Undefined Fantastic Object

東方星蓮船
～ Undefined Fantastic Object

Developer(s) Team Shanghai Alice
Publisher(s) Team Shanghai Alice
Series Touhou Project
Platform(s) Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7
Release date(s) August 15, 2009 (Comiket 76)
September 11, 2009 (Retail)
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter
Mode(s) Single Player

Touhou Seirensen ~ Undefined Fantastic Object (東方星蓮船 ～ Undefined Fantastic Object lit. "Star-Lotus Ship of the East") is the twelfth main game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series. Made by the dōjin game maker Team Shanghai Alice, the full version of the game was released in the 76th Comiket on August 15, 2009, followed by the retail release on September 11, 2009.

Gameplay

Undefined Fantastic Object features three playable characters (Reimu, Marisa and Sanae), each with two weapon types. However, unlike Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animism, the spell card (bombing) system from the older games (such as Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night) has been reintroduced. Point value penalties for dying have also been removed. There are 4 levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. Each difficulty level features differences in the number of bullets fired by each enemy, rate of fire, variations in the bullets' pattern of movement, and the number and type of enemy Spell Cards used.

A character's "shot" is the player's primary method of attacking enemies. The shot's attack area and behavior varies depending on the character and attack type the player has chosen.

Like previous Touhou games, there is a line most of the way up the screen called the point of collection. If a character is moved on or above this line, all items on the screen will be drawn to that character. Unlike previous games, it is not necessary to have full power or focus to use the POC because it is always available.

Grazing is the act of positioning the character's hitbox close to the bullets without getting hit. Similar to its older games, grazing is one of the most effective ways to rake in high scores-if done accurately and effectively. For every 10 bullets grazed, the point item value increases by 10 points. Grazing also works during invincibility periods, such as resurrection or bombing, unless the bullets have been destroyed. While grazing in the short term is minimal, it can boost point item totals by a large scale. Being able to calculate remaining point items in the entire game ahead of time is a rare mathematical feat, but it helps to determine whether or not grazing is worth it in certain situations.

Undefined Fantastic Object re-introduces bombs with distinctive visual styles that differ between characters, and even between shot types for the same character. A character's "bomb" is the player's limited-use method of getting out of difficult situations. A bomb's attack area, duration, and power varies depending on the character type and attack type the player has chosen, but it typically deals heavy damage to every enemy it touches, in addition to canceling out any bullets in the bomb's way. The player's character becomes invincible during and for a short time after the bomb's effect wears off. At the beginning of the game and any time your character revives, you will start off with 2 bombs. You can increase your bomb Stock by collecting bomb pieces (3 are needed for a bomb) or bomb items. Green UFOs drop a bomb piece when defeated and a full bomb when their score multiplier is full. You can carry up to a maximum of 8 bombs at a time. If you receive a bomb when you already have the maximum, that bomb will be lost. Unlike previous games, if the player loses a life, the bomb counter only resets to default value of 2 if the player has less than 2 bombs—which means the player can always utilize all his accumulated bombs. Also, unlike every Windows game up to Subterranean Animism, bombing does not auto-collect every item on screen.

Some enemies will have small green UFOs circling above them. They drop a small UFO after you destroy them, and some stage mid-bosses will drop 2 small UFOs after you defeat their final attack. The small UFO will fly around the screen. They come in red, blue and green colours. There are two types, blinking and non-blinking. The blinking UFO will change colours every few seconds. However, keeping your character's sprite in close proximity to the UFO will prevent it from changing colors. The other type of UFO will stay a single colour. It should be noted that these non-blinking UFOs are not random, so their positions in the levels can be memorized to further advantages.

Collecting three UFO items causes a large UFO enemy to appear on the screen. Three of a specific colour of UFO will summon a big UFO of that colour, while collecting one of each will summon a flashing big UFO. If you have picked up two UFO items of the same colour and then pick up an item of a different colour, the first item in line will be replaced by the colour of the item you've picked up last. If you have two UFOs, a UFO of the color that will result in summoning a large UFO will be surrounded by a flashing pentagon so you will know what type to collect without having to look at the bottom-left corner. Each summoned UFO has a life bar and timer for how long you have to defeat it. At about two seconds left on the timer, the UFO will start ascending to leave the screen; it is important to defeat it before it leaves. Otherwise, all the items it has sucked in will be lost. If the UFO is on the screen at same time with a boss, it will fly away even if there is time left; however, in the case of mid-bosses, the UFO will stop flying away if the boss is defeated in time. In-game dialog will make summoned UFOs explode.

Plot

Rumors have been spreading throughout Gensokyo since early spring about a strange flying treasure ship. With the help of Sanae Kochiya, the girls take off to Gensokyo to find this "strange flying treasure ship" in hopes of plundering its treasures.

During the high-speed chase of the "UFO", the player confronts Nazrin, who has come from the flying object looking for something in particular. She insists that there is no such treasure ship. After that, the player runs into Kogasa Tatara, whose only purpose is to scare off the girls.

As the player finally catches up to the ship, Ichirin Kumoi and her familiar Unzan appear, complaining about all sorts of fairies and humans that have been pestering them. She explains that the "ship" isn't actually a ship, but rather a remodeled building given the power to fly. Ichirin Kumoi also mentions that she is trying to revive a certain someone. The fragments - the UFOs that the player has been collecting - are necessary for this purpose, but rather than handing them over, the player instead defeats the pair and enters the ship.

Inside, the player runs into a strange flying object that promptly attacks, then leaves items. Disregarding this, the player then finds Captain Murasa, the youkai ghost captain of the ship. She tells the player that the ship is headed for Hokkai, located on the outer edges of Makai, a world connected to Gensokyo. Since the player entered with enough fragments in their possession, the ship has already begun to enter Hokkai.

Before very long, just outside Hokkai, the player runs into Nazrin again, who has found what she was looking for - the Vaisravana pagoda. After defeating her a second time, Shou Toramaru appears. Now that both the pagoda and the fragments are together, the revival can begin. Shou tells the player that they are trying to revive a "saint" who has been sealed for many years - a person who helped both humans and youkai, and was punished because of it. After defeating Shou, the player opts to help revive this person, since they're already there and everything.

The final confrontation happens deep inside Hokkai, where Byakuren Hijiri has been unsealed. The player's job is to exterminate youkai (or, in Marisa's case, to prioritize protecting humans), so Byakuren disagrees - she is an ally to both, and treats both equally. The player defeats Byakuren in a long battle, and the story ends on peaceful terms, as she and Murasa cruise around Gensokyo in the ship for a while before settling down and rebuilding Byakuren's original temple.

However, the mystery of the UFOs hasn't yet been solved. Marisa discovers that upon opening one of them, a snake comes out and the UFO turns into a piece of wood. The girls take off once again into the night sky to figure out what's going on. Kogasa reappears in the process, again attempting to surprise the player. After that, the strange flying object appears again and transforms into a youkai named Nue Houjuu, who was the one that disguised the fragments. Apparently, the player was the only one who saw the UFOs as UFOs - the enemies the player fought against knew that they were actually pieces of the ship. After defeating her, she explains that she was originally just trying to mess with Murasa's efforts to revive Byakuren, but the player caught her interest, so she ended up helping the player out too.

Characters

Playable characters:

Bosses;

External links