Bulletphiles' Black Market note ~ 100th Black Market is a video game created by Team Shanghai Alice for Windows computers released on August 14, 2022. It's the 18.5th videogame installment in the Touhou Project franchise, a direct follow-up to Touhou Kouryuudou ~ Unconnected Marketeers.
Despite Chimata no longer overseeing the Ability Cards and her claims that the cards will eventually lose their worth, their value is still climbing higher and higher. With the markets overflowing with Ability Cards, people have taken the trade underground and established the Black Market, a lawless marketplace where trade is done with a fake currency. Marisa sets out to investigate the black markets which have been popping up—and collect as many cards as she can.
The main gimmick of the game is that Marisa can deploy Magic Circles that cause any bullets that pass inside them to release fake currency known as "Bullet Money", which Marisa can use to temporarily buy Ability Cards until she purchases them legitimately in the Card Market.
Black Market is Opened.
- All Just a Dream: The "Sheep You Want To Count" Ability Card will instantly end the level if bought, with the card comment making it seem like Marisa woke from a bad dream she was having. The question mark in the middle of description and how you can still get new Ability Cards does make it seem like it wasn't that much of a dream.
- Ascended Meme: There is a joke in the Japanese fandom that claims Reimu's amulets are actually seat cushions (zabuton). The "Teacup Reimu" ability card claims to give you the ability to throw giant seat cushions, with the character comments making it seem like Reimu has used them as projectiles before.
- Black Market: The game centers around Marisa investigating an illicit market for the Ability Cards that is outside of Chimata's control.
- Boss Rush: The Challenge Market, unlocked after beating the Final Boss, has Marisa facing all the bosses of the previous Markets, with their difficulties amped up.
- Breaking Old Trends: The first Touhou danmaku-based spinoff game to star a main protagonist (Marisa) instead of one of the supporting cast, as detailed in the official announcement.
- Call-Back: The Blank Card comes into play again, but this time it's willingly given by Chimata to Marisa so that she can meet her main contact Nitori at the Moriya Shrine.
- Cards of Power: Like in Unconnected Marketeers, 100th Black Market has the Ability Card system return with modifications and new cards.
- Continuity Nod: If Marisa battles Eternity Larva, she mentions that she's apparently been joining the Three Fairies of Light in pranking people, a reference to her making friends with them in Visionary Fairies In Shrine.
- Cutting Off the Branches: The narration mentions that Marisa was the one who defeated Chimata, confirming her route at minimum as canon, though it's left ambiguous as to whether she used Chimata's Blank Card to defeat her or not. As Marisa recognizes Momoyo in the intro monologue for the 6th Market, she most likely did the Extra Stage as well.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Enforced player example with the "Life Explosion Elixir" Ability Card, which causes Marisa to release a Spirit Strike upon getting hit.
- Easier Than Easy: A first for the series. The lowest possible difficulty for an enemy wave is "Very Easy".
- Global Currency Exception: During Black Markets, Marisa must use fake money known as "Bullet Money" instead of her usual funds in order to buy cards.
- Harder Than Hard: Overdrive appears here as the highest difficulty for enemy waves, after having been absent since its debut in Ten Desires as a difficulty specific to certain practice mode exclusive Spell Cards.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: The game ends with the black market being allowed to keep running, and by extension letting the Ability Cards continue to circulate, but this time under Chimata's control.
- Sequel: This game is a direct sequel to Unconnected Marketeers, dealing with the Ability Cards continuing to increase in value despite Chimata no longer overseeing them.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Subverted. "End of Market" certainly sounds like the final stage, the preview shows it only has one boss, and it disables Black Markets. However, the Final Boss isn't there. You need to revisit previous stages after beating it to meet the actual final boss.
- Warp Whistle: The "Pristine Self-Confidence" Ability Card allows you to skip over all the enemy waves and head straight to the boss fight.
