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Seihou Project

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Revision as of 20:55, 19 July 2012 by Tony64 (talk | contribs) (i/w)
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The Seihou Project (西方Project) is a series of vertical danmaku shooting games by the former members of the informal circle Amusement Makers in Tokyo Denki University, the Doujin circle "Shunsatsu sare do?". It is a "maid touches bullets lightly shooting game" and it serves as the opposite of the gameing series the Touhou Project made by ZUN, who is the university upper-classmate of the Amusement Makers.

Games in this series

Games

秋霜玉 (Shuusou Gyoku)
稀翁玉 (Kioh Gyoku)
幡紫竜 (Banshiryuu)

Concept

Currently, three works have been developed, but since Shuusou Gyoku and Kioh Gyoku have not been resold at events, they have become very expensive at auctions etc. (Banshiryuu can be obtained by mail order from doujin shops).

Graze (touching enemy bullets lightly), which has a sensation of thrill and play. It is a different from in the Touhou Project' in that it has an important status, as it becomes important to earn points from touching enemy bullets lightly. Also, it is not called "Graze", but rather "Evade". Furthermore, since the main power is machine, lasers are often used, and bullet speed compared to Touhou is also quick, with high rates of accidents. Because of this, the works of Seihou generally have higher difficulty.

Name

Seihou means "western", as opposed to Touhou, which means "eastern". The three games listed above are named after Japanese names for cactus.

Relation to the Touhou Project

The Seihou Project itself is a work made with its concept aimed to be the opposite of the Touhou Project made by ZUN (who afterwards created a personal circle called "Team Shanghai Alice"), an upper classmate of the Amusement Makers.

In the work itself, from Project Gian to the second work Kioh Gyoku, ZUN was in charge of the music and had involvment with parts of the graphics, as well as having Touhou Project characters mading guest appearances by ZUN's action. Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame made an appearance in Shuusou Gyoku and Yuuka Kazami made an appearance in Kioh Gyoku. Incidentally, for the Touhou Project characters to participate as guests is due to a request to the development team by ZUN[1] Also, ZUN did not have involvment in Banshiryuu.

The system also follows suit to Touhou, having similarities such as "there are six stages and an Extra Stage" and "there are several stages in the bosses' danmaku, and each time their health decreases, their danmaku changes".

As things in Seihou have been specified to be opposite, as opposed how Touhou is Japanese-style, with a worldview that is like the past with such themes as "the old-style worldview", "the uninhabited started with humans and youkai" and "with many ingredients that have elements of fantasy", Seihou is in a modern city with weaponry with themes like "world of the future", "human, robot, weapons", and "science fiction", so it has the background of the typical shooting game. The miko (Reimu Hakurei) of Touhou, as opposed to the maid (VIVIT) of Seihou. Touhou abandons machines and science, and mainly has faith in magic, as opposed to how Seihou abandons faith in magic, and does research in machines and science.

From the canon of Shuusou Gyoku, it seems that the world of Seihou is what the outside world of "Gensokyo", the setting of Touhou, has become, but since this always contains elements of collaboration, the possibility that the canon on the Touhou side becomes like this is low.

As the developers were different from the start, it is probably said that ZUN merely supplied music, and that they have absolutely no relations in worldview and canon. However, in the text files of Shuusou Gyoku, there seems to be something canon that connects it with Touhou, which ZUN wrote, and in the press version of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise, there was something written that contains the consideration that is probably Reimu in the Extra Stage of Shuusou Gyoku. That is of course left open to interpretation.

Furthermore, Ponchi (ぽんち) (pbg), one developer of Seihou Project, is related in the preparation of the development environment, and was credited with program support the sixth Touhou game the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.In the development of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, Ponchi , who was a member for the development of Seihou Project, .

Relation to Project Blank (P.N.B)

The members of the maiden work shooting development circle "Project Blank" (afterwards, called RebRank which Project Blank(P.N.B) became the name of a gaming series) is a junior classmate of Amusement Makers. In the first work Samidare, Ponchi from "Shunsatsu sare do?" gave program support by participating in its development. Also, there is the relation that Yoko (blankvision), a member in the development of Project Blank, wanted to make the Seihou characters VIVIT and Gates appear as the Extra stage bosses of this game, whose request was permitted.

Also, guessing from VIVIT's way of speaking, it can be surmised that the Extra stage of Samidare is immediately after the Extra stage of Shuusou Gyoku. In Kioh Gyoku, Yoko was credited with creating the manual. Moreover, Gates and VIVIT's themes is an arrangement of music used in the first work Shuusou Gyoku (the original music was from ZUN).

Additional Information

Trivia

  • Samidare is a Seihou game in spirit, though it is not actually part of the series.
    • Additionally, in the game Samidare, a certain area in the Extra stage is dedicated to the PC-98 era of Touhou, as you see Mr. Ghosty as a Generic enemy once again, and Yuki and Mai as the midboss of the stage, referencing to their stage 4 boss battle of Mystic Square. You can faintly see Yuki and Mai in the boss sprites; they are little more than spheres of light, but they are briefly visible at various times. It's thought their appearances is unofficial, as ZUN wasn't involved in the game.

Fanon

  • Compared to the Touhou Project, Seihou is not as well-known, but for Seihou characters to appear in derivative works related to Touhou often occurs in itself.
  • Fans who strongly advocate Seihou often say that they are sister-works with Touhou and that they often refer to Seihou as "the sister of Touhou".
  • Similar to Touhou's scheme of using 東方OOO, fans will sometimes name the Seihou games this way to prevent confusion. i.e. 西方秋霜玉, 西方稀翁玉 and 西方幡紫竜.

References

  1. This is said in the 創曲幻想.txt file written by ZUN in the omake file of Shuusou Gyoku.

External links