The first attempt at something more multiplayer.
Reimu: "What's with these pamphlets? (How is this some sort of ancient prophecy?) How can ruins have a grand opening? And none of this was here yesterday! How can you all be taken in by something that's so obviously suspicious!?"
Marisa: "Hm, so Reimu's not interested. That must mean..."
Reimu: "...Who said I'm not interested?"
Marisa: "Hm, so Reimu's not interested. That must mean..."
Reimu: "...Who said I'm not interested?"
—From the prologue
Touhou Yumejikuu ~ Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream is a video game developed by ZUN Soft and published by Amusement Makers for the PC-98 in 1997. It's the third installment in the Touhou Project franchise.
Some strange ruins have appeared near the Hakurei Shrine, drawing a large crowd. Only one person can go inside, so a battle breaks out to decide who it will be.
The game is a split-screen "duel" Shoot 'Em Up inspired by Twinkle Star Sprites, featuring both a story mode and 1-v-1 multiplayer.
In the Windows Touhou series, this game would receive a Spiritual Successor titled Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View.
This game provides examples of:
- Another Dimension: The true origin of the ruins, actually a "Probability Space Hypervessel".
- Battle Butler: Chiyuri is Yumemi's research assistant in "comparative physics".
- Chairman of the Brawl: A favorite technique by Chiyuri. She bonks Yumemi on the head after she takes out the Earth-Destroying Bomb.
- Cranial Eruption: Whenever Yumemi hits Chiyuri's head, a noticeable head bump appears. In most endings, however, Yumemi gets one after Chiyuri hits her on the head with a chair.
- Fan Game: Can be considered one for Hatarakimono, including Ellen as a Guest Fighter and making a number of references to Izumi Takemoto
's works. - Fist Pump: In both Chiyuri and Yumemi's endings, the latter victoriously holds one of her fists to her shoulder.
- Genre Shift: The previous game was a single player shooter, this is a versus shooter.
- Guest Fighter: Ellen from the manga Hatarakimono.
- Heart Symbol: The enemies in Ellen and Kana’s stage are simple heart symbols.
- Humiliation Conga: This happens in most endings to Yumemi. After the Player Character defeats her, Yumemi tries to take her with her with a world-destroying bomb (although she afterwards claims she was kidding). The latter gets interrupted when Chiyuri, Yumemi's minion who she abuses, hits her head with a chair. Additionally, she injured her similarly to how she attacks hernote and she tells her to quit it. In Kotohime's ending, she even mocks Yumemi when she offers to grant a wish and sees through a bluff she makes.
- Karmic Injury: Played for Laughs. For all the times Yumemi bonked Chiyuri's noodle, she does the same to her in most endings (albeit with a chair).
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
- One of the playable characters, Ellen, is the protagonist of the manga Hatarakimono. Some of the science duo's lines are references to Sayonara Parallel and Apple Paradise by the same author.
- Reimu's ending features a Robot Maid named "Mu*ti".
- When Marisa asks Yumemi for a "scientific weapon" from her world, she gives her Mimi-chan - a talking ICBM from the manga Don't Leave Me Alone, Daisy.
- Magic from Technology: In their search for actual magic, Yumemi and Chiyuri wield an imitation they call "scientific magic", which is "born from positively-charged photons and light waves".
- Perfect Play A.I.: The AI is very good at dodging bullets, until it decides it's time to die and starts making amateur mistakes (which takes longer in later stages and higher difficulties, but less in later rounds of the same stage). Yumemi is infamous for being able to dodge massive vomits of bullets, with Round 1 being nigh impossible to defeat without some luck on how enemies spawn or using certain EX attacks that confuse AI.
- Riding the Bomb: Lacking any idea of how to use Mimi-chan, Marisa is seen simply riding it around (which also happened in Mimi's story of origin).
- Slapstick: Yumemi scolds Chiyuri by punching her in the head. Chiyuri returns the favor in most endings with a folding chair.
- Taking You with Me: On her defeat, Yumemi threatens to blow up the planet with a "Four-Dimensional Positron Bomb", only for Chiyuri to hit her over the head. She then claims she was just kidding.
- Unequal Rites: Reimu is annoyed by Yumemi calling her abilities mahou (magic), insisting that they're instead shinsenjutsu (something more to do with Taoist self-refinement). Despite using magic herself, Ellen doesn't really get the difference.
- You Wanna Get Sued?: When Reimu asks Yumemi for a way to keep her shrine clean more easily, she initially offers her housekeeping android... Multi from To Heart (referred to as "Mu*ti" and shown with a bar over her eyes). Chiyuri then forces Yumemi to make it something that won't get them sued, at which point Multi is replaced by a Captain Ersatz named Ruukoto.
