Highly Responsive to Prayers

1997 · Action · PC-9801

Overview

Highly Responsive to Prayers (1997) is the first Touhou Project game: ZUN's PC-98 Arkanoid-style game that introduced the shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei and sold about 30 copies.

Deep Dive

After her shrine is destroyed, Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of Hakurei Shrine, passes through a gateway into another world to find those responsible. Unlike the vertical shooters that followed, the game plays like Arkanoid: Reimu bounces a Yin-Yang Orb around the screen by kicking it, swinging her gohei and throwing ofuda, aiming to flip every card on the stage. If time runs out, bullets rain down from above. There are 20 stages, with a boss every fifth stage, and after stage 5 the player chooses between the Makai and Hell routes, each with its own stages, bosses and ending.

Developer Story

Jun'ya 'ZUN' Ōta made the game while studying mathematics at Tokyo Denki University, publishing it through his student club, Amusement Makers. He began in 1995, first showed it in November 1996 and released it at Comiket 52 on 15 August 1997. It is one of five Touhou games on the PC-98 before the series moved to Windows in 2002.