ZUN revealedTouhou 17on hispersonal blog, with screenshots, a release date estimate, and how a demo is coming soon. Fully titledTouhou Kikeijuu (Oni-Shaped Beast)~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature,Touhou 17will be releasing on PC in Summer 2019, and a demo will be released at Reitaisai 16 on May 5.
ZUN also revealed some info on the game’s story and atmosphere. Reimu, Marisa, and Youmu are paying a small visit to hell and will have a darker adventure than usual. The gameplay experience overall will require players to play more aggressively as well.
Touhouis a series of doujin games, Japanese independent games, made by Team Shangai Alice, a “group” solely composed of ZUN. TheTouhougames are technically danmaku/manic shooters, but the biggest and most popular aspect ofTouhouis the music, composed by ZUN. Many consider ZUN to be more a genius composer than a game developer, and each newTouhougame with its brand new OST can be considered as a new album he’s releasing.
ZUN is the most popular indie Japanese game developer in the world, andTouhouhas been a huge influence on pop culture and gaming, especially on young developers born in the early nineties. The perfect example is Toby Fox, whoseUndertaleis greatly influenced byTouhou.
TouhouProjectis one of the biggest icons of Japanese culture, and the franchise definitely had the biggest fandom in the world among Japanese franchises before starting to slightly decline in early 2010, with the emergence of phenomenons such asKancolleand later onFGOandAzur Lane. Since the series' launch in 1996, and thanks to ZUN’s full acceptance of any kind of derivative work, theTouhoufandom has strived through billions of fanarts, music arrangements and remixes, anime productions, memes, andgames of any genrefrommystery dungeon RPGsto3D battle arena. MultipleTouhougames developed by various studios regularly release each year. The fanbase is so big, andTouhouis so rich beyond the original danmaku games by ZUN, it’s easier to find someone who knowsTouhouand its iconic characters through its derivative works than through the original game series.
