Developer: NIS America
Publisher: NIS America
Genre: Dungeon Crawler, JRPG
Format: Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4
Released: July 20th 2018
Purchase Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded Here: https://store.nisamerica.com/games/limited-editions/touhou-genso-wanderer-reloaded-limited-edition-ps4
Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded keeps things simple but by no means is this a bad thing. Let’s start with the dungeons and movement controls. In almost all 2.5d dungeon crawlers teh dungeons themselves are grid based and this is no different for Genso Wanderer, the difference is that movement is never an issue. You can move in 8 directions but have the option of staying on your square and rotating yourself without worry of moving around like a maniac. At the same time you can also restrict yourself to diagonal only movement.
There is also the iDash control scheme which speed dashes you to the closest item, branching path or warp circle depending on where you want to move. Gone are the annoying moments of walking down long corridors. Enough about the movement lets get on to what you can see and hear. The animation is incredibly KAWAIII… excuse me. The animation is incredibly cute and impressively smooth. A few times I just stood there admiring the different enemy types and designs and absurd weapons my character was holding to attack them with.
The dungeons themselves do lack a little something special to make them unique but they are still easy to tell apart. The voice acting is really well done, so full credit goes to the voice actors. You do get the irritatingly high pitched bubbly characters but that just comes to personal preference if they annoy you or not. The characters themselves have a wide variety of personality and are all hilarious in their own way. Some dialogue will tickle your funny bone and then swing around and tickle your footsies.
The music is what you would expect from any Touhou game, amazing. All tracks stand out and will get you tapping your toes while slaughtering some cute yokai. Speaking of slaughter the combat isn’t the greatest thing ever but again is simple and well balanced. It’s never an issue but does leave me wanting more from it. This could be a case of giving Melee weapons there own skills instead of characters having 4 unique skills each. The skills do give you a reason to try out all the different characters you can unlock but this shouldn’t be the only reason.
Adding elemental strengths and weaknesses could be another addition to the combat system. Water yokai should take them same amount of damage from water attacks as fire yokai. Character level up separate from equipment which is fine but if you leave or complete a dungeon your character resets to level 1. This can make the game incredibly grindy for those not used to the genre. I can see this being a big turn off for people but personally I don’t mind it.
There are Sage trials which are a good way to test your abilities but completing them although you are at the games mercy when it comes to item spawns as you desperately need food to drop during these trials due to your tummy meter. Once it depletes it’s pretty much game over. Also relax with the floor traps. The worst I had t was in the radius of 10 steps I got hit by 5 negative effects.
All things considered I will be giving Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded a 7.5/10. It’s a decent game but there are a few too many gripes I have which stops it having a higher rating. Make the game a little more complex so strategy is needed and the rating will shoot up………Oh and more space for items pleaaaasssseee.
Kawaii overload, prepare yourselves. - Mamushi
Looks like something made with that PS1 RPG Maker, only betterer. Nice one Mamushi, another good review.