Touhou Project is quite the franchise, with its reach and influence spreading wide. What started as a series of bullet hell shoot ’em ups has become one of the more prominent faces in the genre. It’s reach expands beyond Japan as well, with Touhou Project having prominence across internet culture, even to people who have not played games in the series. I haven’t played much of the series, but I’ve still experienced some of it just being online growing up. Well, now I can say I’ve finally played a Touhou Project game in Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER –.
Fantasy Maiden Wars is a tactical RPG and a fan game that retells/reinterprets different arcs into a single cohesive story. You start with either Reimu Hakurei or Marisa Kirisame and get joined by other characters from the series. Customize the skills of your characters, upgrade them, and tackle this huge adventure how you see fit. While this is a strong premise—and there’s clear passion for the series on display—Fantasy Maiden Wars doesn’t do enough to gloss over the many issues it has.
An Incident in Gensokyo
Fantasy Maiden Wars takes place in the world of Gensokyo. A harmful scarlet mist has spread across the land, and no one knows why. A teacher from the human village Keine Kamishirasawa visits the shrine seeking assistance, sensing calamity. They decide to investigate the mist in hopes of finding the source and hopefully stopping it. Along the way, the party grows as they meet new friends, foes, and other interesting characters.
While the scarlet mist incident is the start of the story, it’s a pretty small part of the game. Fantasy Maiden Wars can be split into four major acts that retell and reinterpret different storylines to fit one big narrative. This is one of the places the game starts to fall apart for me. For the first half of the game, I was getting invested, but when the third act started, I started to enjoy the direction the game went less and less.
The third act feels twice as long as it should be, and the longer it dragged on, the more annoyed I became. This sadly carries over into the final act as well, which is a shame because it has some good moments, but it’s not enough to bring it back. For the last third of the game, I found myself counting the minutes until it was finally over. While I am not too familiar with the source material, I can feel the passion in this adaptation. Sadly, it isn’t enough to save it.
The Inhabitants of Gensokyo
While the story in Fantasy Maiden Wars fell flat for me, one thing that didn’t was the roster of characters. I couldn’t help but root for the main cast, and I even got invested in their personal arcs. I picked Reimu as my protagonist and enjoyed watching her personal story, as well as Keine’s. Even if she wasn’t the protagonist, I still liked Marisa’s story and want to see how her route plays out. I’m amazed at how well many characters work, given that the game has more than 70 playable characters.
With each new act, new characters are introduced, and I liked most of them. Cirno and the fairies became favorites of mine, even if they act like children. The residents of the Scarlet Mansion became characters I wanted to root for, even if they caused the starting incident. Reisen and the rest of the Moon Rabbits were a delight, even if their introduction was when the story started going downhill. Even when I disliked the story, it still sprinkled in character moments that gave me the willpower to finish the game. With so many characters, I’m impressed I didn’t dislike any, and the roster made me interested in checking out their respective games.
Fight or Retreat
Fantasy Maiden Wars is a tactical RPG through and through. Combat consists of turn-based tactics gameplay when you work to complete a core objective, which usually involves defeating an enemy. On your turn, you decide what actions your team will do: moving, attacking, or helping each other. There are a few extra systems that try to give the game a layer of depth, but it’s your standard tactics gameplay for the most part. I enjoy tactics games, so I was having a good time, but like the story, it started to falter in the second half.
The main objective of most battles is to defeat a specific enemy. Most of these enemies have multiple phases using something called spell cards. When they activate their spell card, it highlights a specific area of the map, and you have a set number of turns before a big attack happens. If you can beat the enemy before it goes off, you will stop the spell card and collect it. In the beginning, this was a fun addition to the combat, and I was enjoying the extra challenge. The problem begins when these stop being fun and start becoming tedious.
After your first couple of spell card encounters, you start fighting enemies that have more than one. At first, these are fun and do a good job of making battles feel important. That feeling goes away when most fights end in a multi-spell card battle. It becomes annoying when you have to start beating an enemy five times to finish a fight. This gets really bad in the second half of the game. There is another way to deal with spell cards, but it’s equally as tedious to pull off. Since spell cards are on a timer, you can wait for them to pass. I ended up doing this for the last couple of battles, and it really soured my experience, which is a shame because it was fun at the start.
Another issue I have is how slow battles are. You have to move everyone on your team, and when it gets large, it becomes a slog to manage them all in battle. There is no way to speed up combat outside of holding a single button. You also have to keep holding it, so using it on your turn isn’t really an option. Also, if you are holding it and dialogue starts, be ready to miss it. I wish battles were more streamlined, especially as your team grows larger.
A Fantastic Soundtrack
While I have my share of issues with Fantasy Maiden Wars, I have nothing but praise for the music and visuals. Story scenes all have nice backgrounds, and each character has a good portrait as well. All the attacks are fully animated as well, and some are quite the spectacle. These are a delight to watch, and I found myself constantly impressed with them. Anytime a character got a new attack, I immediately had to check it out.
Most of my Touhou experience has been the music, and I have always liked it. Unsurprisingly, one of the best aspects of Fantasy Maiden Wars is the music. There isn’t a single track I dislike, and it’s nearly impossible to find a singular favorite. With over 200 tracks, it’s impressive how good this soundtrack is. The game even lets you collect the music and listen back to it, which is something I did while writing this review. I can’t praise the music enough, and if anything brings me back to the game, it would be that.
Mixed Thoughts on Fantasy Maiden Wars
There is one last issue I have with Fantasy Maiden Wars is fixable, at the very least. At the time of this writing, the game may crash if you try to adjust settings, so I couldn’t play in full screen, adjust the volume, or even change the difficulty. I was still able to play the game, but this is an annoying issue I hope to see resolved. Even after a fix, I would still have trouble recommending this game to most, but this would be a step in the right direction.
I loved the game’s characters, and the music and aesthetic of the game is excellent. Once more, Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER – started out strong, and I was having a good time until second half wore out its welcome. The love and passion are evident, but there needs to be more polish and less tedium in combat and the overall game. I wanted to enjoy Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER – more, despite the sigh of relief I let out when the credits rolled.
Disclaimer: Phoenixx provided a PC (Steam) key of Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER – for review purposes.
