"Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" is the 6th installment of the popular bullet-hell doujin series, The Touhou Project. It is the first entry to be released for Windows, and it considered one of the most popular danmaku games of all time. Like every other game in the series, it was created by Junya Ota (more well known as ZUN), where he did all the coding, art, and music.
I stumbled across this game many years ago, when I was in the peak of my anime phase in middle school. I remember being exposed to the soundtrack for this game, and I was blown away. I kid you not, it changed my life. I wanted to compose music like ZUN did, which was one of the many stepping stones that led me to study music composition in college and desire to pursue it for a career! I never actually played the game until years later, right around the end of high school into the start of undergrad. I never realized just how genuinely well-crafted this game was, and I wonder if I would've also gone into game development if I got to play it much earlier in life.
Ok enough sappy business, let's get into the game itself.
Plot/Characters
The game revolves around two characters, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame. Reimu is a shrine maiden who is the main face of the Touhou series, and she has no moral quandaries about beating the shit out of some youkai. Marisa is a human magician who is rebellious and a bit tomboyish, and is considered both Reimu's rival and ally throughout the series.
In the events of the game, Reimu or Marisa discover that the sky is being covered in a thick red mist, preventing the sun from shining. Our protagonists decide to investigate why this is happening, and to punish whoever is responsible.
First, while traveling over the Misty Lake, the heroine stumbles upon the youkai Rumia, and the ice fairy Cirno. Neither have any correlation to the mist, but try to stop the heroine regardless. Rumia, being a youkai, attacks the player in order to eat her. Meanwhile, Cirno wants to show off her immense powers, proving that she is much stronger than her fellow fairies.