I’ve been playing Touhou LostWord for the past few months. At present it’s the only video game I’m playing completely free of cheats, tools, and assists. There’s a better than average chance that it will be my last.
Of course, the whole Touhou phenomenon is far too vast to cover in a post, and any justice I could give would reach the level of spamming (if you’re really interested I can PM you some links). To put it very briefly, a colorful, magical land periodically faces a major crisis at the hands of a seriously wrongheaded troublemaker, and it’s up to a plucky shrine maiden, a saucy witch, and a revolving selection of elite day-savers to defeat the troublemaker and restore peace. The main series is primarily “danmaku” style vertical scrolling shooters, rounded out by a handful of fighting games, photography games, boss games, and the like.
LostWord is is a mobile gacha game, meaning that nearly everything you get…characters, upgrade items, advancement items, enhancers…is random. Most tasks have a specific category of reward (tiles, herbs, etc.), but the exact items received are random. Prioritizing is important, because different characters often require the same upgrade items, and they’re not all equally capable. The randomness means that unless you are willing to shell out a LOT of money, you have to be very open-minded about which characters you end up with. Maybe you get a heavy-artillery blitzer and a sneaky trapper; maybe you get an iron-hided fortress builder and a first-strike poisoner. The best characters, and the tools they need to reach their true potential, are absolutely going to cost a small fortune, so you’d best decide how much you’re willing to put out before taking that first step. Oh, on a related note: No, there are no permanent upgrades; everything that isn’t a character is a consumable.
There’s a truly dizzying array of stats, strengths, weaknesses, and situational benefits/detriments for each character, making it really hard to design the ideal team for a particular stage (which is what actually prevented me from getting the game for a long time). On the whole, however, it’s really easy, at least if you pay attention to level recommendations and don’t bite off more than you can chew. In fact, as I gain experience I’m finding that it’s a challenge to not make a battle a complete romp. There are a plethora of special battles ranging from “murderous” to “murderous with a bunch of zeroes in front of it”, but they’re all completely optional.
The story is…weird. I’m glad that there’s an option to replay the scenes, because I’m definitely going to need it. In particular, the third main story campaign reached an Acquisitions Incorporated level of convolution. Events are less complicated (mainly because they’re shorter) but involve a wide variety of characters, so I still find myself having to look up stuff.
It’s a nice place to look at lots of pretty ladies and get into fights, and I’m not expecting any more than that. There are plenty of promos and announcements, but no intrusive ads, and spending is completely optional (and of course required to be assured of getting anything specific, which I’m not concerned about). Despite an occasional crash, for the most part it runs very cleanly, and the development team works on it weekly to fix any errors that crop up. I don’t know how long this ride is going to last, but it’s almost certainly going to be a lot longer than I expected. Right now I’d put this solidly in the “pleasant surprise” category.