Touhou Project | |
---|---|
Genres | Shoot 'em up, Fighting |
Developers | Team Shanghai Alice (formerly ZUN Soft) |
Publishers | Team Shanghai Alice (formerly Amusement Makers) |
Creators | ZUN |
Platforms | NEC PC-9801, Windows, PlayStation 4 |
Platform of origin | NEC PC-9801 |
First release |
Highly Responsive to Prayers November 1996 |
Latest release |
Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom August 14, 2015 |
The Touhou Project (東方Project Tōhō Purojekuto, lit. Eastern Project), also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series of Japanese bullet hell shooter video games developed by the single-person Team Shanghai Alice. Team Shanghai Alice's sole member, ZUN, independently produces the games' graphics, music, and programming.
Plots in the Touhou Project games revolve around the strange phenomena occurring in Gensokyo, a fictional realm inhabited by humans and yōkai, supernatural beings. Prior to the events of the games, Gensokyo was sealed off from the outside world by a magical barrier. The main protagonist of the series, Reimu Hakurei, is a shrine maiden who manages the border, fighting antagonistic yōkai. The first five games were produced for the Japanese NEC PC-9801 computer series; bullet hell mechanics were introduced in the second game, Story of Eastern Wonderland. The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, released in August 2002, marked a shift to the Microsoft Windows platform, bringing the games to a larger audience. Several sequels followed, including spin-off fighting games that diverged from the series' traditional mechanics.
The series was inducted into the Guinness World Records in October 2010 for being the "most prolific fan-made shooter series". The Touhou Project has spawned a media franchise including commercial fan books, music, light novels, and manga, in addition to the main series.
The Touhou series of games started on the Japanese PC-98 series of computers and its first five entries are native to that platform; standard PC users are only capable of playing them through an emulator. Also, the PC-9801 series of computers was already on the decline when these games were released. Because of this, they are not well known among players. The group that published these games was called Amusement Makers.