Touhou Kaikidan: Mystic Square
Mystic Square allows the player to select from among four unique protagonists, each hailing from one of the 2 prior danmaku shooting games in the series. Series mainstays Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame are joined by former enemies Mima and Yuuka Kazami for a journey reaching to the depths of the Makai. Mystic Square also marks the first appearance of Alice Margatroid as an opponent, who later stages a comeback in Perfect Cherry Blossom.
Although limited by the PC-98 hardware, Mystic Square is the most refined of the PC-98 Touhou titles, and features gameplay quite similar to Windows Touhou games. It employs a variant of Lotus Land Story's Dream Bonus system, rewarding the player for taking risks (i.e. collecting point items from the top of the field area). Its rank system, however, is more lenient than Lotus Land Story's.
80Wit Score
Details
DeveloperTeam Shanghai Alice
ReleasedDecember 30, 1998
StatusReleased
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Wit-Index Intelligence
Community Score
Highly Recommended80/100
About This Game
When demons begin flooding out of Makai into Gensokyo without explanation, shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei tracks the source to a cave behind the Hakurei Shrine leading into the demon world. Marisa Kirisame secretly follows, hoping to steal unique powers, while Mima and Yuuka Kazami head to Makai for their own reasons. Inside, the heroine defeats Sara at the gateway, battles Louise mid-flight, then faces Alice Margatroid and her living dolls above a dark city, followed by witches Yuki and Mai. At the top of fortress Pandæmonium, Shinki — the god who created Makai itself — reveals that the invasion is merely a civilian tourist operation, then punishes the intruder so severely that much of Makai is left burning. In a later encounter, Alice returns wielding a powerful grimoire but falls a second time before fleeing.