Touhou Youyoumu: Perfect Cherry Blossom
There are three playable characters to choose from in Perfect Cherry Blossom, and each character has two different abilities. Reimu Hakurei is relatively balanced in all areas. Marisa Kirisame moves faster and uses stronger attacks with a shorter range. Sakuya Izayoi moves slower and uses weaker attacks, but they can hit just about anything on the screen. An important innovation in Perfect Cherry Blossom is the "cherry" scoring system. Shooting enemies gives you more cherry points, throwing a bomb or dying reduces your cherry points, and reaching 50,000 cherry points gives you a temporary shield. Cherry points eventually lead to a higher cherry meter, which increases the points you get from point items. Other important changes include the appearance of your character's hit area when you're focused, the properties of your attacks depending on whether you're focused or unfocused, and a helpful cursor at the bottom during a boss fight that shows the boss's position. Also unique to this game is the "Phantasm Stage," which can only be played once you've mastered the Extra Stage. ZUN explained that the Extra Stage in this game was intended to be an "Easy Mode" version; perhaps the Phantasm Stage was the original Extra Stage during development.
Story
PROLOG In Gensokyo, people relax and bask in the peace of a winter without end. Spring does not show itself, even though it is already May, and the snowstorms are getting worse. Reimu Hakurei, a shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, is tired of freezing day in and day out and wants to find the cause of this unnatural weather. Marisa Kirisame, a black-clad mage, sees a cherry blossom petal floating down in front of her warm house and wonders if spring is happening somewhere else. Sakuya Izayoi, the leader of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, knows that her winter supplies are quickly running out, and wants to end this long winter before they run out entirely. Depending on who you choose, only one of the three heroines will actually go out and investigate. MAIN STORY The heroine begins her journey by heading into the snowy woods in search of clues. She fights the ice fairy Cirno and the winter spirit Letty Whiterock in the forest and the Nekomata Chen in the village of Mayohiga, without making any progress in her search. Finally, after defeating Alice Margatroid and her dolls, the heroine finds a trail when she sees several cherry blossoms waving in the sky. The heroine follows the trail of cherry blossoms high above Gensokyo, breaking through Lily White's greetings and eventually reaching a large magical border and the poltergeist musicians Prismriver Sisters. After silencing the Prismriver Sisters, the heroine crosses the border into the underworld. After fighting several ghosts, the heroine is confronted by the human-ghost gardener Youmu Konpaku. Youmu explains that she has stolen the essence of "spring" throughout Gensokyo in order to make the Saigyou Ayakashi, a youkai cherry tree, bloom perfectly on behalf of her master along with the other gardens of Hakugyokurou. The heroine defeats Youmu and rushes to Hakugyokurou to bring back the spring from Gensokyo. At the end of a long journey, the heroine meets Yuyuko Saigyouji, the ghost princess of Hakugyokurou. Yuyuko reveals that she wants to revive a certain soul that has been sealed in the Saigyou Ayakashi since its existence. In order to break the seal, the youkai cherry blossom tree had to fully bloom. Yuyuko and the heroine engage in a fierce battle to obtain the last "feather" contained within the heroine, which is needed for the Perfect Cherry Blossom, and to regain the Spring of Gensokyo, respectively. After the heroine defeats Yuyuko, the Saigyou Ayakashi loses his health. However, the seal has been weakened by the almost complete bloom and the sealed soul is temporarily released. The soul is actually that of Yuyuko. The heroine dodges attack after attack until Yuyuko's soul is finally sealed again.