Game Developer, Aqua Style, has been responsible for Touhou Genso Wanderer making its way onto the Playstation 4 game.  It is an interesting universe to embark in with this ambitious title where you are placed in a feudal era populated with humans and demons living together. The game takes focus on the Shrine Maiden named Reimu Hakurei, who unintentionally is responsible for having the local merchant, Rinnosuke, ending up possessed.  The mysterious force who is actually responsible for this also acquired the power to create a giant tower alongside clones of humans and demons that end up bringing havoc. Reimu must then venture off to find out how to stop all this from happening any further.
Touhou Genso Wanderer plays out like an RPG with plenty of adventure and humor in the plotline. The perspective is top-down point of view with turn-based mechanics in terms of both exploration and combat. When the player makes either a move or performs an action, all enemies on the board are also given the same opportunity.The maps themselves are dungeon-themed and laid out in tiles. You’ll be travelling from one floor to the next within the tower that you are in. One top of that, the series of floors each are made up of randomly generated rooms.  But when you die, you’ll be kicked back to the first floor of the dungeon. The gameplay challenge can be tough but also very vast and diverse when it comes to exploration.
The enemies themselves are randomly positioned. Further to that, new enemies can appear at time. When you defeat your enemies, you get XP points, which you can allocate between Reimu and your group members. When you gain enough XP, you can change your characters’ stats and attributes as expected from a typical RPG.
Touhou Genso Wanderer is fairly straight forward when it comes to controls. The typical commands are laid out in a similar fashion as that of a RPG game. In addition, you get other buttons for a matter of convenience. You can press the circle button to travel quickly to your destination. There’s also the right trigger which lets you whip through the tiles and the right shoulder button to allow Reimu to move diagonally. So it’s great to have these options available.
Touhou Genso Wanderer is adequate when it comes to presentation. The colors are plentiful and the characters are done up fine. But the detail work is pretty average and there aren’t a lot of visual effects to wow you. Still, the game is easy on the eyes while the music is quite memorable.
It’s great to see more games from indie developers coming out of the woodwork and making its way onto today’s consoles. And Touhou Genso Wanderer is what players may be looking for. It’s got a niche market and has good gameplay alongside an engaging and funny story. It may not be the most outstanding game out there, but its charm may entice you to stay and play.
