| 東方紅魔郷 ～ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. |
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| Developer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Publisher(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7 |
| Release date(s) | August 11, 2002 |
| Latest release | 1.02h / December 1, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Vertical danmaku scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| System requirements
Pentium 400MHz, 320MB hard disk, Direct3D, DirectX 8, DirectSound, 32MB RAM |
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Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. (東方紅魔郷 ～ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil., lit. Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil) is a vertical scrolling shooter and the sixth official game of the Touhou Project series. It is the first to be released specifically for the Windows operating system and the first by Team Shanghai Alice. All games before Embodiment of Scarlet Devil were made for the PC-98 series of computers and were released by Amusement Makers.
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Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, or EOsD, features two playable characters to choose from, each having two distinct attack types. Reimu Hakurei covers a wide area of the screen with weaker attacks, whereas Marisa Kirisame relies on her speed and power to make up for her thinner attack spread. The bombs ("Spell Cards") also show different behavior and damage depending on the character and type chosen.
Some important gameplay features that Embodiment of Scarlet Devil introduces over its predecessor Mystic Square are automatic item collection, which allows the player to collect all items on screen by moving to the top of the screen at full power; and the counter-bomb system, which allows the player to negate an enemy hit by pressing the bomb button immediately after contact with the enemy projectile. Also, this game is the first Touhou game to feature Touhou's iconic "Spell Card" system. Each Spell Card is a particular bullet pattern and is given a name. A bonus can be earned if the player does not use a bomb or die during any particular pattern.
During a peaceful summer in Gensokyo, the setting of the Touhou Project games, an unnatural scarlet mist appears without warning and covers much of the land. It is strong enough to block out the sun, causing the affected areas to become dark and cold. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden working at the Hakurei Shrine, feels that it is her duty as a shrine maiden to find the cause of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame, a black-clothed magician, hopes that the person responsible for the mist will have some interesting items to collect.
The heroines find their way to the Scarlet Devil Mansion in the middle of a lake, where its residents try to stop the intruders from reaching the lord of the mansion. The source of the mist is revealed to be Remilia Scarlet, the vampiric mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Remilia reveals that the scarlet mist was created to blot out the sun so that she could feel comfortable during the day (because vampires are weak against the sun). After a fierce battle, Remilia is defeated and things return to relative normality in Gensokyo.
In the Extra Mode, the heroines return to the Scarlet Devil Mansion during Remilia's absence and find the entire household in chaos. Remilia's younger sister, Flandre Scarlet, is on the loose, while Patchouli Knowledge, the library witch, is trying to keep her from escaping. Meeting the heroines after 495 years of being locked in the basement, Flandre asks that they play with her.
In the four years since Mystic Square, the previous Touhou installment, the creator ZUN branched off from Amusement Makers and established his own dōjin circle named "Team Shanghai Alice", with ZUN himself as the member. As EoSD would be the first release of Team Shanghai Alice and the first game made for a Windows audience, ZUN felt that the game would need to leave an impression. This is why EoSD has a Western theme, unlike most other games in the Touhou Project whose theme is Oriental.[1]
The Spell Card system, featured in every Touhou game since EoSD, was created by ZUN about three years before the release of EoSD, and was intended to be a means to identify bullet patterns with names as well as adding depth to his characters. ZUN further stated that EoSD itself was created for the purpose of introducing this system.[2]
EoSD is also the first time ZUN programmed a Windows application from scratch. As he was more familiar with APIs and DirectX and was relatively unfamiliar with the application level, a lot of time was put into creating libraries and tools for EoSD. As a result, little time remained to improve the game's presentation, and ZUN resolved to improve the next game in that regard.[3]
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