REVIEW: Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT- oprainfall


Title	Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT-
Developer	AQUASTYLE × ankaa studio
Publisher	Phoenixx Inc.
Release Date	May 15th, 2024
Genre	Rogue-Lite RPG
Platform	Steam
Age Rating	N/A
Official Website

I’ve been a big fan of the Touhou Genso Wanderer series of games, so I was pretty excited when a new game was announced a while back. I hoped Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT- would be as great as the two dungeon crawlers that came before it. I’ve spent 20 hours with the game and I’m ready to share my thoughts on it. Did this one live up to my expectations? Let’s find out.

The story begins as Reimu is defeated by a dark version of herself. She awakens at the shrine, but has no memory of her past. Soon many incidents start occurring in Gensokyo, and it’s up to the shrine maiden and her friends to get to the bottom of these and bring peace to the land. Although, there is something about these that seem very familiar and Reimu is just beginning to uncover the mysteries.

Graphically, the game looks like the other games in the franchise. The characters are done in a very cute chibi style. They might be small, but they have a lot of detail and character. The environments are done nicely as well. Everything from sunflower-covered fields to haunted houses is represented here. The PC requirements on this game are very low and you should be able to run it well on any modern system. I got the game to run in 1440p at 120 FPS on my rig. I wasn’t able to get it up to 4K, but this could be something on my end.

In the sound department, Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT- is fantastic. The remixed tunes we all know and love are here. Each one is just as good as the last, and you will find yourself humming along as you crawl through each dungeon. The game features some quality Japanese voice acting as well. These actors bring our favorite characters to life and give them a lot of personality.

Gameplay here is just about the same as the other titles in the franchise. You move along in grid-based dungeons slaying all the foes that get in your path. You can still upgrade your weapons, and they added a new buff system called Izanagi Links. These are cards filled with skills which you obtain by completing quests all around Gensokyo. You unlock these skills and buffs with LP you gain from simply defeating enemies in the dungeon. It is very important you unlock as many of these as possible since they will give defense against each of the monster types found in the game, as well as attack boosts against them. If you don’t unlock as many of these as possible, you’re gonna have a really hard time with the bosses.

The main problem I ran into here is there aren’t enough dungeons to level you for the last battle. I felt like I was going to have to grind for many hours just to be strong enough to take on the final boss. The other games in the franchise just had more content, more playable characters and more dungeons to play in. So while you were probably leveling that same amount of time, it didn’t feel like it since you were in different places. They have already added some content to the game through updates, and I hope they continue to do this until it is on par with the other releases in the franchise.

Overall, I have mixed feelings on Touhou Genso Wanderer -FORESIGHT-. I feel like the game is a very approachable dungeon crawler since you lose nothing when you die, but the amount of grinding here is just a bit much. I can’t say I didn’t have fun during my playtime, and I will probably finish this at some point down the line, but it’s hard for me to recommend this one to anyone outside of hardcore fans at the $34.99 price tag.