Touhou Handheld

[Nekomata-chan]

We all love Touhou, or you wouldn't be here, right? Anyway, I'm currently "training" a new Touhou fan (by training I mean leaving her to Hard Mode and running away so she fends for herself) and one of the first questions that she sent plummeting at me like Gungnir on steroids was...

"Wouldn't it be cool if this was for the DS, PSP or any of those handheld consoles?"

Then Gungnir hit me. My mind went pichu~n and I decided to bring it here. What would your opinion be on a handheld console Touhou game?

If it's already been made (I mean the original Touhou games.)

On an unrelated and possibly arbitrary note, do you think that the PC-98 characters should be brought back? Alice and Yuuka got their comebacks, why have we not seen anyone like Kotohime, Orange or maybe Mima. Everybody wants Mima to make a comeback, and I heard a rumour that the white wisp midboss in Ten Desires was Mima in disguise. Then I saw Kogasa and got distracted.

Please reply!!

[Drake]

Homebrew games. It's happened on the DS; the split in the screen was far too much and it was pretty difficult. You'd have to either have a horizontal shmup, or turn the whole thing on its side to play a PSP shmup. This stuff has happened, it's just not very practical. We're already better off having shmups on tablets and smartphones with large screens, and using touchscreens to control the character. Even then, it's better, but not that practical. We don't really have an equal medium with handheld shmups yet, at least without weird accessories.

[ふねん1]

There haven't been any official Touhou games released on a handheld yet, only the PC-98 and Windows systems.

As for whether I'd like to see a handheld Touhou game, I'm not sure. I know Cave has released handheld versions of their games, though since I've never played any of those I don't know how well they "work" overall. Considering Touhou focuses more on elaborate patterns over sheer difficulty, my first feeling is that the smaller handhelds would kinda limit how well that style of game can operate (smaller screen means less room to show off the patterns).

I'm indifferent on the PC-98 characters to begin with. However, that means I get a bit put off by certain other fanboys constantly fawning over them and wishing they'd return. Why haven't most of them made a comeback? Because ZUN doesn't want them to, simple as that. And I can assure you that much less than "everybody", as you describe it, really wants Mima back. Yes, we all heard that rumor about the TD Stage 1 midboss being Mima back when the trial came out. Then the full version was released and broke all the Mima fanboys' hearts. :V

[Tengukami]

I would play the hell out of a Touhou handheld game. It'd be like being 13 again on a long car ride.

On an unrelated and possibly arbitrary note, do you think that the PC-98 characters should be brought back? Alice and Yuuka got their comebacks, why have we not seen anyone like Kotohime, Orange or maybe Mima. Everybody wants Mima to make a comeback, and I heard a rumour that the white wisp midboss in Ten Desires was Mima in disguise. Then I saw Kogasa and got distracted.

"Should" is a strong word. ZUN doesn't really need to raise PC-98 characters from the dead, when he's quite capable of creating new characters. But a lot of people have their favorite girls that they're always hoping to see come back.

And I can assure you that no, not everyone wants to see Mima comeback. That character has a very ... enthusiastic fanbase that tends to rub a lot of people the wrong way. And even if she did come back, you know those people would never be satisfied unless she was an Extra boss with some mind-blowing 3D danmaku and rapier-wit dialogue that revealed that she was actually the mother of every Touhou character or something.

[haoreos2]

@Orin: I think ZUN's official stance on the return of the ye olde cast was that he doesn't want to bring any more back unless there's a reasonable way to explain their absence, since so many games have passed since then.
If I were ZUN, the four playable characters plus Alice would've been the only ones I'd carry over after the jump (all as character reboots), and 4/5 is pretty darn good. A Mima comeback would be nice, if it weren't for the number of people who would rage about it.

@Tengukami: They also tend to insist she be the next Phantasm boss, although I like to hope that's just for the pun. Was her fanbase that intense back in the PC-98 days?

[pineyappled]

There was no fandom in the PC-98 days.

[iK]

Some of the PC-98 games sold like 200 copies. There really wasn't a fan base until around PCB. PC98 not so much.

For the first part of the topic, I would enjoy seeing a game for a handheld system, but between the [3]DS[i ]'s split screen and the PS3's small screen, it would be quite hard to put a shooter on them. Maybe a game with a throwback to HRtP style gameplay, or a fighter, or some other spin off would work, but the genre doesn't lend itself to a small screen well.

I would personally love to see some PoDD characters (<3 you Ellen and Kana), Elly, and the MS cast return, but I can see how some of them would be hard to explain their absence. And I could not figure out how to word that last sentence. As for Mima, I personally like the character's design and PoDD theme, but it would be awfully hard to explain her disappearance without hanging a bittersweet lampshade on it.

[Tengukami]

Was her fanbase that intense back in the PC-98 days?

We can chart this in Google Trends. Do bear in mind that although I have no statistical training whatsoever, this is a cold, scientific collection and compiling of data.

In Japan:

"東方"



"みま"



In the WTC:

"Touhou"



"Mima"



Overlapping the graphs, we see very different times and behaviors for the Mima fandom.



 Japan appears to have experienced an early spike in late 2005, a tighter but lowerkey middle peak around the spring and summer of 2008 (up to the SA release), and a final confluence again in late 2011, most likely because of rumors regarding Ten Desires. And that's it. Peak Mima achieved: about every three years, with decreasing strength.

In the WTC, however, there is a very different trend.



As we see the strongest overlap is in mid-to-late 2009. It's inexplicable why Japan would have these cyclical Peak Mimas, but the WTC only has one, in the few months leading up to UFO's release. Peak Mima achieved: August 2009.

[pineyappled]

Your search might be a bit off. I have no idea how the Japanese use search engines, but if you look at '魅魔' versus  returns  'みま,' it's pretty clear that something's screwy.

http://www.google.com/trends/?q=%E9%AD%85%E9%AD%94,%E3%81%BF%E3%81%BE&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0


Oh right. Just tried this:
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=%E9%AD%85%E9%AD%94,%E3%81%BF%E3%81%BE,Mima&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=2


Change the Rank By to Mima. Something about Minnesota.


https://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=mima&pbx=1&oq=mima&aq=f&aqi=g4&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1108l2689l0l2853l6l5l1l0l0l0l147l438l2.2l5l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=2303290c933ce3a0&biw=1920&bih=965

[Tengukami]

I thought I already told you this is science dammit.

[haoreos2]

The Touhou fandom must be younger than I assumed, at least outside Japan.

Mmmm, graaaaphs. Wtb touhou-centric google trends xkcd comic.

[DX7.EP]

Touhou game on a handheld? Certainly, I'd play them a lot more than I do now! I find the touchscreen control better than expected, going by Cave STGs on the App Store.

And as for PC-98? The characters are good, their themes better, but I couldn't care less if they return in future installments or not. However having a PC-98 style OST would be a lovely option.

[game2011]

I know there is a fan-made Touhou game for NDS emulators, but I can't get that game to work.

And for the PC-98 thing, I'd rather have Yuki and Mai, especially the latter, back.

[Darth_Sirov]

Wasn't there an iPhone app about it, but was removed (and later returned) due to copyright infringement?

[ふとくていなねこじょおう]

I'd play the shit out of a Touhou handheld game if they ever got to make it work. (The sounded like Tim Gunn in my head.  :V )

As for PC-98, it would be awesome if Mima and Shinki and several others came back, but I do understand that it's ZUN's choice, so whatevs. I'll take whatever the man throws at me.  :3

[Jaimers]

Related.

[Nekomata-chan]

Whether ZUN does or does not is completely not what I care about.

It's just the goddamn fanboy rumours about a character appearing and then the let-down when she doesn't. THAT, mes amis, is what truly takes the biscuit.

Fanboy: OMG [insert character here] WILL BE IN [insert upcoming game]'S [insert number from 1-6 or EX] STAGE!
Me: No way!!
-When the game is released-
Me: LIES!! ALL OF IT, LIES!!

So there you have it. False hype = false hope = :colonveeplusalpha:

[Yukari-Chan]

Whether ZUN does or does not is completely not what I care about.

It's just the goddamn fanboy rumours about a character appearing and then the let-down when she doesn't. THAT, mes amis, is what truly takes the biscuit.

Fanboy: OMG [insert character here] WILL BE IN [insert upcoming game]'S [insert number from 1-6 or EX] STAGE!
Me: No way!!
-When the game is released-
Me: LIES!! ALL OF IT, LIES!!

So there you have it. False hype = false hope = :colonveeplusalpha:

When Ten Desires came out, there was a rumor Mima was the floating spirit in Stage 1.