Developer: Twilight Frontier, Team Shanghai Alice, Phoenixx Inc.
Publisher: Twilight Frontier, Team Shanghai Alice, Phoenixx Inc., SUNFISH Co., Ltd.
Platform: PC, Switch, PS4, PS5
Tested on: PS5
Touhou Hyouibana ~ Antinomy of Common Flowers – Review
The Touhou series has been going strong for many years now, dating back to 1997 with its first installment. Even though the series has somewhat of a cult following, the games are getting localized more and more, trying to reach a bigger audience. This brings us to Antinomy of Common Flowers, which is the so-called 15.5th entry in the series. The game has now been ported to the Switch, as well as the PS4 and PS5. The latter is of course via backwards compatibility. We were quite curious to find out what makes this series so special. We soon found ourselves dishing out punches in explosive battles while wading through horribly translated dialogues.
Story
Even with the game having a fairly expansive story about a phenomenon called ‘Perfect Possession’, it all boils down to one nonsensical mess about different shrine maidens duking it out. What is called Perfect Possession in the game, is basically one girl taking over the body of another, to use her skillset, or in some cases deceive those in front of her. It’s fun that the game has a bit of a backstory, but the poor translations often make it very cringe-worthy to actually read through.
Graphics
The graphical prowess of the game reminds us of retro fighting games. We reckon this is somewhat in sync with other entries of the series. The sprites in combat, as well as the special effects, all look extremely crisp and appealing and are truly what makes this retro-inspired series stand out. We were quite intrigued with the different attacks of the varied cast of characters, which motivated us to try out different fighters. The arenas themselves look a bit bland, however.
Sadly, the dialogues, and nearly everything else, do not live up to the quality of the battles. During dialogues, you’ll see nicely drawn character sprites, but these are not really animated. These character pictures will shift between a handful of poses, which makes the dialogues quite stale after a while. Add the fact that the original Japanese text is still presented on screen, with ugly subtitles being plastered underneath, and you have yourself some very unappealing dialogue windows to wade through. These dialogues were also riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, as well as clear indications that some things were not really translated at all. Sometimes you see extremely lengthy Japanese text blurbs being translated into two English words.
Sound
The sound design is truly amazing. The upbeat tunes truly get you in the mood to kick some pixilated ass. Not only is the music very appealing, but you also don’t have to actually play matches to hear the songs you like. You can also select the tracks from the music menu, and enjoy them at any given time. The sound effects are sufficient for what transpires during the matches.
Gameplay
Touhou Hyouibana ~ Antinomy of Common Flowers is an old-school hectic 2 vs 2 fighting game. The pairs you choose will consist of a master and a slave. The latter will still have its main repertoire of moves at its disposal, but not its special move. For this, you’ll have to use the master. Nonetheless, the overall concept of the game is quite clear, as you duke it out in small arenas while fighting on different levels. With this, we mean that you can shift your attitude, and thus add a small layer of tactical combat to the otherwise basic formula. That said, the controls are very simplistic with the game not having any real complex combinations to perform to pull off flashy moves. More than often you’ll just have to shift to a certain direction and press a single button to unleash all hell.
Even though the game has different difficulty options and engaging gameplay, there is not much more than that. The online multiplayer functions are more dead than the common human who finds himself six feet under, in a wooden box. During our many attempts to find a single match online, we always ended up playing the story or some local matches instead.
Conclusion
If you’re a fan of the series or are looking for fun 2 vs 2 fighting mechanics (with great music), then Antinomy of Common Flowers is a decent game. If you’re looking for a great story that goes with this experience, then you’ll be utterly disappointed. As a whole, the fighting mechanics are fun and intricate for engaging gameplay, but sadly you’ll mostly be playing on your own or locally with friends, as the only player base is non-existent. For what you’re getting, we find the price to be a bit too steep.
Touhou Hyouibana ~ Antinomy of Common Flowers - Review,
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