Welcome to our review of Touhou Genso Wanderers Reloaded, a dungeon crawler out now on Nintendo Switch.
Join the colorful cast of Touhou characters on an incredible journey through the Tower of Desire! Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded is the definitive edition of a roguelike masterpiece, filled with new dungeons to explore, new items to collect, and new faces to meet! Newcomers and veterans of the Touhou series will love journeying through the land of Gensokyo with Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, as well as new faces such as the spunky magician Marisa Kirisame, and wind priestess Sanae Kochiya! And now, with a ton of new content, new and veteran players can experience the world of Touhou wherever they go!
Genso Wanderers is a dungeon crawler game and that is the main attraction for the game. Basically, you are in a type of scenario where you find yourself in a dungeon, unbeknownst what is ahead or even in front of you until the enemies enter the screen.
In Genso Wanderers, you and your partner fight your way through all the dungeons. Sporting a chibi anime style, this game is looking like it is made for an otaku, but there are a few things that did bother me while playing.
I admit I have not played this genre that often. I do not know really if this is normal for the genre, but half of the time, I was unable to turn around 180 percent to attack enemies coming from my backside. Another thing that bugged me, the lengthy tunnels connecting the dungeons and you can not just “dash” your way through them. As you do not see what is coming, suddenly you are hit by an enemy out of nowhere and are forced into battle.
Battle itself feels slow and while the tutorial dons you with a sword, you do not have that while starting the real game, which was kind of awkward. Sure, I understand needing to show how it works, but something this specific should not happen in my humble opinion. You start off with your hands and a magical attack, but they pack just a very little punch compared to the awesome sword the tutorial gave you. A shrill contrast indeed.
Graphically, this game has both classic dungeon crawler graphics and specifically chibi styles being used and when not fighting, like when you enter Yokai Village, suddenly it switches to very beautiful anime-styled stills. A big contrast compared to the dungeons, but not a bad contrast. Sometimes I wished they put in more effort with the fighting to make it that tiny bit more responsive, but alas.
When I was considering how to score this game, I had a real hard time. I did not really enjoy the game, but I did enjoy the story, which is not making things easy for me. Storywise, I loved the game, but it honestly got boring for me. This genre has many better games out there. I also sincerely doubt what will happen when the game drops from the home screen or on the longevity front… It might not hold up at all…
My rating for Genso Wanderers is 60%
