Shoot the Bullet
Shoot the Bullet | |
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Single-player |
Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet. (
Gameplay
In Shoot the Bullet, unlike other shoot 'em ups in the franchise, the player cannot shoot projectiles at enemies; instead, Aya, the main character, must shoot photographs to clear the screen of bullets and take down bosses (hence "Shoot" the Bullet). Scores are determined by the aesthetics of each photograph taken, such as colours and bullet density, and the risk taken to take these photos. For each "scene", Aya is only given one life to complete the objective — to take a certain number of pictures of the boss without being hit in a limited amount of time.
To take pictures, the film must be fully loaded into the camera (100%). The player can move at three speeds, the normal speed, the focused speed, and a super-focused speed which also allows for high-speed film loading. When taking pictures, the player can hold the shoot button to control the viewfinder while the picture frame shrinks — this can be used to zoom in on the boss. During this time, all bullets on screen are slowed down and Aya cannot move. If the shoot button is held for too long, the film will get overexposed and Aya would have to reload the film. The player can also press the shoot button once without holding to take a snapshot around Aya. For every picture taken, Aya will need to reload the film from 0% again before she can take another picture. Only photos that contain an image of the boss ("Success" pictures) will be taken into account when tallying up the score.
Plot
Aya Shameimaru is the tengu reporter of the Gensokyo newspaper Bunbunmaru Shinbun, which she self-manages. Aya goes to search for suitable news topics by taking pictures of bullet patterns with her analog camera. She decides not to shoot subjects herself, because she doesn't want her own bullets in the picture. No one actually knows what she does with these pictures except herself.
Apart from the game's synopsis, there is no traditional plot to follow. Aya faces a majority of bosses from past Touhou Project installments in levels featuring their Spell Cards. After reaching a preset score, she will leave a scene-specific comment of that Spell Card.
The list of characters that Aya encounters are, in this order, Rumia, Wriggle Nightbug, Cirno, Letty Whiterock, Alice Margatroid, Keine Kamishirasawa, Reisen U. Inaba, Medicine Melancholy, Tewi Inaba, Hong Meiling, Patchouli Knowledge, Chen, Youmu Konpaku, Sakuya Izayoi, Remilia Scarlet, Ran Yakumo, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Eirin Yagokoro, Kaguya Houraisan, Komachi Onozuka, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu, Flandre Scarlet, Yukari Yakumo, Fujiwara no Mokou, and Suika Ibuki.
Development
The only member of Team Shanghai Alice, who goes by the pseudonym "ZUN", recognized that all past installments of the Touhou Project drew inspiration from arcade games, so he wanted to turn all that around and make an experimental PC game that throws arcade conventions aside.[1]
The idea of a danmaku photography game first came to ZUN when he was taking snapshots of bullet patterns during the production of
ZUN decided that in order to introduce the idea naturally, he needed a character who actually had a reason to shoot photographs. Thus, he created the reporter girl
Post-release
On January 9, 2006, ZUN added an empty level called "Gōgai" (号外, "Extra" in the newspaper sense) after Level Ex with the version 1.01a patch, with the promise that he would add playable stages in it at a later time.[4] On October 16, 2006, however, ZUN announced that he will not make the "Gōgai" stages since he does not have the time, and he would rather move forward onto new projects,[5] thus leaving an empty level hanging in Shoot the Bullet.
In addition to being a standalone game, Shoot the Bullet became something of a game engine on which ZUN's future games base. Mountain of Faith[6] and Uwabami Breakers (Drinking Party, 2007)[7] are two games which use Shoot the Bullet as their prototype.
On March 14, 2010, Shoot the Bullet's sequel Double Spoiler was released. It retains the gameplay of Shoot the Bullet with renewed characters.
References
- ^ 「東方」制作者インタビュー「シューティングの方法論」第3回. 4Gamer.net. Retrieved on 2008-6-05.
- ^ a b ZUN, "Shanghai Alice Correspondence Vol.7". Shoot the Bullet Afterword. 2005-12-30.
- ^ "Touhou Bunkachou ~ Shoot the Bullet". Steam. Archived from the original on 2021-05-31.
- ^ Shoot the Bullet ver1.01a. Invisible Games and Japanese. 2006-1-09.
- ^ "October Resurrection". Invisible Games and Japanese. 2006-10-16.
- ^ "神主ZUN、『風神録』についてかく話りき!", Chara Mel, Ichijinsha, p. 106, 2007-11-10
- ^ ルー後書き.txt. Uwabami Breakers: Staff Notes. Retrieved on 2008-6-10.