Review: Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost Is at Its Best in Rhythm Game Stages

It’s amazing how many Touhou Project games end up localized or released worldwide. We’re getting easy access to mainline entries, spin-off projects, and even indies inspired by the series. One of the most notable recent ones is Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, which is a rhythm game that features traditional and shoot’em up inspired stages. It’s definitely worth trying, but certain elements might leave those unfamiliar with the series feeling left out.

I’m talking about the story, first and foremost. In Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, you go through a campaign to find out what’s gone wrong in the setting of Gensokyo this time and unlock new rhythm stages. The whole region is something of a wasteland, dilapidated and desolate. Reimu Hakurei, our ever present recurring heroine, is there to hopefully set things right. However, she completely lost her memories. So in addition to restoring things around her, she needs to rediscover her own identity. This means finding the Fragment of Memory Mitama Cards and perform the Reigen Kaisei prayer.

This is the only part of Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost that doesn’t feel “right.” The execution of the story isn’t great. The localization is fine enough, but you can tell the original script might not have perfectly articulated things. It makes assumptions about the player’s familiarity with the series. The pacing is bad. It’s just not well done. And since you are forced into it, it’s a bit disappointing.

At least it doesn’t matter that the story isn’t anything special. The  Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost gameplay is fantastic and not held back by it. You go through incredible songs from throughout the Touhou Project series. Passing them means advancing, succeeding, and unlocking more tracks and cards. The library of songs is vast! They’re fantastic even if you are entirely new to them! It’s just wonderful. The optional extra missions, which can involve getting certain combo lengths, are manageable. I also liked how there are stage gimmicks that can make a run feel more fun in the campaign.

The gameplay is also great since the execution for the stages are honestly super sound. Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost is a rhythm game with both a traditional approach and one that adds in a shoot’em up feel. The Kagura stages are the more typical ones. There are six lanes, each tied to a different button. Notes drop, and you press the keys in time with standard or held notes. But what really gets neat is when a Danmaku stage comes up. When this comes up, there are between two and four lanes, based on difficulty, with two on either side of the main screen. You then also move back and forth to avoid the bullets from the enemy and “fight” by shooting, occasionally also moving back and forth on-screen when arrow indicators appear to help you dodge. It’s really innovative and fresh! The downside is, movement is pretty slow when going back and forth, which might be an issue in certain songs and on certain difficulties.

The only thing I’d really recommend doing is customizing your controls. The initial inputs threw me off a little bit. Not because they’re bad! They rely on the face buttons and are both comfortable and responsive. Just depending on your familiarity with other rhythm games, you might feel more comfortable assigning those lanes to six different buttons. Which is really easy to do, as custom key binding is an option here. It’s especially helpful when the danmaku battle comes up, since then you know right away what inputs you need. 

I really appreciate the chances that Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost takes, in terms of gameplay, because it is a solid rhythm game! The track listing is fantastic. It’s drawing from all the amazing Touhou Project music we love. I just wish the story was either handled better or more approachable for those who aren’t familiar with the series, as that’s going to be quite a barrier for most people to overcome if they give it a chance. Knowing you need to go through that to even unlock your songs is a lot.

Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.