| Embodiment of Scarlet Devil | |
|---|---|
 Original CD-ROM cover, featuring a silhouette of Flandre Scarlet | |
| Developer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice[b] |
| Publisher(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Composer(s) | Team Shanghai Alice |
| Series | Touhou Project |
| Platform(s) | Windows[1] |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Bullet hell (danmaku) |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Japanese: 東方紅魔郷 〜 the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil., lit. "Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil") is a 2002 bullet hell scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the sixth game in the Touhou Project series, and the first Touhou game to be released for Windows. The story follows either the miko Reimu Hakurei or the magician Marisa Kirisame, as they fight through the world of Gensokyo to find the cause of a vampiric mist, covering the sky scarlet red in the middle of summer.
ZUN, the developer of the Touhou Project series, had planned to end the series after the release of Mystic Square in 1998. After graduating, ZUN started work at Taito as a game developer and composed music for games created by Amusement Makers, publishers of the PC-98 Touhou games. Leaving the group in 2001 but remaining at Taito, he formed the one-man doujin circle Team Shanghai Alice, initially applying as a music circle to the 61st Comiket. After a denial, ZUN then instead decided to develop a full game to submit at Comiket 62, reviving the Touhou Project series. The jump from PC-98 to Windows represented a "clean slate" for both the series and its developer, and so Embodiment of Scarlet Devil essentially serves as a soft reboot of the series.
Due to the handmade nature of indie dōjinshi works, initial sales of the game were low, being sold for one day at a single Comiket booth. Over the next few months, ZUN would start to open mail orders online for the game. Reception of the game was largely positive: the series soon developed a devout cult following. At Comiket 63, four months after release, there was a single derivative circle dedicated to Touhou; this number would grow to 2,372 circles seven years later, breaking the convention's record. The series' move to Windows allowed for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to reach a much wider audience, and it remains not only one of the most popular and acclaimed Touhou games to date, but one of the most popular games of all time in Japan. Physical copies of the game have been self-published and sold for more than 20 years. In 2013, ZUN stated that Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was the best-selling Touhou game.
- ^ a b "東方紅魔郷 ～ the Embodiment of Scerlet Devil. Manual" (in Japanese). 11 August 2002. Archived from the original on 23 September 2002. Retrieved 29 July 2021. [sic]
- ^ ZUN (11 August 2002). Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (PC).
Staff Roll: 2002/8 Version C62...
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