Gensokyo Defenders Comes to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Developed by Neetpia and Published by UNTIES, Gensokyo Defenders is a shmup tower defense game that features the characters from the Touhou Project games. It was about a few months ago when I cover another one of the Touhou Project games known as Azure Reflections that released onto the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. I thought that the game was fun and recommended it. So, when Gensokyo Defenders came across to us at thedailygamepad.com; I was more than happy to cover the game. The game is a tower defense game, which I will admit is not my strong suit when it comes to playing video games. However, it does have the shmup elements to the game as you don’t just sit around but you are included in on the fight. As I love shmups I figured I would give the game a go. I will say that I was impressed with the game, although there were some things, I didn’t like about it as well. However, before I get further into my review, I would love to take the time to thank both the developer Neetpia and the publisher Unties for providing thedailygamepad.com a free review copy of the game.

The game has two modes: a story mode and an online mode. In story mode, the game starts off with Marisa talking to Reimu about “War Games” and how they are played. Reimu says she understands and knows how to play war games and how different is from danmaku. I will not lie, I had no idea what danmaku was, so I went and looked it up. For those who have no idea what danmaku is; Danmaku is a Japanese word that when translated is translated into bullet curtain or curtain fire. Making it even simpler its basically what the Japanese call Bullet Hells. Marisa then goes into teaching you how to play war games. One of the things I was nervous about was this being a tower defense and tower defense games are not something that I play often. However, I enjoyed this game a lot because it felt more like a 3D Shmup to me. Unlike in most tower defense games not only were you able to set up defenses but you yourself got to be in on the action and that made it a lot more fun for me.

In terms of controls for the game, I played this majority in the handheld version of the Nintendo Switch with the joy-cons attached to the system. However, the game does run smoothly on the TV Set and the controls with a wired controller were smooth and responsive. I did not play the game without the joy cons being attached to the system as I am not a fan of playing the game with just the joy-cons. The joy cons are just simply too small for even my hands and so playing it with the Joy cons attached or on the TV set with a controller were the ways I enjoyed playing it. Again, the controls all depend on your preference of play style.

I mentioned earlier that the game does, in fact, have an online mode. However, at the time of my review, the online servers seem to be dead across all the servers for the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Therefore, I am not sure how the game plays or fairs online. I think that since the online aspect of the game is non-existent that this would have been a great game to have as a local co-op/vs. game. I say this because depending on what the online aspect is supposed to offer if it is a versus game, I could see people possibly playing this against their friends locally.

The game offers three modes easy, normal, and hard. I chose to play the game on normal mode and I had a lot of fun with the game. I did not find it too difficult at all and not too easy either. It was just the right amount of balance. Although, I found that it was interesting that unlike the other Touhou Project game I reviewed, you are not able to change the difficulty of the game once you start story mode. In the other game if you died you could change the difficulty of the game. However, in Gensokyo Defenders whatever difficulty you select for story mode is what you will be forced to play. So, when you select your mode for story mode be sure it is the mode you want to experience the game with. Also, it does not appear to be any way to delete the current story mode data through the game. You don’t get multiple saves so if someone else does want to play the game, they will have to play the game off a game you already have begun.  Another thing I would like to point out is that the game automatically saves in story mode and that there are no manual saves either.

Overall, I would recommend  Gensokyo Defenders because the game is fun and is a fresh take on the tower defense game genre. I would more so recommend the game for those who like tower defense and shmups. I would also recommend the game if you are looking for a good single player game, that has a pretty good story mode. However, if you are looking for an online tower defense game, or a game to play local I would not recommend Gensokyo Defenders due to the online being non-existent (at least on the Nintendo Switch version of the game.) I’m sure there might be a way to look for others to play with or against (again not sure what online actually offers), but simply jumping into an online session through the game is not one of those means. If you would like to play Gensokyo Defenders for yourself, you can purchase the game on Nintendo Switch by visiting the Nintendo eShopand for the price of $19.99 USD. You can also purchase the game on PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store for the price of $18.99 USD.