Fantasy Maiden Wars

I bought Fantasy Maiden Wars without really knowing what I was getting into haha, I liked SRPGs and I liked Touhou so I figured hey, this will be a fun game to pick up right?

Well approximately 120 hours later and 7 months after the fact, I can definitively say yes, it was a fun game to pick up. And I’m only done one route. And I haven’t done the post game epilogue chapters yet.

This is a very, very, very, packed game. I’m not a Touhou expert by any means, having only played some of the shmups and other fan games (though I’ve read a lot of the manga and enjoy a lot of yuri ships) so I wasn’t familiar with the original version of the game which to my understanding was actually four games. And the content absolutely matches. Not only are there a plethora of maps and units, there’s also an EXTREMELY large OST (more expensive than the game I might add, and for good reason since there’s like 234 songs), there’s also a lot of story, dialogue, and some very impressive animations. I was honestly shocked by how much there was in the game.

The gameplay itself was also more complex than I expected, though I confess that I played on hard and while I wouldn’t say I ignored all the mechanics, I definitely got away with being a little lax on some things. When I checked the steam guide and saw all the different modifiers showing how damage was calculated I thought damn. Had I played on lunatic I might’ve had to take more care but playing on hard I was mostly content with just playing my favourite characters and pairing them together (by ship of course).

So to get that part out of the way first, I found that the gameplay was fun, though quite different from the usual kinds of SRPGs that I play, not that I play many. But usually I find myself more concerned with the map/terrain and how to position units. In FMW, I found that positioning units wasn’t as important, in the sense that because most units could well fly, there wasn’t the usual same kind of map restrictions you would find in other SRPGs. To me it felt like the tactics aspect was replaced more with understanding how to build units and how to use the skills effectively to counter the units deployed against you. Also to be fully clear, I’ve never played a Super Robot Wars game before which is what this gameplay is based off to my understanding.

Moving units around the map, selecting attacks, picking your defensive options, and balancing your resources combined with the skills (spirits) is where the strategy aspect comes in and I found it to be relatively simple on that front. And by that I mean on the surface it’s pretty straightforward. You use the skills that make sure you hit, make sure you don’t get hit, sometimes use the skills to do extra damage or get around the enemy defense, etc. The complexities and creativity comes from how you build units and there’s a plethora of ways to do that in terms of skills you unlock for them as well as just in general how you pair units together (once that gets unlocked).

Generally speaking I’m not usually into that aspect of strategy, usually preferring it when builds are simple and straightforward and my on the map decision making is what mattered. But I am a simple man, and because I liked a lot of the characters, I actually found it quite fun. Finding pairs that worked together (cough cough all my ships) and figuring out how to use the units in conjunction was fun to do! Seeing damage number go up was also quite satisfying, and whenever I had a big turn it always felt suuuuper good.

Bosses when using spellcards also forced me to modify the way I used my units which I thought was cool (or frustrating depending on the spellcard lol). True in tone with Touhou, a lot of the spell cards were very pretty to look at even if some of them made me go “oh shit”.

Now, gameplay mechanics aside, where I found the game REALLY shined and the reason why I kept playing and playing was I really really adored all the love the developers poured into the game. There’s a LOT of content even just from the gameplay, whether it being the characters using their spell cards as attacks, or all the animations they have. Seriously, I was shocked by how many animations there were since there was one for each attack. And bosses had their own animations too! A lot of them were a blast to watch and enjoy, and I confess that a significant portion of my gameplay time was probably just from watching the attack animations.

But even more than that, there were so many battle lines! There were generic ones of course, but often times characters would have unique battle lines against bosses both before you start combat , to also the actual attack line they say before they used their attack. It’s a very small detail, literally one or two lines, but when you consider how many characters there are, I was amazed by the amount of effort that was put in.

Also! For a yuri shipper like myself, there were lines between pairs of characters too! Even more than that, when you paired up units, there were pair names which I thought was a really nice touch. It adds nothing to the gameplay, but it added a lot to how much I enjoyed seeing the different combination of units and what pair names the developers gave them.

So considering how many lines of dialogue there are over how long the game is over how many battles over how many characters, I really respect the effort the developers went to.

And yet, there’s more! In addition to all those little details, there’s a lot of bigger details with the very detailed glossary and character entries too. It’s jampacked with a lot of notes and lore, both in setting and official Touhou setting, and as someone who wasn’t the biggest expert on Touhou lore past some of my favourite characters, I found it really interesting and felt like I learned a lot about the series.

Even MORE than that, each SONG they made has a little entry talking about the original song, the inspirations, and just general little tidbits. And again, for 234 songs that’s insane! I loved reading the notes they added for the songs and I thought it was really neat they did that. There’s a clear show of passion from everyone involved with the game and I absolutely loved that about it.

Plus, I haven’t even talked about the actual story and writing. It’s a relatively straightforward story that goes through the events of some of the earlier Touhou windows games, while referencing the old PC98 games as well. Having only played through 6-10, it was cool to see the events unfold with a bit of an original twist. They did a good job at connecting the events of the incidents more seamless and I liked the original bits they added.

The original incident central to the game also felt very Touhou-esque which I thought was great. I liked the new characters they added and thought they were pretty charming and fun. Their designs were cute and most importantly, the way they interacted with the main cast was really fun to read.

Speaking of, to me where the games writing shined the most is all the character interactions. I loved, loved, loved when the characters were talking with each other. So many scenes were fun, or even touching, and I think it’s a testament to how much the writers really liked the setting and characters that they were able to do so much.

In particular, and partial recency bias here, but a lot of the later chapters were really well written. The Yukari and Yuyuko dynamic I really loved how they did it in the game, and the chapter with the Primsriver sisters I confess almost made me cry.

I can go on and pick out little scenes and dialogues that I really enjoyed or found heartwarming (one last little shoutout to Dai and the rest of the fairy gang, I thought that scene was fantastic too) but there’s honestly just so many. I found myself loving these characters even more.

While the story by the writers own admission is a bit cheesy and cliched at times, it serves as a good reminder that cliches aren’t inherently bad. It’s always about execution. And my ass certainly jumped for joy the entire last four hours I spent on the final level because of how hyped I got. Spoilers but when the entire cast comes in together to talk about the trials they went through to get here, AND a new orchestral version of the title theme plays, AND everyone gets super powered up, how can I not get hyped???? I loved the music note as well saying how they played the normal title theme throughout each arc literally just for this moment, and it was absolutely 10000000% worth it.

Thank you Sanbondo for making an incredible game jampacked with love. This is easily one of my favourite Touhou fan games that I’ve played, and I’m looking forward to doing the post game content and the NG+ stuff on the other route as well.

Woah, a NG+ blog post? Fitting for a game with a NG+ that’s about just as long.

Well, I say that but I’m not even done yet, and the stuff I’m talking about right now is just a note of me going through Marisa’s route lol.

I remember when I first started, people were talking about how Marisa’s route was better, though harder than Reimu’s. I very recently finished chapter 39 where Marisa got her powerup and I feel like I’m starting to see where people are coming from.

I think there’s something to be said about Marisa’s and Reimu’s personality, but in FMW they really play up Marisa’s sort of outgoing/energeticness and I think it adds a lot to her character arc. Mima telling her that her magic is trash causing Marisa to spiral into her own sort of depression/feeling of lostness, only to come back and remember why she started doing her own magic…

The scene with the shooting stars where Marisa essentially falls in love with that blaze of glory, that was peak!!! Big fan!!!!

It’s cheesy, I know. But it’s great!!! And the music???? Hello???

THIS is what SOUL is.