| 東方花映塚 〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View. |
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|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Publisher(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Series | Touhou Project |
| Version | 1.50a |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98/ME/2000/XP |
| Release date(s) | 14 August 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up |
| Mode(s) | 1 ~ 2 players |
| System requirements
Pentium 800MHz, 505MB hard disk, Direct3D, DirectX 8, VRAM 32M, DirectSound, 128MB RAM |
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Touhou Kaeidzuka ~ Phantasmagoria of Flower View. (東方花映塚 〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View. lit. lit. Oriental Flower Viewing Mound)} is the ninth official game in the Touhou Project scrolling shoot 'em up series. It is often abbreviated as PoFV in English speaking circles. Phantasmagoria of Flower View, like the third Touhou game Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, differs from other games in the series in that two equally matched characters fight competitively instead of one player clearing stage bosses. In this regard, the gameplay most resembles Twinkle Star Sprites by ADK.
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Phantasmagoria of Flower View is a competitive vertical danmaku shoot 'em up, in which two characters engage in moderate-to-heavy danmaku gameplay within individual and separate play areas (aka. split-screen). Upon meeting certain conditions, players are able to unleash a variety of character-specific Spell Attacks upon their opponents in an attempt to whittle down their remaining lives, in a manner like versus puzzle games such as Puyo Puyo.
In the Story Mode, the player will face 9 increasingly intelligent AI opponents, each more capable than the last. The Extra Mode is basically the same except the player is only given one life at the beginning and the enemies are invincible for a period of time. Phantasmagoria of Flower View also features a Match Play Mode in which the player may face off against individual AI opponents or compete against other human players, as well as observe AI vs. AI matches. With the netplay patch, multiplayer is also possible through LAN or over the Internet.
Spring has arrived in the oriental enclave of Gensokyo, but this year's spring is just too strong to believe. Every plant is in full bloom, even out-of-season flowers and bamboo trees, and consequently the fairies and creatures are becoming hyperactive. This completely unnatural spring prompted the heroines to set out, either to try and find out the reason behind the hyperactive spring, or just to wander around for lack of better things to do.
The incident, as it turns out, is a natural occurrence that happens once every sixty years, or one sexagenary cycle. Once every sixty years, something major happens in the outside world and fills Gensokyo with ghosts, who then infest flowers and make them bloom all over. Right from the beginning, it is not a cause of concern at all.
A total of 16 characters are available to play, among them: all are playable in the Match Mode, 12 are playable in the Story Mode, and 2 are playable in the Extra Mode.
ZUN, the sole member of the developer Team Shanghai Alice, originally did not plan to make a game for Summer 2005; however, he changed his mind when he realized 2005 marks the tenth anniversary of the Touhou Project, and decided to make a fanservice-type game to mark the occasion. He believed that, in a game, the best kind of fanservice is to pit players against each other so they can have a chance to meet, and so tournaments can happen and so on. In this spirit, ZUN adapted the system used by Twinkle Star Sprites to create a versus shooter, with the focus on dodging bullets (like other Touhou games) instead of shooting each other down.[1] Quite unlike ZUN's usual games where he is the sole programmer, music composer, and illustrator, alphes from the circle Twilight Frontier is listed as a "Graphics Helper" in this game.
After releasing the game in the 68th Comiket, ZUN worked on a netplay patch to support online multiplayers, and released the patch in October 2005.[2] The patch was not without its problems, as online games were often unsynchronized and unstable. However, a year later ZUN announced that he will not continue making patches to enhance PoFV's netplay because he wanted to move forward.[3]
ZUN had also written a short spin-off story to PoFV named "Sexagennially Empurpled Fragrant Flower" (六十年ぶりに紫に香る花), included in the fanbook Seasonal Dream Vision, featuring Yukari Yakumo as its main character.
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