Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 20
  3. Negative: 5 out of 20
  1. Digitally Downloaded
    Oct 11, 2016
    70
    Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity doesn't merge its two genres as seamlessly as its recently localised sibling, but it’s still an exceptionally fresh curiosity buy. Though ultimately not quite as polished as either Ys or a main-series Touhou outing, the underlying gameplay is so clever it elevates the whole experience. The adoption of bullet-hell mechanics by classic genres continues to pay dividends.
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Oct 7, 2016
    70
    This is it Touhou fans, this is where it begins, with a pretty middle of the road action adventure game. It may not be the bullet-hell salvation we were all looking for, but it's a good start, and hopefully paves the way for more Touhou games in the future.
  3. Atomix
    Oct 13, 2016
    68
    Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is a game made by and for fans. However this doesn’t guarantee the fact that many of them will enjoy them. Yes it has a really entertaining gameplay and enjoyable boss fights, but its lackluster presentation and kind of repetitive controls, make this game one that will be a delight by some, a mess by others, and a completely strange and forgettable experience by most gamers.
  5. Worth Playing
    Feb 14, 2017
    65
    Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity isn't that bad. The campaign is a decent length, and despite the limited combat system, the fighting can be enjoyable if you play in short bursts. The enemy monotony does drag down the experience if you want to play for extended sessions, and the presentation could certainly be much better, fan-made game or not. While it's not the best action RPG on the system, it's worth a shot if you've already exhausted the others.
  6. DarkStation
    Oct 19, 2016
    60
    It’s repetitive, unrewarding, and confused.
  7. GameCritics
    Oct 18, 2016
    60
    There’s certainly an able amount of fanservice in Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity, but it simply wasn’t built to be much more than a knowing nod to a friendly audience, rather than a genuine ambassador for one of Japan’s most beloved gaming brands.
  8. Twinfinite
    Oct 12, 2016
    60
    An extremely polished game that throws players directly into the world of Gensokyo, delivering a well-crafted translation from the series’ 2D-roots to a 3D-setting. While it definitely didn’t have the highest budget — a fact made apparent by the utter lack of voice acting or music during the pre-fight dialogue sequences — the music that is present during the dungeon exploration is actually quite fascinating even if it does get repetitive the more time you spend playing.
  9. COGconnected
    Oct 1, 2016
    56
    Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity fell flat. With repetitive combat and a lackluster story line, Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity didn’t deliver the experience I was hoping for. There are moments of pure joy and the game finishes much stronger than it starts, yet at the end of the day this is a game best left for hardcore fans of the franchise.
  10. PlayStation Country
    Nov 25, 2016
    50
    Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity is overly simple to the point of providing no challenge. It’s not broken but almost every element could be improved in some obvious way to make it more interesting.
  11. Hardcore Gamer
    Sep 28, 2016
    50
    The graphics lack style or pizzazz and the controls have a wrongness to them. This Touhou title isn’t terrible, but the curiosity of its mash up is all it has.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 21 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 21
  3. Negative: 4 out of 21
  1. minneyar
    Oct 8, 2016
    8
    The fastest way to describe Scarlet Curiosity is as a budget Ys: Oath in Felghana clone with Touhou characters, with all the good and badThe fastest way to describe Scarlet Curiosity is as a budget Ys: Oath in Felghana clone with Touhou characters, with all the good and bad things that entails.

    The gameplay is fast-paced and mowing down waves of enemies is satisfying, but the small variety of enemies gets a bit boring after a while. There's a wide variety of different environments and areas, but the randomly-generated loot means there's not much to *do* in those areas other than just run to the end; there's no point to exploration. The soundtrack is great, but there are voices and the sound effects and sound design are otherwise nothing special.

    In a nutshell, it's a good game, but not a great one. You'll get 10-15 hours of play time out of it, and it's fun while it lasts, but you'll be ready to move on by the end. That's reasonable for the budget price, though. I'd recommend this to Touhou or Ys fans -- although if you haven't played the Ys games, you're better off playing them first.    … Full Review »
  2. Phuz
    Nov 21, 2020
    10
    As others said, very much like top down Ys games. Lovely graphics, amazing soundtrack, great fun, very easy to pick up and play, no Jedi handAs others said, very much like top down Ys games. Lovely graphics, amazing soundtrack, great fun, very easy to pick up and play, no Jedi hand muscle memory needed, just good old hack and slash. Included in 700 games on PS Now at £9 a month, so if you finish in 3 days it has cost less than a quid effectively.

    Great game if it is your type of game. Think top down Zelda but scrap puzzles and add more baddy mashing,

    I love the Touhou soundtracks, really underated.    … Full Review »
  3. streetkrc
    Sep 21, 2020
    6
    The game is good only up to chapter 12, interesting, colorful and varied levels, then comes the boring monotony. And most importantly, theseThe game is good only up to chapter 12, interesting, colorful and varied levels, then comes the boring monotony. And most importantly, these lazy developers made the same levels and rivals for Remilia and for Sakuya, why did you have to do this? it just killed any sense of playing for the second character. The game is definitely not worth the time spent on this incompletion.… Full Review »
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