History Franchise / TouhouProject

[-Most characters and stories from this era have been retconned or otherwise ignored by the series' canon. Four characters from these games were re-introduced in the Windows era[[note]]Protagonists Reimu and Marisa, along with Yuuka from ''Lotus Land Story'' and Alice from ''Mystic Square''[[/note]], but with significant changes from their past appearances.-]

* ''VideoGame/TouhouReiidenHighlyResponsiveToPrayers:'' (1997)[[labelnote:Translation]]''Touhou Strange Spirit Legend ~ Highly Responsive to Prayers''[[/labelnote]][[note]]Was made 95 but wasn't released to the public until 97.[[/note]] Someone or something has smashed the Hakurei Shrine, and resident shrine maiden Reimu sets out to find and punish the perpetrator. Unlike most "core" games in the series, ''HRTP'' is a block breaking game similar to ''Arkanoid'', with Reimu using the Yin-Yang Orb to damage enemies.

* ''VideoGame/TouhouKaikidanMysticSquare:'' (1998)[[labelnote:Translation]]''Touhou Wondrous Romance ~ Mystic Square''[[/labelnote]] A demonic invasion from a mountain cave leads Reimu, Marisa, [[EnemyMine Mima and Yuuka]] to investigate. The last [=PC98=] game, and the one that solidified the series' main gameplay mechanics.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Official spellings for character and place names can vary within the series. For example, ZUN writes "Gensokyo" in English in ''Perfect Cherry Blossom''--this is [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Gensokyo predominantly the spelling the fandom uses]]. The back cover of ''Grimoire of Marisa'' spells it as "Gensoukyo." "Gensoukyou" and "Gensokyou" are alternate spellings directly derived from the romanization from the kanji involved, and there has been a push by some fans to make either spelling the common variant.

* ToServeMan: There's multiple mentions that the youkai of Gensokyo eat humans. [[UnreliableExpositor Akyuu]] says in ''[[AllThereInTheManual Perfect Memento in Strict Sense]]'', though, [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Perfect_Memento:_Monologue that it doesn't happen so much today]] The [[http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Perfect_Memento:_Draft_of_Spell_Card_Rules Hakurei Spell Card Rules]] may have been responsible for this change.

** "SPELL" -- A hypothetical prequel series detailing Reimu's youth during her early days as the Hakurei shrine maiden, specifically during the events leading up to the creation of spell card rules. By Aya Azuma.
** "Ladies of Koumakan[[note]]the Scarlet Devil Mansion[[/note]]" -- A [[YuriGenre yuri-themed]] comedy manga focusing on the titular residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the antics their dynamics bring about. By Risui.

** This spreads over to Website/{{Pixiv}}, where the Leitmotif acts as a special tag for [[SceneryPorn exceptionally beautiful artwork]], even for unofficial Leitmotifs for special characters. For example, the original kanji for "Lunate Elf" along with its English reading is a tag for beautiful Daiyousei works.

* EarthDrift: Early into the series, while the setting was vaguely defined, it was implied to just be located on Earth. The setting was originally known as "the Eastern country", the bad endings for [[VideoGame/TouhouReiidenHighlyResponsiveToPrayers the first game]] show [[spoiler:Earth [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up]]]], and Mima's ending in [[VideoGame/TouhouYumejikuuPhantasmagoriaOfDimDream the third game]] shows the Moon orbiting Earth. The [[VideoGame/TouhouKoumakyouTheEmbodimentOfScarletDevil sixth game]] eventually defined the setting as a fantasy land named Gensokyo, and the [[VideoGame/TouhouYouyoumuPerfectCherryBlossom seventh game]] established that Gensokyo is separated and hidden from the Outside World (i.e. Earth as we know it) by a mystical border called the Great Hakurei Barrier, albeit sometimes things and even people from outside get spirited away to Gensokyo.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: Almost every game's boxart in Windows era uses a silhouette of the FinalBoss or TrueFinalBoss in the background, and in rare cases one of the protagonists.