How did you LEARN about Touhou?

[Gpop]

I actually got into Touhou BEFORE Mcroll'd was spawned into this world by almost exactly a month (11/30/07 was the date I first played Touhou), so I'm fortunate enough to see Mcroll'd as U.N Owen instead of the other way around.

Oh hey there fellow discoverer. I found and played the game around that time as well

[Tengukami]

I remember when I finally got around to downloading one of the games, I had many choices, but wanted to get the latest one - this being August 2007, I went with Mountain of Faith. To this day that game always has a special place in my heart. Sometimes, just for fun, I'll open Stage 4 in Practice Start because of how pretty it is.

[Momiji]

How can a game, that ruined 90% of people's lives, be called profit?

Touhou got me off of playing WoW, I owe my life to it.

A danmaku-fan friend of mine introduced me to it years ago, before the whole Overdrive thing exploded.  But I've only been really into it for the last two years or so.

[Yukkuri]

I think that I saw Dracil's replay of In extra stage.  I then researched it, and finally found where I could get the games.

How I found this place I was reading some fanfic on touhou wiki and I tried finding the original source, and I found this place.

[Desert]

Around the time I started using Youtube, I searched for a game called Daigasso! Band Brothers for the DS. After hearing several videos, I looked at the related videos, and stumbled upon this. Though at the time, I thought it was just something original. A bit after that, I found a video called Nico Nico Douga Medley, and really like most of the music in there. So I favorited that, but really didn't bother to find out where the songs came from.

It wasn't until I saw another Nico Nico Douga Medley video that I actually wanted to figure out where the music was from, particularly that "Help Me, Eirin!" So I did what I always do when I want to ask a question on Youtube. Look around the comments to see if someone already asked it. Sure enough, someone had asked that, and I found out it originated from "A doujinshi called Touhou." When I saw that I was wondering how a manga could have music, because I seriously thought that doujinshi was a term used for fanmanga, and nothing else.

Shortly after that, LuizPrower posted this video, which is when I found out that it was a game (immediately followed by me trying to find out exactly what doujinshi was). So I tried to find out how to get the games, but decided againts it due to not actually owning a computer (shared family computer back then). By the time I actually obtained a laptop, I had forgotten about Touhou. That is, until I saw a video of the UFO demo. Decided to get the demo, and from there on, I've been playing Touhou.

On an extra note, I managed to 1cc Normal MoF within a month, shortly followed by EoSD, PCB. Though ever since my gamepad broke, I haven't really tried to 1cc anything.

[Kanako Yasaka]

I actually got into Touhou BEFORE Mcroll'd was spawned into this world by almost exactly a month (11/30/07 was the date I first played Touhou), so I'm fortunate enough to see Mcroll'd as U.N Owen instead of the other way around.

I KNEW the song before then, but I didn't know what it was from. :| I called the McRoll song a mix of UNknown Girl (which was the remix of UN Owen by dBu on FFR)

[Zengeku]

About a year ago. Don't remember the exact day. Me and a friend watched a lot of videos about the Touhou games because the music was awesome and watching skilled players play the games was somewhat fun. I got bored with it though and decided to try and play the games myself so i went and fetched Imperishable Night off of somewhere and started playing. I sucked to a legendary state and today i don't why i couldn't clear Easy mode in 1st attempt starting with 7 lives.

I don't recall how fast i made it beyond the suckiness but i wasted a lot of time playing easy stuff. A lot of time wasted on Normal mode too. I should just have moved on when i could comfortably clear the difficulty but whatever. I want to play forever and i have no reason why i would want to rush it. I'll clear Lunatic when it happens. Be it in three months or in 3 years. I don't really care.

[dustyjo]

I think it was from McRoll'd.

I heard the music and was curious about what Touhou was, and when I saw it I was like WOW THIS LOOKS AWESOME

The rest is history.

[Sean]

I would probably say my first exposure to Touhou was....roughly a year and a half (or more) before I actually took any interest in it. When I first discovered it, I did a bit of research and wound up saying. "Oh wow, there's no way I'm playing this. Only a complete gaming masochist could find this fun."

....of course, 1.5 years later, here we are. I continued to see various things on the internet related to Touhou and said "Okay, I might as well look into these games...what have I got to lose?" ....the speed at which it hooked me in frightens me, to be perfectly honest. Does it do that to everybody?

[Mizuki-chan]

....the speed at which it hooked me in frightens me, to be perfectly honest. Does it do that to everybody?

The moment I saw Touhou I fell in love with the game. I now have an obsession that I truly enjoy. 

[Garlyle]

First, an encounter with FOEs
Then I looked up more IOSYS music and "Touhou Project" was first noted
But, I paid it no heed.
Yet I kept hearing about it, so I was like
"Okay, someone link me to these games"

...And that's what happened.

[Ghaleon]

I would probably say my first exposure to Touhou was....roughly a year and a half (or more) before I actually took any interest in it. When I first discovered it, I did a bit of research and wound up saying. "Oh wow, there's no way I'm playing this. Only a complete gaming masochist could find this fun."

....of course, 1.5 years later, here we are. I continued to see various things on the internet related to Touhou and said "Okay, I might as well look into these games...what have I got to lose?" ....the speed at which it hooked me in frightens me, to be perfectly honest. Does it do that to everybody?

I'm pretty hooked and I've only been playing it for a few weeks now. I was just as hooked by day 2 as I am now though.

[Omnifish]

I found out about Touhou via the Crowning Music of Awesome page on TV Tropes, sometime last September.

[KomeijiKoishi]

I posted this in the old forums, too, so...

- Found picture of Yukari's second-to-last spellcard in Phantasm in a German video games magazine
- searched on Youtube and Google
- started with IN, then PCB, finally found DS and downloaded every Touhou available

[Quintafeira12]

My girlfriend said she was playing a game.

So I went to her computer, searched up the game Perfect Cherry Blossom, and rather than playing it first, I read the translated "manual" file there. I was captivated. That had nothing to do with flowers, like I thought, it was about killing Eastern man eating mosters, in their own home world.

Pretty weird way to start a touhou game the first time: knowing the plot...

*picks Marisa* *loses* *loses* *MASTAH SPARK* oh, aweso- *loses* - crap...

[theshirn]

First, an encounter with FOEs
Then I looked up more IOSYS music and "Touhou Project" was first noted
But, I paid it no heed.
Yet I kept hearing about it, so I was like
"Okay, someone link me to these games"

...And that's what happened.

SAITAMA! SAITAMA! F O E!
EIRIN! EIRIN! F O E!
GOSSUN! GOSSUN! F O E!
DOUMAN! SEIMAN! F O E!!

It also doesn't help that every time I get to Chen on Hard, I always chant "Douman Seiman F O E!"  And as someone who's played a lot of both Touhou and Etrian Odyssey, the concept of Chen the FOE is...truly...frightening.

[RainfallYoshi]

this, then this, then this

Wow... that's exactly the same videos that led me into Touhou. Creepy.

To give a bit more of a full story though...

I was addicted to this game by the name of osu! It was like EBA but more fun with less annoying songs. It was fantastic. I was playing around on Multiplayer and the host decided to pick the Ronald U.N. Owen. Instantly queue the "wtf" from me as I play the map (and fail miserably). I wondered what the crap it was.

Well, it wasn't until a few days later that I actually began investigating. I was bored and wasn't in much of an osu mood. So I decided to look up the Ronald McDonald song to see how people reacted to it, where I figured out there was actually a video for it.

I figured out from reading through comments that it was actually a remix to a song called "U.N. Owen Was Her?". I looked it up and found the original song and thought it was amazingly addictive. I really wanted to know what game it was from and saw a video response down below of a game. I clicked and was amazed as the insanity I saw, EoSD Extra. My first thought was "Oh hell, I could never do that. That's just too insane". That was that for a few days, but as it sank in I finally decided that I had to try this crazy game.

Which is when my first touhou game became Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. I played on easy and got a game over on Patchcouli, using up all three continues. It was amazingly addictive though.

And that's how I came to know Touhou.

[Slowpoke]

I found out through Touhou hijacks and Touhou Seimoe threads on /a/. (This was when there were about 50 to 100 Touhou videos in total on Youtube, so at least I didn't find out about it through IOSYS. I didn't know about that until I went to Walfas.) Although I did see some kid playing an STG with lolis on his laptop in 2004, it could have been Touhou.

First Touhou video.

First image I saved.

I posted on /jp/ for a while until it was clear to me that the board couldn't be saved from itself. I found the Touhou Imageboard through Wakachan.

[Ghaleon]

My girlfriend said she was playing a game.

So I went to her computer, searched up the game Perfect Cherry Blossom, and rather than playing it first, I read the translated "manual" file there. I was captivated. That had nothing to do with flowers, like I thought, it was about killing Eastern man eating mosters, in their own home world.

Pretty weird way to start a touhou game the first time: knowing the plot...

*picks Marisa* *loses* *loses* *MASTAH SPARK* oh, aweso- *loses* - crap...

WTB girlfriend who is into touhou.. no.. wtb any friend into touhou >=P. All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

[Cadmas]

WTB girlfriend who is into touhou.. no.. wtb any friend into touhou >=P. All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

Finding any woman down here who likes touhou would be like finding a 3 in binary code.
I'm in the same boat mate.

[bjw]

The short story is that I got into Touhou via shitty IOSYS flash videos and curiosity. Hate me if you please

[Nuclear Fusion]

I blame theshim

[KomeijiKoishi]

All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

Yeah, that's just so sad. In my class, there are a few Warcraft-cracks, and they are ALWAYS telling me that the games that I play suck because of the graphics or because nobody knows them (The World Ends With You, Elite Beat Agents, Baten Kaitos, Castlevania, and of course Touhou) and that WoW is THE BEST GAME EVER MADE.
I wish I just could throw a giant "OH, JUST SHUT UP" in their faces.

[bjw]

All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

Yeah, that's just so sad. In my class, there are a few Warcraft-cracks, and they are ALWAYS telling me that the games that I play suck because of the graphics or because nobody knows them (The World Ends With You, Elite Beat Agents, Baten Kaitos, Castlevania, and of course Touhou) and that WoW is THE BEST GAME EVER MADE.
I wish I just could throw a giant "OH, JUST SHUT UP" in their faces.

First of all, WoW has shitty graphics so tell your friends to fuck off.

Secondly, those that strive off mainstream games are no worse than those that always bitch and moan about how their "unknown and hardcore" games are far superior. We're all pretty much in the same boat. Whatever happened to people just being gamers?

[Gpop]

WTB girlfriend who is into touhou.. no.. wtb any friend into touhou >=P. All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

Most of the people here plays:
Call of Duty series
Halo 3
Guitar Hero/Rock Band
Fallout 3

...uhh...I forget. I think there's a lot more. They used to play a lot of WoW though, but it completely died down now, thank god.

Now 2 of my friends:
Touhou
Stepmania

[theshirn]

I blame theshim

Damn straight!

[Quintafeira12]

Secondly, those that strive off mainstream games are no worse than those that always bitch and moan about how their "unknown and hardcore" games are far superior. We're all pretty much in the same boat. Whatever happened to people just being gamers?

Unknown and hardcore my grass! The WoW addicts in town here (who are always using the plugs to play their games in the library whenever I need to do an assignement on my computer and its low on battery, damned poo-poo heads!) don't even know that the term Metroidvania might come from joining the terms Metroid and Castlevania, because they have no idea what the hell is Metroid and Castlevania!

and they make fun of people who just mention these kind of games, specially if the word "pokemon" is even alluded at, when all the play is, again, WoW and... ... I lawfully despise them and you'll have to agree: -Pro Evolution Soccer <insert highest current #>. Yep, that's all they play.

Tell me how the hell are these two titles Unknown and Hardcore? Every single person in the internet seems to know  that SAMUS IS A GIRL and must have seen "The" Dracula at least once in their lives or heard of it, and two "l33t H4x0rY PWN'age M45T3R5 of LEEROY" who spend 6 hours everyday glued to a pc have no idea and mock them?



Sincerely, I like WoW. I like any game that's not "brown". I like shooters and all that "hardcore shit". But I seriously have issues with "hardcore players", the people that just go after the hot and trendy and announced on E3 not by nintendo.

WTB girlfriend who is into touhou.. no.. wtb any friend into touhou >=P. All my friends only play games that are trendy or popular. wahh.

Lol, she got the fad from another girl and we both passed it on to another girl. Those 2 forgot it now and only play on new releases and when we are playing it first. (like with when we pointed out that we were playing UFO's demo)


...
She's not for sale.

[Noite]

Wow, it sure seems a load of people started playing because of Kefit's eosd extra replay, and I'm yet another of them!

Think I was browsing mushihimesama videos while being amazed by the sheer amount of bullets, when I stumbled upon Kefit's eosd extra replay. It was love at first sight, beautiful patterns, rich colours (contrasting mushihimesama's boring purple bullets) and really good soundtrack were enough to have me looking for ways to play it. Couldn't find any place to download it from at the time, so I ended up buying eosd and all the other iterations of touhou on windows.

Think that was around mid 2008, been playing on and off since then, more off than on, goddamn work and WoW, even though I quit as soon as we were done with TBC. Having quit wow gives me a lot more time to rage at this beautiful game :>

[Cadmas]

and they are ALWAYS telling me that the games that I play suck because of the graphics

Graphics by far is pretty much just a word to any real game player.
I rather play a fun 2-d pixel art game than a junky full 3-d mega realistic graphic game that is boring.

Seems the more "real" game get to looking the more lame they become.
Case in point the Final Fantasy series that slowly seems to be dying.

[KomeijiKoishi]

Graphics by far is pretty much just a word to any real game player.

Exactly.

I rather play a fun 2-d pixel art game than a junky full 3-d mega realistic graphic game that is boring.

Exactly again. For my part, I LOVE Super Aleste for the SNES because of its pretty complex gameplay being made simple (8 SHOT TYPES! 8! AND YOU CAN MODIFY THEM!)

Seems the more "real" game get to looking the more lame they become.

I always thought, video games exist to, well, escape reality visiting a different world, and not visiting one which is the same like the one we're living in already.

Case in point the Final Fantasy series that slowly seems to be dying.

The SNES era had the best Final Fantasy and the best Final Fantasy villains.
Kefka and Exdeath... (Question: Did Golbez become good at the end of FF 4?)
PSX era was OK, too, but PS2 era just sucked.