The Original Chuhou Joutai at Four: Why Mythos of Phantasmagoria Took the Timeline Backwards

On this day four years ago, the original Chuhou Joutai was released. Over the next two years, two more Chuhou Joutai games released: Paraided! and Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess. Those games comprised the Chuhou Joutai trilogy, and there was no Chuhou Joutai game that released in 2023. Why?

I was planning to continue the Chuhou Joutai saga before Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess was released, but cancelled the concept to work on Touhou Kourinden ~ Mythos of Phantasmagoria. Had I not produced Mythos of Phantasmagoria, the Chuhou Joutai story would’ve comprised of a complete story of six games.

The games chronicle the lives of the humanoid Susumu Takajima and youkai-born Kagami Ochiai who form The Unforgettable to combat the Shintoist Province and Scarlet Devil of Team Crimson which had resurged after it was defeated by the Gensokyo Royal Defense Force in a war that the parents of the latter protagonist had fought in. The duo learn the art of danmaku under Crown Princess Konata and confront Frederic Sam Fawkes – the leader of SPASDOT and descendant of Flandre Scarlet whose primary goal is advocating for the genocide of the youkai people, abolishing the monarchy of the Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo by wiping the Kirisame Dynasty from existence, and to rule Gensokyo by establishing a humanoid ethnostate under a military dictatorship.

Chuhou Joutai was originally going to have six games

Before the first Chuhou Joutai had even released, I was planning to make six games with two sets of trilogies. As explained in the fourth stage of the first game, Susumu Takajima had attempted to join the group but was caught by the authorities and subsequently arrested. He would later learn that SPASDOT is a terrorist organization and providing material support to it was wrong.

Instead of serving two decades in prison as with the typical sentence of committing such crime, Takajima would turn around and fight with the Gensokyo Royal Defense Force in its ongoing campaign against SPASDOT. He would later meet Crown Princess Konata and learn the methodology of the term “Driller” via the legend of King Kourin and Queen Marisa, as well as their son Kichou. Originally, the outline of each game would’ve followed this:

• Chuhou Joutai 1 would have explained the rise of SPASDOT’s resurgence and backstory as explained in the previous two paragraphs.
• Chuhou Joutai 2 would have further developed Susumu Takajima’s backstory.
• Chuhou Joutai 3 would see Ayako Sugiwara turning to the dark side by joining SPASDOT.
• Chuhou Joutai 4 is essentially the first game. It had seen Susumu Takajima join forces with Kagami Ochiai to form The Unforgettable. It would show their first confrontation with Frederic Sam Fawkes face-to-face.
• Chuhou Joutai 5 is essentially the second game as written.
• Chuhou Joutai 6 would’ve seen Fawkes dead and Hearthcliffe’s distant cousin Violetta Scarlet taking control of SPASDOT. King Soujirou, the current monarch of the Federal Kingdom of Gensokyo in the games, would have abdicated with Crown Princess Konata becoming Queen. It would depict the duo’s ultimate battle with SPASDOT.

These plans were drastically changed when I decided to make Touhou Kourinden ~ Mythos of Phantasmagoria. I am a huge fan of JRPGs – I had been playing a lot of Pokémon during the development of the trilogy and knowing that developing nothing but danmaku shooters was not a good idea, I stepped back from it and instead created said game.

Result of cancellation

As a result of the cancellation of the six-game plan, Chuhou Joutai was shrunken down to a three-game plan. Details of changes from the sixth planned game made their way into Three Nights of Scarlet Abscess as well as the games before are as follows:

• Frederic Sam Fawkes had gotten Crimsonite grunts to impersonate him and troll the duo into thinking it was him.
• Violetta Scarlet did not become the leader of SPASDOT.
• King Soujirou does not abdicate and Konata remains Crown Princess.

I understood some players who played any of the Chuhou Joutai games had no idea who Flandre was, partly because they never heard of Touhou Project. Mythos of Phantasmagoria was created to clear up the confusions and misunderstandings. This game is essentially Chuhou Joutai‘s origin story, set 300 years before the events of the Chuhou Joutai trilogy.

Mythos of Phantasmagoria is a two-part saga that will span over the course of 45 years in the Drillimation Danmaku Universe timeline, and tells the story of two generations of the Kirisame Dynasty. These two games are the story of King Kourin, Queen Marisa, and Crown Prince Kichou, and the story ends when they save the Gensokyo continent from the Gensokyo Socialite Order. There won’t be any more games after the second one. Those two games will serve as the tragedy of Vladrouge and Flandre Scarlet.

Afterword

I wouldn’t allow anyone else to direct any future Chuhou Joutai games, and I would have to explain to them the multi-year commitment of creating a video game trilogy with release dates spanning a three-year timestamp. After I finish the second and final game in the Mythos of Phantasmagoria duology, I will be dedicating most of my efforts into directing and/or producing future Emiverse titles.