Touhou Crisis: The Crate of Guns That Landed in the Temple Courtyard

Born from a 72-hour marathon in tribute to Touhou, this rail shooter promises a second person at your side — and that is the promise that breaks down hardest the moment anyone tries to hold it to its word.

Two Priestesses, a Crate of Rifles and an Unexpected Guest

It was an ordinary spring day when a huge crate came down in the temple courtyard, loaded with guns and ammunition that a shrine maiden and her magician friend played with like toys while the light held. Then a rare visitor knocked at the gate — and in the shrine maiden's own account of the episode, nothing was left but to head into the shootout. UFOs also cross the scene with no explanation whatsoever; the suspicion, floated as a joke, is one more Myouren Temple conspiracy.

What comes out of that is a rail shooter. There is a choice between Reimu, who carries the shotgun nicknamed the Reimungton, and Marisa, who handles the M4G1-C automatic rifle. You can play alone, bring a friend in for co-op against the same boss, or take the PvP mode and fight over score across the internet. The game takes a mouse and it takes a real light gun too: it was designed by someone who plays with that kind of hardware, with players who do the same in mind. Switch on infinite lives and it turns into a power fantasy; lock yourself to a single life and the masochist mode is waiting.

The game was built in 72 hours for the sixth Touhou Fan Game Jam, and only afterwards picked up the polish that made it a full release. Its own store page spells out where it stands: fan work set in the Touhou Project universe, with no tie to Team Shanghai Alice, and the notice asks anyone who plays it to support the official games as well.

Anyone Who Grew Up in the Shooting Gallery Knows the Yardstick

The favourable reviews keep circling back to the same comparison: Mad Dog McCree, Virtua Cop, Time Crisis, House of the Dead, Resident Evil Survivor — anyone who fed coins into an arcade cabinet knows the yardstick on sight. One writer in October 2023, with no hours logged on the profile, already took the resemblance to the first PlayStation's Time Crisis as settled, and went hunting for a real light gun, only to find, digging around AliExpress, that the accessory runs too expensive even there.

The joking register comes from players with two hours on the clock: in November 2022, someone quips that bullets beat knives, admits the real goal was putting lead in Sakuya, and hopes for updates that bring in more people to shoot at. Another entry, with three hours logged in March 2025, says it never crossed their mind that they would watch Reimu, Marisa and Sakuya herself dig into trench warfare inside a Touhou game — for anyone who follows the series closely, that lands out of the blue.

A review from March 2025, one hour of play, celebrates a win against a friend who had never laid eyes on Touhou or on a bullet hell. And even among the warmest voices the ceiling surfaces: a review in English, published in September 2026, praises the fun but sums up the complaint that keeps returning underneath the enthusiasm — the whole game holds a single boss.

The PvP Promise the Network Never Backs Up

On the other side, the complaint that repeats most is not about art or story — it is about what breaks while you play. In a review from November 2023, with no hours logged on the profile, the game turns into total confusion: the same enemy on screen every time, drawn in a line that recalls a classmate's doodle, and UFOs that turn up out of nowhere with no explanation — for the person writing, following what is happening gets hard.

The best-argued complaint, published in June 2025, again with no hours on the counter, goes after the mode that is meant to justify the multiplayer label: the player never sees the opponent, never interacts with them during the match, and learns who won only when the final scoreboard appears. According to the writer, anyone who tries PvP will very likely end up playing against themselves, because there is nobody on the other end — and they go so far as to call that implementation the worst multiplayer they have run into. The irony cuts twice: a game that sells itself on a friend's company stumbles exactly where that company was due to arrive.

Other voices back the same pattern from the technical side: a review from March 2025 records constant crashes and notes that other people report the same thing; another, from May 2022, mentions connection drops in the middle of a match. In February 2025, someone admits the interest came purely from seeing Reimu and Marisa with guns in hand — and still marked it as not recommended, not because of the pair, but because of the graphics engine chosen to build it.

A Sequel That Hands Back the Request for More People to Shoot At

Almost four years after release — the studio's own framing — Brogrammist wrote about the game again in July 2026, to say that following the fallout in the Steam reviews had been fun, and that the most common request from the people writing was a bigger version, with more characters and more content. The answer sat in the same post: a sequel named Touhou Crisis R is in development, promising more characters, more content and even a typing mode — a request that echoes what fans like the November 2022 voice were hoping to see: more people to shoot at.

In the weeks that followed the 2022 launch, the studio itself shipped balance changes — less ammunition for the Reimungton, a boost for the M4G1-C — answering what it was seeing on the forums and in the store's feedback. It is the same studio that, almost four years later, promises to come back with something bigger.

Who the Temple's Crate of Guns Is For

It works for anyone who misses the arcade shooting gallery and does not mind settling everything alone, on a mouse or with a real light gun: two characters, two weapons, one boss recycled across difficulty levels running from easy to lunatic — there is enough meat on that bone for a short session.

It does not work for anyone taking up the invitation with the idea of facing someone on the other side, in PvP mode: the reviews show people sitting alone in there, pulling against a ghost that shows up only on the final scoreboard. Nor is it for anyone put off by the connection drops and crashes players have flagged across different years, or for anyone expecting more than one boss ahead. This is a game designed for two — and the most common road described by the people who played it ends alone, firing at an opponent who never makes it onto the screen.