Whats your reasons for playing Touhou?

[warpshadow]

ZUN has hidden the endings away from me and I will find them out, If only I can get past that one spell card of Remilia's.

[Doomsday]

The reason why I play Touhou? Because its fun. 'nuff said.

I've been a big fan of shmups for a long time before discovering Touhou, especially the Darius/Gigawing series.

[Nat Tea]

The thrill of weaving through the beautiful patterns of the spellcards declared towards you, the player. When you're done and finished, you throw your hands in the air in delight that you have beaten the game!

That's why I play Touhou. The characters and the music just made it even better... icing on the cake, as they say.

[Alfred F. Jones]

Because I like beautiful things. In this case, it's the lovely backgrounds, music, character art (mostly for the fighting games though), and danmaku patterns that keep making me come back.

[Angry Fox]

One of the few actiony genres that isnt FPSing that my lowly skills can tap into.

[DeadlyButterfly]

Yuka.
Nuf said.

[Paul Debrion]

I guess it's because it's instant fun, it looks pretty, and the music is nice.

[Spidere]

Well, anyways, the characters are great, the music's great. The gameplay demonstrates ramping difficulty greatly. It's the greatest great ever. Overall, it's...well, great.
 

[non-lolicon Ange fan]

Because it's fun to fly around and shoot things with magic.

And because the music is some of the best I've ever heard from a video game.

And because the girls are insanely cute.

[Tsym]

Because I love the music.  ZUN is just a masterful composer.

Plus because the danmaku is seriously pretty.  The patterns are like art.

[necorelli]

I have no friends
Simply put, because it's fun. I like getting shot dodging the danmaku patterns. Also, the music. It's awesome.

[Astral Blaze]

-The music of course
-The visually stunning danmaku
-I like vertical shooter games
-Interesting cast of characters
-Good plot

My main five reasons.

[Esifex]

Play it? The only one I can even halfway play is SWR and UNL, and currently only successfully 100% on Hard. Can't quite pull off Lunatic just yet.

No, it's mostly the musical arranges, the massive fanon world, the adaptive storyline (Read the little extra bit in the doujin 'Why did she leave the miniature garden', from black!Tewi for a better understanding) and the huge cast.

[Sabino]

Yuri

YOU SAW NOTHING!

Anyhow, for me its because it gets me engaged in much more things than just the game.
I want to draw better since I see so much cool art now, I want to learn music since listened to so much ear-candy, I want to learn more because I want to know the origins of the characters. ... and so much more

[axman36]

I heard the game was difficult and I wanted to figure out how the games played.

Now it's because I have a lot of fun playing it and I like to complete challenges with myself. Though sometimes I have to make sure I do the challenges correctly. Because at one point I had the last two stages of EoSD slowed down to 50 FPS, I repeated the entire playthrough to make sure I properly 1CC'd it with 60 FPS throughout the entire thing.

Also I play the fighters because a couple of my friends got the fighters as well, so we've been playing against each other with it. I'm also the only one of the three of us who can actually host games. Though it can end up becoming very competitive and we sometimes keep playing until around 3 AM in the morning.

[JT]

I really enjoy the music, though that's a boring answer.

The enormous all-female cast? Mountains of lovingly crafted pornography, you say? Why, that has nothing to do with it. Nope, nothing whatsoever.

[SuzumiyaIkari]

The Music (Got some of the song stuck in my head), Its challenging, the characters, the memes it has spawned, and games that they parodied(ex. Touhouvania).

[Tengukami]

There are many games I enjoy, many of them shmups. What makes Touhou special to me is Gensokyo.

The creator has taken the time and effort to write literal books on the backstories, personalities, and inter-personal relationships of a fairly large cast of video game characters, even writing about the history of the world they live in. This, to me, breathes a magical life into the games - it makes me care about the characters.

That dimension on top of an already well-made shmup sets Touhou apart.

[Reddyne]

Touhou is a series of games I've consistently enjoyed and it is also a far cry from my steady diet of RPGs. It's a great change of pace that takes all of 30 minutes to enjoy if I manage a 1cc run. I've thoroughly enjoyed the music as well, though I seem to be enjoying the (good) remix groups moreso than the actual game music recently, which is quite an accomplishment.

[Aniimaaa]

Girls only. hur hur.

No not really, it's just a great game. >w<

[Ragnarok]

because they are a great challenge and after month of training when i finally succeed thats the best feeling ever^^

and of course because it's fun otherwise i would play something else^^

[Alice★f]

Why do I play Touhou?

Well, not everyone likes a damn hard game with a heavy Asian undertone full of "crap flying all over the place"

But it's fun. I love difficult games. I love the music. I also like the storyline, however vague it may be. Something about not giving up and bragging rights as well.

Especially comments from people who say, "How the hell do you even dodge that!? I thought you were supposed to absorb the bullets! That's impossible!"

I can't believe that's Easy mode!

=====================

However, let's not forget fandom. I knew Touhou was a game from the start, but the Chirumiru video is what got me to start keeping an eye on Touhou, each time staring closer. It was a cute little video, a little weird at first becuase I didn't understand anything, but I liked it. It was catchy.

=====================

And Sakuya is my favorite character, and Flan is my favorite Ex Boss.

[Esifex]

However, let's not forget fandom.

Gotta say, this too is one of the main reason I'm so enthralled by Touhou. The massive supply of fanon, the whole nature of the 'Make it your own' behind Gensokyo's backstory and the like, and the fact that it's got a huge already-established character cast, which the fandom has a field day with. It's a literary playground.

[mew77]

Gotta say, this too is one of the main reason I'm so enthralled by Touhou. The massive supply of fanon, the whole nature of the 'Make it your own' behind Gensokyo's backstory and the like, and the fact that it's got a huge already-established character cast, which the fandom has a field day with. It's a literary playground.

More of a game designer's paradise. I've been able to test ideas I never thought possible

For example
shameless redirect: http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=5157.0

The many remixes helps as well.

[EsotericaVirtue]

Mostly the music. It's just so unique and so...pleasing. And the bullet patterns are so beautiful~

[Kinzo the Astro Curious]

Because I dont find many games as intense to play as touhou. It severely makes me concentrate and work very hard for my victory, so its very hard but its not impossible. Feels massively rewarding when youve just come out of a spellcard with no scratches when you think you should have died already. seriously makes me sweat to play lol. works up a "danmaku musk" I call it  :V

Also music and atmosphere helps, touhou PCB and UFO are great for both imo. Yet to play PC-98 touhou, but im getting addicted to mima's theme, so i'm gonna have to at this rate.

[Fenrir the Dusk]

Saw some videos on Youtube, and the music sounded nice, and the characters are interesting, that, and the games looked within my ability to play, sort of, just no precise platforming, or insanely long button combinations that you have to do in about two seconds to pull off, or something.

The fanbase looks interesting too.

[Coyote]

I'm a very casual shmup fan. The only recent games I've played in the genre, other than Touhou stuff, are some of Kenta Cho's freeware games (which are pretty cool). Likewise, I've so far been a casual Touhou fan: I own copies of PCB and IN but haven't played anything more recent, although Double Spoiler looks interesting and I'm considering having it be where I start officially following the series. (Of course, as a player whose crowning achievement so far is just barely 1cc'ing PCB Easy, Double Spoiler will probably murder me, but oh well.)

That said, despite the fact that I will probably never be an exceptionally good player, I'm interested in getting better at Touhou because I'm fascinated by how much Internet love there is for these games. Can't stand/get enough of ZUN's artwork? Here's thousands of pieces of fanart! Love affair with the game soundtracks? Here's thousands (probably) of remixes and arrangements! It's completely nuts, and I can't help but be drawn to something that inspires so much creativity (memes aside) from its fans. That said, I do think it's important to keep a handle on the original work as opposed to just being swept up in the fan stuff, hence my desire to follow the games themselves.

And umm, well, as a gay guy, the concept of hundreds of magical girls flying through the air while smack-talking and shooting beautiful rainbows of death at each other's faces is too ridiculously pretty to not be hooked by. :ohdear:

[Chainsaw Guitar]

Yet to play PC-98 touhou, but im getting addicted to mima's theme, so i'm gonna have to at this rate.

I just got into MS recently. I gotta say, It's become a fast favorite of mine. Yumeko has won over my heart.

... By stabbing it multiple times... But at least she did it without any gimmicks!

[Chronojet ⚙ Dragon]

'Cause I like the music and the difficulty and stuff.