there is no meaning in life without Reimu
if youre a touhou fan (specifically marisa x reimu fan), its a pretty good play.
you play as Marisa, who is trying save Reimu from her inevitable fate, and in the end has to ultimately accept said fate, [spoiler]but cannot endure to keep living.[/spoiler]
it does give the impression of a simple story, but at the end its a whole lot more —i really liked the ending, which alot of people arent fans of, where it proved this impression wrong. love can utterly consume you [spoiler]to the point where one chooses to follow the other into death, and im really a sucker for such scenarios.......
yes, it is fair to hate the ending because why throw your life away when you still have so much time to do and experience stuff? but alot of people dont realize it is very hard to keep living when you lose something extremely crucial to your day-to-day life, which was Reimu to Marisa. you can clearly see how Marisa is devoted to her and cares deeply for her, seemingly cannot live without her. so for me, the ending makes very much sense.
this is exaggerated, but i wouldnt wanna keep living if i for example was robbed of the gift to see and hear, as hearing is very precious to me, so is seeing, or be paralyzed from the neck down. such life is truly pitiful and for some even a waste to live, ultimately living only to suffer. something as important as that, was Reimu to Marisa, which maybe seems ridiculous to some, but you truly cant know to which lenghts people love, or how big is the value, and let themselves be consumed by it.
though it did make me a little irritated how nobody else seemed to care, for both of them. nobody really cared when Reimu was dying and word kept getting out, and nobody really cared for Marisa afterwards, which could have also been very well a reason she ended it. she had nobody else to stay for. [/spoiler]
i havent played more from this developer, but i intend to (unfortunately half of their games arent even translated to eng yet, so ...... may have to postpone that.). as their works seem to radiate of a hobby that puts characters into more simple and natural stories, and i really do enjoy seeing characters being placed into more 'human' scenarios, as it is very common for fictional characters to be missing those.
normally Marisa and Reimu are girls that fight monsters, but in here they are much more than that, they are more grounded, closer, are partners. they feel incredible compassion and fragility towards each other.
such and similar scenarios are crucial for average character developments, it adds depth to them, no matter how much headcanon-y that depth may be in this case, it makes them feel more real, more human, makes more easier to connect with them.
the soundtrack was top notch, fitting.
during V/KNs or these very short rpg games, i do find it far better to consume when the soundtrack is very simple rather than more complicated pieces, but it also depends what the game is about.
for some it makes it more forgettable, but i still stand by my opinion that more simple soundtracks can make you feel more emotions, even more naturally. especially if that theme/tempo of OSTs doesnt change and is consistent.
i have a fairly prominent problem feeling games and shows that have some kind of emotional scenes because they usually make the soundtrack for those specific scenes very different from the rest. it is very obvious they are trying to induce an emotional response from the audience, so for me, this approach feels very fabricated, even forced as it is ultimately telling me "this is intended to be sad, so you need to feel sad", and i more than less feel detached from such scenarios, so they fall very flat on me.
whereas if the OSTs are more consistent with such empty, dull, simple but warm, resonant theme that is usually used for emotional scenes, it is more easier and simpler to feel. it is no longer telling me when and where to be feeling this and that, it is just there. (a very good example of this are the narcissu KNs OSTs)
and even though the game had the soundtrack criteria for me, it didnt evoke much in me. but thats okay. you dont need to cry to truly feel something out.
it is not exactly very emotional, its a subtle lingering feeling of loss, which is all i need honestly, all i need is for the game is to linger in my head for awhile.
you would probably get more worked emotions in a proper touhou yuri doujinshi, if youre into that.
the pixel art was gorgeous, really impressed me at first glance. but that may be because i havent played many pixel art games, so my pallette isnt hard to impress so far.
for the experience you get for .99 cents/and less, as this goes on sale pretty frequently, its fire.
i shall fade into nothing and follow Reimu.
