Whodunnit?
Touhou Hakujinkinote ~ White Names Spoiled Past is a Touhou Project fangame developed by several members and associates of the team behind previous fangames The Last Comer and Mystical Power Plant.
One day, Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae discover that the humans of Gensokyo have become unable to form memories. As they separately prepare to investigate the incident, they're each visited by someone claiming to have information on the culprit. One is a Gadgeteer Genius who loves making shady experiments (Tokubi Shourokuzan), a familiar with the ability of granting names and the power of Ret-Gone (Shiragiku Kayano Linné), and an Amnesiac God who manipulates memories (Minayu Okuchiri). They each set off alongside their new companion, and quickly find that the situation is more complicated than it seems.
Amongst the innumerable gods living in Japan, there are more than a few who quarrel rather than getting along. The goddess of plants, Kayano-hime, and the goddess of fire, Atago, often battled each other over various disagreements. And at present, Gensokyo had been chosen as the stage for one of their duels...
This game series contains examples of:
- Alignment-Based Endings:
- Sanae and Minayu Lap 1: Minayu suspects Tokubi of being the culprit because of her shady experiments. However, after defeating her, nothing changes, so Sanae asks for more time to think about the real culprit.
- Reimu and Tokubi Lap 1: Attacking her the other day only aroused Tokubi's suspicions about Minayu being the culprit. Their fight is interrupted after Minayu recovers some of her memories. Tokubi realizes that she was framed by the actual culprit and the motivation is to gain credit to her master.
- Marisa and Shiragiku Lap 1: Shiragiku suspects Tokubi, so she and Marisa attack her. After her defeat, Tokubi insists that she isn't the culprit, but Shiragiku doesn't trust her completely.
- Marisa and Shiragiku Lap 2: Suspecting Minayu, they go to confront her. Again, Minayu recovers some of her memories as they fight and decides to reject the new identity Shiragiku gave her as a god of forgetfulness. This causes the villagers' memories to return to normal, arousing more suspiscion on Minayu's side. In the end, they are interviewed by the tengu Raku.
- Reimu and Tokubi Lap 2: When Minayu was defeated for the first time, the incident continued, so they suspect Shiragiku. After defeating her, Tokubi and Reimu go to report the incident to Atago and try to deduce what happened based on the little information they have. Reimu is blackmailed to go with promises of a suitable reward for her cooperation.
- Sanae and Minayu Lap 2: Minayu remembers her true name and identity as a season god who was defeated in the past by Shiragiku, who stole her faith and the legends about her were all weeded out by a centralized faith based around Kayano-hime. She and Sanae defeat her so Minayu could get her revenge. After her defeat, Shiragiku apologizes and claims that naming her as a god of forgetfulness had nothing to do with stealing her faith in the past.
- Reimu and Tokubi Extra: As they go to report to Atago, they run into Kayano-hime, who is pissed off that despite her side winning this time, she lost many familiars in the process. She decides to take her anger out on them, but she is defeated. Reimu finds out that Atago's body has already passed away and she's currently a bodiless divine spirit. The new leader is a slug youkai, Azuma, who fights them on a friendly duel. Azuma claims that since she retrieved the Sword of Kusanagi, she'll surely beat Kayano-hime next time. The sword is found shortly after the events of Riverbed Soul Saver.
- Sanae and Minayu Extra: They go to find more answers, but they run into Kayano-hime. Minayu tells her about the true culprit. After defeating her, they go to report to Atago, but they find Azuma instead. Azuma fights them, recognizing Sanae as a priestess of Kanako, Atago's old rival.
- Marisa and Shiragiku Extra: Now that everyone knows she is the real culprit, Shiragiku goes to find Kayano-hime before the news reaches her. On the way, they found a weakened Azuma, after fighting the previous characters. In a desperate attempt to gain recognition, Shiragiku defeats her. Shortly after, Kayano-hime says that she already knows the true culprit, as Uka told her everything. She decides to punish Shiragiku in a danmaku fight. Then, Uka, Marisa, Kayano-hime and her other familiar Tenyuu sit around as they talk about Shiragiku's Batman Gambit. In the end, Shiragiku is demoted.
- Alpha Bitch: The Okami sisters are very cocky.
- Art Shift: Rather bizarrely, there are two examples of this, when easily compared to the characters drawn in WNSP's consistent style; Three characters are drawn in a way mimicking ZUN (Setsujou, Raku, and Tenyuu) and another one mimics Alphes (Vinkawars).
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Kayano-hime. Shiragiku finds it out the hard way in the Extra Stage.
- Batman Gambit: The Big Bad has one. Shiragiku provoked the incident and pinned the blame on Tokubi, a familiar of Atago, so she could take the credit for herself, dishonor Atago's forces, and gain status and approval for her master Kayano-hime. Minayu was also blamed for the incident for being a memory god. Unfortunately, Minayu regains her lost memories and remembers that Shiragiku stole her faith in the past.
- Also, Shiragiku defeated and stole Minayu's faith in the past for Kayano-hime's sake. When she meets an anmesic Minayu again, she advises her to become a god of forgetfulness, not recognizing her. As Uka finds out, it turns out that it was quite intentional and Shiragiku wanted to use Minayu as a scapegoat.
- Berserk Button: When Sanae and Minayu encounter the Okami sisters, they make fun of Sanae for worshipping Kanako (who lost to the fire god, Atago in the past) and callously insult Suwako. Needless to say, Sanae enters into her Youkai-Extermination Mode.Koukai: "When you say "Moriya", d'you mean you're from that Yasaka girl? You wanna lose to us again?"Anza: "She's also working with a native god, isn't she? Well, even though that one's a bumpkin and all. Allow us to introduce you to the power of a real elite god!"Sanae: "The religious war begins NOW!"
- Also, don’t call Sasha Sashiromiya a fan character.
- Big Little Sister: Anza, who looks older and is more mature than her big sister Koukai.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Shiragiku looks like the most level-headed and mature of the suspects. Then she is revealed to be the culprit, her plan goes to Hell, and she is revealed to be a power-hungry bastard who cares about nobody but herself.Now, upon closer inspection, it seems she's (Azuma) rather exhausted from her loss...Let's chase her down here and get tons of credit for it!
- Bittersweet Ending: Minayu recovers her memories as Minayumi no Kokoro no Kami and gets her revenge by defeating Shiragiku, the one responsible for erasing her identity as a season god in the first place. However, the damage is done and she has to live with this new identity.
- The conclusion of the Extra Stage has a more positive ending, as Uka tells Kayano-hime about Shiragiku's actions and she gets humilliated and stripped of her rank.
- Chew Toy: Uka, bordering on No-Respect Guy.
- Clear My Name: Tokubi's motivation for partnering with Reimu is that she was blamed for the memory incident because of her shady experiments.
- Consummate Liar: Shiragiku spouts nothing but lies though the game. Very convincing ones.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Minayu (real name Minayumi no Kokoro no Kami) used to be a season god, but was defeated by Shiragiku, who used her name-granting powers to steal Minayu’s faith. Minayu loses her identity and memories and was a wandering god until she met Shiragiku, who gave her a new name and powers as a memory god.
- Also, Shiragiku. In order to become one of Kayano-hime’s favorites, she used her name-granting powers to steal the faith of minor gods and give it to Kayano-hime. Without faith, said gods disappeared from existence.
- Dead All Along: Atago.
- Detective Drama: The game is basically a Shoot 'Em Up combined with finding clues.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Even though the real culprit was Shiragiku, she is really nothing more than a familiar.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Reimu, after meeting with the godesses Atago and Kayano-hime. Turns out that Atago was Dead All Along and her new avatar is a Hot-Blooded slug youkai that loves fighting. And Kayano-hime is a Rebellious Princess who throws tantrums when things don't go her way.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: A plot point, at least in relation to figuring out the timeline. Minayu's true last spell card, during Marisa's Lap 2, creates a rainstorm that leaves behind a rainbow (as shown in the background after she's defeated), which is visible during the start of Reimu's Stage 3 on Lap 2. The denouement at the end of Marisa's Extra Stage specifically states that Reimu's Lap 2 comes directly after Marisa's.
- Foreshadowing: Minayu uses season-based spellcards, which is odd for a supposed memory god. This hints her true identity as a season god.
- Also, the rolling credits show a white background with letters around it. Guess who has a name with the kanji for white and has letter-based spellcards. This hints at Shiragiku being the true culprit.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tokubi, who is powerful enough to be the secretary of the fire god Atago. She is also capable of making a single object pass through two places simultaneously. Unfortnately, is because of her shady experiments that Minayu suspects her at first.
- Golden Ending: Marisa's Extra Stage. Not only does Shiragiku get exactly what she had coming, but Marisa and Kayano's entourage have a large discussion over how Shiragiku's doings affected all of the main game routes.
- Guile Hero: Tokubi is very intelligent and convinces Reimu to work with her through sheer cunning.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Keepping with the theme of mystery-solving, the difficulty levels are named after a crime fiction protagonist or author.
- Easy: Kindaichi Level
- Normal: Edogawa Level
- Hard: Poirot Level
- Lunatic: Holmes Level
- Extra: Battler Ushiromiya Level
- Intrepid Reporter: Raku Kurama, who is Aya's superior.
- It's All About Me: Shiragiku claims to resolve the incident for Kayano-hime's sake, and she might even believe it, but even if it was true at one point, by the final stage, her one and only concern is power and achieving high ranks, even if she has to defeat weakened gods or people she hurt in the past to achieve it. Marisa even calls her out on it.
- Irony: At one point, Minayu accuses Tokubi of causing the incident in order to pin the blame on Lady Kayano-hime's forces and dirty their name and by putting pressure on the enemy's sphere of influence, she'd be respected by Lady Atago, too. Turns out that's actually Shiragiku's motivation.
- In a different way; you would assume that Reimu, being Touhou's main heroine, to be the one who fully resolves the incident. It turns out that not only is Marisa (who was working with the true culprit Shiragiku) much more important to the whole plot, it's Sanae who finally resolves the incident.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Kayano-hime wears a frilly green one.
- Ret-Gone: Shiragiku’s ultimate ability. She manipulates the shared information of a 'name', and has stolen many gods' faith by doing so, causing them to eventually disappear.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Minayu, after recovering her memories as Minayumi no Kokoro no Kami.
- Spanner in the Works: Minayu and Uka ruined Shiragiku's Batman Gambit. Shiragiku pitted Minayu and Tokubi against each other in hopes that Minayu would lose, Shiragiku would step in and "save the tragic amnesiac god from the rival Tokubi". She never expected that Minayu would win. Meanwhile, Uka spied on Shiragiku and found out what she was doing, telling everything to Kayano-hime.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being continually defeated and pushed around, Uka goes to Kayano-hime and tells her all about Shiragiku’s actions.
- True Final Boss: Marisa and Sanae's final bosses on Lap 2, Minayu and Shiragiku respectively, both have bonus spellcards at the end of their fights which are very revealing in terms of the plot.
- Undying Loyalty: Atago and Kayano-hime have very faithful familiars. It causes a lot of conflict later, with all of their servants fighting each other in order to gain more status and approval from their masters.
- Unknown Rival: The Okami sisters view Tokubi, who is higher-ranked, as a rival. She only sees them as her obnoxious coworkers.
- Catchphrase: Uka ends up her sentences with "De Arimasu" in the Japanese version.
