I've played it, and I must say I'm amazed by some things while disappointed about others here.
the athmosphere for instance, it's just amazing. it starts out fittingly during the difficulty selection screen. Very dark, with a serious mood, with a little beauty mixed in it. That stage one theme is just so beautiful. And the background, too. Just about all backgrounds in this game are great. Same goes for the stage 3 theme, it fits perfectly with the background. Cold and dark, low-pitched strings and piano. Amazin'.
Now, as for the gameplay... well fuck, grabbing those orbs is annoying and dangerous. and you die easily despite the lower difficulty of this game. The danmaku of the bosses seems extremely crappy to me. Probably the lowest quality i've come accross in an official touhou game till now. Even Double Spoiler had better cards.
And now, the boss themes. They all sound alike. They all abuse the same intervals and are barely memorable to me. So yeah, I don't really like them.
The players? It's great having 4 playable characters. Their graphics get more amazing with every game. Unfortunately there isn't any new gimmick in them. Reimu has the homing stuff, marisa has a non-penetrating laser with an earrape sound effect, Sanae has a spreadish shot, and youmu has stalker familiars and a charge slash from pofv. They are sufficient for playing this game however, so I don't really mind that.
The characters are p cool. I'm glad ZUN decided to bring back some characters. Like Yuyuko. But isn't it sad, getting downgraded? I think not. It's quite amazing she even made it to a new shooting game. Stage 2 boss is quite cute~ and so is the stage 3 boss. who is quite an interesting character and has a bit too many similarities to Meiling. Oh wait, it IS meiling....
nya
