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Touhou Hisoutensokunote ~ Choudokyuu Ginyoru no Nazo o Oe (usually referred to by fans as "Soku") is a video game created by Team Shanghai Alice and Twilight Frontier for Windows computers in 2009. It's the 12.3th videogame installment in the Touhou Project franchise.
A giant humanoid figure has been sighted wandering around Gensokyo, and three of its "weaker" inhabitants set out to find it. Sanae thinks it must be a Humongous Mecha, Cirno the legendary youkai Daidarabotchi, and Meiling the disaster god Taisui Xingjun.
A short Sequel to the Fighting Game Touhou Hisouten ~ Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, Hisoutensoku is playable as a standalone game, but it can also function as an Expansion Pack for its predecessor - adding Sanae, Cirno, Meiling, Utsuho and Suwako as playable characters, plus new and rebalanced mechanics for the veteran cast. More detailed gameplay information can be found on the wiki
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The game's official website can be found here (in Japanese).
This game provides examples of:
- Character Title: "Hisou Tensoku" is the name of the mysterious giant - actually an attraction the kappa built for a technology fair.
- Close-Range Combatant: Meiling's ranged attacks are very limited, and will peter out after a short distance.
- Confusion Fu: Suwako has very strange gameplay - among other things she moves around the stage by hopping, her crouch summons a lily pad that makes her taller, and she can swim through the ground.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Suwako's Last Spell. She launches both Sanae and herself into the sky for a Free-Fall Fight. Keep in mind that Suwako is an earth god, while Sanae is a wind god. Despite putting her opponent right in her element and distancing herself from her own, Suwako still puts Sanae in a difficult spot and delivers on the promise of an ultimate attack.
- Easter Egg:
- The "Custom Parasol" card has a secondary effect that's hinted at in its description: while it's in her deck, Remilia Scarlet can fight in outdoor stages.
- Similarly, a fight between Remilia and Utsuho (who fights with The Power of the Sun) will always leave Remilia with scuffed clothing in the after-fight dialogue, regardless of who wins.
- If you play as Reimu, and use "Fantasy Nature" during the third round of a fight, a Fist of the North Star-style arrangement of "Eastern Mystical Love Consultation" starts playing. You can't select this track from the Music Room
- Field Power Effect: The new characters have their own weather conditions in addition to the ones from the previous game:
- Calm (Sanae): The last player to land an attack gains Regenerating Health. Each time the effect transfers, it becomes stronger but the weather timer advances a little.
- Diamond Dust (Cirno): Characters cannot tech to avoid being knocked down. Returning to your feet inflicts damage (which cannot KO) and advances the weather timer a little.
- Dust Storm (Meiling): Counterhits can be performed easier and hitstun enemies for longer, but advance the weather timer each time.
- Scorching Sun (Utsuho): Characters lose health over time in exchange for higher attack power and spellcard energy regeneration. The effect becomes more intense the higher a character is on the screen.
- Monsoon (Suwako): Attacks can bounce opponents off walls and floors more easily.
- Free-Fall Fight: Suwako's final attack, Divine Battle Above Gensokyo, takes place as she and Sanae fall from the sky (after being blasted there during their battle).
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Because Remilia Scarlet is vulnerable to sunlight, she's unplayable on outdoor stages... unless she has a Parasol card equipped.
- Giant Mook: Alice uses her fight with Cirno to test out some doll enlargement spells she's been working on - first "Level Titania" (a pair of giant dolls that fight alongside her), then for her Last Word the enormous Dual Wielding "Goliath Doll".
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Meiling's Final Boss isn't a returning Touhou character, or even humanoid, but a giant catfish that creates earthquakes. Since Meiling's route is All Just a Dream, this might be a product of her memories of Tenshi or the giant catfish that Sakuya caught in one of SWR's endings.
- Lower-Deck Episode: Was originally intended to focus on some of the weaker inhabitants of Gensokyo, with Nitori and Wriggle being considered for the roster. This makes Sanae a rather odd inclusion, and may have something to do with why she's one of the more underpowered characters overall.
- Mirror Match: It's possible for Sanae to summon Suwako while fighting Suwako. Justified in that gods like Suwako are capable of existing in multiple places at once.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: Exists in a weird space between this and an actual mission pack, given that it can be played with or without connecting it to SWR.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Hisoutensoku is a nod to Gakutensoku, Japan's first robot. Its appearance in Sanae's ending looks like a cross between Gakutensoku and Mazinger Z.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: "Hisoutensoku" is an extension of "Hisouten", the title of the previous game. Weirdly, its subtitle is also in Japanese rather than in English like most games in the series.
- Shout-Out: The name of the track "X, The Floating Object in the Sky" references the Japanese titles of The Thing (1982) and The Thing from Another World.
- Super Robot: The eponymous Hisoutensoku is closer to a parade float than an actual Humongous Mecha, but its design is clearly modelled on Mazinger Z and it gets a theme song in the style of old-school Super Robot anime. Some other tracks, like "Did You See That Shadow?"note and "Our Hisoutensoku"note also use phrasing evocative of those media. The game's soundtrack continues the Retraux theme in its cover art, including the title "Thermonuclear Titan Hisoutensoku".
- Theme Music Powerup: As an Easter Egg, if Reimu uses Fantasy Nature in the third round of a match, it will trigger a hidden remix of her theme song in the style of Ai wo Torimodose - a Shout-Out to the "Fatal KO" mechanic of Fist of the North Star: Twin Blue Stars of Judgment. The name Fantasy Nature (Musou Tensei) itself is a homophone of Kenshiro's ultimate technique in the manga.
