As the frost of winter begins to fade, this month marks a season of transition, where the season will give way to the first vibrant whispers of spring (or autumn for our Southern Hemisphere players). We’re channeling our energy into Touhou Meishuugeki ~ Cursed Sweeper and Bewildering Parallel and we have updates that we’ve been waiting to share with you. Whether you’re here for the latest development news or just to see what’s blooming in our pipeline, we’re glad to have you with us on our journey.
Key Developments
Second Stage of Touhou Meishuugeki ~ Cursed Sweeper and Bewildering Parallel Complete
As of today, the second stage of our new Touhou Project fangame has been finished. Marisa Kirisame is now playable, and this new version of the game will be playable at the Niagara Falls Anime Fest, which is scheduled to take place next weekend. This will be my most ambitious Anime Fest yet. Being close to the Canadian border will allow me to reel in more international fans, further extending my reach.
Some of the features we would like to explain in this new game include the removal of the coin mechanic used in Touhou Meijinka ~ Song of Divine Tempest and Touhou Chouhatsuyou ~ Burgeoning Tresses of Longevity. Starting a game in this new title will be easier than ever. Classic and Breezy modes have been redesigned, and both lives and health are tied. Lives are now lost whenever your health is drained.
This game focuses on the mysterious substance of “glohm”, a corruptive substance that causes anyone infected to seek isolation from society and trust the Gensokyo Socialite Order. There’s a reason the time mechanic from Touhou 8: Imperishable Night is here – the longer a disease is around, the farther it will spread.
This title is a standalone entry to the Drillimation Danmaku Universe, and is not an entry to the Emiverse saga. It takes place between the first and second Mythos of Phantasmagoria games and nine months after the events of the first game, as a way to bridge the gap between the postgame of the first and the introductory cutscene in the second.
Security Reminder
With the recent growth of our community and excitement surrounding Cursed Sweeper and Bewildering Parallel, we want to take a moment to remind everyone to stay vigilant regarding online security, and a few weeks ago we addressed a specific concern that impacted a collaborator in our circle. As many of you have seen, the owner of Yumiko Manga unfortunately fell victim to a sophisticated zombification attack.
In this instance, the account was compromised via token theft, allowing a hacker to impersonate them and blast out unauthorized images promoting cryptocurrency scams. This serves as a dark reminder that even big-name figures in our community and the world are targets for these malicious actors. To protect your Discord account, we highly recommend taking these precautions:
- If you see any odd messages or crypto-related posts coming from reputable accounts (including ours), do not click any links.
- Never scan QR codes or authorized third-party verification apps on Discord that you don’t 100% trust, as these are the primary methods used in these hijacks.
We stood with Yumiko Manga as they recovered, and we ask our community to remain extra vigilant. Let’s keep our focus on the games and the art, not the scammers.
Our Commitment to Accurate Reviews
Last week, we intended to launch a new series exploring some of the more infamous entries in the world of Touhou Project fangames. However, fans quickly realized that the content of two now-deleted articles contained inaccuracies regarding games that are, in fact, well-received by the community.
Because we value integrity and respect for fellow developers, we removed the affected articles. We are still refining our editorial process to ensure that future reviews of games, both good and bad, are fair and factually sound. We apologize for the oversight and we thank you all for holding us to a higher standard.
Quality and accuracy are the pillars of Drillimation Systems. When the flags were raised, we hit the pause button on the series to overhaul our research methods. Our goal is to promote good games and help developers draw the crowds they deserve, while at the same time protecting consumers from terrible choices. Our goal is to celebrate the Touhou Project community and not misrepresent it. We look forward to bringing you more accurate, high-quality deep dives in the future.
Moving forward, our fellow server members will implement a more rigorous fact-checking phase to ensure our insights and news remain a trusted source for our fans. It’s hard to get things right and rushing won’t place it in the top spot. We’ve already drafted a few examples with these proper measures implemented below:
- Good game example: Touhou Lensed Night Sky, Kaseigai Review – A Roguelite Rebirth
- Bad game example: PacMan Survivors Review – A Wasted Potential
The good game example was actually drafted after a representative for the developer of Touhou Lensed Night Sky, Kaseigai, Fire Land LLC, contacted me over Discord one night and was quite alarmed over the inaccurate information about their game in the now-deleted article. In response, I drafted a new review of said game with the tables turned right side up. They didn’t matter if the review was positive or negative (I gave it a 7.5 out of 10, which counts as generally favorable).
We created a new scale on how we judge games. Initially, it consisted of six tiers based on the AVGN Scale, which ranks games based on how poor they are in terms of quality. The number of categories in that scale has doubled to twelve, with four good, average, and poor categories respectively. The gallery below shows all of the tags for each.
If you’re curious on the definition over these games, look at the table below:
| Category | Definition | Example(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Greatest of All Time | Products that have nothing better in terms of redeeming qualities and are a true masterpiece. | Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Castlevania IV, and Final Fantasy VI |
| So Amazingly Good | Products that definitely qualify under its medium without any flaws that place it in lower categories. | Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Must Have | Products that are really great with minimal flaws and tons of entertainment value. | Castlevania and Battle for Bikini Bottom |
| Not Great But Still Good | Products that are not the greatest in their reception but are still worth checking out. | Kid Icarus and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game |
| Passable | Products that could be improved but the overall quality isn’t awful. | Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and Ghosts ‘n Goblins |
| Debatably Good | Products that have serious flaws but still pass as a good product. | Ikari Warriors and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) |
| Debatably Bad | Products that are somewhat good, but have serious flaws. | Metal Gear and Doom (SNES) |
| High Contamination | Products that are possible to enjoy, but nobody in their right mind would. | Top Gun and Super Pitfall |
| Very High | Products where the consumer can still survive, but they’ll be traumatized, possibly for life. | Virtual Boy and Zelda CD-i games |
| Severe Zone | Products that are a horrible abomination for mankind and pose a serious risk to the consumer’s health. | Action 52 and Dark Castle |
| So Horribly Bad | Products that are so bad and don’t fit into any of the above four categories. | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Last Ninja |
| Major Code Red | Products that don’t qualify under its medium. | Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing and Life of Black Tiger |
The lessons learned from this situation helped fundamentally reshape how we approach games media. By expanding this rating system to twelve, ranging from Greatest of all Time to Major Code Red, we are now equipped to provide more nuanced critiques that reflect the actual effort and quality of the titles we cover. We aren’t just looking for good or bad anymore; we are looking for the truth of the player experience. As we move into the spring season, you can expect our reviews to be more rigorous, our data to be more verified, and our commitment to the Touhou Project community to be stronger than ever. We’re excited to share these deeper dives with you, ensuring that every recommendation we make is one you can trust. If there’s a Touhou Project fangame you want us to cover, drop your suggestions in the comments.
Statistics
The website’s subscribers increased by 55 for a total of 2,438 today.
The follower count increased by 98 for a total of 7,460 today. Can we get to 7,500 by the end of this month?
Bluesky
We hit a milestone last month as our follower count on Bluesky increased by 86 for a total of 2,530 today.
Instagram/Threads
YouTube
- Content was viewed over 5,500 times, generating over 118 watch hours.
- Subscriber growth continued to slow, only increasing by eight.
Future Goals
Our biggest commitment is getting a playable demo of Cursed Sweeper and Bewildering Parallel out by the end of this month. This includes completing the third stage. The music for both the stage and boss are complete, in addition to the character portraits. After it’s completed, we will focus on revamping the menu.
That said, we hope you look forward to seeing us at the Niagara Falls Anime Fest next weekend. Attendees visiting the Drillimation booth will get the chance to try out Marisa Kirisame. Your feedback will be used to fine-tune the difficulty of the game in addition to fixing issues you find.
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