Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom
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| Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom | |
|---|---|
 Original CD-ROM cover, featuring a silhouette of Junko. | |
| Developer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Publisher(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Composer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Series | Touhou Project |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Bullet hell (danmaku) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Touhou Kanjuden ~ Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. (Japanese: 東方紺珠伝 〜 Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom., lit. "Eastern Tale of the Ultramarine Orb") is a scrolling shooter game developed and published by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the 15th installment in the Touhou Project series. The story centers around the chosen heroine traveling to the Moon to stop an invasion and purification of Earth by the Lunarians.
The demo was first released on May 10, 2015 with a full release on August 14, 2015 at Comiket 88. It was released on Steam on April 1, 2019.[1]
Gameplay
The gameplay fundamentals of Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom are identical to previous games in the series: the player fights various common enemies in a stage with potential for a midboss encounter, and then a boss, who use Spell Cards to attack the player by firing bullets in specific patterns. Four characters can be selected this time around, each with their own unique storyline and dialogue. In Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom, shot types have been tied to characters, and cannot be chosen.
However, Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom also differs greatly from the previous games in the series. The game has two main modes: Pointdevice Mode, or Legacy Mode. Legacy Mode retains the set lives system of previous Touhou games, with the opportunity to gain more, and to use continues, while Pointdevice Mode does not use lives at all, instead opting for a "chapter" system, which act as checkpoints. A level has multiple chapters, and every single unique boss attack in the game is also marked as a chapter. Whenever the player dies, they have the option of restarting from the previous chapter, with the only penalty being a tiny loss in shot power. The game was balanced around Pointdevice Mode -- being the intended way to play the game, and as such the game is arguably far harder on Legacy Mode than any other Touhou game in the series.
The main mechanic change other than Pointdevice Mode introduced in Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom is an expanded graze system. When grazing against enemy bullets, the graze counter will increase at a slow rate for as long as the player remains near the bullet. Power items and point items will also fall at a far slower rate than usual, turning deep crimson in appearance and shaking rapidly. If one continues to graze the same bullet for an extended period of time, the bullet releases a "graze item" which adds 5 grazes to the counter. This ties into the chapter system - as the player's performance is evaluated at the end of each chapter. This depends on the number of grazes and enemy kills the player has managed to achieve in that particular chapter, and scoring more than 1 million points will either grant the player a life piece (Legacy mode only), of which three form an extra life, or a bomb piece (Pointdevice Mode only), of which three form an extra bomb.
Plot
In the distant past on the Moon, the Lunarian goddess Chang'e orders her husband Hou Yi to kill the son of her rival Junko, which he does. In a grief-stricken fit of rage, Junko murders Hou Yi and becomes consumed in her anger, becoming a pure identity-less divine spirit in the process that lives solely to enact revenge on Chang'e. In this time, Chang'e drinks the Hourai Elixir, a sinful potion that forever immortalises the user, and becomes imprisoned by the Lunarians for the eternal crime of ingesting it.
Some time after the events of Imperishable Night, Junko invades the Moon with an army of fairies, with the help of her friend Hecatia Lapislazuli, a goddess of Hell, to search for Chang'e. Hecatia too desires revenge due to Hou Yi shooting down the suns, weaking the shadows of Hell. As a result, Lunarian goddess Sagume Kishin orders the ruler of the Dream World, Doremy Sweet, to create a fake version of the moon's Lunar Capital within the Dream World, so that the citizens of the moon can temporarily live in peace while the empty Capital is ransacked. Realising that there is no real option of quelling Junko's anger and that Junko may well find their temporary home, Sagume enacts the "Lunar Capital Transfer Plan", a plan to permanently relocate the Lunar Capital to Gensokyo by purifying the entire land. Six months prior to the events of the game, the events of Urban Legend in Limbo occur, and one of the Occult Balls scattered in Gensokyo, the Lunar Capital ball, is intentionally planted by Sagume Kishin to start the plan.
In the present day, the Lunarian fugitive goddesses Kaguya Houraisan and Eirin Yagokoro discuss the potential Lunarian invasion in their home of Eientei, and Eirin conjures a special medicine, the Ultramarine Orb Elixir, which removes the impurity of death and allows the user to experience the immediate future. Eirin then asks Reisen Udongein Inaba, a fellow moon rabbit refugee who serves as the bodyguard of Eientei, to deliver the elixir to Reimu Hakurei, Sanae Kochiya, and Marisa Kirisame, also telling her to drink it for herself. Meanwhile, a metallic spider-like rover from the Moon crashes into Youkai Mountain, and starts to roam around, purifying any land it passes by, leaving no signs of life. Reimu Hakurei and Sanae Kochiya both notice the rover's resemblance to NASA's Curiosity rover, and decide to investigate. Marisa Kirisame studies the Lunar Capital ball in her home, before Reisen enters and offers her the elixir, presumably before she also offers it to Reimu and Sanae. The chosen heroine then either drinks the elixir (Pointdevice Mode) or refuses it (Legacy Mode).
While flying at the foot of the Youkai Mountain, the heroine encounters the frontline troops of the Lunarian Earth Recon Unit sent to purify the Earth, and encounters Seiran, who lets slip that their forward base is present at the mountain's lake. The heroine then encounters Ringo, a laid-back but high ranking moon rabbit, who confesses that she doesn't care about the Lunarian army's plan, and directs the heroine to a hidden gate the Lunarians use as as passage between Gensokyo and the Dream World. In the Dream World, the heroine encounters Doremy, who tests the heroine's strength. She then directs them to the real Lunar Capital, against Sagume's instructions.
In the real Lunar Capital on the moon, the heroine encounters Sagume, who initially is quiet and does not respond to the heroine until she is defeated. Believing that the heroine can now solve her problem, Sagume then reveals the real purpose of the Lunarian invasion. Revealing that she can change the course of fate inversely with her words, as a result of her discussion, her ability ensures the plan will not come to fruition, and she bets on the likelihood that the heroine will succeed, directing them to the Sea of Tranqulity.
At the Sea of Tranquility, the heroine encounters a barrage of hell fairies, who have overrun the moon. The leader of the hell fairies, Clownpiece, who has been given an order by Hecatia not to show visitors from the Lunar Capital mercy, then attacks the heroine. After she is defeated, she notes how pure Lunarians should not have been able to hurt her and her army, and reluctantly guides the heroine to Junko. Depending on the player's results, Junko either states that she has lost before the battle even begins (Pointdevice Mode or no-death Legacy Mode) or berates the player for being surrounded by the stench of death (Legacy Mode). After defeating Junko, either the events of the Extra stage happen or the Lunarians either start to inhabit Gensokyo against Eientei's wishes.
Extra Stage
After the hero defeats Junko, the invasion does not stop, and the residents of the fake Lunar Capital start to ponder if their reality is false. In a panic, Sagume descends to Gensokyo and asks the heroines to investigate in the Dream World once more. There, the heroine faces Doremy again, and comes face to face once more with Junko, now with Hecatia. Junko reveals that she sent Hecatia into the Dream World previously during her invasion to prevent the Lunarian citizens from escaping the Dream World as her failsafe. The heroine battles Junko and Hecatia simultaneously, and once both are defeated, they finally yield and ask to be escorted to Eientei to meet Eirin, to which the heroine accepts.
Characters
Playable characters
- Reimu Hakurei (博麗 霊夢), attacks using homing amulets, and needles.
- Marisa Kirisame (霧雨 魔理沙), attacks using lasers, and magic missiles
- Sanae Kochiya (東風谷 早苗), attacks with scattering frogs, and searching snakes.
- Reisen Udongein Inaba (鈴仙・優曇華院・イナバ), attacks with a wide range of bullets, and concentrated, piercing bullets.
Boss characters
- Seiran (清蘭) - Stage one boss. The moon rabbit Seiran is a military infiltrator of the Lunarians and member of the "Eagle Ravi" squad. She usually communicates to her kin via telepathy and makes Mochi for her comrades.
- Ringo (鈴瑚) - Stage two boss. The moon rabbit Ringo is an informant of the Lunarian military and member of the "Eagle Ravi" squad. Being laid back and often chewing on mochi, she rarely fights her opponents until given permission.
- Doremy Sweet (ドレミー・スイート) - Stage 3 boss. Doremy Sweet is a baku and the manager of the dream world who has the power to control, erase, and create dreams. She guards the dream world herself for its order not to be disturbed.
- Sagume Kishin (稀神サグメ) - Stage 4 boss. A high-ranked Lunarian and goddess who has the power to reverse any situation just by speaking. This means that she always has to watch what she says.
- Clownpiece (クラウンピース) - Stage 5 boss. A fairy from hell and subordinate of Hecatia Lapislazuli. She has the power to drive someone to madness with the torch she holds. Her clothes imitate the American flag that was placed on the moon.
- Junko (純狐) - Final boss. Junko is the embodiment of all hatred towards the Lunarian race, especially Chang'e, whose husband shot down the sun and killed Junko's son. She is friends with Hecatia Lapislazuli who sympathized with her as she holds a grudge against Chang'e as well. Based on the Chinese mythological figure Chunhu (Junko is the Japanese reading of the same Chinese characters), who was one of the wives of Houyi, the sun-shooter.
- Hecatia Lapislazuli (ヘカーティア・ラピスラズリ) - Extra Stage boss. Hecatia Lapislazuli is a goddess who governs the Hells of the Earths, the Moons, and the Spirit Worlds. Like Junko, she also has a grudge against Chang'e, whose husband shot down Apollo and indirectly weakened Hell, as Hell wouldn't be able to exist without the sun. She's friends with Junko, and lent her Clownpiece, her subordinate, to fulfill her plans. She is based on the Greek goddess Hecate.
Development
ZUN first announced the game on his blog on April 22, 2015, confirming the title and the characters. He himself said that the game will have a huge departure from the original game's formula, and implementing "different" and challenging gameplay changes yet retaining the core elements of the series.[2]
ZUN stated that he was inspired by games such as I Wanna Be The Guy, which feature extreme difficulty combined with the ability to freely retry each stage.
References
- ^ https://store.steampowered.com/app/937580/__Legacy_of_Lunatic_Kingdom/
- ^ "東方Project 第15弾です。 : 博麗幻想書譜". kourindou.exblog.jp. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
External links
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