The Drillimation Series: Touhou Project

"In El Kadsre and Minecraftia, this is the most popular arcade game series played by nearly everyone."

- Ryan Tenmetsu, describing it to Driller

Touhou Project (東方プロジェクト), also referred to as the Touhou Series or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series of maniac shooters developed by a one-man development team at Drillimation Studios called Team Shanghai Alice. The series was created by Jun'ya "ZUN" Ohta at the now defunct Amusement Software in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System before moving to arcades in the early 1990's. The series was originally published by Drillimation in Japan and Nintendo in the United States, but the distribution rights were turned over to Namco in 1992.

The games follow the adventures of a young shrine maiden named Reimu Hakurei and a friendly magician named Marisa Kirisame who adventure on quests to stop sources of evil from taking over a fantasy-based land named Gensoukyou, which is ruled by humanoids and youkai. It is the only game series from Drillimation to feature a more realistic art style instead of the standard "cartoony" art style that most Drillimation games use.

Touhou Reiiden: Highly Responsive to Prayers
The first entry of the Touhou Series, released in 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. It is not a vertical top-down shooter like most other games in the series and is similar to Arkanoid instead. Reimu Hakurei, the perpetual protagonist, was introduced in this game. Reimu Hakurei enters through the gateway into another world, intent on locating and punishing the one responsible for destroying her shrine during the First Battle of Gensoukyou. Players direct a yin-yang orb with amulets to break away blocks and the level is over once all of them are gone. If the player runs out of time on a level, bullets will rain down until the player completes the level or dies. Bosses are defeated by hitting the orb into them until their life is fully depleted.

Touhou 2: Story of Eastern Wonderland
The second entry of the Touhou Series released in August 1987. This is the first danmaku game of the series, and also marks the first appearance of Marisa Kirisame (here as the second-to-last boss), the second major player character of the series. The resident shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei returns from a training session in the mountains only to find the Hakurei Shrine overrun by a contingent of ghosts and youkai. Excited at the opportunity to test her fledgling abilities, she takes the powerful Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs and takes off on the back of her turtle Genji to seek out the source of the invasion. The gameplay is generally the same as Eastern Wonderland throughout the rest of the series.

Touhou 3: The Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dreams
A two-player versus-type shooter played similar to Gaplus, the game is labeled as the third entry in the Touhou Series, released in December 1987. Reimu Hakurei discovers that some mysterious ruins have suddenly appeared just outside the Hakurei Shrine. She joins in a violent competition with the other people who want to explore them—it is said that the one who reaches the heart of the ruins first will win a prize.

Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story
The fourth entry of the series, released in August 1988. This game introduces the focus mode, a staple of the series hereafter, that slows the sprite's movement to facilitate dodging bullets. Following the events of the previous games, the Eastern Country is once again at peace until youkai begin to swarm the Hakurei Shrine and a tremendous power surge from beneath a lake high in the mountains. The shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei once again seeks out and eliminates the source of the disturbance - only, on this occasion, she is unwittingly joined by an old rival. According to ZUN, only 200 to 300 copies of the game were sold at the time. The game's title used the caption "Gensoukyou", but the world's name is not used until Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Touhou 5: Mystic Square
The fifth and final entry in the Touhou Series for the Famicom Disk System, released in December 1988. Mima and Yuka Kazami, final bosses of Touhou 2: The Story of Eastern Wonderland and Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story respectively, return as playable characters in this game. As so often is the case in Touhou games, something is amiss within the Eastern Country. A massive quantity of demons is pouring from a cave high within the mountains. Seeking the source of this invasion, Reimu Hakurei and others must travel through Makai to the one behind the problem. In the game's extra endings for Reimu and Marisa, both of them cut their hair short and change outfits permanently, transforming themselves into what the fans know today.

Logo
The logo for Japanese releases simply has the name in kanji followed by the English subtitle. Furigana is also displayed above the kanji so younger players can get an idea of what the game's name is. In international releases, the logo displays the game's Japanese title in both kanji and romaji with the game's number in front of it. Around three typefaces are used for the logos: the kanji uses an East Asian font, the romaji and English names use the same font on the Nintendo Entertainment System logo, and the third for the English subtitle is defined with a variety of typefaces, with one used for each game.