Played another Touhou fangame today. A sidescrolling action one this time. Rather unpopular, but reasonably highly rated, it's Tempest of the Heavens and Earth. I initially thought this was a 2018 game, as the Steam store would suggest, which would already make it somewhat old, but no, it actually came out in 2013. That fact is a bit more apparent when you realize upon launching the game that the resolution is upscaled from 480p or something like that and looks blurry as all hell.
Let's be a bit more specific about what kind of game this is. The gameplay is divided into stages, which themselves are divided into areas with a bunch of weaker enemies and some platforming, and end in a grandiose bossfight. You control a character with a double jump, an invulnerability dash, a melee attack, and a couple of meters to fuel your other attacks. There is an automatically refilling meter that fuels your sword attacks and dashes, and then a meter that fills as you hit any attacks which don't use that meter. The latter meter can be used to either fire ranged attacks, or perform ultra-powerful special attacks. You also have 3 different attack sets which swap out your ranged and special attacks. You can choose those attacks from a selection of over a dozen of both, and there are also combo attacks which can be done using certain combinations of movement and attack keys. Overall, the game puts a lot of emphasis on combat expression and incentivizes to actually switch your playstyle every so often.
Also, apparently important is a technique where if you sword attack an enemy whose attack you dodged through, you change the weather and thus gain extra powers. I specifically mention this, because if you think you want to go play it after reading this, know that the game explains itself really, really badly, and you may not ever figure this out yourself, but you do need to know this to progress.
On that note, the game is rather obtuse in general. I find the controls to be awkward, and I often fumbled my actions, pressing the wrong buttons. This is especially annoying if it causes you to fall off the map, instantly killing you. There is no indication which attacks are in your currently selected attack set - you just have to memorize what attacks you put under "woe", "ire", and whatever the third set's name was. Also, you have health, but no health bar. I think it automatically regenerates, but I have no way to confirm this.
This is all a shame, because I find the combat of the game to be excellent in theory. I absolutely love how expressive you can be with your attacks, and how you can totally play in different styles. The combat's fast, responsive, flashy, and when I wasn't messing up my buttons, it felt exhilarating. It's also a more score-oriented game, incentivizing replaying it while not being a particularly long game, but I can't say it has much replayability, unless you yourself decide to switch up your playstyle.
Overall, considering the many shortcomings I listed, I couldn't bring myself to complete it. I think I got a bit less than halfway through, but the little frustrations piled up and overpowered my enjoyment of the combat. If you think can overlook the issues I listed and would like a high-action score attack game, then Tempest of the Heavens and Earth might suit you. Personally though, I can't recommend it. Maybe it was better 10 years ago when it first came out.
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