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Seihou Project

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西方Project
Seihou Project
Years active

1998-2008

No. of Installments
  • 3 games
Official websites

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's a "maid touches bullets lightly shooting game" and it serves as the opposite of the Touhou Project that was made by ZUN, who is the university upper-classmate of the Amusement Makers. The Seihou Project is on hold, with no plans to make another game.[1]

Games in this series

Games

秋霜玉 (Shuusou Gyoku)
稀翁玉 (Kioh Gyoku)
幡紫竜 (Banshiryuu)
VIVIT-99 (Confirmed to "not be a Seihou game"[2])

Name and Concept

Seihou (西方) means "western" and can refer to some or all of the areas, cultures, or histories within the Western world. The three games listed above are named after Japanese names for different types of cacti and that each title of the games of the Seihou Project are all under the format of using three kanji in each title. It's unofficial to refer to the Seihou Project as the "Seihou series".

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.[Ref. Needed] (Banshiryuu can be obtained by mail order from doujin shops[Ref. Needed]), and more recently is available at DLsite.

Throughout the games, the 'Graze' (touching enemy bullets lightly) has a different form 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 isn't called 'Graze', but rather 'Evade'.[Ref. Needed] 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.

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. Seihou has the opposite meaning of Touhou, where "Touhou" means "eastern". Also the system follows similar suits to Touhou, such as having six stages with an Extra Stage and that there are several stages in the bosses' danmaku where each time their health decreases, their danmaku changes.

Differences

As things in Seihou have been specified to be opposite, Touhou has a Japanese-style theme 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 appears to be in a futuristic civilisation 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. Touhou has very little machines and science, and mainly has faith in magic, whereas Seihou has very little faith in magic, and does research in machines and science. Also, the protagonist of both projects appear to be opposite, where there is a miko (Reimu Hakurei) of Touhou and a maid (VIVIT) of Seihou.

ZUN

In the work itself, from Project Gian to Kioh Gyoku, ZUN created the music and had involvement with parts of the graphics, but didn't have involvement with Banshiryuu. He also added Touhou Project characters as guest appearances, where Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame made an appearance in Shuusou Gyoku, and Yuuka Kazami made an appearance in Kioh Gyoku. 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 for the sixth Touhou game Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Canon connections

As the developers were different from the start, it's probably said that ZUN merely supplied music, and that they have absolutely no relations in worldview and canon. From the canon of Shuusou Gyoku, it seems that the world of Seihou is what the outside world of Gensokyo has become, but since this always contains elements of collaboration, the possibility that the canon on the Touhou side becomes like this is low.

Incidentally however, the Touhou Project characters to participate as guests is due to a request to the development team by ZUN[3], where on top of that the press version of Dolls in Pseudo Paradise seem to have made some possible reference to VIVIT. That's of course left open for conspiracy theories.

Relation to Project Blank

The members of the circle "Project Blank" (later called RebRank of which Project Blank became the name of a game 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).

System

Absence or presence of fundamental controls
SSG KG BSR V99
Player Character selection ×
Weapon choice × x
Slow movement
Shot change during slow movement × × x
Extend: Points
Extend: Special Item Collection
Extend: Other
Difficulty: Extra × x
Continue: recover on-spot × x
Continue: from beginning of stage × × × ×
SSG KG BSR V99

Fandom

References

External links