Valkyrie of Phantasm
Story
A meteorite suddenly crashes into Gensokyo.
A crack appears on its metallic, egg-like surface, and small particles of light shine through the cracks, and they scatter all at once, in all directions.
Eventually, they reach the most powerful residents of Gensokyo.
One of these lights reaches Reimu Hakurei. It engulfs her, as it transforms into what looks like a suit of armor.
A name echoes in her head, and she repeats it out loud,
“Valkyrie Arms…”
Sensing the beginnings of an incident, she sighs and looks off in the direction which the light came from.
She floats up into the air, and is gone in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but a red trail of light behind her.
“My body feels so light…”
Flying faster than ever before, Reimu realizes that her armor—her Valkyrie Arms—are to thank for her newfound speed.
Who gave her this power, and for what purpose? To find the reason behind it all, Reimu hurries on her way… but it doesn’t take long before someone stands in her way.
“Looks like I’m not the only one.”
Standing before Reimu is another girl, similarly clad in a set of Valkyrie Arms. They were both granted the same power, and they both know what must be done…
And thus, a high-speed danmaku battle begins.
Valkyrie of Phantasm is based on the Touhou series,
but has a brand new original story with the creators’ own interpretations of the world and characters.
This is a Touhou Project fan game developed by Areazero.
Game System
■ Basic Actions
- Attack: Perform a close-range melee attack
- Shot: Shoot bullets; hold for rapid-fire
- Spell: Cast a powerful bullet pattern spell
- Step: Perform a quick evasion
- Boost Dash: Dash mid-flight at high-speeds
- Guard: Put up a barrier to block attacks
■ Special Actions
- Accel Drive: Power up temporarily (raises movement speed, motion speed, and attack power)
The increase in stats depends on the number of charges in the Drive Gauge
Level 1 to Level 3 + Level MAX
Has burst effects
- Accel Drive Spell: A powerful spell only usable during Accel Drive
- Ultimate Spell: An extremely powerful spell only usable at Level MAX
- Charged Melee Attack: Has a guard-breaking effect. Shatters the guard and staggers the opponent
- Rush Attack: A mid-range charge attack
- Side Attack: A high-speed flank attack (take two steps at a right angle and attack from the flank)
- Backstep Attack: Do a backstep and then attack
- Boost Dash Attack: A powerful strike dealt after a Boost Dash that staggers the opponent
- Step Cancel: Take a step to cancel the idle time in between attack actions
Number of Players
Early Access version: 1-2 players
※Multiplayer requires online play
※4-Player battles will be added in a future update
Game Discussion
Steam User 3
Getting into this game, I was in a Touhou rush and wanted to play different kinds of Touhou fangames really badly.
I was skeptical about buying this game as I had doubts it'd be fun as it looks-- or that it looks as bad as it can be; because admittedly, judging from the trailers, lack of reception and overall what this game has to offer-- something felt off about this game where I can't exactly describe it.
It felt like "a polished unfinished game" or how I would like to describe it, "a well-crafted working mod for an entirely different game". While it is now in a "full release" state, it really felt like on both paper and face-value, it's a tech demo of what could've had more.
I see a lot of comments that Sky Arena is arguably a better game and comparing them side-by-side, that does seem true as the overall feel and style of the older game kind of works much better than this, I've seen old clips of Valkyrie of Phantasm where before they had the concept of the Valkyrie armor with the old maps seemed like a muuuuch better game compared to now, and I still feel like that's a little true.
So I hesitated at first but after a full week of debating, I decided to bite the bullet and try it out firsthand.
For the first few hours, I was still left skeptic, I even wondered if it's a good idea to continue past the two hour mark of trying out the game in fear of me suddenly feeling like this game doesn't have a lot to offer and I'd rather refund it until I pushed through in hopes that I start to grow on it.
Luckily, I have.
It's one of the most fun games I've ever played in a while with a combat that may feel a little restrictive and limited, to the point figuring out combos and ways to play, tinkering with the abilities and spells made it much more addicting.
While it's not exactly the game with the most booming community, regardless, it does seem like the people that support the game is still responsive and does take their time to enjoy it with others as well, playing it online against other people was one of the most enjoyable things in this game.
I'm not a big fan of competitive games especially online games since I consider myself to be more of a casual, but I can genuinely see myself getting addicted to playing the online mode of this game with a bunch of friends.
It's hard to recommend this game to a non-Touhou fan and to the majority of the public, but I can genuinely see this as a very fun game to try and suggest it to anybody who would like a taste of a more action-y different spin to the Touhou IP.
The story is subpar, it's not the best but it's not unbearable either.
The biggest selling point of this game, honestly, and the only reasons why I even bothered to try it is because Hong Meiling is a playable character and as well as Clownpiece, which are two of my most favourite characters.
Even moreso when I learned that the voice actresses of Yuuko Aioi, Nijika Ijichi, and Fern from Frieren is here- and I just find that really fun, knowing that some of the characters here are reminiscent of the characters I enjoy very well.
Regardless, I still stand on my comments about this game looking a little "clunky" and "weird" at times, where the game feels like it was something made on the Dreams game or a Roblox remake; but the gameplay is enjoyable enough to look past it.
It's still hard for me to decide if it's better to be left alone or to be recommended, but I think most people can find the enjoyment out of it if you were to lower your expectations coming into it.
Steam User 2
The game is decent from my experience so far: Its like dragon ball sparking or xenoverse, The online is DEAD, Remilia Scarlet best girl
FUCK meiling in this game and FUCK Lieutenant_Soap4
Steam User 0
I think AreaZero really is getting closer and closer to nailing down the perfect arena fighter in the works. I personally loved Matsuri Climax (though the dash melee spam got really annoying) and I definitely think this game takes it a few steps up. I honestly have played tons of Dragonball arena fighters (closet comparison I have) and I always found myself liking AreaZero's Touhou fighters just a bit more
Pros: The tutorial of this game was really well done and I got through the game fairly reasonably despite the confusing button layout specifically for controller play. The combat flows much faster than the previous game and it does it well, and many of the moves and characters are very fun to play as. They also still brilliantly implement the involuntary "I'm being over-comboed" recovery (spinning after being hit so much) to genuinely give fighters the chance to recover unlike many other fighting games, where spamming and combo trapping is a very big issue. Graphical improvements with a better story and the game (even though it only has 9 characters) making it only barely 4 gigs of space is an ABSOLUTE win. I love how they took aspects of special moves from the previous games and implemented a much more in depth character customization into the game to really give players a more extensive build and I think it can even be further delved on if they make another game.
Cons: I think the character diversity is a little thin, Matsuri Climax had around 15-20 but it would be interesting if they implemented some more characters as DLC. I felt the basic shooting mechanic was a little lackluster how everyone had just the same basic bullet patter whereas Matsuri Climax had a lot more diversity in shooting style. I do think there is just a little less balancing in this game compared to Matsuri Climax. Meiling and Youmu are CRACKED wheras Remilia feels kind of underpowered. And the only thing I wish they brought back was the absolutely chaotic scenarios where you could do a 4 person (I even think you could do an EIGHT person online) battle royale in the previous game. I also think a little bit of the challenge was taken out of the game such as the arcade mode to fight several characters at once for a REAL challenge, but thats only a slight nitpick.
All in all, just like the old game, to me, this truly is a treat and if you get a group of friends to play, I think it can be a real fun party fighter.
P.S. AreaZero, if you read this review, with how well it seems you optimize your games and are getting better at promoting good gameplay, I genuinely think you can take your next game to the next level. With how many characters are in the Touhou Franchise, You could honestly make an arena fighter with practically the largest character roster of all time all with unique mechanics (we're talking a character library of over 200 here). It will be A LOT of coding (and you don't even have to make a super in depth story featuring them all), but I genuinely have faith that you have the potential to create a masterpiece of a future arena fighter and bring a TON of new fans to the franchise. Keep up the good work.
Steam User 0
I can be a little hard to know how to win, but when you figure it out, you will be having the most fun ever playing this game
Steam User 0
10/10 i will fish if this was a fishing game!
But i will fight for this game!
MVP OTY! OG GTA NOKWISF! Slang no own then the chosen! (Needs to know)
Fish?
Steam User 0
Good idea, pretty okayish outcome.
Better than nothing.
Better than Touhou Sky Arena.
Good Job :)
Steam User 0
Really fun Touhou battler