Right off the bat, Hijiri's stage is modeled after Squid Adler's (Volt Kraken) stage from X5. If you know anything about this, you know that it is pain and suffering. However, much like X5, you don't actually need to do the stage, as you can just get to the final stages via a story event.
So this game, it's largely based off of X5 and X6, with all the pitfalls that come with those games. It even has a countdown to the crashing of an object from space, but instead of a space colony, it's the Scarlet Devil Mansion rocket. You have the Kappa Cannon to shoot it down, and doing stages raises its chance to successfully hit it.
Success and failure, the rocket will hit a different location in Gensokyo. But unlike X5, there's no second playable character, so there's no Awakened Sanae should you fail. But regardless, it automatically opens the final stages, so if you don't care about success, you can just go to the end game.
I haven't really tested how the cannon works, when compared to the one in X5, I just know that I managed to get it to hit with a 55%ish chance. I'm not sure if there's RNG to this, if saving and loading changes this or not.
Momiji is a guest character in this game, and she is based completely off of X5 Dynamo, so she has all of his attacks, as is fighting for a sword using tengu. You get nothing from beating her, and it's purely optional; she's not trying to get in your way and will not force a fight.
As stated, Hijiri's stage is suffering, especially if you want to get the ability upgrade. Rin's stage is based off of Blaze Heatnix's stage, only you don't have a giga attack to help make the wheels easier, so it's a long, slow slog through a mid-boss guantlet, so that's also suffering. Clownpiece's stage is based off of Infinity Mijinion, only instead of Illumina proper, it's the Three Fairies of Light... only giant, in the background and shooting energy balls and lasers.
The rest of the main stages aren't really that bad, and frankly, Clownpiece's isn't terrible. Iku's teaches you that you start with the air dash and that you have to use it to have a chance of surviving. Patchu's stage is based off of Symphony of the Night, complete with the elevator and long library (because of course!). Mokou's stage is somewhat based on Snake Man's stage, with some Crash Man tossed in, and has a bamboo version of Whispy Woods as a mid-boss. The rest are various shades of things you would expect from the Rockman franchise as a whole.
Ah yes, as stated, there's ability (armor capsule) upgrades in this game, unlike the first. They're not really that amazing, far as I've seen. One is literally just the Long Beam from Metroid, where Sanae's danmaku shot, which is basically the Zero Buster, goes across the whole screen length. Without it, the buster travels only a short distance before vanishing. Then there's the aerial buster, which allows Sanae to shoot at a downward angle while jumping. This actually causes her to pause in the air, and it can be rapid fired, so she could potentially just hover. They don't really add much utility, but they're there.
The game also has at least one Sub Tank like item, allowing for a health refill on demand, so that's a big plus. There's also the EX item that grants you four lives should you continue from a game over. Since this game is unlike the PS1 X games, in that you have to redo the entire stage after a game over, it's actually useful.
As of right now, I have to admit, I have not actually finished the game, so I don't know what comes next, but I assume it'll be based on Zero Space from X5. I will, of course, update this review once I do, but for now... I'll give this game a recommendation.
