Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess

*This article is about the game itself. For the song, see Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess (song).*

***Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess***, officially known in Japan as ***Chuhou Joutai 3: Cosplay Showdown! Three Hellish Nights of Fate*** (中(ちゅう)方(ほう)状(じょう)態(たい)３(スリー)：コスプレ対決(たいけつ)！運命(うんめい)の３(みっ)つの地(じ)獄夜(ごくよる), **Chūhō Jōtai Surī: Kosupure Taiketsu! Unmei no Mittsu no Jigoku Yoru**?), is a manic shooter developed and published by Drillimation Systems. The demo was released exclusively on Steam on June 24, 2022, while the full game released on October 7, 2022. It is the third installment of the *Chuhou Joutai* series, and is the sequel to *Chuhou Joutai 2: Paraided!*. The first trailer was released on January 31, 2022. It is the eighth installment in the *Drillimation Danmaku Universe* and is the final game of Phase One.

Considered by Drillimation to be the ultimate *Chuhou Joutai* experience, the game has four playable characters but only one shot type each. Taking place a few months after *Paraided!*, the game follows the plot of the four playable characters searching for the three remaining prisoners who escaped a prison break and an ensuing battle launched by the Kozanese Royal Defense Force in cooperation with the US Army. Drillimation noted the game has a darker and edgier tone, but not as intense in order to keep their target audience of beginners. Upon release, *Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess* was praised for its challenging gameplay, musical score, replayability, and graphics.

## Gameplay

As evidenced in the trailer, the game retains the same gameplay as the previous games, but more aligned with *Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story NES Demake*, which was developed before *Chuhou Joutai 3* and *Touhou 5: Mystic Square NES Demake*, which was in development at the same time.

### Changes from its predecessor

* The game received a completely new art direction while still using the same pre-rendered graphics from the previous game.
* Character sprites are now even larger. The hitbox returned to the red color that was used in the first game.
* The game now has four playable characters as opposed to two.
* All items now fall naturally from defeated enemies like in *Touhou Project*.
* In Free Play Mode, players can skip directly to a stage's boss phase by pushing Shift on keyboard or the X button on a gamepad to activate "Boss Rush Mode".

#### New features

* The game now includes the *Touhou Project* Spell Card system. This applies to bombs and all bosses.

#### Removed features

* The sound source feature, which was a staple of the first two games, was removed entirely. This is because the game runs on a new sound engine for music playback.

## Plot

The game takes place a few months after the events of the second game. Frederic Sam Fawkes has gone into hiding, and ordered Hearthcliffe to take down Susumu Takajima. The game opens up with a battle between Kozan and SPASDOT after a woman had blown up a prison in the city of Kanjotaki, New Saitama, freeing hundreds of prisoners that were residing there. Almost all of the prisoners with the exception of three are annihilated by the Kozanese Royal Defense Force while being allied by the United States Army.

Back in Kozankyo, Susumu Takajima encounters Megumi Wasai while on a walk. She tells Driller that he had received an invitation from Crown Princess Konata to a "cosplay ball" being held in Kanjotaki, New Saitama. A few days later, Driller gathers his friends Kagami Ochiai, alongside new KRDF recruits Ryuta Shigematsu and Kumiko Uchida in an effort to search and find the three remaining prisoners who escaped the battle of Kanjotaki. Their first stop is Kozankyo's oldest cemetery, where one of the three fled. When they encounter the escapee, Hearthcliffe goes in and falsely congratulates Driller, stating he won a prize. Hearthcliffe refers Driller to a girl in kimono who would hand him the prize. The prize turns out to be a scam: the girl wants to take Driller's hand in marriage, which he denies. Hearthcliffe, now laughing at Driller, tells him that he is angry about King Soujirou's battle and that he orders the girl to defeat Driller, which he and his friends easily defeat. After the girl's defeat, Hearthcliffe reveals the girl's name to be Chiyu Kuse. Crown Princess Konata then jumps in and threatens to attack Hearthcliffe with the Mini-Hakkero. After driving Hearthcliffe away, she tells the group that Driller's been invited by the Crown Princess to her ball. While Driller's friends were not invited, Kagami tells her that she wants to attend, only to be met with resistance, leaving her to find another way to get in.

Later, Driller and his friends take a trip to Misty Lake Arboretrum to investigate a situation after hearing rumors that residents of Kozankyo should stay away on LifeConnect. The group finds this source to be a robot, which flags the group as a threat that they overcome. Once the robot is defeated, it breaks open and much to their shock finds a humanoid being in there. The humanoid introduces himself to the group as Francis Baillairgé. It was later revealed the robot was using his blood to power itself. Seeing him in critical condition, Baillairgé is hospitalized for thrombocytopenia where he undergoes transfusions to get his blood count back to normal.

The following day after school, Driller plots revenge against the person who built it, and after finding this person on LifeConnect and even hacking his email account, Kagami, who was visiting Driller like she always does, learns this person's name is Tsuneyo Shiraki. The group meets up and confronts this person, even after an encounter with Hearthcliffe who calls the cyborg they destroyed the night prior "full of delicious." Tsuneyo is eventually defeated by the group.

Later the same day, Driller and company head to Damamizu Park to fill in some community service hours for school, where they learn a werewolf may be hiding in the woods and preying on somebody. They go inside and after enough searching, they appear to find her inside, but in the end, she appears behind the group, who then introduces herself as Roumi Imaizumi. She hopes that beating them would give Hearthcliffe fury, but it backfires and ends up being defeated. Driller appears to find a note from Hearthcliffe, announcing his intent to lay siege on the cosplay ball that would take place that weekend at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The group set out for the Scarlet Devil Mansion the following night to combat the threat.

In the late afternoon of the following day, despite receiving wishes for good luck from a few of the playable characters' relatives, the group set off for Kanjotaki, where they meet and defeat Norio Ozawa, the younger brother of the late Kazuo Ozawa, whose death Norio attempted to revenge. When Driller attempts to pull off a finishing blow, a policewoman by the name of Ritsuko Yamada stops Driller from doing so and ends up arresting Norio. The group then continues down for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where they end up encountering a face that Driller and Kagami met earlier in the year: Lee Gyu-ri had just renounced her nationality just so she can defeat Driller. A battle against her ensues once again with Ryuta and Kumiko fighting her for the first time. Gyu-ri is defeated a third time, clearing the way for the group to enter the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Just when they do so, they are stopped by Ritsuko again, warning them of the dangers inside.

The group eventually enters the mansion. Since they entered at night, it is dark inside, leading to Driller using a flashlight to light their surroundings. After exploring the mansion, they end up encountering Violetta Scarlet. Following a defeat, she flees to Hearthcliffe, telling him that the group had arrived. The batteries on Driller's flashlight eventually run out, leading to Hearthcliffe taunting him over running out of energy. After an exchange of verbal abuse, a duel between Driller and Hearthcliffe happens, and Hearthcliffe is defeated once again. This eventually leads to the group heading to the mansion's balcony, where they see Violetta Scarlet who greets Driller with kindness, leading to Driller being confused. Driller and company tell Violetta that they both will be defeated and knocked out of existence. After Driller becomes enraged over Hearthcliffe interrupting him multiple times when talking with Violetta, a huge battle between them ensues. Violetta is ultimately defeated and knocked off the balcony and into the sea.

Just as Driller is beginning to celebrate his victory, Crown Princess Konata congratulates him for defeating Violetta, and as his reward, gives Driller an extra night to stay at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Konata then hosts her ball with Driller playing Crown Prince Kichou, Queen Marisa's son, with Konata playing Queen Marisa herself. Kagami Ochiai ends up entering the ball playing the role of Miho Fujiwara, the former Queen Consort of Kichou when he was king. Ryuta and Kumiko return to Kozankyo as they were not invited to Crown Princess Konata's ball.

A week later, the first snow for the season arrives in Kozan. When Konata learns about a mysterious woman in white was spotted in the town of Kurama, she brings Driller and company there to help her search and find her. Konata suspects it could be her childhood friend Saori Takarazawa, whom she has not seen in a decade after she moved to Kozankyo in junior high school. After enough searching and even as the snowstorm intensifies, they appear to find the woman. Her white gown leads to the group speculate it could be her, and the woman confirms she is Saori. Konata is notified via text that the group had found her, and to pass the time, Saori decides to have a danmaku duel to entertain themselves. Saori appears to be beaten, and at the same time as losing, Crown Princess Konata and Saori have an emotional reunion. Saori tells the group she wants to spend time with them this winter, ending the story.

### Returning characters

* Ayako Sugiwara, stage 3 midboss and extra stage midboss
* Damausagi, stage 2 midboss
* Jack Fawkes, stage 7 boss and final stage midboss
* Kagami Ochiai, playable character
* Kisumi Torisawa, non-playable character
* Konata, Crown Princess of Kozan, non-playable character
* Kumiko Uchida, playable character
* Lee Gyu-ri, stage 6 boss
* Maika Ohtake, stage 1 midboss (appears as a spirit)
* Megumi Wasai, tutorial boss
* Naoko Shigematsu, non-playable character
* Ryuta Shigematsu, playable character
* Soujirou, King of Kozan, non-playable character
* Susumu Takajima, playable character
* Tatsurou Hozoshima, stage 6 midboss
* Yumi Ochiai, non-playable character

#### Mentioned characters

* Frederic Sam Fawkes, mentioned in game's plot
* Hideo Ochiai, mentioned by Kagami in stage 1.
* Kazuo Ozawa, mentioned by Norio in stage 5 and cameos in his spell card backgrounds
* Kichiro Nakasone, mentioned in music comments

### New characters

* Chiyu Kuse, stage 1 boss
* Francis Bailairge, non-playable character
* Norio Ozawa, stage 5 midboss and boss
* Ritsuko Yamada, non-playable character
* Roumi Imaizumi, stage 4 midboss and boss
* Saori Takarazawa, extra stage boss
* SPASDOT Cyborg, stage 2 boss
* Tomohiro Uchida, non-playable character
* Tsuneyo Shiraki, stage 3 boss
* Violetta Scarlet, stage 7 midboss and final stage boss

## Development

Planning for *Chuhou Joutai 3* began after *Chuhou Joutai 2: Paraided!* was released and the development for *Touhou 3: The Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dreams NES Demake* was underway in the summer of 2021. The Prophet Driller, the sole developer behind those projects, had just dropped out of college in order to pursue his dream job of becoming a solo developer. However, the dropout was tough on him, and worked a full-time job as a technical support agent in order to fund Drillimation. Assets were still prepared while he was still working his day job. Because the job limited the amount of hours he could spend on development, the Prophet was worried that he could not get the next three projects that followed after *The Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dreams NES Demake* done on time for their release.

After *Touhou 3: The Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dreams NES Demake* was released, a Vietnamese development studio then known as Akira Akagi Games was searching for composers to compose music for their own *Touhou Project* fangame, the now-canceled *Touhou Tenkijou*. Drillimation immediately took the job and began writing music for it. Several songs that were written for that project ended up being used in *Chuhou Joutai 3*. New music was composed for that project while *Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story*, which was the game intended to test the engine for the new *Chuhou Joutai* game, was in development. After *Touhou Tenkijou* was canceled and replaced with *Muse Genkaroku*, Drillimation began writing new music for that project instead. However, none of those songs that were composed ended up being used for *Chuhou Joutai 3* as that game's development took place by the time *Chuhou Joutai 3* started development.

Because the Prophet's tech support job was temporary, he was formally laid off in late January 2021. The *Lotus Land Story NES Demake* was almost complete during that time; there was only debugging work left to do. Following the layoff, Drillimation continued working on the projects that they intended to release during that year. *Chuhou Joutai 3* formally began development in February 2022 before the *Lotus Land Story NES Demake* was released. During that time, a teaser trailer for the game was released the day prior to starting development, and the first month was spent developing the engine and tutorial. The first half of the game was completed by the time *Touhou 5: Mystic Square NES Demake* began development in April 2022. The Prophet completed the demake's main campaign and extra stage within two weeks, and the whole game was done by the end of April 2022.

Development on the second half continued in May 2022 and by the time the *Touhou 5: Mystic Square NES Demake* had been released, the whole game including the main campaign and endings was done. The game completed development in early June, with the demo releasing on June 24, 2022. The source code for *Chuhou Joutai: The Middle State of War* and *Chuhou Joutai 2: Paraided!* was cracked by members of the notorious warez group Skidrow and distributed on their website less than a week after they were released. To prevent this from happening to *Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess*, Drillimation included a feature intended to deter players from pirating the game. If the game detects the player is not subscribed to the Steam server, the game will play like normal until after the Drillimation logo. It will then warp the player to a cutscene featuring Susumu Takajima warning the player of the consequences of software piracy in a passive-aggressive manner. After the cutscene, the game would quit unexpectedly.

### Marketing

Drillimation heavily relied on Twitter engagements to encourage players to play the demo after it released on Steam. As a result, many users encouraged their own followers to try the demo, leading to some success. While social media engagements didn't catch on in the West, they appeared to perform well in Japan.

### Soundtrack

The game has a total of 29 songs, and only two of them are jingles. The game only has one sound format, thanks to the use of a new sound engine for music playback.

## Reception

The demo was very positively received upon release, with praise going out to its gameplay, musical score, and graphical improvements. The demo's release happened to be the most successful launch of any Drillimation game, being downloaded over 10,000 times within the first two months of release.

*Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess* was lauded upon release, with some critics calling it one of Drillimation's best games and the "thrilling conclusion to the *Chuhou Joutai* saga."

## Media

### Logos

* English logo
* Japanese logo

### Characters

* Susumu Takajima
* Kagami Ochiai
* Ryuta Shigematsu
* Kumiko Uchida
* Chiyu Kuse
* Cyborg
* Tsuneyo Shiraki
* Roumi Imaizumi
* Norio Ozawa
* Lee Gyu-ri
* Jack Fawkes
* Violetta Scarlet
* Saori Takarazawa

## References to other games

* ***Touhou 2: The Story of Eastern Wonderland NES Demake*** - The Evil Eyes and their attack patterns from that game's extra stage are reused in this game.
* ***Touhou 3: The Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dreams NES Demake*** - The stage 1 theme, *The Time-Leaping Youkai Girl ~ Monsoon Orange*, is a remix of the song that plays during the fight with Kagami Ochiai.

## Behind the Scenes

* This is the first *Chuhou Joutai* game to:
	+ Use the current bullet design.
	+ Have more than two playable characters but only one shot type per character.
	+ Feature Susumu Takajima, Kagami Ochiai, and Kumiko Uchida in new outfits.
	+ Use the Spell Card System.
	+ Be a Steam exclusive.
		- The Steam exclusivity also makes it the first game to feature built-in anti-piracy protection.
	+ Feature a non-humanoid or youkai-born boss.
	+ Have a stage take place entirely at night, as well as more than one nighttime stage.
		- Incidentally, half of the game's stages take place at night.
	+ Have a winter-themed stage.
	+ Feature one of the game's bosses in the game icon and not any playable character.
	+ Have a female final boss, and not Frederic Sam Fawkes.
	+ Have a final boss appear more than once, with the other appearance being a stage earlier.
	+ Not depict any character shirtless. The previous two games had one instance of this with Tatsuro Hozoshima in the first game and Susumu Takajima in the second game.
	+ Not feature a stronghold.
* The game was leaked by accident in September 2021 in a how-to guide written for Japanese players of the *Touhou Project NES Demakes* on Drillimation's website, before the game was officially unveiled in January 2022.

## See also

* List of glitches in Chuhou Joutai 3: Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess

## External links

* Homepage on Drillimation's website
* Game on Steam

## References

1. ↑ https://drillimation.com/2021/09/25/jp-how-to-change-the-language-for-the-touhou-project-nes-demakes/ 東方プロジェクトファミコンディメイクために言語を変更し方 (in Japanese)