Touhou Genso Wanderer
Repetitive grind adventure is all style, no substance.
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Touhou Genso Wanderer
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Touhou Genso Wanderer is a role-playing game (RPG) featuring characters from the Touhou Project arcade shooter series in new roles. The game features a very cute cartoon style, which lessens some of the impact of its violence, where characters use a variety of weapons to beat enemies bloody. While there's no nudity or overt sexual content, there are plenty of references and innuendo in the dialogue. The characters don't have much story development, and the main character isn't exactly a positive role model. While the game's controls are easy enough to pick up and play, the difficulty can be a bit much, especially when the player is overpowered or outnumbered by enemies.
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What’s It About?
TOUHOU GENSO WANDERER is a rogue-like RPG (meaning that if characters die, they have to start over from the beginning of the game). Players join the shrine maiden Reimu as she sets out to clean up the mess she caused after accidentally releasing an evil demon bent on world domination. The reluctant heroine must help out villagers and team up with other adventurers to set things right. The game features randomized dungeons, upgradable equipment, and a crafting system with thousands of recipes to create.
Is It Any Good?
This rogue-like RPG is slick and visually appealing, but the repetitive, clunky gameplay leaves too much to be desired. For starters, there's the story -- or rather, the lack thereof. The game has a paper-thin plot that's padded by a ridiculous amount of dialogue that never seems to actually say anything worthwhile. It's tiring to have to wade through extensive conversations that don't affect anything in the game just to move things along. What little plot is there is just an excuse to send the player into a nearby dungeon. There's never any real character development or sense of purpose in anything you do.
Another issue with the game is a direct result of the randomness of the dungeons. You can never really prepare for what's coming. One minute you might be breezing through a dungeon floor without a baddie in sight, and the next minute you're overwhelmed by so many enemies, you'd think they called in a flash mob. Making matters even worse, whenever your party is defeated, you have to restart the dungeon all the way back at Level 1, forcing you to grind again to build up your XP. It's a tiresome and repetitive task that sucks the fun out of the experience. Touhou Genso Wanderer has cute style but little substance.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in gaming. How does art style affect the impact of violence in games? Does a more cartoonish style make the violence more acceptable?
Talk about alcohol in media. Does seeing a character drink in a film, on a TV show, or in a video game affect a person's drinking habits in real life? Do these media accurately portray the effects of drinking to excess?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: NIS America
- Release date: March 21, 2017
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More, Adventures, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: T for Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Last updated: September 10, 2021
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