The Let's Play Archive

Touhou 1-6

by Zorak

Part 15

Touhou 4 ~ 東方幻想郷 ~ Lotus Land Story
(Romanized Touhou Gensokyo, meaning Fantastic Home Village of the East)
TouhouWiki Entry



Prologue

quote:

Touhou Lotus Land Story back story

In a far eastern land, there was a generally quiet shrine in the mountains.
Hakurei Shrine's shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei, didn't have much to do.

Reimu: *Sigh* Wonder if there's any work (something amusing) around.

And so, because of her careless words, a large amount of ghosts and such
suddenly came barging into the shrine. You reap what you sow.

Reimu: Ueeh, what the heck is this?!

Reimu quickly got down to business, and began evil spirit extermination.

---

Reimu: Hm... at this rate, the shrine will be ruined again.
Looks like there's no other choice.
I'll find the cause and crush it from there!

Somehow, (I'm not making fun of the shrine maiden's "somehow" method)
Reimu felt that the lake in the mountains behind the shrine was suspicious,
and so she promptly headed towards the mountains.

Reimu: This place is definitely suspicious.
There are an amazing number of evil spirits.

Reimu: I'm getting excited,
I'll finally get to do some work (evil spirit extermination) again!!


--Meanwhile.

Marisa: Hmm... what's this magic power?

The possessor of a large capacity of fierce magic power, Marisa Kirisame,
was suddenly tempted by a vast magical force.
Marisa, intent on making this power hers, headed towards the source.

Marisa: Lovely. Where'd all this insane heap of magic power come from?

Marisa headed towards the lake without Reimu knowing.
Well, that's what she had intended...



And so, the two went to the lake for separate reasons... hmmm.

Protagonists

quote:



(Shrine Maiden who Protects Dreams and Tradition)
Reimu Hakurei
Reimu Type A
Shot: 「サーチショット」 "Search Shot"
Reimu Type B
Shot: 「ワイドショット」 "Wide Shot"

A shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, who has an innate spiritual power but lacks training.
She exterminates Youkai by attacking with amulets, firing her Spiritual Attacks,
and utilizing the power of the Yin-yang Orb.
She's an optimist. Although she faces some strange incidents, she still manages to enjoy them.
Because she can be a bit emotional and simple-minded, Marisa always teases her.


(A Being made of Magic and Red Dreams)
Marisa Kirisame
Marisa Type A
Shot: 「イリュージョンレーザー」 "Illusion Laser"
Marisa Type B
Shot: 「ラピッドショット」 "Rapid Shot"

She is an ordinary girl, even though she is a magician.
She can be overconfident, but she has strength to reinforce that confidence.
She is very intelligent, and is always looking for power, but is still just a child.
What she does in her daily life is unknown.
Although she appears to be younger than Reimu, their ages are very close.
I think they both are a bit off from average...



Gameplay
Screen Layout
Scoring System

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Lotus Land Story is one of the standard Touhou games in the PC98 series, and it is, in my opinion, quite possibly the best of them. It introduces many mechanics that are held onto in later games (focus and graze points), has much more challenging/ advanced bullet patterns and bullet dodging, has a much higher quality series of music tracks, and has some pretty interesting stages.

The scoring system is pretty intricate, and I will be going over most of it in the videos, since there are a LOT of factors to it. It's a lot easier to pick up on than Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream, though, so it shouldn't be too bad.

There are two protagonists for this game, Reimu (of course) and Marisa (who is now also an of course). Both have two type variations. I plan on playing Reimu Type A for her run, but you guys can decide what I'll play for the Marisa playthrough.