As most of you probably know, the fighting game, Touhou 12.3, just came out recently at C76. This game is more of an expansion to the previous Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, as it adds 5 new characters to play as. This is a standalone expansion, meaning you don’t need Scarlet Weather Rhapsody to play it. However, you’ll only have access to a small set of characters, so you’ll need both games if you want to play with all 20.
The five new characters are Sanae, Cirno, Utsuho, China, and Suwako. Only Sanae, Cirno, and China have a story mode though. Apparently, a giant robo…err… a だいだらぼっち has been seen running around Gensokyo. The story mode revolves around the 3 characters running around searching for it. Touhou storylines are always pretty fun, and I got a kick out of this one. You should really check out China’s story. It involves one giant fish…
If you’ve played Scarlet Weather Rhapsody before, the battle system is pretty much the same. You can customize a set of unique spell cards for each character, after which you can use them in the fight. You gain access to them in battle by taking or giving damage. There’s also a heavy reliance on projectiles (being touhou and all…), but melee is important too.
The new characters definitely add a new play style to the game. Suwako bounces around like a frog, Cirno has an arsenal of ice attacks, and Utsuho is a walking (flying?) nuclear reactor. I didn’t expect ZUN and Tasogare Frontier to make an expansion to SWR, so this is a nice surprise. Touhou 12 : Undefined Fantastic Object, just came out too, so it’s like a double serving of Touhou! What more can I ask for?
The State of Happiness 