Video Game / Phantastical Boundaries

It was just a peaceful evening stroll one Friday night, until Boyfriend and Girfriend find themselves warped into Gensokyo by the mysterious youkai Yukari Yakumo, who — of what is practically tradition at this point — challenges BF to a rap battle, with the caveat of becoming her servants- er, shikigami if they lose.

Friday Night Funkin': Phantastical Boundaries, also known as VS Yukari Yakumo in its first version, is a Friday Night Funkin' mod based on the Touhou Project series, with Boyfriend facing off against multiple characters from the franchise. It is also distinct from most mods by featuring various short stories hidden within the song files, each detailing the mods depiction of Gensokyo and the cast of characters.

On Dec 4th, 2022, the mod received a major update in Act 2, featuring three extra weeks consisting of Boyfriend and Girlfriend meeting up and joining the Secret Sealing Club, along with seeing more of Gensokyo and its residents.

On Dec 30th, 2023, the mod received its final major update in Act 3, featuring the final three weeks and concluding the story.

You can download the mod here.

Song List

Stage 1: The Great Youkai Sage of Boundaries

VS Yukari

1. Charming Domination
2. Night Falls
3. Necrofantasia

Stage 2: The Secret Sealing Club

1. Greenwich (Renko)
2. Sealing (Maribel)
3. Innocent Treasures (Renko and Maribel)

Stage 3: A Tour of Eastern Paradise

VS Reimu, Mamizou, Junko

1. Funky Capriccio (Reimu)
2. From Sado (Mamizou)
3. Pure Furies (Junko)

Stage 4: Ghostly Butterfly of Death

VS Yuyuko

1. Ultimate Truth
2. Sakura
3. Border Of Life

Stage 5: Echoes of an Oni's Wrath

VS Kiki Setsuko

1. Warm-Up
2. Pandemonium
3. Kanashimi

Stage 6: Border of Joy and Sorrow

1. Super Express (Renko)
2. Disillusioned (Maribel)
3. Mary the Magician (Maribel)

Extra Stage

1. Space
2. Lunatic Blue
3. Yorimashi

Bonus Songs

1. Non-Euclidean (Yukari)
2. 52 61 73 70 62 65 72 72 79 ^note Not actually playable. Check the folder of the same song name for the source...

---

This mod along with its exclusive lore lists the following tropes:

• Accidental Murder: Girlfriend's murder of Boyfriend (implied beforehand with Kiki Setsuko) is revealed to be this in the Stage 6, where her attempt to Mercy Kill a corrupted Maribel leads to the latter creating a gap that transfers the former's hand into her lovers chest.
• Adaptation Species Change: Downplayed. The Dearest family are not just simply demons in this continuity, they're Oni's. Specifically, they were previously residents of Former Hell within Gensokyo, who would later leave outside the Great Hakurei Barrier with the help of Mamizou to establish themselves to the world as demons.
• All Myths Are True: Girlfriend recalls Gensokyo, a land where lost legends go to live out the rest of their lives, in a fairy tale her mother once told to her. Yukari butts in her Inner Monologue to remind her that Gensokyo is not a fairy tale.
• All There in the Manual: Each song in the main story has an omake included, in the form of a short story in the game's files, going more in-depth on this mod's take on Gensokyo.
• Back from the Dead: Renko, as a ghost, makes an appearance by the latter half of "Necrofantasia" after the Flashback sequence, singing alongside a more somber Yukari.
• Beware the Mind Reader: While Yukari's moreso a Reality Warper, the lack of a limit in her manipulation of boundaries, complete with metaphysical concepts not being exempt, means she just as capable of reading Girlfriend's Inner Monologue about Gensokyo being a fairy tale.
• Bridal Carry: Both Renko and Boyfriend carry out this trope with their respective girlfriends to sing alongside them for "Innocent Treasures."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the Phantasm week, Yukari notes how the series of events aren't canon to the mod, directly addressing the "unknowing wanderers" who are worried of the sudden plot twist of Yukari pulling BF back for an extra challenge.
• Brutal Bonus Level: In the first release of the mod, the Phantasm week's single song "Non-Euclidean", which was initially unlocked after beating Yukari's week on Hard or Lunatic. which is extremely note-dense and forces you to multitask hitting the notes and dodging Yukari's trains.
• Call-Back:
  • As Maribel sings in "Sealing", her poses resemble that of Yukari's during the latter half of "Necrofantasia", the implication that the latter adopted her past self's body language when she was in a mournful mood.
  • Yukari recalls several events of the couple's misadventures when first meeting. In the "Innocent Treasures" omake, Girlfriend brings up several of the same events to Maribel, who likely remembered the stories by the time she meets the couple again as Yukari.
  • Kiki Setsuko's songs in Stage 5 features familiar musical motifs from the base game — namely, "Dad Battle" and "MILF" in "Pandemonium" — courtesy of her being a future version of GF. Her first song in particular, "Warm-Up", is a remix of "Tutorial", a song GF also sings.
• Cartwright Curse: When Yukari notes of BF and GF's relationship, she vaguely mentions another young couple that had their love cut far too short. It's implied she's talking about herself and Renko, back when she was Maribel Hearn, with the following Flashback in the latter half of "Necrofantasia" making this blatant: showing their lives together from wholesome start to grisly end, with Maribel becoming Yukari as a result.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Gensokyo is largely a haven for various supernatural creatures, from Youkai to Oni, who all rely on the belief of the human residence for their survival, which is practically non-existent outside the Hakurei Barrier. With that said, the Dearest family have proven themselves an outlier, living outside the Hakurei Barrier thanks to their fame as pop-star demons.
• Color Motif: Purple, corresponding with the color's association with Yukari and her gaps, is featured prominently within the mod, particularly with the interface/menus from Act 2 onward — whereas most mods load into the gameplay with a fade in/out with black, purple is used here instead.
• Continuity Nod:
  • When Yukari notes of Boyfriend's adventure she witnessed, she mentions various opponents that he battled and defeated throughout, complete with her portrait furthering the references. Opponents include a living nuclear warhead, an evil executable file, a clown from Nevada, and a high school girl who treats reality like code.
  • The "Innocent Treasures" omake, a short story detailing the events directly after stage 2, has Girlfriend recount several of their mod misadventures to the Secret Sealing Club duo. Including: killing an evil executable file all because of a lack of McDonald's, getting transported to the My Little Pony world... particularly the twisted depiction with Pinkie Pie turning Girlfriend into cupcakes (complete with Unexplained Recovery), and the time they fought a zombie clown in Nevada. Monika is even introduced to the club duo off-screen, brought up by Renko as a point against Maribel's skepticism. May double as a Call-Forward, given she's recalling the stories to someone they'd meet/already met.
• Difficulty Levels: Akin to the same difficulty select in the official games, this mod in V2 onwards offers several to choose from:
  • Easy: Light use of gimmicks and more simpler charting akin to easier difficulties in vanilla FNF, intended for players who aren't regular Rhythm Gamers.
  • Normal: The standard difficulty, with charting akin to the average FNF mod.
  • Hard: Standard charting with more gimmicks (if the song has it), for players wanting more of a challenge.
  • Lunatic: More complex charting, including more liberal use of double notes, along with adding Life Drain to the opponent's singing.
• Doomed Protagonist: Boyfriend. The first stage alone implies some unfortunate fate had befallen them through Kiki Setsuko's (ie, a future Girlfriend) holding their signature cap. By Stage 6, we finally see the payoff: courtesy of a corrupted Maribel avoiding death from GF's hand intended to stop them from killing BF — by portal-ing that into BF's chest.
• Downer Ending: Doubling as a Foregone Conclusion with all the foreshadowing the events have gotten, the ending of Stage 6. Maribel succumbs to her fate of becoming the gap youkai, with her killing her beloved Renko, along with making GF accidentally kill BF in the scuffle, leaving GF in anguish.
• Dying Declaration of Love: BF's last words towards GF are "I love you" as he succumbs to the wound in his chest, made all the more notable with how BF only ever spoken in his usual manner beforehand.
• Evil Virtues: To the surprise of Boyfriend, the Dearests operates on the virtue of Honesty. According to Girlfriend, Daddy Dearest is an honest man, with trust and repaying debts considered important to the family. Her parents even encourage her to tell the truth no matter what.
• Flashback: The sequence in latter half of "Necrofantasia" is a series of sepia images showcasing the romance of Maribel and Renko, alongside the eventual death and heartbreak.
• Foregone Conclusion: Multiple revelations about how the story is likely to end — Renko dying by Maribel's hand, with the latter subsequently becoming the gap youkai Yukari, and the death of Boyfriend along with Girlfriend's post-love life — are all shown/hinted at in Stage 1 alone (including the respective omakes if you choose to read them while following along with the mod story), all building up to the moment when the events finally happen in Stage 6.
• Foreshadowing: Girlfriend recalls Gensokyo as a myth told by her parents, despite Touhou canon establishing that Gensokyo is largely unknown to the outside world aside from the Secret Sealing Club and those who originate from the place. Girlfriend's parents know of Gensokyo because they're actually Oni originating from there, who moved to the outside world to achieve stardom.
• Game-Over Man: In Act 2 onwards, each opponent in the mod has a thing or two to say about Boyfriend failing a song.
  Yukari: Huh? Oh, my apologies! Your lackluster performance has cause me to fall asleep!
  Renko: Your defeat was foretold within the stars! Hah hah... Not really, I just wanted to sound cool. [giggle]
  Maribel: And that's what we call a magical astronomy! I, umm... I have no idea how Renko can do that.
  Reimu: Hehh, another boring fight. And here I'd thought you'd actually have potential.
  Mami: Eh heh, I thought transforming you into a parrot was quite clever. After all, you only have to repeat what I'm saying.
  Junko: This "rapping" you call it? Is nothing more than a foolish means to delay your inevitable death.
  Yuyuko: Since you lost, can I eat your soul now? ...What? You'll live just fine without it.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: In one of the omake's, we have Kiki Setsuko and their ability to manipulate sounds. While taking away sound from across Gensokyo seems rather harmless, if jarring when it happens, the full extent of Kiki's ability is to take away sounds by negating the source, from vibrations of a bell to the beating of a heart, meaning she could force someone to have a heart attack on a whim. She likely could've killed Reimu effortlessly this way, had her conscience decided against angering someone (ie. Yukari) that would subject a Fate Worse than Death on her.
• Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Each of the Difficulty Levels have their own alternate difficulty names like with canon having their own case of this trope. In this mod's case, it's naturally themed around music.
  Mic Check ~ Easy Mode
  Slam Poem ~ Normal Mode
  Improvised Rap ~ Hard Mode
  Full Ensemble ~ Lunatic Mode
• Impossible Theft: The "Charming Domination" omake details an event akin to "The Missing Spring" incident, with most sounds from across Gensokyo being mysteriously absent, courtesy of Original Character Kiki Setsuko.
• Insistent Terminology: Yukari's terms of the rap battle is both BF and GF becoming her shikigami if she wins, with her insisting that there's a difference between that and servant.
• It Amused Me: It is a common trope among Touhou for the motives of certain characters to be nothing more than this trope, with Yukari in particular being often subject to this in fanon. As such, her claims of turning them into her shikigami would be revealed to be moot, as she would've sent them to live their lives happily as a couple anyway. She was even barely putting up a fight to possibly win the battle. Though, it's also Downplayed. She had one other reason to meet them: regarding Girlfriend's potentially destructive power and her lifespan posing a risk for Boyfriend.
• The Lost Lenore: The following cutscene after "Necrofantasia", Yukari advises GF to cherish and love BF to the fullest extent due to his shorter lifespan, and to keep her power in check to avoid her becoming "another me". Yukari had already lost Renko in the past back when she was Maribel, as the flashbacks in "Necrofantasia" beforehand showcased, with her dialogue suggesting that she's directly responsible for Renko's death.
• Mandela Effect: Discussed in the "Night Falls" omake In-Universe, where Reimu and Marisa talk about a shop in the human village that they could have sworn existed, name-dropping the phenomena. If you connect the dots to a certain unused song called "52 61 73 70 62 65 72 72 79" — which is hexidecimal code for "Raspberry", with the shop being named Little Shop of Raspberry — and said song is associated with a character that no longer exists, it becomes clear that the opposite of this phenomena is what happened.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Discussed by Yukari in regards to GF's relationship with BF. Though, chances are, BF would possibly die at the hands of his lover before his natural lifespan becomes a factor.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The "Night Falls" omake notes a store called "Little Shop of Raspberry" that no longer exists, the name being similar to "Magic Shop of Raspberry," a song for Lotus Land Story that went unused. Furthermore, the unused song within the files — associated with Rin Satsuki, a character that is similarly unused in canon to the point of non-existence in-universe — is a remix of the latter song; the hexidecimal code even translating to "Raspberry."
  • The overhauled UI in Act 2 onward replicates the same menus from the Shoot 'Em Up games — particularly the four Difficulty Levels, complete with Lunatic difficulty.
  • ZUN's distinct art-style is recreated with Boyfriend and Girlfriend for the album art, the former appearing in the mod proper as part of BF's Bomb System, itself in reference to the portraits of the character appearing whenever a spell card is activated.
  • Yukari's attire upon introduction is her modern frilly dress with tabard, while her ensemble from the third stage onward is her classic and simpler purple dress from her debut game.
  • In the final song of Stage 4, "Border of Life", Yuyuko fades out as if "defeated" at the end of the song. But then, just like Yuyuko at the end of her battle in Perfect Cherry Blossom, the song continues with a real finale — complete with the song transitioning into the final spell remix to signify the Victory Fakeout.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Upon getting inflicted with the "Futatsuiwa Family's Curse" by Mamizou, Girlfriend gives out a "NOT THIS AGAIN" in response, evidently having experienced being turned into an animal because of her surrogate aunt before.
• Press X to Not Die: In most of her songs, with the exception of "Charming Domination" and the second half of "Necrofantasia", Yukari summons an express train that must be dodged by pressing the space bar upon seeing the signal. If Boyfriend fails to dodge it, then it's on board the Yukari Express for him.
• Shipper on Deck: Yukari to BF and GF, to the point that that if she won the rap battle, she would've sent them back to their own lives to live out happily anyway. It may have something to do with Girlfriend being similarly a powerful being with a long lifespan, something that Yukari experienced worse case scenario with Renko.
• Shout-Out:
  • The background of Junko's moon backdrop features Planet Popstar to the left and Amphibia on the right.
  • "Sakura" briefly quotes two other songs relating to ghosts: "Boo Blitz" and "Release".
• Stealth Pun: Mamisou using her "Futatsuiwa Family's Curse" on BF, whose rapping history consists of parroting the melodies and vocals of others, results in him taking the form of a parrot. If it wasn't obvious to the player at first glance, Mamisou makes it clear in one of the Game Over voicelines.
  Mami: Eh heh, I thought transforming you into a parrot was quite clever. After all, you only have to repeat what I'm saying.
• Time Skip: Stage 6 takes place five years after the events left off in Stage 5, with BF and GF going on a space trip with the Sealing Club duo, the events of which are the deaths of both BF and Renko, setting in stone GF and Maribel's future.
• Title Drop: The third song "Necrofantasia", is what Yukari describes her home realm; everything within being a meaningless, living paradox.
  Yukari: In this realm that I call my home, everything is in a state of existing and not existing, space is meaningless and the memory of life and death is nothing more than a mere memory, making this place a Necrofantasia.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • The "Necrofantasia" omake reveals Yukari owns one. A small black box with an engagement ring inside, likely intended for Renko back when she was Maribel, though Yukari has long since resigned to the former's fate being inevitable.
  • Kiki Setsuko has her own keepsake showcased at the end of the main week, being a tattered red and blue hat that she still wears despite its condition. Said hat looks awfully familiar...
• Troll: The end of her second song has her, in order: Laughing Mad, go One-Winged Angel by opening a gap across her face to show Extra Eyes and another from her chest to emerge a tentacle, until she prepares a laser attack to possibly kill BF and GF. The end result of all of this? Confetti, a party horn noise, cake onto GF's noggin and Yukari turning back to normal to laugh it off.
• Turns Red: Defied. Despite starting off seemingly like another case of "third song angry transformation" some mods fall into, Yukari fakes them out last second, remarking that she wouldn't fall under such cliches.
• Victory Fakeout: "Border of Life" seemingly ends with Yuyuko fading out as the timer reaches its end, but then view starts focusing on the dead cherry tree in the backdrop, with a heartbeat that slowly fades in as it closes in on the tree. Then, after the following quote from Yuyuko, a hole in the tree opens up to reveal her corpse floating out, leading into the real finale.
  Yuyuko: Remembering the melancholy of human existence, even ghosts stray from the path of righteousness.
• Wham Shot: While it doesn't get directly explained until much later into the mod, the end of Stage 1 has Yukari meet an unknown character named Kiki Setsuko, with the CG showcasing Kiki from the waist down... holding the Signature Headgear of Boyfriend.
• You Can't Fight Fate: One thing Yukari remarks and hammers home in one of the omakes and the final stage is this trope in regards to the events that led to her transitioning from her usual self as Maribel to the gap Youkai — that she herself had to force her past self's hand to murder her beloved Renko, with Girlfriend's timeline also being set in stone as she accidentally murders Boyfriend in trying to kill Maribel. Even if Yukari wanted to save them and not go through with the manipulation, the timeline wouldn't allow her, with her implicitly not going through the act a countless number of times until she did it.
  Yukari: I've tried to save her... so many times... only to end with failure either way. It's a fate that all versions of myself suffer from.
  Kiki: I see... I can't blame you then. Fate is one son of a bitch.

---