TrojanHorse711 | Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night (Normal 1cc, Reimu, Route B) @Trojan711 | Uploaded June 2023 | Updated October 2024, 5 days ago.
Touhou Eiyashou ~ Imperishable Night has been on my bucket list for a while since I became a Touhou fan back in 2017. I think I got to the last boss a couple times but never could quite survive long enough to get the 1cc. Managed to finally get it last night, so I recorded a replay and posted it here for you to watch!

The game itself is really fun! I would say nearly everything in this game is on par with, if not better than that of Perfect Cherry Blossom. The music's fantastic, and I'd argue it's held up the best out of all of ZUN's soundtracks. My favorite song would have to be "Flight of the Bamboo Cutter", but this is where I started loving "Maiden's Capriccio ~ Dream Battle" as well! The stage design is also pretty solid, though I think Stage 4 is probably the best due to its unique boss structure being a chase against a rival playable character (Reimu or Marisa). The bosses are all fun to fight, and while I wasn't able to get all of the Last Words I like their addition as a reward for skilled players. I think the Youkai/Human gauge is pretty interesting, and I love the little detail that Youmu only counts for 50% human!

If I have to list any gripes I have with this game, it's that I had to beat the game twice in order to unlock the path to the true ending. The way the game works is that you can use continues to get the "normal" ending, but only while it's before 5AM, so you have to be wary of time. However, you're guaranteed to get the normal ending if you beat it regardless of whether you use a continue, and you have to play the game again (and without continues) to get the true ending. It definitely reeks of padding. I also kind of don't like how Spell Practice is locked behind beating the game once, it was kind of inconvenient. It's the first time ZUN added it to the Touhou games, so I'll cut him a bit of slack as he's done it better later on.

Overall, I had a blast with this game! It's not quite my favorite game due to the aforementioned issues, but I'd definitely play it again when I get a chance!
-Trojan