PREPARE THYSELF

Many years ago (12 to be exact), there was a game. Released in the
year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ two thousand and five Anno Domini,
it was a game that would change the course of human history for all time.
Through innumerable hardships, endless conflict, infinite pondering and
limitless suffering have we endured, not as a species, but as a collective
group of THOUGHTS, EMOTIONS, IDEAS, as wanderers in this grand field
called existence, and with this games release, we have fulfilled our duty.
Why we still remain here, however, is a mystery.

Ys: The Oath in Felghana, like an ancient mechanism from millennia ago,
was released, nay, AWAKENED, and with it, video games as a medium
transcended all known standards of quality. It was previously thought to be
impossible, an action-focused RPG with mechanics that were simple on the
surface, but which had to be used to their absolute fullest in order to
overcome the many challenges thrown at you? Impossible! Such a foolish
ideal could never be realized!, HOWEVER, IT WAS INDEED REALIZED, AND IT
WAS GLORIOUS. But more than that, The Oath in Felghana combined crisp,
smooth, perfectly tuned gameplay for the action-loving crowd, with minor
RPG elements to spice things up for the less capable audiences and give
them a sense of progression on top of the incredibly implemented
mechanics. The bosses, ranging from agile and furious humans, to larger
foes that make full use of their surroundings, to gigantic beasts with patterns
as difficult to grasp as their names are to read, litter the many dangerous
monster-filled dungeons of The Oath in Felghana, and make full use of its
stellar gameplay, offering you an experience that is, in every single way, out
of this world in its combination of difficulty and satisfaction.

But all of this would have been for naught, if, indeed, the soundtrack
were not present. The already sublime tracks in Wanderers from Ys have
been lovingly arranged for this gem of a video game, and it shows. Brimming
with passion, emotion, courage, righteous fury and sweet guitar solos, the
music of The Oath in Felghana is, without a doubt, one of the great World
Wonders of the modern age.

Though a masterpiece in every conceivable way, The Oath in Felghana,

sad as it may be, received fairly standard reviews, as further proof to the fact
that humanity as a whole is still not ready to accept the TRUTH, to embrace
that which it deep down knows will bring it salvation, for indeed, mankind
has taken quite a liking to despair, and wishes for naught more than to
wallow in it. Only a select few, myself included, can see The Oath in Felghana
for the shining shard of brilliance that it truly is.

Incredible, astonishing, blood-pumping and gorgeous, these are just

some of the words that can be used to describe The Oath in Felghana, as its
praises are sung straight to the heavens and over the head of the Lord
Himself.

And yet

It is not the game we shall be discussing today.

YOUYOU KENGEKI
MUSOU
 Youyou Kengeki Musou, also known as Enchanting Swordplay Reverie,
also known as datyoumugame, is a video game based on the popular
Touhou Project series of bullet hell shooters from Japan made by a raging
alcoholic and possible pedophile, inspired by gameplay from the Ys
series, namely, from the Holy Grail of all life, The Oath in Felghana. Inspired
by in that last sentence, of course, translates to borrowed from, or, if I
dare be so bold, stolen from, as the gameplay differences are so overall
negligible, that the game could very well bear the title Ys: The Oath in
Felghana: The Touhou Edition: The Game, and not much would change as a
result, aside from the game being more honest, I suppose.

A few things must be cleared up first, however, as they are paramount

to a constructive and critical look into this game, and they are as follows:

1. While it may appear otherwise, and contrary to my earlier statement,

this game is not a rip-off of any sort. It, in fact, boasts original level
design, enemies, bosses, and, to an extent, magical abilities, in no
way copied from any section of the two previously mentioned series
it hails from. The characters, music and general gameplay
mechanics, however, are very clearly similar to or taken from the two
previously mentioned series.
2. While it may have appeared otherwise, I bear no ill will towards this
particular piece of entertainment software designed to offer the
general audience control over the actions and events that take place
in a fictional story. On the contrary, I support and even endorse this
game to the fullest, as all games which take inspiration from our
Holiness, The Oath in Felghana, are honorable to the utmost. This
religious establishment welcomes such fine specimens, who bend
their knees to the Almighty.
3. While it may appear otherwise, the game in question, which I have
previously named as Youyou Kengeki Musou, also known as
Enchanting Swordplay Reverie, also known as datyoumugame, is not
actually a bad game. It is, in fact, not a terrible game either, nor is it
abysmal, nor is it awful, nor is it horrible, nor is it incredible, nor is it
astonishing, nor is it gorgeous. It is, indeed, in fact, a decent game,
when we take into consideration the circumstances and realities of its
existence, these being that it is a fangame, made by people who are
most certainly not professionals in their field, and released during the
81st biannual Japanese Comic (read as: Pornography) Market, known
as Comiket for short, and C## for shorter, wherein the ## indicate
which Comiket it is, starting from its inception back in 1975
 (according to the often unreliable internet source of knowledge,
Wikipedia).

Now that such matters have been cleared up, it is time to begin.

The Title Screen

Upon booting up the game, several important factors are immediately

noticeable. Firstly, the title screen itself is surprisingly beautiful in nature,
showing a large cherry blossom whose petals slowly flutter to the ground, as
the silhouette of your protagonist, Konpaku Youmu, stands next to it,
unmoving strikingly tiny in comparison. Though a wonderful way to start us
off, perhaps symbolizing the negligible size and importance a mere human
might have in comparison to nature and space as a whole, it is far from the
message that the game delivers through its gameplay, if there even is a
message to be found at all.

The next point of interest is the main menu. Aside from the expected
options of New Game and Continue, there is an initially inaccessible Bonus
Level option, which is unlocked upon beating the game once, regardless of
difficulty. The next options, however, are important. Hi-Score N and Hi-Score
B, with N being for the main game, and B for the Bonus Level. This is a
particularly important tidbit, as it shows the game having a focus on score, a
concept completely unheard of in Ys, but very common in Touhou. I shall
touch up on this when we begin the gameplay analysis.
 The last bit of importance becomes obvious once the New Game (or
Extra) option is chosen: The difficulty select. Youyou Kengeki Musou boasts
only 3 difficulty levels, Easy (for those who are not fond of proper
entertainment), Normal (for those lacking in self-confidence) and Hard (for
those who, by virtue of Nightmare difficulty being absent, have no choice but
to choose the highest available difficulty). In comparison to The Oath in
Felghanas wonderous 5 difficulty levels, along with a sixth unlocked upon
completing the game once, it is hardly much more than serviceable, but it is,
indeed, serviceable, and that will do for now.

Upon starting the game, the direction in which it is headed becomes far
clearer, as you are greeted with a familiar-looking healthbar in the lower
right corner of the screen, complete with another bar below it, three yellow
orbs above it, three icons next to the bottom bar, only one of which is in
focus, and a portrait of your protagonist. You are also greeted with said
protagonist revealing the basis of the story, which, as is the case for most
Touhou related fan-material, is hardly of any real consequence, though it
humorous.

Strangely enough, you are also greeted with your chosen difficulty level,
as well as a score counter in the upper right of the screen. This, too, is part
of the games design, and there is good enough reason for it to be there,
which I will explain in a short bit.

To begin with, the three yellow orbs above your health bar are your skill
orbs, which are obviously used when executing one of three skills you are
given full control over, which function very similarly to The Oath in
Felghanas magic attacks. Here, however, aside from starting with all three,
you also do not find jewels which increase your abilities power, rather, you
can find yellow pots scattered around each level, each containing a single
piece of a larger, three-part upgrade, that being an additional skill orb. This,
of course, lets you execute skills more often. Each skill also uses a different
amount of the skill orbs, interestingly enough, which adds a tiny dynamic to
what is essentially a system entirely taken from His Holiness.

The skills themselves are very similar to the magic attacks of The Oath
in Felghana. The first is a projectile, represented by a blue icon, which deals
the least damage out of the three skills and as a result costs the least
amount of a skill orbs, around 1 full orb or a little less than that. It is useful in
the games penultimate level, as it allows you to destroy objects that you
cannot slice away at from a short distance, and can be easily chained into
from any point in your combo. It can also be used to lead into a combo, and
is obviously intended as a long range option against opponents, though it
can be difficult to aim it properly in such a situation.

The second is a whirlwind, represented by a green icon, identical to The

Oath in Felghanas in all but its usefulness. The whirlwind deals the most
damage in a single hit out of your three skills, but that is where its
effectiveness seems to disappear. Unlike The Oath in Felghanas whirlwind,
this one hits only once, and has an actual recovery period unlike the other
two skills, which already drastically worsens it as a tool to be used during
regular gameplay. Add onto that the fact that it doesnt start up immediately,
either, and you have a relatively slow skill, where it is difficult to find
enjoyment in using it. It does grant you a decent amount of invincibility
frames, however, and is the only skill that hits all around you, making it
passable for crowd control, though still not by much. It also uses up the most
skill orbs, eating almost 2 of them with each use.

The last skill is a type of sword lunge, represented by an orange icon,

very similar to the shield bash Thunder magic from the Almighty, simply
buffed to a ridiculous degree. The sword lunge is an all-purpose tool, one that
is without a doubt the best you have at your disposal, to the point where it is
almost overwhelming. It moves you in whatever direction you are facing,
certainly, but this is hardly ever a problem, barring the third stage and
certain parts of levels that are close to large bodies of water. The sword
lunge can be chained into with such ease that is remarkable, and upon being
chained into can then let you start another combo immediately after doing
so. Unlike the projectile, however, the lunge is able to stagger enemies for
a split-second, much like a regular attack would, and as such is the perfect
damage dealing skill. On top of that, like the whirlwind, it can erase enemy
projectiles and offers a slight moment of invincibility, while possessing
absolutely no startup or recovery period to speak of. It can also be used to
help you during certain platforming sections, can lead into an infinite combo
and provides incredible maneuverability against both regular enemies and
bosses. It is square in the middle as far as damage is concerned, but that
hardly presents a detriment to its incredible utility. Its orb cost is low as well,
further cementing its gameplay dominance.

As expected, score does indeed impact gameplay in a way one might

not expect. While Youyou Kengeki Musou does not have a leveling system, it
does possess a combo level system, though it is fairly simple in its
progression. Upon achieving a specific score, your combo, which starts out
with 4 attacks, gains an additional attack for you to slice your foes to ribbons
with. This can only happen twice, however, as your maximum combo
consists of 6 hits, the last of which deals four times more damage than the
ones before it. What score total you need to reach, however, I am not
entirely sure. I had only noticed that, during a playthrough on Easy mode (for
the purpose of remembering the game, of course), the fifth hit was unlocked
upon reaching 3500000, while the sixth was unlocked upon reaching double
that, 7000000. Score is earned through attacking anything that can be
attacked, which includes enemies, bosses and even the pots which house
your health pickups and skill orb upgrades. Your score, and even your attack
power, are multiplied depending on how many hits you can chain together
without wasting too much time. This isnt the same as chaining skills into
your regular sword combo, however, as it represents the amount of hits
youve landed on enemies, bosses and pots without having lost too much
time or gotten hit too severely in the process. The more hits you get off
without utterly breaking one of the two aforementioned requirements, the
higher your score and attack multipliers will be. As a final note, blue pots
contain nothing, and serve to be used exclusively as a way to lengthen your
hit chain. Maintaining this chain throughout an entire level, however, is
incredibly difficult and often unrealistic due to the levels themselves not
always allowing you to do so via enemy placement or various buffer zones
where theres nothing to hit. Score decreases drastically whenever you fall
into a pit or die, causing certain issues that I will discuss later.

This fine specimen of a video game was made in Unity, which is

obvious due to the fairly intensive bloom effects. Despite that, however, it
looks fairly nice, brimming with color at every opportunity. The character
models, too, look somewhat cheap, though this is to be expected and doesnt
affect the gameplay much, even if some individuals might be put off by
Youmus strange look in her portrait, as well as her somewhat silly looking
walk. Theyre almost somewhat endearing, I suppose you could say, much in
the same way that a recreation of Metal Gear Solid 4s pre final boss
cutscene in MikuMikuDance using Touhou models is endearing, and in many
ways, a thing of unfathomable beauty. A disputable claim, that last part of
the last sentence is, yes, but one that I believe needed to be made.

As far as the game play technicalities of this particular video

game are concerned, there is little to complain about; movement is quite
fluid, the act of jumping by itself is not tiresome or clunky, the sound effects
cannot hold a candle to the Almighty but are nonetheless serviceable enough
to offer you passable satisfaction upon slicing relatively innocent fairies into
oblivion, and health bars are always present for every enemy you encounter,
not just bosses. Thus we arrive at the first true misstep; platforming.

It is no secret, His Holiness strong suit has never been platforming,

which is precisely why there is so little of it contained with His Holiness. This
tactic, however, was not passed on to the video game in question at
this very moment, as all but two of its 6 stages require platforming to some
degree in order to complete. Oh, of course, this fascinating piece of
computer software meant for entertainment is kind enough to offer you
checkpoints before the trickiest bits of platforming, but this is not enough to
save the fact that it is far, far too difficult for what it is. Simply failing a single
jump can lead to both your hit chain being broken and your score decreasing
by a decent amount. Thankfully, the first two stages do, indeed, have little
platforming, as it is in fact stage 3 which provides quite the issue.

Stage 3 is much akin to the Clock Tower from The Oath in Felghana, in
the sense that, as opposed to the rest of the stages within its game, it is
almost entirely vertical. This, surprisingly, is not entirely a deal-breaker, as
there is little in the way of successfully executing jumps to land on specific
platforms, and more in the way of jumping on moving platforms that offer
a perfectly sufficient time period in which you must jump to the next. Later
in the stage you have bouncy platforms, which are slightly more annoying,
yet still bearable.

Stage 4, however, makes a grievous sin. In this stage, one must travel
to the western and easternmost parts of the map in order to activate two
switches which open the door to the stages boss. However, upon arriving to
either location, the game shall make available to thee a checkpoint, which,
despite how it may appear at first glance, is a terribly malicious move. In the
main room of the stage, which one must traverse when going from the
westernmost to the easternmost parts of it or vice versa, there are various
rotating, rectangular platforms which are easily the most frustrating aspect
of the entire game. Thus, if one were to fail in traversing these platforms
straight from the maw of Satan himself, he would be thrown back to the last
checkpoint he had found. Thus, one would be forced to not only attempts the
rotating, rectangular platforms section again, but also to go through the
section leading up to one of the switches again, leading to quite the waste of
time, I say with exceptional audacity. Adding insult to injury, upon besting
the boss of the stage, you are met with another short game play section
where you are met, indeed, with more rotating, rectangular platforms.
Stages 5 and 6, however, have no platforming that can result in falling to
your death, and so they shall not be berated.

As I previously mentioned, the game play is indeed quite well made,

but a line must be drawn there as well. While competent to an impressive
degree, it can in no way compare to the sheer polish of The Oath in
Felghana. This is to be expected, of course, but nonetheless, these pages
need filling, do they not? It is important to keep ones expectations under a
tight leash, lest one face an eternity of continuous disappointments, and for
this particular instance, ones expectations must be set as low as, let us say,
the center of the earth. Nowhere in this magnificent little creature will one
find an equally sized foe as incredibly constructed as Chester, as all but two
of the games bosses are the same size as the protagonist, yet are prone to
repeating the same moves ad nauseam, without even the force field that
Chester so often employed in order to force one to concentrate and only
strike when the time was right. Nowhere in this fine little creature of creation
will you experiencing anything akin to witnessing the sheer beauty of
Istrasiva revealing his main body upon defeating his first form, only to rain a
hail of bullets down on you, seeing as all the bosses in Youyou Kengeki
Musou are quite fond of the raining a hail of bullets strategy,
understandable in regards to their origins. Nowhere in this game will you
ever experience anything as close to the sheer euphoria of Galbalans
magnificent form coming into view, as his roar echoes throughout the entire
world, as The Strongest Foe breaks the boundary between music and utter
perfection, as all the memories of your experiences and struggles throughout
your journey flow into your mind and call out to thee, Go forth, my son!
Onwards to our final battle, onwards to victory!. In that regard, the most
you will get is a recreation of Perfect Cherry Blossoms final main game
spellcard, 30% Reflowering, and the stage 3 boss mind-numbingly annoying
desperation spell. 30% Reflowering does not translate well from a bullet hell
format into a top-down action game, and it is one of the few places where
even the games music falters in comparison to its original form.

Ah, but of course, that brings us to the main event, indeed, the one
aspect in which this labor of love perfectly succeeds in emulating His
Holiness; the music. Much like the Wanderers from Ys Original Soundtrack
was arranged for The Oath in Felghana to masterful effect, so too were
various tracks from the Touhou Project adapted into wonderfully adrenaline-
pumping renditions of themselves in order to better serve the gameplay.
From the gloriously rocking remixes of Unknown X ~ Unfound Adventure and
Love-Colored Master Spark, to the heavenly awe of Maidens Capriccio ~
Dream Battle and Faith is For the Transient People similar to that of Ernst and
Scias, and even the fully realized Mecha anime opening feel of Our Hisou
Tensoku, the only real beat that it misses lies in my little darlings, the two
Border of Life themes, which are wonderful, but feel lacking compared to
their competition. Nevertheless, such dedication and adherence to the
teachings of the Almighty are not only commendable, but show that, truly,
despite all of his shortcomings, man is capable of seeing the light, and can
find salvation by following the one true path.

To conclude this sad little presentation, Youyou Kengeki Musou, also

known as Enchanting Swordplay Reverie, also known as datyoumugame, is a
video game of perfectly acceptable quality which took inspiration from one
much greater than it, and came out all the better for it. By accepting its
personal limitations, and using the ideas and mechanics of the Almighty, it
has transcended its own medium, that being video games based on the
Touhou Project series, and we, as men, through creating it and bearing
witness to its completed state, are now one step closer to true
enlightenment. By accepting its personal limitations, it has accepted the rule
and benevolence of the Almighty, thus showing the sincerest form of flattery
and gratitude towards it, and so, it shall be accepted as one of this religious
establishments sacred relics. Indeed, through the acceptance of ones
limitations, one can reach heights that would be impossible to reach by
oneself, thereby confirming that such an act is beneficial to all those
involved.

However, all things must come to an end. The Oath in Felghana, too,
ends, and though it may offer the greatest of worldly pleasures beforehand,
it does possess a conclusion. This sad little presentation must end as well, as
any further attempts to lengthen it will end in great disaster, and impeccable
destruction.

And yet

There is one matter that is yet to be settled.

Though the Ark of Napishtim came before The Oath in Felghana, there is
no such thing that came before Youyou Kengeki Musou, also known as
Enchanting Swordplay Reverie, also known as datyoumugame.

After The Oath in Felghana came Ys Origin, however. And for this, we do
indeed have a match. Three years after Youyou Kengeki Musou, on the 86th
Comiket, the pseudo-sequel from the same developers, known in the English
language as Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity, was released.

TO BE CONTINUED(?)