimension was also hunting her, calling her a devil.
  • Discussed in "Seiga Nyan Nyan's Social Club". Seiga wanted to create a social club as other social clubs refuse to allow jiang shi like Yoshika. Letty empathizes as many hate winters due to dislike of yuki-onnas like her.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Chapter 3 Part 4 has Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Sword Master Youmu, and the protagonist shrunken into Shou's pagoda by Shinmyomaru's Miracle Mallet, and launched into Yuyuko. To reduce the squickiness of travelling through someone's body, illusions of familiar locales play out instead.
• Featureless Protagonist: The noncombatant player character, who is never shown. Note that her input name differs from the player's account nickname, yet both will be chosen and can be customized later.
• Five-Man Band: The Scarlet Devil Mansion staff in universe E9: "Tiny Devil Mistress" Remilia Scarlet is The Leader, "Vampire Pursuing the Hunter" Flandre Scarlet is The Lancer who heads the mansion's staff and acts as her older sister's main caretaker, "The Loyal Elemental Magician" Patchouli Knowledge is The Smart Girl who (like her main universe counterpart) is the mansion's resident mage and literary expert, "Immovable Demon Gate" Hong Meiling is The Big Girl as Gate Guardian and bodyguard to Remilia, and "Compendium of Advanced Magic" Koakuma is the shy and easily flustered demon servant of Patchouli who plays The Heart. The end of "Pseudo Paradise" has them being joined by Sakuya as a Sixth Ranger.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: In Chapter 3, when the bell rings, it signals the Hour, and fights must take place before the next Hour starts to maintain the seal on Saigyou Ayakashi or else.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • In general, events regularly ignore the fact that everyone in Gensokyo has the ability to fly. There's plenty of situations where characters will say they can't escape, or are unable to get around certain obstacles when the obvious solution is simply "just fly over it".
  • The protagonist's ability to summon shikigami from her journal is rarely ever touched upon outside of the battles themselves. Granted, she's a pacifist, but still.
  • In "Hakurei Shrine Academy Adventure Remilienteering", the protagonist is teamed up with Sakuya throughout the event. Despite there being plenty of opportunities where it would be useful, she never uses her time stop once. The only time her ability is ever used in the event is a quick gag where she fast forwards through a Badass Boast.
• Framing Device:
  • "The Rebellious Mini-Fantasia" is a kamishibai being told by Koakuma to the fairies at Misty Lake.
  • "'Tis the Season For Family" is a story being told by Misumaru.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: The "Scrambled Youkai Network" event has Nue make "Prankster Candies" that cause whoever eats them to have other people perceive them as someone else. The second arc of the event has the Grassroots Youkai Network swap places with eachother until it wears off, and revolves around the hijinks that ensue. Downplayed, as they haven't really swapped bodies, it just looks like they have. The protagonist is immune to this, however, as she saw them eat the candies.
• From Bad to Worse: Hifuu Code B3 starts with The Magic Goes Away, causing the protagonists' powers and most of the population of Gensokyo to disappear. It ends with the protagonists failing to ward off the lunar rabbits' invasion of their bunker despite their fortified abilities, and pleading with the protagonist to find the Lost Word and restore the world to working order before it's too late. Based on the aftermath as seen by the Secret Sealing Club, they don't find it in time, and this particular world is devoured by the Lost Word incident.
• Funny Fan Voice: When Marisa revisits the hot springs in the EX stages in "Three Nights in Hot Spring Hell", she notices a rotary fan and urges the protagonist to speak into it, and she also joins in. Rinnosuke, who was on duty, was going to explain the phenomenon about how the trope works, but the girls were too pre-occupied making noises in the fan.
• Fun Size: The alternate universe Yuyuko (aptly named the Tiny Ghost Mistress) who appears in Chapter 3. For reference, Yuyuko is normally one of the taller characters in the cast. The Tiny Ghost Mistress, on the other hand, is even shorter than Youmu, and likely about the same height as Cirno (one of the shortest characters in the canon cast). Her introduction video showcases it best. As the protagonists of the chapter put it:
  Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya, at the same time: S-So small?!
• Gambit Pileup: The plot of Chapter 3 turns out to be a mess of different plans formed to either combat or limit the spread of the Saigyou Ayakashi.
• Greek Chorus: In the Hifuu scenarios, two unseen characters exist in a strange void and watch over the worlds ruined by the Lost Word incident, offering occasional commentary. The extra story of B3 reveals that they are the PC-98 incarnations of Reimu and Marisa.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: In Chapter 3, Sword Master Youmu is revealed to have been cutting through time for thousands of years, desperately attempting to prevent Yuyuko from unsealing the Saigyou Ayakashi.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Marisa lets Youmu cut her at the end of Chapter 3 Act 2, to buy time before the next Hour for Reimu and co. to defeat Okina. However, it's subverted: Youmu cut the Three Fairies of Light instead, whom Marisa was trying to protect.
  • In the special story, Hifuu Code B3, Each of the alternates of the Gensokyo residents do this to ensure the protagonist escapes from the pursuing moon rabbits and deciphers the Lost Word. First, Servant (Sakuya) and Oracle (Sanae) during Act 3, then Gardener (Youmu) and Soldier (Reisen) during Act 4, and finally Shaman (Reimu) and Enchanter (Marisa) during Act 5. Unfortunately, Renko theorises that the protagonist failed to decipher the Lost Word at the time, meaning that their sacrifices were all for nothing.
• Hidden Eyes: Characters other than the unit featured in Last Words for each L80 unit have their eyes obscured in shadow during the cinematic segments as they are manifestations from the L80 units' memories. Exceptions are Sakuya's, which only has Remilia's arm visible in a Sistine-style portrayal, and Kanako's, which has no one else visible aside from her.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: In "The Kosuzu Motoori's Case Files", after searching the whole Gensokyo for Akyuu's Gensokyo Chronicles book, turns out that it was in Suzunaan wrapped with other books and Kosuzu forgot to unwrap them.
• Hidden Villain: The entity causing the Lost Word incidents is unknown and only referred to as the "Mysterious Voice", with its appearance kept hidden.
• High-Pressure Emotion: During "Dark Nurse of News", Aya and Hatate create a distraction by shooting down innocent fairies passing by Kourindou. In the ensuing battles, all the fairies are red to show that they're angry.
• Hot Springs Episode: "Three Nights at Hot Spring Hell" follows Shion, Marisa, Remilia, Utsuho, and the protagonist as they traverse through a new resort in Former Hell, with onsens as a primary focus for the group.
• Imagination-Based Superpower: The Flavor Text for Sumireko's Last Word reveals that the giant Tesla coil she summons is created using her imagination.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Like in the mainline games, some girls will use anything as bullets. Those from the base universe are seen using plates, masks, food, wheelbarrows, anchors, camera viewfinders, trains, keystones, eggs, radio towers, their own servants, and so forth. Those hailing from other realities will add bento boxes, tropical fruit, a table of food, gears, chemistry labs, butterfly nets, and more to the mix.
  • Inverted for Remilia's Nurse costume, which has her use Gungnir as an IV stand.
• In-Series Nickname: In the Hifuu side story, Renko and Maribel nickname the Player Character "Lossie".
• Interface Spoiler: The Universe Classification system introduces a big one. Namely, Sword Master Youmu has a universe classification of R8, whereas Tiny Ghost Yuyuko has a universe Classification of R2, spoiling the fact that they are from different universes.
• ISO-Standard Urban Groceries: Rin's "Palace of the Earth Spirits' Pawsome Helper" costume replaces her wheelbarrow with a shopping cart containing items such as flour, bananas, a container of milk, eggs, and a melon.
• It's Always Spring:
  • Discussed and deconstructed in "The Steps to Achieve Fairyhood". Lily White tells of a dream for a year-long spring, though Clownpiece and Marisa inform her that she'll just create an incident that needs solving. The EX stages have her do just that... and draw ire from others who just wanted to enjoy autumn.
  • One alternate Gensokyo is under a summer variant in Chapter 4 of the main story. In it, it's a beach paradise and the season's locked into summertime.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Invoked with Fantasy Rebirth, which gives L1 friends a new costume they can wear in battle as well as boosted stats upon unlocking. These costumes are extravagant white dresses, raiments, or the like, while some border on Fairytale Wedding Dresses. It should be noted, however, that not all Fantasy Rebirths come with associated costumes: those of universes other than L1 only get boosted stats.
• Kids Hate Vegetables: This is the main source of conflict in the "Cooking in Xanadu ~With Veggies & Prayers~" event. The children in Sai no Kawara are extremely picky eaters, and only want to eat sweets. To get around this, they feed them pastries made with vegetables in the hopes that nobody notices.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: This is induced on the inhabitants of worlds suffering from the Lost Word incident. Nobody can remember the word, and to a certain extent are also unable to realize they should remember it. This includes anyone who enters that world, such as the heroes and the protagonist. The only exception is the protagonist's self-updating journal, which has a form of Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory and is therefore essential to figuring out what the Lost Word is.
• Leitmotif: The game itself has one, LostWord Chronicle, a remix of Eastern Youkai Beauty, which plays at the start of every Dev letter.
• Level Cap: Initially, 70 for each Friend. Limit Breaking (a la Azur Lane) a girl with either a duplicate of her or a consumable Paper Doll successively raises her cap, up to a maximum of Lv. 100 after all three breaks. Ultra Festival Units can still use duplicates, but otherwise require a much rarer Divine Paper Doll. Duplicates also work for Relic and Epic Units, but those require the even rarer Relic Paper Disk and Epic Paper Doll, respectively, to Limit Break without a duplicate.
• Lighter and Softer: The game leans heavily towards a more saccharine interpretation of Gensokyo, with the rougher aspects of most characters' personalities toned down. Characters who are on bad terms with one another (such as Saki and Yachie or the Watatsuki sisters and nearly everyone) have had their enmity reduced to Sitcom Arch-Nemesis status if not removed entirely. This is especially apparent in the game's limited-time events, whose plots tend to have much lower stakes than the main story when they aren't outright slice of life.
• Living Crashpad: At the end of Chapter 3, the group escapes Yuyuko's body in such a way that Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya individually crash land onto Seija, much to her dismay. The three even comment on how glad they were about the soft landing.
• Loophole Abuse: Sagume normally doesn't talk much because of her dangerous ability to cause the opposite of whatever she says to happen. Here, she gets around this by communicating through writing, denoted in the dialogue with kagi kakko. Starting in "Capsule Crazy Gensokyo", she uses a text-to-speech device instead.
• Mauve Shirt: The mooks fought during most events receive a bit of personality from phrases replacing their titles. They range from receiving relevant personalities for the segment, to requesting a certain sweet during the Halloween Episode, to having a connection with the featured enemy unit, be it an associate or a fan.
• Meat Puppet: In the event, "The Beast Dream Salon!", an animal spirit from the Animal Realm manages to escape to Gensokyo, and possesses a hat to hide in. The protagonist unknowingly wears said hat, and the animal spirit takes control of her body. It's only until the final arc when everyone realizes the protagonist is acting strange, and the animal spirit finally reveals itself.
• Memory Jar:
  • In Chapter 2, the Witch of Scarlet Dreams sealed her memories into a Seal Crystal that she entrusted to Flandre for safekeeping 1000 years ago, to be returned to her once Reimu returned to the world.
  • Happens again in Chapter 3: The Reimu in blue hands Sword Master Youmu a Seal Crystal containing the original memories of that World's Youmu, which responds to her earnest plea to figure out how to express her feelings. This alerts the the team for Youmu to check the protagonist's journal, and figure out the Lost Words for the chapter: Roukanken and Hakurouken, her swords.
• Modern AU Fic: One of the Tales of Fantasy is a manga titled Me and the Lost (Parallel) World, where the girls are human schoolgirls, some of which have an otaku side to them. It was revealed right from the start that it's All Just a Dream.
• Monster Mash: The team of nurses in "Gensokyo of the Dead" consists of Remilia Scarlet (vampire), Soga no Tojiko (ghost) and Yoshika Miyako (jiang shi / zombie).
• Morton's Fork: The dilemma that Youmu faces in Chapter 3. The original version of Youmu, at least. If she allows Yuyuko to resurrect the Saigyou Ayakashi, Yuyuko temporarily become a human again, but she crumble to dust and die. If she disposes of all methods that would give Yuyuko the idea to resurrect it in the first place, Yuyuko never becomes a ghost and her soul goes to the afterlife as a normal human. No matter what she does, she can't stay with Yuyuko like she wants.
• The Multiverse: The game has you travelling through multiple versions of Gensokyo and stop the Lost Word incident by finding the missing word of the universe you are currently in.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Cirno (Scarlet)'s line when activating Snow Sign: Diamond Blizzard has her threaten to deep freeze her foes "with some English beef", a nod to one of her lines in EoSD.
  • When Marisa (Scarlet) is summoned, she tries introducing herself as Reimu Hakurei, just like in EoSD. She does stop herself and introduce herself normally after, though.
  • If Cirno (Scarlet) is chosen to show on the main screen during the summer months, she contemplates if she will get stronger with a tan. The playable Cirno in Hidden Star in Four Seasons sports a tan, stemming from a boost from the seasonal energy flowing through her.
  • One of Koishi (Subterranean)'s home screen quotes has her meet Kokoro, who gave Koishi a replica of a white mask. In Kokoro's debut game, Hopeless Masquerade, Miko offered Kokoro a replacement mask of hope, which was initially turned down out of fear that Kokoro will just wither away into her component masks.
  • In Marisa (C3)'s reveal trailer, Marisa was challenging Reimu to a surfing contest, and flying was off-limits. She was then shocked to see Reimu on the back of a turtle. This is a nod to Genjii, a turtle who lent his back so Reimu can resolve incidents during the PC-98 era starting with Touhou Fuumaroku ~ the Story of Eastern Wonderland.
  • Chimata's second shot is called "Free Market Participation Certificate", referencing the actual card that came with physical copies of Unconnected Marketeers. The attack's Flavor Text even matches the description of the card.
  • One of Lily White's home screen quotes has the protagonist mention a black fairy herald of spring. Lily says she's never heard of it, but has worn black robes before. This is a nod to Phantasmagoria of Flower View, where her sprite was dressed in black, causing players to mistake her for a new character nicknamed "Lily Black". Adding on to this, her "Spring is the Season of Growth" costume is similar to her appearance there, though not exact.
• New Life in Another World Bonus: Downplayed. The protagonist's journal gives her the ability to summon shikigami of anyone she meets, practically giving her all the powers of Gensokyo and its multiverse in the palm of her hand. However, the events seem to imply that she doesn't use it all that often, save for danmaku battles, and she's made clear multiple times that she doesn't like resorting to violence.
• The Nicknamer: During the interlude after Chapter 3, Sumireko has gone to town with giving everyone nicknames, including the protagonist. This has bothered some that have received these nicknames.
• No Immortal Inertia: In Chapter 3, this is the inevitable fate of Yuyuko if she succeeds in unsealing the Saigyou Ayakashi. She will return to life, but her human body will rapidly shift to accommodate for the milennium she's spent as a ghost and crumble to dust in seconds.
• Not Just a Tournament: In Chapter 3, fights in the Hour are needed to maintain the seal on Saigyou Ayakashi. The souls of the ones defeated in the fights are used for that purpose.
• Olympus Mons: You can befriend literally anyone in Gensokyo and recruit them to your party. This includes not only youkai, vampires, and Physical Gods, but also the people/youkai/gods in charge of protecting Gensokyo.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Averted. Multiple characters have multiple variants, and there is no restriction about using multiple different versions of a character on the same team. Aside from the playable characters, there's also at least one more variant of Reimu, and Yukari running about, as well as two more variants of Marisa- a tiny Yukari who is chasing after the culprit of the Lost Word Incident, as well as the PC-98 versions of Reimu and Marisa who appear in Code Bm3 and watch over the worlds ruined by the Lost Word Incident, and another version of Marisa travelling the multiverse who claims to be the culprit of the Lost Word incident.
  • Also averted with Reisen Udongein Inaba and Rei'sen, where the localized version names them both "Reisen". No attempt is made to differentiate the two when both of them share a scene.
• Out-of-Character Alert: The misfortune storm in "Hina's Cheering Saga" puts many characters in a depressing state, with some even acting out of character.
  • Easy way to tell that Cirno was affected was for her to declare that there is Always Someone Better than her (when she normally sees herself as the STRONGEST).
  • Tewi could easily tell that Reisen was under the influence when at first Reisen acted in fear that Eirin will punish her for failure, then goes off a tangent and makes a Love Confession towards Tewi. The two normally do not see their relationship in that way.
  • During the EX stages, Yuyuko knew something's wrong with Youmu when the latter starts speaking only in "myon"s when she normally speaks coherently.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In general, lot of the event plots and battles are set up by the L1 characters acting more brash and foolish than the canon characters they're meant to correlate with.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: In-Universe: In "Capsule-Crazy Gensokyo", there was a craze surrounding Fabricated Maidens, but their popularity plummeted after a rogue FM based on Seija duped so many innocent players and swindled them of their maidens. Even the real Seija, who initially started the idea as a means to prank others, was mortified about it and confronted her FM self. The EX stages revealed that some old Masters wanted to reunite with their old maidens and partake in battles again.
• Plague Episode: The event "Gensokyo of the Dead" has Eirin tackle a massive surge of individuals who got sick, and found many zombie fairies around those that are ill. This was ultimately—and accidentally—caused by Seiga, who intended to create friends for Yoshika. It didn't help that the powder she used was spicy, which attracted some vengeful spirits who loved spicy food.
• Play Every Day: As expected of a gacha. Apart from login rewards, daily tasks, and weekly checklists, the game's repeatable Errands (a near-copy of commissions from, once again, Azur Lane) serve as a rare F2P source of the game's two summoning currencies, Seal Crystals and God Crystals, with the latter's status as costly premium currency making them specifically vital to those interested in acquiring costumes, expanding the school and dojo, or rolling guaranteed Friend ten-packs.
• Power Incontinence: In Chapter 2, Marisa suffers from this after having her name sealed away along with that world's version of Reimu in the past, resulting in her becoming the Witch of Scarlet Dreams.
• Prank Gone Too Far: In the first Free Battle in "Scrambled Youkai Network", one of the fairy mooks fought was banned from the party according to her epithet series. Her Hard title has her exclaim that it's just a prank, while her Lunatic title revealed the offense that crossed the line: chewing on one of Flandre's wings.
• Protectorate: Sword Master Youmu swore to protect Yuyuko no matter what. This drives the plot of Chapter 3, as Youmu eternally loops through time to save Yuyuko.
• Pungeon Master: In the localized version of "Phantom-Human Maid for a Day", Rin speaks entirely in cat puns.
• Rainbow Motif: In keeping with her theming, the elements of Chimata's second Spell Card and Last Word are in pseudo-rainbow colors when fully boosted.
• Really 700 Years Old: Sakuya, despite being a human, is somehow still alive in the parallel world of Chapter 2, despite it taking place one thousand years into the future. Sakuya herself refuses to offer an explanation for this. Given that the last thing Remilia did was give one of her fangs to Sakuya before facing the Witch of Scarlet Dreams, it's implied that Sakuya became a vampire herself.
• Reward for Removal: The game incentivises not keeping duplicates of units and story cards by the way of a "Part Ways" button. Doing so gives a small amount of coins, and is the main way of obtaining tokens.
• Role-Reversal Boss: This is essentially the logic behind the Witch of Scarlet Dreams' Fantasy Rebirth stage- it reverses the roles of the main story's stage 2-7-1, with the player controlling the Witch of Scarlet Dreams and up to two allies against a lone Reimu.^note In 2-7-1, the main character and Reimu fight against the Witch of Scarlet Dreams and two allies.
• Running Gag: Characters often have a home screen quote where they headpat the protagonist and/or have her sleep on their lap. This is Lampshaded by Doremy after floor 280 of the Scarlet Devil Tower, who says she heard from various people that the protagonist fell asleep on their laps.
• Santa Claus: The mythical figure himself was discussed in "'Tis the Season for Adventure", while Okina fills the role, complete with a red costume and the requisite gift bag. Sanae, originally from the outside world, knows a lot about Santa and really gets on Okina's case in the epilogue regarding some missing elements as well as being a week late.
• Say My Name:
  • Applied, to an extent, to resolve the incident at the conclusion of Chapter 1. Reimu stoutly declares the surnames of Marisa, Sanae, and Yukari to relay to all present that nobody, including herself, can recall her own. The outsider's self-recording journal retains said surname: Hakurei - that chapter's Lost Word.
  • In the climactic battle against the Witch of Scarlet Dreams in Chapter 2, Reimu calls out Marisa's name, that chapter's Lost Word and the true identity of the Witch.
  • In Chapter 3, it happens again to reveal the true identity of the Lost Word (Or rather, Lost Words, in this case) as Sword Master Youmu says the names of her two closest companions: Roukanken and Hakurouken, her swords, which were the Lost Words for the Chapter.
• Scare Quotes: Quote marks in Seija Kijin's speech indicate which part of the sentence is the opposite of what she means. For instance, when summoned, she declares that she is "not interested in (the protagonist) whatsoever", which actually means that she is definitely interested.
• Shifting Sand Land: A revisit to Z1 in Chapter 2 EX shows the rest of Gensokyo scorched and made a desert due to the heat from the Scarlet Witch's Power Incontinence. The human village was converted into an oasis commune, while Misty Lake became an exception, having dried up and become a tropical jungle.
• Shipper on Deck: Two cases in "Yakumo's Ambition":
  • When facing Hatate's crow tengu mooks on Hard, one of them has flavor text that suggests she wants Hatate and Aya to go on a date.
  • The culprit Hecatia Lapislazuli wanted to create a movie that sets up a Love Triangle with Mokou, Kaguya, and Keine and possesses their avatars to do so.
• Shout-Out:
  • Rumia's Last Word is original to the game, and is called "Twilight Zone". It also consist of a floating eyeball appearing out of a doorway, referencing the show's iconic opening.
  • Sakuya says "Checkmate" when performing "Smart Robber", a line heavily associated with DIO from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (of which Sakuya is meant to be an homage to) popularized by All-Star Battle.
  • The "Yakumo's Ambition" event takes place inside a Famicom cartridge, so naturally there's several references to various video games.
    • The event's Free Battle stages are formatted very similarly to the worlds in Super Mario Bros.. They're named "En Route 1-1", "En Route 1-2", and so on, with the first number increasing every time a batch of Free Battles follows an episode that advances the plot.
    • Episode 3 revolves around the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and is named "Scarletvania".
    • The first time you encounter the Justice Club of Kasen and Okina, they introduce themselves as Kasenman and Okinaman RX. During the rematch in the final arc, Tenshi joins in as Tenshiman Saber.
      Kasen: ...That last one was sneaky!
    • Episode C is named "Yie Ar Namusan", which may be a reference to Yie Ar Kung-Fu, an influential fighting game that was notably the first of its kind to include female characters in its roster.
    • The final battle is named "Megami Shinsei".
    • The epilogue is named "Rainbow Island", possibly in reference to Rainbow Islands.
    • Yukari communicates through the protagonist as a journal, and her only purpose is to provide infodumps when appropriate. This may be a homage to Grimoire Wiess.
  • Yachie has a costume titled "Teenage Tortoise", complete with ninja garb and the font used for her name in the background to add to the reference.
  • The entire "Capsule Crazy Gensokyo" event is a big one to the Pokémon franchise.
    • Sagume and Seija reference a trainer in the Pewter City Gym using the term "light-years", and that it measures distance, not time.
    • Sanae at one point says, "When two Masters' eyes meet, they tend to have a Fabricated Maiden Battle!", a play on Pokémon's famous "When two trainers' eyes meet, a Pokémon battle must begin!" quote.
    • Reimu, Yukari, Junko, and Okina form a group named "The Big Four", a reference to the Elite Four.
    • Later, Jo'on and Shion are revealed to be scalping the rarer Fabricated Maidens using Shion's ability to bring misfortune. This may be a reference to, what was at the time an issue, of people scalping Pokémon cards.
    • The fake Seija is captured in a "Super Morby", which is designed to capture any Fabricated Maiden, an obvious parallel to the Master Ball. The fake Seija can also be considered a clone, making her analogous to Mewtwo.
  • Koakuma's Spell Cards are all homages to Demonbane, with her even doing a parody of the Invocation for Lemuria Impact when performing Sublimation: Magellan Impact.
  • One cutscene in "Gensokyo of the Dead" is named "Jiang Shi Hazard".
  • One of the chapters in "'Tis the Season For Adventure" is named "Do Dolls Dream of Electric Baku?"
  • The last chapter of "The Maid's Chocolate Hell" is named "Life's Like a Box of Chocolates".
  • During the events of the "Eternal Battlefront" chapter, Sumireko sees one of B3 Youmu's beam swords, and calls it a lightsaber.
  • During a fight with Melling in the "Disciples of the Sword" event, she yells out "Hadouken"!
  • The H5 version of Wriggle Nightbug is a remodeled character who wears a red Scarf of Asskicking, uses a Cool Bike, has a fancy belt, and her Last Word is a Diving Kick, making her a massive Kamen Rider pastiche.
  • In a curious case of referencing another Touhou fanwork, one chapter of the Story Card Travelogue makes mention of a Remilia and Miko who lost their charisma. The chapter is even called "The Horned Owl and The Bat".
  • During the EX stages of "The Secret God Games", Satono and Mai dodge bullets in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which Satono compares to The Matrix.
  • When enhancing B3 Youmu, she says "May the Natural Force be with you."
  • During "Hakurei Shrine Academy Adventure Remilienteering", Okina jokes that the prize for collecting all five pieces of the treasure is a wish.
  • During "Princess Jo'on the Chivalrous Phantom Thief", when Sanae cries over having her Hyper Grade stolen, Marisa tries to calm her down by saying "There's always only one mystery! Truth solved!". Sanae lampshades this, and corrects her.
  • Wriggle's focus shot is a Diving Kick called the "Hopper Kick".
  • One of the Gensokyo Tales of Fantasy mangas is named "It's a Small World". Said manga revolves around Reimu and Sanae using Shinmyoumaru as a doll, and dressing her up in different outfits. Dolls in different outfits are a major set piece of the ride.
  • R8 Youmu's victory animation has her do the signature pose of Vergil.
  • In the "Dreaming in Doremyland" event, Eternity enters a painting competition, and says she'll paint a happy little rhinoceros beetle.
  • One of the chapters in "Cooking in Xanadu ~With Veggies & Prayers~" is named "Hammer Time".
  • In "Princess Jo'on the Chivalrous Phantom Thief", Yachie gets a chance to say "With great power comes great responsibility". Reminder that Yamame is also with them.
  • One of Kokoro's blurbs in "The Rebellious Mini-Fantasia" reads "Knees Weak, Masks Are Heavy".
  • Yorihime's Last Word is called "Yamata no Orochi Install", where she channels the titular DRAGON god.
  • One of C3 Remilia's blurbs during Tenshi's arc in Chapter 4 EX reads "Vampire Batmobile".
  • One of Eika's blurbs in "Club Old Desire: Consultation Crew” reads "Perfectly balanced".
• Show Within a Show: The "Myouren Detectives: The Phantom Sniper" event reveals that "Gensokyo Tales of Fantasy" exists in-universe as a series of anthology books, which Kosuzu is implied to be a fan of.
• Sneeze Cut
  • In "The Great Mochi from Space", the superstition of being talked about causing a sneeze was brought up by Kasen, who felt someone was talking about her.
  • In the manga "LostWord Theater 2", Koishi and Utsuho were discussing wanting to walk alongside Satori. Cue an extra panel featuring a sneezing Satori.
  • In "Club Old Desire Consultation Crew", Seiga wishes to revitalize Old Desire and knows just who can help her. Cut to the Hakurei Shrine with a sneeze from the protagonist. This is Lampshaded and Discussed by Reimu.
• Soul Jar:
  • In chapter 3, the Saigyou Ayakashi is one for both Yuyuko and the original Youmu of the R2 world.
  • The various bunrei also function as extensions of their corresponding sages.
• Space Elevator: The Scarlet Devil Tower in Chapter 2 is so tall that it extends all the way to the moon, where the Arc Villainess Witch of Scarlet Dreams resides, making it a magical version of this.
• Spanner in the Works: A variant involving an Unwitting Instigator of Doom appears in "Anti-Misfortune Grand Prix". Marisa made a large magic circle without knowing that it would cause Gensokyo to sink. The circle's effects were diluted as Team Kokoro, one of the eight participants, went in the opposite direction.
• Splash of Color: The story card "Redder Than Blood" is in black and white, with the exception of red in Sakuya's eyes and the berries in the tart she's holding. It's possible she's using her time stop, as this is how "Sakuya's World" is portrayed in the fighting games.
• Stealth Pun:
  • When Chimata gets buffed by another unit's skill, she says her last name. Or, "thank you".
  • In the "Princess Jo'on the Chivalrous Phantom Thief" event, Hecatia sees Jo'on perfectly land a surprise attack, and reacts with "What the hell is this...?"
  • When Shion catches a tiny fish during Tenshi's arc in Chapter 4 EX, Tenshi's reaction is "Holy mackerel!"
• Super Costume Clothier: If a character wants a new costume or outfit tailored, odds are they're going to commission Rinnosuke to do it.
• Temporal Paradox: In Chapter 3, this is the reason that Yuyuko is tiny. Sword Master Youmu has been going back in time over and over again to save her, but every jump she makes distorts the fabric of time. This is also why Ran functions as the gap youkai in Yukari's place, as one is needed, but Yukari doesn't exist there to fill the role.
• Those Two Girls: Aya and Nitori frequently show up as commentators during tournaments in limited events.
• Time Abyss: Sword Master Youmu has been alive for several thousand years on top of living through countless time loops.
• Time Loop Fatigue: Endlessly repeating time has mentally taken its toll on Sword Master Youmu.
• Title Scream: When adjusting the volume for voices in the settings menu, whoever you have set as your favorite character will say "Touhou LostWord" for reference.
• Toast of Tardiness: The Story Card "Running Late" depicts Youmu in a school uniform running with toast in her mouth. This is Discussed in the card's Flavor Text.
  "Late for school." For many, that phrase inspires the image of a young girl racing down the street with a slice of toast in her mouth. But that beggars the question, have YOU ever run anywhere with toast in your mouth? Have you ever seen anyone else doing that?
• Tournament Arc: Chapter 3 takes place in the titular Hakugyoku Arena, an arena in Hakugyokurou where Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and the Player Character participate in fights when the Hour strikes.
• Trademark Favorite Food: During autumn time, Marisa notes that she loves mushrooms, and even offers some to you.
  "Autumn means mushrooms, and mushrooms mean ME!"
• Two Aliases, One Character: The "Scrambled Youkai Network" event reveals that Sekibanki adopts the name "Oseki" while disguised as a human in the Human Village. This is also foreshadowed earlier in the event, as her costume has the subtitle "Obviously Oseki".
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: How Marisa and Sakuya turn the tide fighting against the alternate Luna Child and Star Sapphire. While the fairies can read their moves, Sakuya responds by scattering her knives in just the right pattern that an underpowered Master Spark from Marisa will bounce off the blades, hitting the fairies from an unpredictable angle.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: There were two instances in which Marisa accidentally spurs some incidents.
  • "Anti-Misfortune Grand Prix": She only wanted to run a magic circle to dispel misfortune, not knowing that the magic circle was going to swallow up Gensokyo. She's lucky that not everyone was going the same direction.
  • "Gensokyo of the Dead": She gave Seiga—another unintended culprit—a powder to help her make zombie fairies for Yoshika. Turns out it was the wrong powder; the powder used was spicy, which attracted spirits that ultimately caused a surge of illness.
• Verbal Tic: In her Ninja Rabbit costume, Youmu adopts the tic "Nin-nin" to remain in character.
• Wake-Up Call Boss
  • Yukari at the close of Chapter 1. Whereas newcomers could thus far skate by with minimal obstacle, Yukari, for any party not purposefully bulked up, requires timely deployment of the game's combat options, chiefly Barriers and Spell Cards. Elemental advantages will also greatly benefit, for Friends such as Reisen.
  • Okina in the middle of Chapter 3, Act 2 introduces a new mechanic: multiple health bars, and once you deplete one health bar, you can't move on to the next one until the next turn. She has two health bars in Normal and Hard, and three in Lunatic. Alternate Youmu, the final boss of Chapter 3, Act 2, also has this gimmick.
  • C3 Hecatia in Eternal Battlefront Act 2. She has three HP bars and three forms, one for each version of the character. And that's on Normal difficulty.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: The trailer for "Cooking in Xanadu ~With Veggies & Prayers~" gets interrupted twice with a Technical Difficulties card: when Komachi ponders about slacking off, and when Marisa wonders what snacks to grab.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In the "The Little Sister Contest!" event, the Watatsuki sisters, two of the most powerful beings in the Touhou universe, get visibly uncomfortable around Star Sapphire, a fairy. If you've played Legacy Of Lunatic Kingdom, you understand why.
• You Mean "Xmas": While the event is not named, Halloween is called simply a "prank festival" by the stars of "Rumia and Remilia's Trick or Bullet". As another spin, instead of "Trick or treat!", the phrase used is "Trick or Bullet!".

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