Gensokyo Night Festival

Survive hordes of extremely dangerous enemies and explore a beautiful 2D world as you control the powers of density and sparseness in the challenging Gensokyo Night Festival. This Metroidvania is anything but easy, just the kind of experience that Touhou fans are after.

Don’t let the adorable chibi models deceive you: Gensokyo Night Festival is determined to make your life as miserable as it can with its punishing difficulty. That said, tight controls and beautiful animations make this game one of the most unique 2D exploration-based platformers we’ve ever seen, and it’s one that any Touhou should try.

Familiar Faces

In Gensokyo Night Festival, players take control of Suika Ibuki: an oni girl with the powers to control density and sparseness. Hailing from Immaterial and Missing Power, Suika is one of the most popular antagonists of the Touhou Project amongst fans. It’s only natural that, if we were going to get a game based on Gensokyo, Suika was going to be the star.

The game takes place in the mystical land of Gensokyo on the night of the Hakurei Shrine festival. The game’s art style takes some cues from some modern Metroidvania titles, and the particles and pixel work look straight out of Noita. Deceptively simple, combos play an integral part in the core gameplay, as players will have to learn how to use Suika’s two powers in tandem.

Charge and Release

“Density and sparseness” might sound a bit vague when it comes to superpowers, but they’re surprisingly simple to grasp. Suika’s ability to control her body’s density allows her to move at unparalleled speeds, all with the help of a useful charged fire shot.

Aiming the fire shot lets players follow the bullet, no matter if it’s up or down, allowing for nearly unrestrained movement. This, together with the fast-paced combat, makes Gensokyo Night Festival one of the fastest Metroidvanias we’ve ever seen, and a proper continuation of its Touhou roots.

However, in a game that demands near-pixel-perfect input from its players, one could argue that there’s a vital flaw in Gensokyo Night Festival’s formula, and that is its disappointingly unresponsive controls.

Fast but Imprecise

Being an indie game, some bugs are to be expected in Gensokyo Night Festival. What shouldn’t be allowed in any game, however, are clumsy controls, and there’s plenty of that here.

First off, keyboard-only players might as well skip this game altogether. A lack of customization options for inputs means that you’ll be better off using a controller than risk losing your sanity – or your fingers – trying to use the game’s keyboard controls.

There’s also the issue of pulling off combos with a keyboard, a feat that seems to be impossible to do. This is all made even worse by the fact that the initial tutorial isn’t all too reliable when it comes to introducing new players to the more advanced mechanics in the game, which can result in hours of frustration. But, hey, this is Touhou we’re talking about.

Pros:

• Beautiful 2D sprite art
• Amazing particle physics
• Hard but fair gameplay

Cons:

• Terrible keyboard controls
• Some performance issues pertaining to particles and lighting
• Tutorial is unhelpful for new players