Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is an action RPG set in the beloved world of Gensokyo. Players take on the role of the vampire Remilia Scarlet and her maid Sakuya Izayoi as they investigate a mysterious incident involving a giant beast that is causing chaos. The game features fast-paced combat, exploration, and the signature bullet-hell patterns the Touhou series is known for, all presented in a charming anime/manga art style.

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity: A Curious Hybrid in the Gensokyan Canon

Introduction

In the sprawling, fan-driven cosmos of the Touhou Project, few titles embody its DIY spirit and inherent contradictions quite like Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity. Released in the West in 2016, this action RPG from developer Ankake Spa is not an official entry from series creator ZUN, but a “doujin” or fan-made game—a curious artifact that somehow became one of the first localized ambassadors for a famously niche Japanese phenomenon. It is a game of fascinating dichotomies: a budget title with triple-A aspirations, a love letter to fans that often alienates newcomers, and a blend of hack-and-slash action and bullet-hell mechanics that is both its greatest strength and its most glaring weakness. This review posits that Scarlet Curiosity is a deeply flawed but ultimately charming experiment, a game whose heart and inventive boss battles often triumph over its technical limitations and repetitive core, securing its place as a fascinating, if imperfect, footnote in the Touhou legacy.

Development History & Context

To understand Scarlet Curiosity, one must first understand the unique ecosystem from which it sprang. The Touhou Project, primarily the work of a single developer known as ZUN, is a series of vertically-scrolling bullet-hell shooters (danmaku) that began in the late 1990s. Its immense popularity in Japan spawned an unparalleled doujin culture—a scene of fan-created works including games, music, and manga. Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is a direct product of this culture.

Originally titled Touhou Koukishin ~ Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity, the game first debuted at Comiket 86 in August 2014 as a PC release. Developed by the small circle Ankake Spa, it was a passion project built with limited resources. Its subsequent journey to the West is a testament to the growing, albeit cautious, interest in the franchise outside Japan. In late 2015, a remastered version for PlayStation 4 was announced as part of Sony’s “Play, Doujin!” initiative, aimed at bringing independent Japanese games to a wider audience. Localization powerhouse XSEED Games, known for curating niche Japanese titles, picked it up for a North American digital release in September 2016, with a PC (Steam) version following in July 2018.

The gaming landscape of 2016 was dominated by big-budget open-world epics and polished action titles. Scarlet Curiosity stood in stark contrast—a budget-priced ($14.99 at launch) game that visually echoed the PS2/early PS3 era. Its release was a bold experiment: could a fan-made game, leveraging a deeply Japanese and lore-heavy franchise with almost no official Western presence, find an audience? It was a gamble that placed Scarlet Curiosity at the precarious intersection of niche fan service and the mainstream gaming market.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative of Scarlet Curiosity is quintessential Touhou, which is to say it is charmingly simplistic yet utterly impenetrable to the uninitiated. The plot revolves around Remilia Scarlet, a 500-year-old vampire of immense power and even greater boredom, and her impeccably loyal maid, Sakuya Izayoi. Spurred by a newspaper article detailing a monstrous threat, Remilia ventures out from her Scarlet Devil Mansion for excitement, only to return and find her home vandalized. This personal affront sparks a quest for revenge and answers, with Sakuya dutifully in tow.

The story’s primary function is to facilitate a tour of Gensokyo, the series’ setting, allowing players to encounter a roster of familiar characters like the ice fairy Cirno and the witch Patchouli Knowledge. The dialogue is lighthearted, filled with in-jokes and character-specific quirks that will delight fans. Remilia’s childish arrogance and Sakuya’s deadpan professionalism are rendered faithfully. However, for newcomers, it’s a different experience. As critic Josh Tolentino noted for GameCritics.com, the game “assumes players already know who the childlike vampire Remilia Scarlet and her faithful housekeeper Sakuya Izayoi are,” offering zero introduction or context. Characters appear, exchange quips, and engage in boss fights with minimal narrative justification for those outside the fandom.

Thematically, the game explores ideas of ennui and the search for purpose—embodied by Remilia’s immortal restlessness. It’s a classic trope, but it serves its purpose well enough to propel the action forward. The plot is not the main draw; it’s a thin veil over the gameplay, a framework for the combat encounters. The ability to play through the story from both Remilia and Sakuya’s perspectives offers slight variations and added replayability for completionists, but the core narrative remains unchanged. It is, ultimately, a vehicle for fan service, and it succeeds or fails entirely on the player’s prior investment in these characters and their world.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Scarlet Curiosity is, at its heart, an action RPG that draws heavy inspiration from Falcom’s Ys series, particularly its fast-paced, isometric entries. The core loop involves navigating linear, dungeon-like areas, defeating waves of enemies, leveling up, collecting randomized loot, and confronting elaborate boss battles.

Core Combat & Progression:
Players choose between Remilia or Sakuya, each offering a distinct playstyle. Remilia is a “power-type” character, delivering slower, heavier-hitting melee attacks. Sakuya, the “technical-type,” is faster, wielding her time-stopping abilities to land rapid, combo-heavy assaults. The control scheme is simple and highly customizable: one button for standard attacks, another for jumping, and three more slots to assign a growing repertoire of special skills unlocked through leveling up. This system encourages experimentation, allowing players to tailor their ability loadout to their preferences.

A central mechanic is the hit combo counter. Consecutive hits on enemies without taking damage build a multiplier that temporarily boosts attack power and increases experience point gains. This system actively rewards aggressive, skillful play and deft dodging, directly tying into the game’s bullet-hell DNA. Taking a hit not damages health but also resets this valuable multiplier, adding a palpable risk-reward tension to every encounter.

The Bullet-Hell Synthesis:
Where Scarlet Curiosity truly innovates is in its fusion of ARPG combat with Touhou’s signature genre. While standard enemy encounters are straightforward hack-and-slash affairs, the boss battles are where the game shines. These fights are spectacular recreations of danmaku patterns translated into 3D space. Screens fill with intricate, colorful arrays of projectiles that players must weave through while continuing their assault. These sequences are the game’s highlight, successfully capturing the intensity and visual spectacle of the mainline shooters. The PC version’s addition of a dedicated “Bullet Hell Mode,” which amplifies projectile density, is a welcome nod to hardcore fans.

Flaws and Repetition:
However, the gameplay is hamstrung by significant flaws. The most glaring is enemy repetition. A handful of basic enemy types—slimes, fairies, trees—are relentlessly recycled throughout the game’s runtime, making the combat between bosses feel monotonous. The loot system, while offering stat variations on equipment, lacks depth and fails to make exploration feel truly rewarding. The isometric camera is fixed and often problematic, sometimes obscuring enemy attacks or platforming segments.

Critics were divided on these points. outlets like Operation Rainfall (90%) praised the “best combat systems I’ve seen in a game like this,” while Destructoid (25%) lambasted its “dull” level design and “pushover” enemies. This divide highlights the experience: those who embraced its repetitive core for the payoff of its superb boss fights found joy, while those seeking a more consistently deep and varied ARPG were left disappointed.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Scarlet Curiosity’s presentation is a clear reflection of its doujin budget, but it possesses a distinct charm that often outweighs its technical shortcomings.

Visuals and Art Direction:
The game utilizes a hybrid of 3D environments and 2D character sprites. The 3D models for the main characters and enemies are simple but effective, carrying the distinct anime/manga aesthetic of the series. The real visual strength lies in the environmental art and the 2D artwork. The backdrops of Gensokyo, from the misty lakeside to the haunted forests, are often beautiful, painted with a soft, watercolor-like quality that evokes a sense of mystical wonder. The official illustrations for cutscenes and the opening by artist Benitama are gorgeous and brimming with personality. However, the low-budget nature is apparent in the limited animations, simplistic textures, and environmental designs that critics like TechRaptor (70%) called “generic.”

Sound Design and Music:
If there is one aspect where Scarlet Curiosity unambiguously excels, it is the soundtrack. The music is provided by the acclaimed doujin circle Hachimitsu-Lemon, and it is phenomenal. The game features 35 tracks of arranged music from previous Touhou titles. These are not mere covers; they are powerful, energetic, and masterfully produced compositions that perfectly underscore the action. The boss battle themes, in particular, are incredible, driving the intensity of the danmaku encounters. The sound design is otherwise functional, with satisfying combat sounds, though the lack of voice acting outside of battle cries reinforces the game’s budget status.

The atmosphere crafted is one of lighthearted fantasy adventure. It doesn’t have the oppressive tension of a Silent Hill or the epic grandeur of a Final Fantasy, but it successfully captures the quirky, charming, and sometimes dangerous feel of Gensokyo. It is a world that feels alive precisely because it is built on two decades of fan adoration, and that love seeps through every pixel and note.

Reception & Legacy

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity received a mixed to average critical reception, embodying the divide between its strengths and weaknesses. On aggregator sites, it holds a Metascore of 58/100 on PS4 (based on 20 critics) and 65/100 on PC (based on 4 critics). Critics praised its inventive boss fights, charming presentation, and satisfying core combat loop (GamingTrend – 90%, TheSixthAxis – 80%). Conversely, they criticized its repetitive enemies, shallow RPG elements, and overall lack of polish (Destructoid – 25%, High-Def Digest – 40%).

The player response, particularly on Steam, has been significantly more positive. With over 1,250 reviews and a 92% positive rating, the Steam community has embraced it as a “Very Positive” experience. This stark contrast between professional and user reception is telling. It suggests that the game successfully delivered what its target audience—Touhou fans and ARPG enthusiasts looking for a fun, low-cost diversion—desired.

Its legacy is multifaceted:
1. A Western Gateway: For many Western players, Scarlet Curiosity was their first interactive foray into Gensokyo. Despite its narrative obscurity, it functioned as an accessible introduction to the world and characters, paving the way for more Touhou games like Touhou Luna Nights and Touhou: New World to find Western audiences.
2. The Doujin Standard: It stands as one of the most high-profile and commercially successful doujin games to receive an official Western localization. It demonstrated that there was a market for these passion projects outside of Japan.
3. Genre-Blending Experiment: Its fusion of Ys-like action and bullet-hell boss mechanics remains unique. While not perfectly balanced, it was an ambitious experiment that few other games have attempted.

The announcement of a Nintendo Switch port for 2025 confirms its enduring appeal and the continued commercial viability of the Touhou franchise in the West, a status to which Scarlet Curiosity undoubtedly contributed.

Conclusion

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is a difficult game to assess in absolutes. It is not a masterpiece of game design; it is repetitive, visually dated, and narratively thin for the unacquainted. Yet, it is also irresistibly charming, incredibly fun in short bursts, and home to some of the most thrilling and inventive boss battles in the action RPG genre. It is a game crafted with palpable love and respect for its source material, and that passion is infectious.

Its place in video game history is secured not as a revolutionary title, but as a crucial cultural translator. It was a flawed yet brave first step for the Touhou Project into the Western mainstream console market, a proof-of-concept that fan devotion could create something worthy of a global stage. For fans of the series, it is an essential, enjoyable romp with beloved characters. For action RPG fans, it is a curious, budget-friendly novelty with moments of genuine brilliance. Scarlet Curiosity is, in the end, exactly what its title promises: a curiosity. And for those willing to embrace its idiosyncrasies, it is a curiosity well worth satisfying.