If Danmaku was the only basis for playing Touhou, then honestly Touhou wouldn't be as popular as it is today. IMHO, I have to say that if not for the Art, Story, Music, would we all really be gathered here arguing about this?
I appreciate the games (pretty sure we all do for the most part), I got into this back in 06 when I first got a copy of EoSD and Lotus Land Story. What attracted me to Touhou? was it just the Danmaku? was it just the Music? or was it the Characters and Story? Hard to say but I'll try to explain.
First off I should mention that I play more games and emulations then any healthy person should honestly, and, with Touhou it's pretty hard to say you can just like ONE aspect of the game itself and claim it's the only good virtue.
I played EoSD, at first it was a decent game I thought. I always was pretty curious what the characters were talking to each other about though, specially when they change expressions making funny or annoyed faces, yet I had other shooters I payed attention to.
I would get back to it every now and then since it had nicer music and the Danmaku was a bit more forgiving I remember then one game I was playing at the time I needed a break from.
When I got tired of just wondering what these characters were talking about and what the whole deal was with the plot I checked all over the internet. Sadly Touhouwiki wasn't quite there yet, not many places had translations but found them, eventually.
After that I found the creator (ZUN) made books and some I found were translated as well as many fanworks and their versions of the games how they played out behind the scenes.
As I read more of these and bugged some of my more knowledgeable friends on one's that weren't fully translated, WE grew attached to these character's and the world they live in.
Long story short cause I see myself ranting for a good 3 days on this subject is, to me at least, Touhou games are amazingly and fun to play, but unless you get more in depth with the entirety of the games characters and story surrounding each game your just playing yet another random shooter made by yet another random person.
They are fun but in essence, if you only enjoy the pretty colors of the Danmaku's and it's your only real reason for playing this series then you need to spread your wings more cause there are, from experience, way better Danmaku focused games. May sound blasphemous but it's true =(
To all hating on Parsee's new hair coloring and docking some cosplay wings, just leave her alone, she's off to Reitasai to take Photo's of all those people she's jealous of that cosplay better then her ;3
**I kid, Parsee Aya is cute in her own way I guess, though not big on pointy ear Elf Aya, wtb non-Elf Tengu Aya back thank you.**
Though I guess I've warmed up to Aya this past year, curse you +Anima manga Cooro. Now I can't look at Aya and stay mad at her as much anymore =(
I can't wait for Touhou: DS! may it at least have better music this time around and a speedier Aya! I blame that laxitive Momiji accidently stuffed into the Manju's for Aya's snack in the first game.