Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded

***Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded*** (formerly known as ***Touhou RP: Gensokyo Reloaded***) is a *Touhou Project*-themed full game created using the I.K.E.M.E.N engine. It is the first game in the THRP series, first released in 2015.

As of April 09, 2022, the game stands at Version 3.0.3.1.

## Story

*Main article: Story*
*Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded* is primarily focused on being a "Dream Match" themed-game, akin to games such as *The King of Fighters '98* in where there is little to no storyline, where characters from previous games, including those deceased in canon, return to the roster; however, the events seem to take place some time after the events of the canon *Touhou Project* games. The game's dialogue and story places a heavy emphasis on parallel universes and alternate timelines, as evidenced by the appearances of Lie Meiling, Mima, and Meimu in Gensokyo, with the former-most seemingly intent on provoking a fight with Yukari Yakumo, and the latter-most planning to use her power to destroy the universe and Gensokyo along with it, prompting the attention of many of Gensokyo's residents.

## Characters

### **Playable**

* Alice Margatroid
* Byakuren Hijiri
* Cirno
* Chen
* Eirin Yagokoro
* Flandre Scarlet
* Fujiwara no Mokou
* Hong Meiling
* Ichirin Kumoi
* Kanako Yasaka
* Koakuma
* Koishi Komeiji
* Komachi Onozuka
* Lie Meiling
* Mamizou Futatsuiwa
* Marisa Kirisame
* Meimu
* Mima
* Patchouli Knowledge
* Reimu Hakurei
* Reisen Udongein Inaba
* Remilia Scarlet
* Sakuya Izayoi
* Sanae Kochiya
* Suika Ibuki
* Utsuho Reiuji
* Youmu Konpaku
* Yukari Yakumo
* Yuuka Kazami
* Yuyuko Saigyouji

## System

### **Combos and Chaining**

All characters follow a simple cancelling method for attacks:

Normals -> Command Normals -> Specials -> Spell Cards/Last Words

In the case of Normals, there are two types of chaining:

* Type I:  ->  ->
* Type II:  ->  or  ->

Type I characters can chain all three strength buttons into each other in order of increased strength. Type II characters can chain  Normals into  or  into , but never  into . For reference, here are the characters by Chain type:

* **Type I Characters**: Byakuren, Chen, Cirno, Eirin, Flandre, Hong Meiling, Koakuma, Koishi, Lie Meiling, Mamizou, Marisa, Meimu, Mima, Reimu, Reisen, Remilia, Sakuya, Youmu, Yukari, Yuyuko
* **Type II Characters**: Alice, Ichirin, Kanako, Komachi, Suika, Utsuho, Yuuka

In the case of Command Normals, these still follow the same rules as Normals, in that only a weaker strength Normal can be chained into a Command Normal of a higher strength; however, barring one exception, Command Normals cannot be cancelled into a Normal or another Command Normal, and can only be cancelled into either a Special, a Spell Card, or a Last Word.

Certain characters may have unique target combos that don't adhere to chaining & cancelling rules. Hong Meiling, for instance, can cancel her + into Standing , which no other character can do.

### **Damage Proration**

All attacks apply a proration value, which reduces the damage of the next attack in a combo by a scalar amount. All attacks, whether they be Normals, Specials, and Spell Cards have their own minimum proration values that they cannot go below. These differ by character, but are generally around 10% minimum scale. Cancelling any attack into a Spell Card or Last Word will automatically apply a 92.5% proration during the attack's startup.

Last Words always have a minimum proration value of 100%, meaning they are unaffected by damage proration, though they still apply their own proration multipliers to the global proration value after the attack has ended.

### **Blocking**

*Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded* allows characters to block attacks either while grounded or airborne. As a general rule, blocking while standing will guard against high, mid and aerial attacks, while blocking while crouching will guard against mid and low attacks; air blocking will guard against aerial attacks, but will not guard against any grounded melee attacks or grounded attacks that send the user into the air, though the latter only applies to active frames where the attacker hasn't yet left the ground (e.g. Marisa's *Miasma Sweep*, Reimu's *Ascension Kick*, and Youmu's *Crescent Moon Slash*). Most projectiles have no blocking restrictions and can be successfully blocked while either standing, crouching, or airborne.

There are rare exceptions to the aforementioned blocking rules, such as Reisen's *Undersense Break* being a grounded melee attack that can be blocked while airborne, and Komachi's *"Scythe of Final Judgement"* being a projectile which cannot be blocked while crouching. Certain characters have multihit aerials with altered blocking restrictions for the interests of balance, with Cirno's and Yuyuko's + aerials having no restrictions at all, and Reimu's  aerial following the standard restrictions for the first set of active frames, but having no restrictions for the second and third set.

### **Dashing**

All characters have ground and air dashes, both forward and backward, which are executed with  , or   (or + or +, respectively). Grounded Back Dashes have 8 frames of invincibility during their startup before the character leaps into the air. Grounded Forward Dashes can be extended by holding , up until a certain amount of time has passed.

Certain characters have unique forward dashes that only cause them to travel a fixed distance and cannot be extended. These characters are Byakuren, Flandre, and Remilia. Yukari has a unique variant of a Grounded Back Dash that, when done in the corner of the stage, will cause her to teleport to the other side of the stage. Koishi's Forward and Backward Dashes both automatically end with a melee attack, with the former also causing her to become invincible after a while.

Only one air dash can be done prior to landing. The only exceptions to this rule are Kanako, who can perform up to two air dashes in any direction, and Mima, who can perform multiple air dashes as long as she is in *Flight Mode*.

### **Juggling**

The juggle system in *Gensokyo Reloaded* is fairly simple: all moves have the potential to juggle, but a juggled opponent cannot be hit by the same attack more than once per juggle before touching the ground; the only exceptions are Spell Cards and Last Words, which ignore juggle flags.

### **Resetting and Ground Tech Recovering**

When a character is airborne and hit by an attack that doesn't cause a knockdown, they will automatically enter a fully invulnerable reset state once that attack's hitstun has ended, but will be unable to perform any action until they have landed; to prevent opponents from taking advantage of this temporarily helpless state, a character who has landed from a reset state will be granted three additional frames of melee & projectile attack invulnerability and nine additional frames of grab invulnerability upon landing.

If a character has been hit by an attack that causes a techable Knockdown, holding  just before hitting the ground ground will cause the character to enter a tech recovery animation as they touch the ground, allowing them to recover much faster than getting up from a knockdown. A character will by default tech recover in place, but holding  and  while teching allows a character to be repositioned slightly in the respective direction; the only exception to this is being hit by a Guard Cancel, where teching in the direction that is towards the opponent is disabled. Most Specials cause a techable knockdown by default, but there are some Normals that cause a techable knockdown under certain conditions.

### **Counterhits**

All melee attacks are able to score a counterhit if they strike the opponent during the startup frames of an attack. A successful counterhit will be denoted with the words "Counter Hit" on the respective player's side of the screen and an explosion of stars from their opponent. Counterhits provide the following bonuses:

* Additional hitstun (+1 to all  Normals, +3 to all other attacks)
* 25% additional damage (only applies to the first hit of a multi-hit attack)
* Other bonuses that may be move specific (ie: Knockdowns, Groundbounces, Wallbounces, etc)

### **Throws and Throw Escapes**

All characters have access to a basic throw, executed using +. Holding  will cause them to throw the opponent backwards. If the opponent presses  or  in conjunction with any of the six buttons just as or after a throw makes contact, they will break out of it, leaving both characters at a neutral frame advantage with some distance between them. Note that these Throw Escapes cannot be performed if the Throw was done as a counterhit. Some characters may also possess an Air Grab, which follows the same rules as the grounded basic throw, except that it can only hit airborne opponents and cannot be Throw Escaped; currently, only Cirno, Flandre, Mima, Reimu and Yuuka possess Air Grabs.

In addition, some characters may possess a Command Grab Special or Spell Card which cannot be escaped out of.

### **Guard Cancels**

*Main article: Guard Cancel*
All characters are able to perform a Guard Cancel by executing   during blockstun, as long as they have at least 1000 Power; the character will immediately execute a predetermined startup-invincible attack, which is useful for escaping from opponents trying to be overly aggressive with blockstrings. Guard Cancels cannot be cancelled into Spell Cards or Last Words, and are unable to K.O. an opponent under any circumstance.

### **Spell Cards and Last Words**

Spell Cards in *Touhou: Gensokyo Reloaded* are functionally identical to Hypers/Supers from traditional fighting games, being powerful moves that require a certain amount of Power to activate. Each character has three levels of Power meter (3000 Power total), with each Level 1 Spell Card consuming a single level of Power meter. Although rare, certain characters possess Level 2 Spell Cards, which require two levels of meter (2000 Power) to activate, though this distribution is currently limited to only Utsuho and Yukari, with the former's being the second level of charge in a three-level charge Spell Card and thus impossible to activate raw. Spell Cards differ from other attacks in that they all cause untechable knockdown and have no juggle restrictions, allowing them to be used as many times in a combo as so desired providing there is enough Power available to keep activating them.

Last Words are unique in that each character has two, but they are forced to choose which one they want to use for a given match at the beginning of the first round, a decision which cannot then be changed after that selection has been made. Last Words that deal damage have the additional advantage in that their damage is unaffected by proration, though they still apply their own proration values after the attack has ended, which makes them more proficient as combo enders compared to lower level Spell Cards. Most Last Words cost 3000 Power to use, although certain Last Words cost variable Power, in which case the Last Word will consume all currently available Power and have its effect strengthened depending on how much Power was consumed; examples of Last Words that cost variable Power include Remilia's *"Millenium Vampire"* and Youmu's *"Secret of Life and Death"*. As with lower level Spell Cards, Last Words cause untechable Knockdown and have no juggle restrictions.

Certain characters have additional Last Words beyond the two selectable ones. For instance, Marisa's *"Dragon Meteor"* Last Word is an air-only Last Word that is simultaneously unlocked whenever *"Final Spark"* is chosen. Others, such as Lie Meiling and Youmu, have a tertiary Last Word that is always available to them regardless of which Last Word is selected at the beginning of a match.

### **Character-specific Mechanics**

Certain characters possess mechanics that are unique only to them; these mechanics may be passive, or require a universal button input of . Characters with unique mechanics include:

* Byakuren Hijiri: most Specials cannot be used until Byakuren charges light orbs. Orbs can be charged by holding , and are consumed when a Special that requires orbs is used.
* Cirno: has the ability to crouch walk with  and , which allows her to move around with a greatly reduced hurtbox height, albeit at a considerably slower speed.
* Fujiwara no Mokou: can activate/deactivate *Spontaneous Combustion* mode, which increases the damage done by all attacks, and causes Normals to inflict guard damage while at the same time increasing their Power gains, at the cost of continuously converting Mokou's Life into recoverable health; Mokou can convert this recoverable health back into Life with *Resurrection*, but only if *Spontaneous Combustion* has been deactivated first, otherwise the recoverable health will be lost.
* Ichirin Kumoi: can summon/desummon Unzan like a *Jojo's Bizarre Adventure*-styled stand, changing her moveset.
* Kanako Yasaka: can perform up to two air dashes instead of one, and can air dash in all eight directions.
* Koakuma: can modify *Lesser Key of Solomon*'s projectile by pressing or holding  to cycle through the four different options, or using  in conjunction with a directional button to change to a specific projectile.
* Komachi Onozuka: wisps created by her Specials and Spell Cards can be detonated with .
* Mamizou Futatsuiwa: all Specials, with the exception of *Animal Lute Priest* require Mamizou to have at least 1 out of 4 leaves available to her at the start of the match; hitting Mamizou or her projectiles with melee attacks will deplete a leaf, and once all of Mamizou's leaves are depleted, she will be unable to use any of her Specials until her leaves recharge.
* Marisa Kirisame: all Specials give Marisa a Star Charge if they make contact, which will fill in one of the three slots needed to fill her Star Charge Gauge; Marisa can then spend a full Star Charge Gauge by using + instead of  to convert any Special into an EX version of that Special.
* Mima: can enter *Flight Mode* with , enabling her to fly in midair for a limited amount of time.
* Reisen Udongein Inaba: starts every round with one *Spellbreaking Drug* stock, but gains additional stocks after receiving a certain amount of damage (up to a maximum of three), which can be used to deplete an opponent's Power bar.
* Remilia Scarlet: capable of restoring lost Life with *Vampire Kiss*, or any melee attack whilst under the effects of *Millenium Vampire*.
* Sanae Kochiya: using any move that summons Kanako or Suwako will put those moves on a cooldown; Sanae also has a wind gauge that recharges automatically, allowing Sanae to manipulate the direction of some of her projectile attacks.
* Utsuho Reiuji: holding  during her Specials and Spell Cards will charge the attacks, causing them to become more powerful or gain additional properties; any levels gained through charging *Control Rod* can also be carried over into other Specials to power them up without charging them directly. Chargeable Specials can be cancelled at any time with a forward or backward dash, or by inputting  .
* Youmu Konpaku: Spirit Meter boosts the power of Youmu's attacks and grants them additional properties. Meter increases as Youmu deals damage or stands near an opponent, but decreases as Youmu takes damage or whiffs an attack.
* Yukari Yakumo: can escape from the corner of a screen with a back dash, causing her to teleport to the other side; can also use *Ride the Waves* to absorb enemy projectiles, giving a one-time increase to how many projectiles are fired from *Fight the Ocean* the next time it is activated.

#### **Gliding**

While not a mechanic unique to only one character, Cirno and Kanako are the only characters capable of gliding in the air by holding , , or  after reaching the peak of their jump. Gliding greatly reduces a character's vertical velocity while falling towards the ground, allowing them to cover long distances while airborne and avoid certain attacks, but leaves them vulnerable to anti-air attacks. Pressing and holding  or  during a glide will alter the horizontal trajectory of the glide, while releasing  will cancel the glide and return the character to their regular falling velocity.

## Stages

Most characters have their own stage associated with them, along with a remix of one of their respective theme musics; the exception to this is Meimu, who has no stage assigned to her at all. Mare Tranquilitatis and The Outside World do not have a character associated with them, as neither Clownpiece or Sumireko make an appearance within the game, but a remix of their themes is still used for the respective stages.

## Trivia

* The purple Yukari silhouette in the netplay connection screen is taken from Walfas' Yukaridance.swf video.
* The quote "Girls are now connecting. Please wait warmly." that appears during the netplay connection screen is a parody of the loading screen message that appears in many of the official *Touhou Project* games.

## References

1. ↑ Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+: How Many Miles to Gensokyo?
2. ↑ Touhou Remix #64 (Symphonic Metal) Complete Darkness
3. ↑ Necrofantasia ~Border of Character~ - Rift in a Friendship Game
4. ↑ Meiji 17th ~Last Fight Began~ - Rift in a Friendship Game
5. ↑ Touhou Gensou Maroku ~ Devil of Decline: Battle 6 (Magus Night)
6. ↑ dBu music - the Grimoire for Alice
7. ↑ Touhou Remix Project: Shanghai Dragon - Hong Meiling [Shanghai Alice of Meiji 17]
8. ↑ 【東方】22. Ruler of Time (Extended Ver.) - 幻想万華鏡 ～The Memories of Phantasm～
9. ↑ Gensou Shoujo Taisen Kou [OST] - Magician of Aprisyra Metrosil
10. ↑ [Orchestral 東方 Arrange] =Neutral= - Septette for the Dead Princess (005)
11. ↑ U.N. Owen Was Her? ~Innocence~ - Rift in a Friendship Game
12. ↑ [Touhou]-Youmu's Theme: Hiroari Shoots a Strange Bird-Till When? ~ 2ºRemix
13. ↑ [Touhou]- Yuyuko's Theme: Border of Life ~ 4ºRemix
14. ↑ Touhou Remix E.194 (Orchestral) Reach for the Moon ~ Immortal Smoke
15. ↑ Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+: We're So Udongein Together
16. ↑ Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+: Moonshine Over Yonder
17. ↑ [東方]- Sanae's Theme: Faith is for the Transient People -Remix
18. ↑ Kanako battle - Gensou Shoujo Taisen You BGM
19. ↑ [東方Arrange] Predator || Faint Dream~ Inanimate Dream, Sleeping Terror
20. ↑ Gensou Shoujo Taisen OST - Cirno Theme
21. ↑ Chen battle - Gensou Shoujo Taisen You BGM
22. ↑ TATAMIStugiwo - Waste during summer vacation
23. ↑ [Touhou]- Utsuho's Theme: Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom - Nuclear Fusion ~ 4ºRemix
24. ↑ Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+: The Youkai Girl Cometh!
25. ↑ dBu Music March Over the Sky 04 - 時代少女とハイカラ親父
26. ↑ Touhou Pocket Wars EVO+: The Skyscraper's Color is Changing
27. ↑ 東方Touhou [Orchestral] The Pierrot of the Star-Spangled Banner
28. ↑ みよんConcealed the Conclusion 35

## External links

* Mugen Fighter's Guild - THRP:GR Development & News Section
* Discord server