A building constructed of wood. The out-of-season call of a frog. The cast-off skins of countless snakes.
She was there. She had always been there. There, with a single human.
Touhou Fuujinrokunote ~ Mountain of Faith is a video game created by Team Shanghai Alice for Windows computers in 2007. It's the tenth videogame installment in the Touhou Project franchise.
A new human shrine maiden appears one day at the Hakurei Shrine, ordering Reimu to either tear it down or turn it over to "the god atop the mountain". Reimu and Marisa decide to scale Youkai Mountain, home to Gensokyo's seclusive tengu and kappa populations, and meet whatever strange god this newcomer answers to.
The first of the "second generation" of Windows games, MoF has a new engine and shrinks the playable cast back down to Reimu and Marisa (but each with three shot types). It's also notable for introducing gods as a major setting element, distinct from youkai.note
This game's signature mechanic is a Faith Meter which slowly depletes over time, but can be refilled by fighting enemies and collecting faith items. The higher the player's Faith, the more their score will increase when collecting items and capturing Spell Cards.
The game's official website can be found here
(in Japanese).
This game provides examples of:
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The premise of this game revolves around faith in the gods, along with Gods Need Prayer Badly.
- Cold Flames: Marisa-C's shot type is named Cold Inferno, and shoots blue-colored magical cold fire.
- Hyperactive Sprite: Hina spins while shooting bullets in all directions. A lot.
- Leitmotif:
- This is the installment that introduced the Game Over theme, which went on to stick around for the rest of the series, even receiving an arrangement from Fairy Wars onwards.
- "The Gensokyo the Gods Loved" from this game is often considered the unofficial Leitmotif for Gensokyo itself.
- Aya Shameimaru's theme "Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain" is described as being her theme as a tengu, where PoFVs more carefree "Wind God Girl" was her theme as a journalist.
- This is the installment that introduced the Game Over theme
- Our Gods Are Different: Gods are the main focus of this game, with the various bosses including Odd Job Gods (the Aki sisters), youkai-like gods (Hina), god-like youkai (the tengu), humans who became gods while alive (Sanae), gods based on one or more dead humans (Kanako), and something akin to a Genius Loci (Suwako).
- While gods already existed in Touhou before (the god of the Hakurei Shrine has always been an implied but never shown/explained figure, while Shinki from Mystic Square is the god of Makai, who created the place and the demons that inhabit it), it was this game that started expanding on their lore, such as their reliance on faith, or the fact that said "faith" can come in many forms, even little things like spending time with worshippers.
- The Place: Mountain of Faith refers to Youkai Mountain, Gensokyo's tallest mountain that is home to both gods and youkai, and the main setting of the game.
- Powerup Magnet:
- The invisible "point of collection" has been buffed - now the player just needs to be near the top of the screen to collect items, without having to focus or increase their Power first.
- From this game onwards, your item collection radius is greater while you are in focused movement. This lasted until Unconnected Marketeers, which turned the focused radius into the "always" radius, bringing things full circle.
- Public Domain Character: The Moriya Shrine draws on the mythology of the Suwa region, specifically the clash between the gods Takeminakata (Kanako) and Moreya (Suwako).
- Seasonal Baggage: Mountain of Faith takes place during autumn, so there's a constant fallen leaf motif on top of the first enemies you face being the goddesses of fall, the Aki sisters.
- Smart Bomb: Unlike earlier games, the player doesn't have a separate counter for bombs - instead, bombing reduces your Power by 1. There's some leeway here, as the Power meter caps at 5 but stops upgrading your shot after 4.
- Soft Reboot: The general tone of the series would noticeably shift from this game onwards. New characters would have a much clearer mythological basis, and Gensokyo's world-building would become much more deliberate. Games up until Touhou Shinkirou ~ Hopeless Masquerade would follow a Story Arc sparked by the Moriya Shrine's attempts to integrate, a first for the series.
- Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The silhouette of Kanako showing a tree with orange leaves in the game's logo is meant to represent the game taking place in autumn.
- The Turret Master: Marisa's Cold Inferno shot type has Attack Drones that fix in place while she's in focus mode.
- Title Drop: Kanako's final spell card on Easy and Normal is titled "Mountain of Faith".
- Villain Has a Point: Reimu actually isn't that opposed to the idea of another god taking over her shrine, since it might be good for business - she's more annoyed at the Moriya Shrine's arrogance, and the absurdity of them wanting to destroy a building that anchors the Great Hakurei Barrier. In the end, she's talked into building a small branch shrine to Kanako on the Hakurei Shrine grounds.
