Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith.

she suwako'd on my moriya

Back when I was getting into Touhou, I decided to start off with this game as the first official Touhou game I've played, because Nitori made her debut here. Looks like I've made a solid decision, because the other characters who made their first appearance here all have great designs! Shizuha, Minoriko, Sanae, etc. The stages have great environment and colors. The music is also good, too. Though the gameplay is pretty much simplified (Because, you can't use Spell Cards unlike its predecessors), it's still a great game.

one wprd: peak. buy it NOW.

[i]Touhou Fuujinroku ~ Mountain of Faith[/i] is my favorite Touhou game and it is the debut of my favorite character (Sanae Kochiya), but I will try to provide a somewhat factual analysis so that readers can come to their own conclusions regarding it. I think I am qualified to do so, as I have a 1cc on hard mode and have cleared the extra stage (still have yet to do lunatic, so I can't speak for that difficulty). [h1]Positives:[/h1] [h2]Lots of shottype variety:[/h2] Although there are only two playable characters ([b]Reimu Hakurei[/b] and [b]Marisa Kirisame[/b]), there are three shottypes for each, meaning six total. Each shot covers different niches (though ReimuB and MarisaB overlap a bit) and changes the way you play the game slightly between them. [h2]Popular Characters:[/h2] [i]Mountain of Faith[/i] introduces many character that frequently appear in official content and fanworks. Some notable ones include [b]Sanae Kochiya[/b] (14th place on the 2026 popularity poll and is a frequent playable character choice, as well as many appearances in the official Touhou manga), [b]Suwako Moriya[/b] (23rd place, often appears in Touhou content), [b]Kanako Yasaka[/b] (while she isn't as popular as the rest, she does frequently appear in Touhou content), and [b]Nitori Kawashiro[/b] (appears commonly in manga and the fighting game spinoffs). [h2]Amazing Soundtrack:[/h2] If you haven't yet, go ahead and listen to this game's soundtrack. Some popular tracks from this game are [i]The Gensokyo the Gods Loved[/i] (Stage 3 Theme), [i]Native Faith[/i] (Suwako Moriya's Theme), and [i]Faith Is for the Transient People[/i] (Sanae Kochiya's Theme), but in my opinion all of the tracks are great. [h2]Fun Bosses:[/h2] This is of course subjective, but I find this game's bosses to be consistently fun to fight against (especially the ones in the latter half of the game). The extra stage boss is also fun, but can be rather frustrating for those straight out of a normal 1cc, so do be warned. [h2]Great Atmosphere:[/h2] The stage backgrounds in this game are very beautiful to look at, and are in my opinion the most pretty in the entire series. [h1]Negatives:[/h1] [h2]Boring Early Stages (on Normal and Easy):[/h2] The early stages of the game (1-3) can be pretty boring on normal mode because they do not provide very much challenge. There are not many demanding patterns, and some of the fairies straight up do nothing, even in stage 3. Of course it would be somewhat difficult for new players, but most people start with the classic era anyways (Touhou 6-8), so they should already have some dodging skill at this point. These issues are rectified in hard mode, but most people will stick with normal mode, so this doesn't matter to most. [h2]Bombing is Tied to Power, and Power is too Numerous:[/h2] In most Touhou games, there are 3 resource types players have to manage: Lives, bombs and power. Lives are self explanatory, they are the amount of times a player can get hit before they will be forced to continue (and thus get the bad ending). Bombs usually act as screen clears and provide a period of invulnerability for the player. Power is a stat that basically affects how much damage you will do, and is increased by collecting red "P" items. In most Touhou games, power and bombs are separate resources. However, in [i]Mountain of Faith[/i], power and bombs are the same, meaning that bombing also reduces your power, and that gaining power increases the amount of bombs you can use. This might seem like it makes the game more difficult, but it actually has the opposite effect, due to how much power enemies drop in this game. Essentially, bombing frequently through the game is a viable strategy. This is a bad thing because it encourages players to just bomb through everything that seems slightly difficult without actually engaging with the game. [h2]Weird Continue System:[/h2] When you run out of lives, you have the choice to use a continue. In most Touhou games, this sets you right back at where you were when you died, but in [i]Mountain of Faith[/i], this sets you back at the start of the stage with only three lives. This makes getting through the later stages (especially stage 6) rather difficult, and ironically it's usually a better option to just restart entirely, as you usually get to the final stage with more lives that way.