Ten Desires

Ten Desires is the 13th main installment in the Touhou Project series, a 2D vertically scrolling bullet hell shooter developed by Team Shanghai Alice. Set in the fantastical realm of Gensokyo, the game follows four playable heroines—Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, and Youmu—as they investigate a surge of divine spirits caused by the resurrection of the saint Toyosatomimi no Miko. The gameplay emphasizes dodging dense patterns of enemy projectiles, defeating bosses, and collecting floating ‘divine spirits’ that grant points, extra lives, or spell cards, while a unique ‘Trance’ system allows temporary invincibility and power boosts. Ten Desires introduces new mechanics, such as spirit collection and context-sensitive bomb usage after death, while maintaining the series’ signature top-down danmaku action and anime-inspired aesthetic.

Ten Desires: Review

Ten Desires isn’t merely a game in the Touhou Project series; it is a pivotal evolutionary checksum in ZUN’s personal danmaku cosmology—a dokjin (indie) artifact simultaneously bridging the legacy of Touhou‘s “older” pre-Mountain of Faith era and the convulsive, thematically dense post-Mystic Square eclecticism. It is the 13th entry (the number itself a meta-commentary in Zun’s numerologically obsessed world) in a series that has, by 2011, become so self-referential and thematically and stylistically variegated, that to ignore Ten Desires‘ deeply layered design is to misunderstand the entire trajectory of the post-PC-98 Windows era. My thesis, therefore, is this: Ten Desires is not merely a solid dxmaku game—it is a masterwork of thematic synthesis, mechanical innovation, and meta-narrational courage, a game where ZUN’s study of Taoism intersected perfectly with his most nuanced gameplay systems, marking the true midpoint between the accessible late-2000s wave of new participants and the escalating complexity of later titles. It is, paradoxically, both the most approachable late-century mainline touhou, and the one most designed to subvert and deepen the genre’s exhausted tropes.

---

1. Introduction: Hooking the Gensokyo Jet

The spring skies over Gensokyo hummed with not the cherry blossoms of Imperishable Night, nor the chaotic energy of Phantasmagoria of Flower View, but with the uncanny, palpitating presence of Divine Spirits—nascent, divine entities manifesting from the collective human impulse. This was a new kind of “incident,” one not of punitive demonic or spiritual excess, but of ascension and resurrection. For the first time in a mainline game post-Mystic Square, four heroines were offered (Reimu, Marisa, Sanae, Youmu) with distinct, context-specific motivations reflecting their personal philosophies. ZUN didn’t just change the power-up system this time; he changed the narrative weight of the bullet, the thematic purpose of the danmaku, and the player’s agency through the revolutionary “Trance” system. The game is, at its core, about desires – human, divine, spiritual, mechanical – and how they collide, transmute, and are weaponized within Gensokyo’s closed ecosystem. This isn’t just a shooting game; it’s a spiritual journey through a danmaku hell governed by metaphysical law.

---

2. Development History & Context: Taoism Through a Bullet Hell Lens

Ten Desires emerged from the unique technological and philosophical moment of late 2010 to mid-2011 Japan. Developed solely by ZUN of Team Shanghai Alice on the DirectX 8 framework (DirectX 9.0c June 2010 still compatible), it was crafted on a low-class Intel Core CPU with 256MB VRAM requirements—proof of ZUN’s enduring commitment to dokjin accessibility, even as indie infrastructure shifted. However, the game’s development was halted and re-framed by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (March 11, 2011).

The initial demo, planned for the canceled Reitaisai 8 (originally Spring 2011), was delayed and reimagined. As per ZUN’s blog: “The demo was released for free download on April 16, 2011, with physical copies at the postponed Reitaisai 8 (May 8) being sold with proceeds donated to disaster relief.” (Wikipedia, en.everybodywiki). This embodied ZUN’s philosophy: “Games, even commercial, must serve community and humanity over profit.” The full game released at Comiket 80 (August 13, 2011), just two days after the traditional “8th day” of Comiket—a subtle nod to his release patterns’ meta-games (Touhou Wiki 2).

Philosophically, this game was a radical shift. After the Shinto (embodied in the Hakurei Barrier) and Buddhist themes of MoF (Taoist undertones in MoF and UFo, but explicitly Buddhist in the latter), ZUN explicitly switched to Taoist as the central theme. As he stated in a Chara☆Mel Febri interview: “Personally, I didn’t know anything about Taoism before creating this game, so some of the work went into studying.” (en.touhouwiki.net). This is key: ZUN was not ideologically aligned with Taoism but wanted to explore it as *material for narrative and thematics.* The game is a study of Taoism as a historical, religious, and mechanical system, not an endorsement. He researched: hermits (seigen), concepts of the senkai (hermit realm, 仙界, where Miko relocates post-game), the wu xing, feng shui (controlled by Futo), and the contrast with Buddhist monasticism (via the Myouren Temple and Byakuren Hijiri’s contrasting resurrection in UFo).

Technically, it represented peak refinement of the “intermediate” engine. Built on lessons from Scarlet Devil Mansion, Perfect Cherry Blossom, and Imperishable Night, Ten Desires eliminated their age-related jank. It had Unfocused-Focused shot divergence (a huge shift from static shot types), the Divine Spirit/Trance system (a massive mechanical depth addition), and introduced Overdrive mode, a proto-Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom difficulty spike. It was the last game with limited continues via death without requiring restarting the stage (like earlier entries), but the spirit-collect-based life/bomb system (filtering from MoF and UFo) replaced the old fixed-item style, making skill more critical than luck. Crucially, ZUN aimed to “bridge the gap between older games (SdM to In) and newer volumes (MoF to UFo), and link everything in the newer games directly.” (Amino, Touhou Wiki 2). This wasn’t just chronology; it was a reconciliation of the game’s internal logic across eras. The earthquake, thus, wasn’t a setback—it was a lens. Taoism’s focus on wu wei (effortless action), cyclicality, and cosmic balance meshed perfectly with the game’s themes of resurrection, divine accumulation, and the “death-trance” mechanic itself.

---

3. Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Desires of Gensokyo Unbound

The Plot: A Journey of Resurrection and Heresy

The narrative is deceptively simple: Divine spirits (distinct from soul fragments or ghosts) flood Gensokyo—drawn to the resurrection of Toyosatomimi no Miko, a historically inspired, gender-swapped Prince Shōtoku (7th century statesman, teacher of Buddhist sutras, patron of the Soga clan). Miko is not evil; she is a saint (or what a hermetic Taoist would call a seigen). Her return isn’t an attack but an event the spirits wish to witness. But resurrection here isn’t the kitschy “zombie wave” of early danmaku; it’s a Taoist “cultivation” process—a return to the senkai, a state of divine ascension. The spirits aren’t victims; they’re pilgrims. The contradiction is what makes the incident.

The journey is structured like a medieval pilgrimage with modern horror tropes, blending Buddhist denial (the Myouren Temple Suppressing the Mausoleum), Taoist resurrection (Miko), and human spiritual ambition (Seiga’s alchemy). Key beats:
* Yuyuko Saigyouji (Stage 1): The “false accusation” trope is flipped. As a ghost, she’s the ostensible cause—she even directed you! Her role is identical to Letty in Perfect Cherry Blossom (holding back, misdirecting), but now she’s the only sane one. She labels them “divine spirits” and sends you to the real mausoleum. Her Nothing to do with me denial is truthful, which deepens the satire: even Gensokyo’s most notorious ghost is innocent.
* Kyouko Kasodani (Stage 2): A yamabiko (mountain echo spirit) joining Buddhism. Her backstory—“people stopped believing in my kind, so I began reciting sutras”—is a direct commentary on religious adaptation and the loss of folk belief in modern Japan. Her danmaku reflects sonic waves and echoes, contrasting the mausoleum’s physicality.
* Kogasa Tatara & Yoshika Miyako (Stages 3/4): Kogasa, a kasa-obake (umbrella spirit) fails to a challenge a guarding jiangshi, Yoshika. Kogasa: “I always lose by timeout…” This is meta-commentary on boss mechanics—she loses under existing rules. Yoshika, resurrection as mindlessness and pain immunity (no articulation), is Seiga’s tool. Seiga (Stage 4), the actual hermetic, is the antagonist—not for resurrecting, but for defying Buddhist containment. Her “Taoism will bring you superhuman strength” philosophy to Miko is the game’s core conflict: Buddhism (Myouren) suppresses ascension; Taoism (Seiga, Miko) seeks it.
* Soga no Tojiko & Mononobe no Futo (Stage 5): Historical rivals (Soga vs. Mononobe clans, co-servants of Prince Shōtoku) now resent each other and Buddhism. Tojiko, a ghost denied human resurrection (for clan ties to Futo), is wrathful. Futo, aligning with arithmetic and feng shui, is pragmatic. Their combined danmaku embodies historical conflict spiritualized—lightning (Tojiko) vs. feng shui geomancy (Futo’s boat summon, compass mechanics).
* Toyosatomimi no Miko (Stage 6): The cosmic pivot. Her ability: listening to “ten people speaking at once, by listening to their desires”. This defines the game and its philosophy: Miko is the God of Desire itself. Her resurrection attracts spirits because they desire it. Not revenge, not power—desire to witness a saint. Her fight has no score phase, only themed spell cards echoing Taoist immortality, resonance, and cyclical rebirth. Post-defeat: she moves to the senkai—not a punishment, but an ascension. The incident provoked renewed divine presence through her presence.
* Nue Houjuu & Mamizou Futatsuiwa (Extra): The extra stage is a self-aware parody. Nue, defeated in UFo, hides. She fears Miko as a threat to Byakuren’s Buddhist power. She summons Mamizou. Mamizou claims to come for Nue, but fights you exclusively. When defeated, Mamizou says “Why are you Reimu? I was told Marisa did this!”—a direct Breaking the Fourth Wall. This isn’t a serious threat; it’s a satirical curtain call: “These cats are here to fight, not make sense.”
* Overdrive Modes: Spells unlocked by beating on all difficulties are labeled as harder than Lunatic, true danmaku mini-bosses. The only game with this mode, it’s a meta-narrative: the ultimate challenge is not the story, but the player’s mastery.

Themes: Desire, Taoism, and the Hermit vs. the Monastic

• Desire as Cosmic Force: Miko’s power is desire. The trance system requires collecting spirit-desires. Blue spirits (point value) = information desire; purple (extra life) = survival desire; green (bombs) = power desire. To defeat Miko, you must manipulate the desire system in-game.
• Taoist vs. Buddhist Ideology: The Myouren Temple was built to suppress resurrection (Buddhist path to enlightenment through detachment). Miko’s ascension to senkai is the opposite. Seiga, the Taoist hermit, actively resurrects to access power. ZUN subverts: Taoism (ascension) is redemptive; Buddhism (suppression) is restrictive—unusual, as both often appear in Japanese media as peaceful.
• The Human Condition: The protagonists:
  • Reimu: “Five Desires” archetype. Investigating for shrine protection—duty.
  • Marisa: “Greedy Desires” (Strategy Wiki). Curiosity-driven.
  • Sanae: “Selfish Desires”. Wants faith in Moriya shrine by collecting spirits—faith as accumulation.
  • Youmu: “Deathly Desires”. Commands garden, sworn to Yuyuko—prevent incident. Her sword play embodies cutting through illusion to arrive at truth.

---

4. Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: Trance into the Bullet Labyrinth

Ten Desires isn’t just innovative—it’s mechanically radicalized.

Core System: The Divine Spirit Economy

Enemies, boss bullet patterns (especially), and events drop four spirit types:
* Blue: +10 Point Value (top of screen multiplier). Core gauge filler. Collects slowly unless near enemy/projectile source. Enhances max score.
* Gray: Grants max point value anywhere on screen. Like MoF‘s golden outline, but more potent. Faster, heavier gauge fill.
* Purple: +1 Life Fragment. Initial 8 fragments = +1 life. After that: cost increases by 2/3 (8 → 10 → 12 → 15 → 18 → …). Penalizes spam. “No free 1-ups” (TV Tropes: Adam Smith Hates Your Guts).
* Green: +1 Bomb Fragment. 8 always = +1 bomb. Consistent.

Bosses drop 1 purple & 1 green + blues/grays after each non-final spell card. This creates sub-loops: survive a spell, absorb fragments, extend lifepool, and save bombs.

Trance System: The Game-Changer

• Flames: 3 slots. 1 starts filled. Blue/Gray spirits charge. Filling all three allows manual Trance (C key).
• Manual Trance: 10 seconds. Effects:
  • Invulnerability. Dodge literally everything.
  • +100% Shot Power. Instant character upgrade.
  • % Spirit Effectiveness Boost: Blues worth x10 point value, purples/greens worth x2 fragments.
  • Gauge resets to 0 upon end.
  • AND UI changes: Spirits becomes large, neon-colored icons (Green=Glowing Ring, Purple=Gem with Light, Blue=Azure Orb, Gray=Solar Disk) – visually intuitive.
• “Death-Trance” (Inverted Mercy Invincibility): If hit with 1+ flame, NOTHING happens while blinking—instead, Trance activates AUTOMATICALLY for a shorter duration (1-3 seconds, based on flame count). After Trance ends: lose a life. No death shield. This is a huge change. No “I survived the hit” moment—it’s “I used my Trance to delay my death”. It means planning; resources are finite. A death is still a death, just with a dramatic last stand.

Character Divergence: Unfocused vs. Focused

• Radical Departure: For the first time since Imperishable Night (which changed character, not shots), same character, different shots based on focus state:
  • Reimu: Unfocused = Homing Amulets (range). Focused = Concentrated Needles (damage).
  • Marisa: Unfocused = Wide Laser Spread (fake power). Focused = Concentrated Dagger Missiles (high damage, narrow beam) – her iconic laser is a different weapon.
  • Sanae: Unfocused = Wide Gapuga Spread (crowd control). Focused = Concentrated Wind Saw (damage). Perfect for hordes.
  • Youmu: The outlier. Unfocused = Standard Sword Shot (meh). Focused = No shot. Holds focus to charge a high-damage slash wave (releasing buttons unleashes it). Mechanically Unusual Fighter (TV Tropes). Dual role: swordsman and ranged attacker.

UI & Accessibility

• Practice Mode Unlock: Only need to reach stage, not complete—lower barrier.
• HUD: Lives are hearts, not stars (since this game). Visual clarity.
• Spell Practice: Unique standalone mode. Was essential for Overdrive.
• Overdrive Mode: Unlocked by beating each spell on all difficulties. Spells have +50-100% bullets, faster speed. Only game with this (until hidden in later games). Harder Than Hard (TV Tropes). Mastery test.

Flaws and Innovations

• Flaw: Spirit collection requires precise positioning. Not yanking up = missing blue/gray. Gray spirits max out at max value regardless of position. Blues are position-dependent. This causes score inconsistency.
• Flaw: “Death-Trance” can feel punishing. Losing a life after dodging something can frustrate—but it’s by design to tie death to resource use.
• Flaw: Fragment cost curve is harsh. Quick succession deaths punish greed.
• Innovation: Trance as a defensive and offensive tool. Most danmaku offer bombs OR invul; here, Trance offers both, with a power boost, plus resource boosts.
• Innovation: Youmu’s double role. A melee character in a bullet hell.

---

5. World-Building, Art & Sound: Senkai and the Spirit World

Visuals: From Gloom to Gleam

• Backgrounds: Aren’t “colorless and dull” (contra Reddit rant). They’re deliberate: early stages (Netherworld, Myouren Cemetery) are sepia, dusty, murky—Buddhist mausoleum. Latter stages (Mausoleum interior, Senkai glimpses) erupt with gold, crystal, and ethereal blue. Miko’s stage has crystalline spirit pillars and floating divine mandalas—a visual ascension. The contrast is the point.
• Character Sprites: Top-tier. Miko’s regal purple-lavender robes, Miko’s golden kanji floating behind her. Futo’s feng shui compass and boating spell. Yoshika’s orange jiangshi hat and greenish skin. Mamizou’s tanuki disguise breaking. ZUN’s 16-bit art became tactile and metallic—armor has shine, ghost skin has translucency.
• Danmaku: Not “boring bullet spam” but Taoist mandalas, Buddhist lotus patterns, historical medallions, and geometric feng shui patterns. Miko’s spells are large, slow, resonant circles; Futo uses tight yin-yang spirals; Seiga’s are sharp “spirit penetration” knives.
• UI: Minimal. Hearts, bombs, gauge. Clarity over clutter.

Sound: The Dual Soul of the Trance

• Normal vs. “Spirit World” Music: The variable mix is revolutionary.

  • Normal Tracks: Focus on melody and harmony. “Desire Drive” (Stage 4) is a driving upbeat synth-rock with prominent melody. “Kaeidzuka” (Stage 5) is a mid-tempo traditional/J-pop fusion.
  • “Spirit World” Tracks: On Trance, music switches to lower sampling rate (22050 Hz), bass-heavy, rhythm-focused with layered background voices. “Desire Drive SW” is deeper, grittier, driving. The voices layer, creating an underwater, drone-like quality. It’s trance as auditory hallucination.
  • Effect: The change transforms gameplay. In Trance, the music sucks you in—it’s not just invincibility, it’s auditory feedback for godhood. As en.touhouwiki notes: “mitigates boredom… produces different sound… more immersive”. MOST games lack variable track mixing; this was a technical and artistic coup.

• Track Thematicism:

  • Mamizou’s Theme: ZUN called this his hardest. In Hopeless Masquerade, it became “Futatsuiwa from Gensokyo”—proving its standalone power.
  • Miko’s Theme: No “spirit world” version. Just pure, reverb-drenched choir and rapid percussion—a monolithic, unstoppable ascension. Fitting her theme of finality.
  • Game’s OST: Praised by fans (Amino) as strong, but some critique it as less memorable than Scarlet Devil or Imperishable Night. However, its thematic consistency and the spirit world innovation overshadow this. It is the most mechanically integrated soundtrack in danmaku history.

• Atmosphere: The game builds from uncanny (spirits) to sacred (mausoleum) to absurd (extra stage). The spirit world audio is the key—it makes the mechanical feel spiritual.

---

6. Reception & Legacy: A Cult Game with Curved Praise

Launch & Critical Response

• Commercial: No western mainstream press. MobyGames: 4.7/5 (based on 1 player rating, 2011). Avoided MobyScore due to no critic reviews.
• Western Fandom: Immediate, but niche. Reddit rants like “Ten Desires is the WORST GAME” (Feb 2024) citing “boring music” and “power swings” reflect frustration with its system, not mastery—a game designed to punish inattentive play.
• Eastern Reception: Highest praise. Touhou wiki (2011+) and fan forums labeled it “the smartest danmaku in years”. Praised Trance, character shot dualism, and Overdrive.
• Steam (2019): 97% positive (12+ ratings, mid-2020s). A late triumph.

Evolution of Reputation

• Initial: Seen as a solid, accessible entry. Thematic depth noted but not hyped.

• Modern (Post-2020): Re-evaluated as a mechanical and philosophical peak. The Trance system is now recognized as a direct influence:

  • Double Dealing Character: Bomb gauge fills with score items, but no true Trance.
  • Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom: “Life Bomb” = a fragile, high-risk Trance.
  • Unconnected Marketeers: “Power Shift” using spirits for abilities – Trance as a game-state resource engine, not just invul.

• Legacy in Touhou:

  • Thematic: Ten Desires redefined “incident” as spiritual event, not disaster. Wily Beast and Unfinished Dream follow this.
  • Mechanical: The Unfocused/Focused shot divergence became STANDARD. All games from DDC onward (except UCM) use it.
  • Meta: Overdrive as hidden challenge layer. Later games (e.g., WFS) have “Ultimate” modes, but Ten Desires did it first as a requisite for mastery.
  • Cultural: The game’s Taoist theming became a meme—”hermit vibes”, “senkai feeling”, Miko’s “I can hear ten people’s desires” as a funnier Lain Iwakura.

• Industry Influence: Indirect. While no western games copied the system, the idea of “resource-intensive invincibility tied to in-game objects” appeared in games like Cuphead (focus-shifted parry) and Hollow Knight (Soul-based upgrades), suggesting Ten Desires‘ model was a creative “proof of concept” for danmaku influence beyond niche.

---

7. Conclusion: A Danmaku Saint in the Mausoleum

Ten Desires is not the flashiest Touhou game. It lacks the gothic spectacle of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the soulful gravitas of Imperishable Night, or the chaotic sprawl of Phantasmagoria. But it is, without hyperbole, the most important bullet hell game of the 2010s—not for its difficulty, but for its conceptual risk and mechanical synthesis.

ZUN broke the mold. He:
* Replaced fixed power-ups with a dynamic resource loop (Spirits → Trance → Enhanced Collection → More Spirits). A game about desire that makes you want to collect, creating a feedback loop of power.
* Made the music interactive, not reactive, with the variable mix becoming core to immersion.
* Used fusion themes (Shot types based on focus) for the first time in a non-party game.
* Told a story with real philosophical depth (Taoism vs. Buddhism, resurrection ethics) in a franchise known for its camp.
* Created Overdrive, a hidden difficulty that rewards true mastery, years before “runs” and challenge modes dominated.
* And did it all for under $100 retail, on 10-year-old PC hardware, as a one-man dokjin studio.

The Reddit rage about “boring music” misses the point: the music is boring when you’re not in Trance. But in Trance? It’s ecstatic. The game is frustrating when you don’t manage Trance. But when you do? It feels divine. ZUN designed a game that feels like a divinely induced epileptic seizure—a Trance state in miniature. He weaponized boredom and punishment to create euphoria.

Its place in history? It is the hinge point of the entire post-PC-98 Touhou project. It marks the moment the game transitioned from danmaku as spectacle to danmaku as a spiritual and mechanical *philosophy of existence*. It is the high-water mark of dokjin bullet hell games—a testament to one man’s capacity to redefine a genre through sheer philosophical curiosity and mechanical obsession.

Final Verdict:
Ten Desires is not merely a great game; it is a pivotal, indispensable milestone in gaming history. It is a 9.5/10. Only the minor UI tweaks, the occasional harsh stage transition, and the community overhype of some later entries (looking at you, Legacy) keep it from a perfect 10. For hardcore fans, it is required spiritual text. For game scholars, it is one of the most technically radical danmaku designs—a game where the *code, sound, theme, and narrative all point to the same core thesis: to desire is to transcend, but only if you manage it carefully. It is, quite simply, the danmaku game that dare not speak its name—until you’ve tranced into the spirit world and heard Miko’s ten desires echo in your own.

“To understand the ten desires of a human is to know them fully. In the past, the present… and the future…”
—Toyosatomimi no Miko, 2011