start date: 8/18/23
normal 1cc: 8/20/23
written: 8/20/23
my one-a-day streak has been broken, my career is over! orz
not that i was remotely expecting to have kept up that pace for almost the entire series, and Unconnected Marketeers gave me good reason to take it slow and try more runs that usual. but thats spoilers innit :P
nina's thoughts on Touhou 18 - Unconnected Marketeers
if you recall my last post about Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, youll know that i said it felt like touhou games needed to really do something big to stand out this many games deep. well, i think ZUN had the same idea, cause Unconnected Marketeers definitely stands out, with one of the coolest new systems in the series. UM does something really fresh, integrating roguelite elements into the gameplay in a simple but pretty effective way through Ability Cards.
heres the rundown. before you start a run, in addition to choosing your character you also pick an 'ability card' to start with. throughout the stages of UM, enemies drop money tokens instead of the typical blue point items, and at the end of each stage after defeating the boss they open trade with you and offer a selection of Ability Cards to buy with your money: a handful of gaurenteed basic cards (a 1up, a bomb, extra power, etc), the stage boss's signature card, and then 3 random ability cards selected from a pool of about 50 cards. ability cards come in 4 varieties: active cards, equipment cards, passive cards, and item cards. all the categories are pretty self-explanatory by the name, except equipment cards, which are like extra weapon options that are added on top of what you have. once you buy a card for the first time, its permanently unlocked to be selected as a starting card in future runs.
every ability card is based on a character from the series, which is a really cool way of using the huge cast that touhou has (sadly its mostly playable characters and final/extra stage bosses, so no Wriggle card as far as im aware v_v). its really cute seeing how certain characters abilities are translated to card form, like Koishi's card that makes it so enemies dont kill you if you collide with them, or Lily White's card that literally summons her as a micro-boss and gives you a good item if you beat her. i haven't unlocked them all, and i think some of them are unlocked by completing certain things, like a second card for each playable character that only unlocks when you beat the game with them. i might keep playing just to see what other cool cards there are, especially since the cards themselves give a lot more replay value than usual. you even unlock the ability to use 2 starting cards after your first clear.
since the ability cards add so much variety to the gameplay, the player character selection is kept pretty simple to not overcomplicate things. we have Reimu and Marisa as usual, as well as Sanae and Sakuya (im glad they ironed out their differences and are able to coexist now :P). Reimu, Marisa, and Sanae all play exactly as they have the last couple games, but Sakuya actually goes back to her roots and uses a modernized version of her weird B set from PCB, which im glad returned since it was a really cool one. if you need a refresher, thats the one where her throwing knives are angled left or right based on your movement, and focusing locks the angle in place. in addition, now vertical movement also influences the knife pattern, with downward movement increasing spread while upward tightens it. its tough to master, but you feel like a beast when you make it work for you. i got my 1cc with Sanae, but i might keep playing and go for runs with the other characters too.
as for the new characters, if youre familiar with the cast of Unconnected Marketeers you already know who im about to be talking about.
thats right, Momoyo Himemushi, baby! lets go! another bug-type youkai so soon after Eternity Larva, and for the first time she's Not a stage 1 boss! she's actually the strongest enemy in the game, lurking at the end of the extra stage to fight only the most powerful players. Momoyo is based on the Oomukade youkai, a massive centipede who lives in the mountains and eats serpents and dragons, with the only weakness that can pierce its exoskeletal armour being human saliva. shes strong as hell and basically the coolest ever, totally not biased at all. shes got her sick minecraft gold pickaxe and shovel to dig up tasty gemstones, and doesnt hesitate to beat the tar out of anyone who tries taking her stuff. shes even got some bonus gender spiciness, using 'ore' for herself instead of most characters 'watashi'. im glad we finally got our justice for bug youkai, with the most badass centipede lady you'll probably ever see.
the final boss Chimata is pretty neat. shes a god of special event marketplaces, so anytime you go to a convention and find some cool stuff in the dealers room you have her to thank. she has a really wild design, with a patchwork rainbow dress with a matching headband, and a white cloak with the cloudy sky on the inside trim, representing a lunar rainbow and the market that takes place under its light. its pretty sick, but probably absolute hell for fanartists lmao.
my third choice of the new characters would be Takane. shes a yamawaro (mountain kappa) with forest-related powers, and like the river kappa theyve become entrepeneurs and inventors in Gensokyo. Takane has some hilarious interactions with the main characters, especially Sakuya who literally is just there to buy cards, where she engages in a boss fight to protect the protags from stealing her ability cards, but after the fight ends and she finds out that youre a paying customer her demeanor completely flips and she starts hyping up her wares lol.
Unconnected Marketeers is really fun! its great to see such a unique and innovative entry for a series thats 18 games in, without overturning the base gameplay loop that the fans are there for (glares at game series being re-invented as an open world walking simulators). interestingly the Ability Cards, while being the main plot instigator, are kept around in the end, so it seems like its set up to be more than just a one-off mechanic. from what ive heard of touhou 19 i dont think they're there, but 19 is also a non-standard touhou for other reasons, so its up in the air. either way, whether the ability cards are a one-time thing or an evolution, theyre great fun and add a lot of interesting variety to the gameplay, and fit in pretty naturally to the gameplay loop touhou already had going for it. take all that good gameplay stuff and add on to that we finally get respect for bug youkai with Momoyo, and UM is up there in the top echelons of touhous. lets go bugs!!!! we win these!!!