LABYRINTH OF TOUHOU - GENSOKYO AND THE HEAVEN-PIERCING TREE

It deserves more love, maybe I'm saying that in a way thats closer to this nicely cooked up genre of a genre of an RPG Dungeon Crawler. It cuts out all of the 'fat' that would be there normally from an RPG. Its still rich in its own story, which is half way shared through your own experience through its exploration, equipment management, strategy, and battle system which is wholely unique in a way I've never seen done before, aside from its predecessor Labyrinth of Touhou 1 (hard recommend, one of the best RPGs I've ever played in my life). With a number of playable characters I don't even want to spoil, you get to pick 12 and bring them into the dungeon with you. Everyone in the game is highly capable in their own right, and is expanded on even more given the skill system present in 2 which is nicely balanced. It even leaves room for a lot of 'challenge teams' if you want to do that kind of thing. One of it's biggest appeals outside of it being an excellently catered Touhou Project fangame is that its wrapped up in its systems that compliment each other. It doesn't really 'miss' in the way that it is designed. I'm sure some people would argue against this, if you're too lazy to try re-doing level bonuses or taking a few minutes to strategize equipment management and expecting to mash Attack to win, but no, truly, it shines in its diversity of how combat works. I've never seen anything like it; its 'turn based' with an active time gauge that is greatly utilized and forces you to throw yourself into the fire with excitement and wondering 'should I do this, or this?' as each command takes up a certain amount of ATB, whether its switching a character from your reserves in combat, to using one of their spell cards (if its something highly damaging lets say, it'll use more ATB for example, while switching someone in sets that character at a secured ATB amount which allows for strategizing how to play around with ATB) Labyrinth of Touhou 1 utilized the 'Row' system much more, in that enemies further from the left took less damage if you used a 'Row' based attack, and as well as that your allies were less likely to be targeted the more to the right they were (think 1-2-3-4, with 4th character being the least likely to be targeted). Part of this has been changed drastically in LoT2 but it doesn't exactly exude it completely nor harm the game too much, its still important to have someone in tank position in the first slot, whether its a character its a character with a high amount of HP, or someone that simply just has higher Evasion which will leave you less worried, and more feeling like you finessed the enemy. One of my favorite things about the dungeon crawler experience from this series is the literal exploration you achieve through its environments, both visually/atmospherically and tile based design. The puzzles from LoT1 are geniusly made, almost to a degree of madness, in LoT2 they're catered to puzzly fun of exploration and reward of an essence of discovery the player is left early impressed with. Give it a try if you want an honest challenge and are willing to take on the great tree! Its an amazing adventure, one of a kind, and I wish I could experience it for the first time again. I played it before it came to steam with two complete playthroughs, all of which breezed right by. Its graced with excellent music, art, effects, dialogue and interactions, and hopefully most of your fan favorites. If you're unfamiliar with the series, I'm sure you'll still find some joy in the characters. Its very fun. Build your powerhouse of a team out of your favorite Scarlet Devil Mansion residents or mix and match your favorite humans and Youkai in this epic dungeon crawler that exceeds expectations with new and welcome mechanics to the RPG genre. I've never played anything like it. If you can find a way to get it, play the first game if you like this one. Don't be afraid to use the fangame's wiki if you are confused about mechanics or how a character 'works'.