I have come to love the Touhou Project over the last year because of its interesting characters, intriguing lore, and of course all the fun memes (fumo fumo ᗜˬᗜ ). My favorite character from the series has become Cirno because it’s always fun to cheer for an underdog. Her antics are the source of a lot of beautiful and humorous artwork. I’ve even turned fellow writers PeaceRibbion and Gaius Requiem into proxy Cirno fans from how much I talk about her on their server. With that explained, you can understand my excitement when I saw that Cirno was getting her own fangame, Touhou: Fearless Frog Slayer. My excitement levels were out of this world. 

Story 

Cirno and her best friend Daiyousei wake up to find a strange advertisement posted outside their home. This ad states “Premium Ice, Buy Now!”. As Cirno’s life centers around ice, she is quickly intrigued by the prospect of encountering some high quality ice. She soon meets up with the “businessman” who put up the ad and is sent on a journey to acquire enough money to buy this coveted ice. 

Gameplay

Very unique gameplay. It’s a turn-based game but you only have one character throughout the entire game, Cirno. I’ve never played a turn-based game where you only have one character. It’s like a turn-based boss rush as you never fight any “regular enemies”, just bosses. Another cool thing about the game is that you can dodge enemy attacks. To do this simply move left or right in a timely manner. It can get pretty tricky later on to get the timing right but it feels so good when you pull it off. You also have the basics of every turn-based game: melee, magic, and a block button. The melee option allows you to do basic melee attacks. Then there is magic which includes a variety of attacks with special effects like freezing the enemy or lowering their stats. There is also magic you can use on yourself such as stat buffs. Lastly there is the block button which lowers the damage of the next incoming attack. And of course all the magic is ice themed, how cool. To add another layer to those basic options, every four turns, the player is given an ultimate token that can be used to power up a melee attack, magic, or your block. Lastly, exploring the overworld will allow you to find a lot of fun easter eggs for characters from the world of Touhou.

Graphics

The game has a pixel art style that has a lot of charm that you will feel right away from the epic feeling the main menu gives. Characters show a lot of emotion as their sprites’ expressions change frequently and the text boxes are decorated differently such as Cirno’s having the number nine (a reference to a community joke). Overworld sprites also have lots of energy as they react to situations such as Cirno falling over when she reads about premium ice.

Battles have excellent presentation and scale. All the battles feature animated character sprites that have different animations for each of their moves. Attacks also have a lot of animation work put into them which creates excitement but also serves the gameplay as they telegraph to the player when they can be dodged. The backgrounds are also animated and feature Cirno moving when she dodges. Battle UI is very concise and effectively communicates all the complexities expanded upon in the gameplay section. 

Defeating each boss adds a delightful little touch to the save menu. Cirno draws a picture of each defeated foe in crayon and adds some funny commentary alongside it. They’re messy and colorful, just like a child’s drawings, which will fill you with joy. It also allows the player to feel a sense of progression as they see the notebook fill up with sketches. 

Music/Sound

The music is really epic. I love the main battle theme, I’m pretty sure it’s a remix of Cirno’s main theme from the original games. It is very intense and almost feels like a Final Fantasy theme. There are also adaptive tracks where the song changes as you get further into a fight. Overworld music does a good job at setting the appropriate tone and is usually quite peaceful to listen to.

Copyright

Now this section won’t affect the review of the game but I thought it was going to be interesting to write about as copyright has become a big subject in Catholic geekdom. On the Catholic gamers subreddit you always see debates about subjects such as if it’s okay to pirate old games. Fellow writers Catoons and SaintWaffles have even posted an in-depth essay exploring how Catholics should approach such topics.

But my intent here is not to further the discussion but to briefly discuss the unique situation that the Touhou Project finds itself in regards to copyright. Touhou fans can create basically any fan work and may even monetize it as the copyright guidelines are relatively loose as the creator who goes by the name of ZUN is very encouraging of fan works. He holds this position because he began as a “doujin” artist himself which basically means an individual who creates anime inspired material that can be an original creation or a fanwork of an existing series. So he thought that it was appropriate that he give others the same chance of success he experienced. 

Being part of the Touhou community is such a delight as the encouragement to use the source material in so many ways has resulted in fans making games, manga, music and even a grassroots anime production. It’s why a fun game like this can exist. Thank you ZUN for giving the community the privilege to use your work as a basis to create so many experiences. 

Value

The game is only about four hours long if you are taking the time to explore. This isn’t a bad thing as you are only being asked for $6. With all the effort that is placed into this game, it’s okay that it’s short. Many games can overstay their welcome by trying to have long play times but it’s a nice feeling to not feel like there is any fluff.

Faith Perspective

The faith connection that I wanted to make deals with Cirno herself. Cirno could be considered the embodiment of pride. She is a little girl who thinks that she is the greatest around and could defeat anyone. Her signature catchphrase is “I’m the strongest!”. I wanted to compare this to another little girl.

When St. Therese of Lisieux was a child, she tells us that she was quite the brat. One day she was with her father when he called out to her and asked “come to me my dearest” but Therese responded “come and get it papa!” in direct opposition to her father, demanding that he come to her and not the other way around. She was scolded by her older sister for challenging her father. Her father also did not give into her demands.

This memory really stuck with her as she knew she had to change. We know that she does become better as she later becomes the opposite of pride, humility. She accepted she was a very weak woman with a very small role in life, but she lived it out to the fullest for the sake of God. When we decide who we want to be, let’s be like Threase and not Cirno. 

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