Mountain of Faith
Encyclopedia
is the tenth game of the Touhou Project
, according to the official numbering by its creator ZUN of Team Shanghai Alice
. Like the majority of the Touhou Project games, Mountain of Faith is a doujin scrolling shooter, albeit with a major revamp from its predecessors. The game was released in the Comiket 72
in August 2007.
Mountain of Faith plays like a fairly typical vertically-scrolling shooter, in which the player's character is always facing towards the top of the screen, shooting at anything that moves, avoiding and weaving between enemy bullets, and confronting a difficult boss at the end of each stage.
Unlike previous Touhou games, there is no separate bomb counter. Instead, there's a relationship between the power gauge, bombs, and options. Options are the small "satellites" that stick around the player's character and shoot shots. The more power items collected, the higher the power gauge rises. The power gauge takes on values from 0 to 5, and decimal numbers in between. The number of options the player has have corresponds to the integer part of the power gauge - e.g., if the player has a power level of 2.75, he would have two options. When a bomb is used, an option is discarded. Hence using bombs would lower the power levels, though that can be replenished with items.
The defining feature of Mountain of Faiths scoring mechanics is the Faith Point system. A "belief counter" at the left corner of the screen determines how much points are items and spell card bonuses worth. The counter will decrease as time progresses, though the decrease can be halted temporary when an enemy is defeated. The counter can be replenished with the green stars and orbs, known as Faith Point items.
Mountain of Faith comes with a unique feature that allows players to show customized text overlaid on the playing area. The feature can be set to auto, where the game automatically alerts places where the player had died before with a "Caution!" note. The player can also edit the hint file to show personalized notes at certain places and times, making it possible for simple play-along strategy guides to be made and distributed with "Nico Nico Douga
-like interactivity".
Mountain of Faith features two playable characters, each with three weapon types, but no personalized Spell Card bombs like previous games.
Ignoring the lesser gods and the kappa's advices to turn back, Reimu and Marisa climb the Youkai Mountain to find that the tengu
society fretting over the presence of a new shrine on the mountain. Turning their attention to the new shrine, the Moriya Shrine on the mountain, the girls find Sanae Kotiya, the messenger who ordered them to shut down the Hakurei Shrine. Sanae is the priestess serving the god Kanako Yasaka, who plots to gather the faith of all of Gensokyo's denizens in order to prevent the declining level of faith in Gensokyo to reach the point where its gods lose their power. Reimu, objecting the plan on the basis that it will render her shrine obsolete, battle the occupants of the new shrine. After a protracted battle, Kanako is convinced to make peace with the tengu and kappa, who are also convinced to accept her as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain.
In the Extra Mode, Reimu and Marisa hear of a rumor that another god lives in the Moriya Shrine, and so set out for the mountain again. There they meet the true god of the Moriya Shrine, Suwako Moriya, who demands the girls to play with her.
ZUN stated in an interview that the plot of Mountain of Faith was never resolved in itself. This was so that future instalments, like Subterranean Animism
, can base their stories on the loose ends of Mountain of Faith.
Playable characters
Boss characters
, ZUN, the sole creator of the Touhou Project, achieved his original goal of making three Touhou games for Windows. Although he had thoughts to make the next game return to the simplicity of The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
, he shelved the idea to work on excursions from the main series. After making Phantasmagoria of Flower View, ZUN decided to wait one year before making another game to see if the Touhou fandom would die down. Conversely, the Touhou fandom continued to grow, and ZUN decided to make the next game.
ZUN had wanted to make the tenth game of the Touhou Project to be nostalgic to him, so he based Mountain of Faith on the Suwa
myths he heard in his youth. Since Suwa mythology had largely faded from public consciousness, ZUN thought it would be interesting to provide his own spin on Suwa mythology; to do this, he went on a trip to research the gods of the Suwa region.
One of the main point for Mountain of Faith, in ZUN's mind, is to go back to the basics. For this reason, Mountain of Faith did not inherit the Spell Practice mode from Imperishable Night nor the unique character bombs from previous games. Using Shoot the Bullet
as prototype, ZUN extended the spinoff game into Mountain of Faith, thus starting off from scratch instead of using the models of his well-established games. ZUN has stated that being able to revamp the game system and remove existing features freely is one of the advantages of doujin production.
The game has been lauded for its difficulty, as with other Touhou games. However, Yukikuni Sasayami of 4Gamer.net noted that although the bullet patterns have become more difficult than past Touhou games, the durations of the patterns have become shorter, making it easier for players to outlast the patterns. The game has also been described by Sasayama as "spellcard-centric", where the game encourages bombing until the specialized bullet patterns known as "spell cards". Hence Mountain of Faith lets the players experience the rhythmic onslaught of spell cards, which may be the reason why Mountain of Faith did not inherit the Spell Practice mode from Imperishable Night, since it fragments the spell cards.
The popularity of Touhou Project brought many fans outside the Nagano Prefecture
to the shrines of Suwa, from where Mountain of Faith draws its inspiration. Prayer plaques
with manga
drawings starting to appear in the Suwa Taisha
since July 2008 as a result of these "holy sites pilgrimages". The Moriya Priests Museum of Documents (神長官守矢史料館) in Chino, Nagano
reports that the number of visitors in 2008 rivals that of 2007, when tourists were likewise drawn to Suwa because of the Taiga drama
Fūrin Kazan
. Some locals hoped that recent developments would lead to new ways to attract tourists, as was the case of Washimiya, Saitama.
Touhou Project
The , also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a Japanese dōjin game series focused on bullet hell shooters made by the one-man developer Team Shanghai Alice, whose sole member, known as ZUN, is responsible for all the graphics, music, and programming for the most part...
, according to the official numbering by its creator ZUN of Team Shanghai Alice
Team Shanghai Alice
is a one-man Japanese dojin game developer specializing in shoot 'em ups. The team's only releases thus far have been the Touhou Project games and related merchandise.-Games:*The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil...
. Like the majority of the Touhou Project games, Mountain of Faith is a doujin scrolling shooter, albeit with a major revamp from its predecessors. The game was released in the Comiket 72
Comiket
, otherwise known as the , is the world's largest self-published comic book fair, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first Comiket was held on December 21, 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. Attendance has since swelled to over a half million people....
in August 2007.
Gameplay
Unlike previous Touhou games, there is no separate bomb counter. Instead, there's a relationship between the power gauge, bombs, and options. Options are the small "satellites" that stick around the player's character and shoot shots. The more power items collected, the higher the power gauge rises. The power gauge takes on values from 0 to 5, and decimal numbers in between. The number of options the player has have corresponds to the integer part of the power gauge - e.g., if the player has a power level of 2.75, he would have two options. When a bomb is used, an option is discarded. Hence using bombs would lower the power levels, though that can be replenished with items.
The defining feature of Mountain of Faiths scoring mechanics is the Faith Point system. A "belief counter" at the left corner of the screen determines how much points are items and spell card bonuses worth. The counter will decrease as time progresses, though the decrease can be halted temporary when an enemy is defeated. The counter can be replenished with the green stars and orbs, known as Faith Point items.
Mountain of Faith comes with a unique feature that allows players to show customized text overlaid on the playing area. The feature can be set to auto, where the game automatically alerts places where the player had died before with a "Caution!" note. The player can also edit the hint file to show personalized notes at certain places and times, making it possible for simple play-along strategy guides to be made and distributed with "Nico Nico Douga
Nico Nico Douga
is a popular video sharing website in Japan managed by Niwango, a subsidiary of Dwango. Its nickname is "Niconico" or "Nico-dō", where "nikoniko" is the Japanese ideophone for smiling. Nico Nico Douga is the thirteenth most visited website in Japan...
-like interactivity".
Mountain of Faith features two playable characters, each with three weapon types, but no personalized Spell Card bombs like previous games.
Plot
Autumn has come to the secluded land of Gensokyo, and to its only shrine, the Hakurei Shrine, a common meeting place for its youkai that was seldom visited by its humans. As a result, faith in the Hakurei Shrine's deity began to fall like the leaves from the trees. It's in such a season that Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei shrine, is visited by a mysterious stranger who claims to represent a god of mountains and orders her to shut the shrine's doors for good. Reimu is deeply troubled by this state of affairs, as she knows the shrine can't be allowed to close down due to the role it plays in watching over the Great Hakurei Border that separates Gensokyo from the outside world. Marisa Kirisame, her magician friend, is suspicious and also suitably bored. The girls decide to ascend the Youkai Mountain to confront the mysterious deity behind the threats.Ignoring the lesser gods and the kappa's advices to turn back, Reimu and Marisa climb the Youkai Mountain to find that the tengu
Tengu
are a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...
society fretting over the presence of a new shrine on the mountain. Turning their attention to the new shrine, the Moriya Shrine on the mountain, the girls find Sanae Kotiya, the messenger who ordered them to shut down the Hakurei Shrine. Sanae is the priestess serving the god Kanako Yasaka, who plots to gather the faith of all of Gensokyo's denizens in order to prevent the declining level of faith in Gensokyo to reach the point where its gods lose their power. Reimu, objecting the plan on the basis that it will render her shrine obsolete, battle the occupants of the new shrine. After a protracted battle, Kanako is convinced to make peace with the tengu and kappa, who are also convinced to accept her as the goddess of the Youkai Mountain.
In the Extra Mode, Reimu and Marisa hear of a rumor that another god lives in the Moriya Shrine, and so set out for the mountain again. There they meet the true god of the Moriya Shrine, Suwako Moriya, who demands the girls to play with her.
ZUN stated in an interview that the plot of Mountain of Faith was never resolved in itself. This was so that future instalments, like Subterranean Animism
Subterranean Animism
is the eleventh main game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series. Made by the dōjin game maker Team Shanghai Alice, the full version of the game was released in the 74th Comiket which commenced in August 2008.-Gameplay:...
, can base their stories on the loose ends of Mountain of Faith.
Characters
- Reimu Hakurei (博麗 霊夢) - The miko of the Hakurei Shrine, she set out for the mountain to find out why she was ordered to close down her shrine. Her three attacks modes are homing amulets,needles and spread amulets
- Marisa Kirisame (霧雨 魔理沙) - An ordinary magician. Since Reimu told her of her plight, she became interested in the mountain. Her attacks are trace and hold star fire, magical lasers and cold inferno vents.
Boss characters
- Shizuha Aki (秋 静葉) - Stage one midboss, her attacks are themed on autumn leaves.
- Minoriko Aki (秋 穣子) - Stage one boss and sister of Shizuha, Minoriko's attacks have a harvest theme.
- Hina Kagiyama (鍵山 雛) - Stage two boss, the leader of the dolls that are sent down rivers to take away bad luck. Thus Hina herself is surrounded by bad luck, which shows in the theme of her spell cards.
- Nitori Kawashiro (河城 にとり) - Stage three boss, Nitori is a kappa engineer, and her spell cards reflect either the aquatic nature of kappa or their supposed inventions.
- Momizi Inubashiri (犬走 椛) - Stage four midboss, a watchdog of the tengu society, has no spell cards.
- Aya Syameimaru (射命丸 文) - Stage four boss, the tenguTenguare a class of supernatural creatures found in Japanese folklore, art, theater, and literature. They are one of the best known yōkai and are sometimes worshipped as Shinto kami...
that is most familiar with the humans of Gensokyo. She was sent by the tengu society to negotiate with the trespassing humans, Reimu and Marisa. Her attacks are tengu themed. - Sanae Kotiya (東風谷 早苗) - Stage five boss, a human who originally was revered as a living godArahitogamiis a Japanese word meaning a kami who is a human being.It first appears in Kojiki , but is assumed to have been used before this book....
outside Gensokyo. She is the wind priestess of the Moriya Shrine, and her attacks are modelled after miracles and winds. - Kanako Yasaka (八坂 神奈子) - Final stage boss and extra stage midboss, the god of the Moriya Shrine. Her attacks has to do with the rituals of the SuwaSuwa Provincethumb|250px|right|Location of Suwa Province is an old province in the area of Nagano Prefecture.It was located in the Tōsandō region of central Honshu. According to the old history book Shoku Nihongi, it was established on June 26 of 721 and abolished on March 3 of 731...
region. - Suwako Moriya (洩矢 諏訪子) - Extra boss and the other, hidden, god of the Moriya Shrine. Her spell cards have to do with frogs and Suwa mythology.
Development
With the end of Imperishable NightImperishable Night
is the eighth official game of the Touhou Project scrolling shooter series by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the third Touhou game to be released specifically for the Windows operating system...
, ZUN, the sole creator of the Touhou Project, achieved his original goal of making three Touhou games for Windows. Although he had thoughts to make the next game return to the simplicity of The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
is a vertical scrolling shooter, and is the sixth official game of the Touhou Project series. It is the first to be released specifically for the Windows operating system, since all games before Embodiment of Scarlet Devil were made for the PC-98 series of computers...
, he shelved the idea to work on excursions from the main series. After making Phantasmagoria of Flower View, ZUN decided to wait one year before making another game to see if the Touhou fandom would die down. Conversely, the Touhou fandom continued to grow, and ZUN decided to make the next game.
ZUN had wanted to make the tenth game of the Touhou Project to be nostalgic to him, so he based Mountain of Faith on the Suwa
Suwa, Nagano
is a city located in Nagano, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city had an estimated population of 51,084 and a density of 468.40 persons per km². The total area of the city is 109.06 km²....
myths he heard in his youth. Since Suwa mythology had largely faded from public consciousness, ZUN thought it would be interesting to provide his own spin on Suwa mythology; to do this, he went on a trip to research the gods of the Suwa region.
One of the main point for Mountain of Faith, in ZUN's mind, is to go back to the basics. For this reason, Mountain of Faith did not inherit the Spell Practice mode from Imperishable Night nor the unique character bombs from previous games. Using Shoot the Bullet
Shoot the Bullet
is a shoot 'em up photography game, and is the ninth-and-a-half official game in the Touhou Project by the dōjin circle Team Shanghai Alice. It was first released in the 69th Comiket on December 30, 2005...
as prototype, ZUN extended the spinoff game into Mountain of Faith, thus starting off from scratch instead of using the models of his well-established games. ZUN has stated that being able to revamp the game system and remove existing features freely is one of the advantages of doujin production.
Reception
The popularity of Touhou Project brought many fans outside the Nagano Prefecture
Nagano Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...
to the shrines of Suwa, from where Mountain of Faith draws its inspiration. Prayer plaques
Ema (Shinto)
are small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshippers write their prayers or wishes. The ema are then left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami receive them. They bear various pictures, often of animals or other Shinto imagery, and many have the word gan'i , meaning "wish", written along the side...
with manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
drawings starting to appear in the Suwa Taisha
Suwa Taisha
, or Suwa Grand Shrine, is a Shinto shrine in Nagano prefecture, Japan. Over 1200 years old, it is one of the oldest shrines in existence, and is mentioned in the Kojiki, an 8th century text...
since July 2008 as a result of these "holy sites pilgrimages". The Moriya Priests Museum of Documents (神長官守矢史料館) in Chino, Nagano
Chino, Nagano
is a city located in Nagano, Japan.As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 55,902 and the density of 209.83 persons per km². The total area is 266.41 km².The city was founded on August 1, 1958.- Geography :*mountain**Mount Yatsugatake...
reports that the number of visitors in 2008 rivals that of 2007, when tourists were likewise drawn to Suwa because of the Taiga drama
Taiga drama
is the name NHK gives to the annual, year-long historical fiction television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white Hana no Shōgai, starring kabuki actor Onoe Shōroku and Takarazuka star Awashima Chikage, the network has hired a producer, director, writer, music...
Fūrin Kazan
Furin Kazan (Taiga drama)
was the 46th NHK Taiga drama beginning on January 7, 2007. It was aired throughout 2007.The four characters from left to right are wind, woods, fire, and mountain. The title is a reference to the war banner used by Takeda Shingen, which in turn was taken from Sun Tzu's The Art of War...
. Some locals hoped that recent developments would lead to new ways to attract tourists, as was the case of Washimiya, Saitama.