Two short disclaimers before I begin:
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[*]Do not be fooled by Steam’s report of ~10 hours playtime on my record. A significant chunk of the 40+ game hours I’ve put into the game were captured offline. An additional 17+ hours were put into the pre-update demo version, which is also available on Steam.
[*]For shmup/STG nerds (affectionate): I typically play Touhou mainlines on Normal/Hard difficulty. I don’t have a 1cc in ZeroRanger or Mushihimesama Original Mode. Make whatever inferences about difficulty from this baseline as you will.
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With that out of the way…
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[b]Touhou Lensed Night Sky, Kaseigai[/b] (also rendered as [b]東方 Lensed Night Sky, 果世外[/b], or simply [b]LNS[/b] for short) is a fanmade vertical-scrolling danmaku shooting game. Like the official games from the series it draws from, you control a character with a tiny hurtbox and navigate said character through a series of stages and bosses, shooting down foes whilst avoiding ridiculous waves of projectiles, lasers, bubbles, stars, and more. This game draws particular inspiration from [i]Touhou Kouryuudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers[/i] (TH18) and its Ability Card system, and takes that system to its logical conclusion; a fully customisable inventory where you can purchase buff-granting items, shot types, bombs (spellcards), and other tools at various mid-run opportunities. However, because [i][u]everything[/u][/i] in your inventory can be bought and sold, there is significant freedom in how you go a run, which can potentially upend how you go about playing.
A balanced approach of one shot type, spellcard, and sidearm feels like the recommended default, and can be easily achieved from a character’s starting kit. During a run, you might swap out one of these tools for a better or more interesting one if it shows up. However, there is nothing stopping you from running two, or even three shot types at once. You can sell your shot type and run nothing but spellcards, prioritising the spell stat and bombing your way through everything with an assortment of flashy attacks. You can even build the grazebox to be your tool of victory, making it extremely large to charge sidearms quickly, and causing attack timers to rapidly tick down as you graze hundreds of bullets in quick succession. All of this is before we even get to some of the powerful and absurd synergies that many of the passive items can grant you. Part of what makes LNS so fun to play is getting a good build going, and proceeding to steamroll the rest of the run once a key item lands in your inventory. Power-tripping feels both enjoyable and earnt against the bullet hell struggle, and makes me want to come back for more. That said, sometimes you get a run that simply isn’t it and you’ll struggle accordingly, which can sting given a single run is longer than your average official Touhou mainline. Such is the nature of the “roguelike” design, though this can be offset with the use of "wards" (discussed a little later).
Another major difference from the official games is that LNS uses a HP system, allowing you to take a few hits each life rather than dieing instantly upon contact with a singular bullet. HP can be subsequently recovered by buying HP in shops, obtaining healing sources from specific items, or by successfully “capturing” enemy spellcards by ending the attack with a lot of graze meter racked up. Whilst this approach provides newcomers with more room to make mistakes and learn, this accomodation is countered by the speed and density of attacks from stage waves and bosses. It’s not quite “Touhou 15/LoLK shifted-to-the-right” levels of difficulty (and I suspect graze being a key mechanic in LNS was inspired by LoLK), but it’s definitely set at a much higher baseline, even on Normal. Certain boss attacks are also quite challenging to read (e.g. numerous high-density laser windups in very short timeframes), but the HP system takes some of the frustration out of this. Depending on your build, you can even straight up negate or ignore most of these high-level threats; some balancing decisions were probably made from this perspective; but if you lack these options, you may be shocked at what the game throws at you.
Speaking of difficulty, “Curses” or “Wards” can be switched on or off before starting a run, allowing you to make the game harder (curses) or easier (wards) than the baseline. I was genuinely shocked at how much of a difficulty jump there was the instant you give the bosses a randomised item inventory, and have straight up failed runs on Normal as early as Stage 2! Suddenly the odds are a lot more even when bosses can unleash the same tricks you can. By the same token, wards like starting with an extra life and maxed base stats can make the start of each run a lot smoother. Unlocks are disabled if your Challenge Value dips into the negative territory from using too many or too high-value assistive wards, but I can see this system being a useful way for newcomers to learn the ropes. Curses and wards can also be mixed and matched freely, with curses adding positive Challenge Value and re-enabling unlocks in combination with wards if the total value stays positive. Players should be mindful to make use of curses and wards as appropriate to suit their challenge needs, as the raw difficulties alone (Normal, Hard, etc.) may not satisfy.
My only big complaint beyond some difficulty struggles is some [b][u]significant[/u][/b] game slowdown depending on the character, shot type, item build, and boss attack you’re dealing with. FPS can dip below 20 when there is too much going on, but I put this down to my old hardware struggling to run the game (intel i5-6600 + GTX 1070). It’s a bit jarring given I’ve never had an official mainline Touhou game skip a beat, but there’s also a LOT more going on in LNS at its peak. Modern hardware probably won’t encounter these issues (might update when I can test it on a better rig), and it’s a relatively minor blemish on the overall experience. Hilariously though, there is an achievement and unlock for the game dipping below 15 FPS or crashing, so maybe this is part of the intended experience?
Finally, the “roguelike” nature of LNS lends itself to plenty of replayability, just so you can see what new kind of silly, busted build you can unleash on your foes. LNS subsequently exploits this replayability in its story design, lending new insights into to events of the game each time you clear it. Whilst I will refrain from mentioning any specific story beats here, all I can say is that the story is a genuine love letter to Touhou fans. Extensive knowledge of the series is not required to appreciate the story per se, but the payoffs become [b][u]significantly[/u][/b] larger the more you know about the depths of official (and sometimes unofficial) Touhou lore. I laughed. I smiled. I cried. I was left without words. I would erase my memory and live through it all again if I could. For what, exactly? You will have to cut through the ever-deepening lensed night sky and discover the truth for yourself.
Bravo to Fire Land for creating this game and sharing it with the world. I only hope that you, the reader, enjoy the game as much as I did. At least try out the demo if you’re curious.
