touhou koumakyou: new classic
12 Jun 2026 - digitalily
!!!!!actually what on earth!!!!!When you're on Discord long enough to build up a collection of servers, you learn to pick your poison. Sometimes it's great joining the official server for whatever thing you're into, and other times it's a constant stream of < insert text version of discord ping sound here >. As such, most of the servers that are higher up on the list of ping-offenders tend to get that turned off rather quickly, with some exceptions. But sometimes a larger server shows restraint, and won't hastily unholster their @everyone... "unless at the uttermost end of need." It is for this reason that when the near ~16k member Touhou Project server breaks it out, I quickly go and take a look.
Cirno's new boss spriteWhat is rare though, is when the announcement you then go and look at isn't one of the usual suspects- them being the announcement of the next game in the series, or the actual release day (which isn't exactly hard to divine either way). This time, it was something that I don't think many people would have seen coming- the announcement of the series' first remaster, which is of Touhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil i.e. 'Touhou 6,' which has by far the most popular characters in the fandom overall, and further which is basically -the- game that caused this series to absolutely explode with popularity in ye olde niche online communities in the early-mid '00s. More than that, while this isn't the first game to have an official English translation (that title belonging to Antinomy of Common Flowers), this project was done with collaboration from some of the people behind thcrap, which is huge for the community, since thcrap is a purely community project, but also as a result means it isn't just an English translation being released, but several other languages as well. The game will also allow the ability to play a recreated (including as many bugs as they can!) version of the original game, with no new assets or gameplay modifications, marking the first time that will be available to a wide audience. As for new assets- much of the old art has been redrawn in much higher fidelity by Curee of AQUASTYLE, a circle which has been around for quite a while, new animated boss sprites have been created by Unabara Iruka of Tasogare Frontier (one among the inspirations for this site's name), and ZUN himself is rearranging the entire soundtrack.
we're back?
we're back.The coolest part about this is as some of the more Touhou astute people might note, the fact that this is not purely a ZUN project. In fact, ZUN and the other collaborators formed an entirely new circle called Shanghai Alice Reprise, whose stated purpose seems to be being '...dedicated to making Touhou Project games playable on modern platforms.' And that right there is the really exciting part because EoSD isn't the only early Windows era Touhou game that has yet to make it to Steam. I am incredibly excited for eventual Perfect Cherry Blossom and Imperishable Night remasters, especially if they go as all out as this one. All three of these games not only have problems running on modern Windows, but some of the source code has been lost as well, which means a Steam upload is impossible. I think many would just call it there and not embark on a project of this scale, but here we are. The fact that these games even got on Steam in the first place was practically a miracle in the beginning, but I'm glad to see it's worthwhile enough for things like this to happen. Some speculate that this new circle may finally be the occasion for anything at all about the PC-98 games to enter into the modern era, but that's one we'll have to wait and see on. I'm not sure I'd hold my breath.
The announcement itself was also interesting in that this seems to have been revealed in a Nintendo Direct of all places. I'd say there were a few things that probably grabbed most people's attention there besides this, but it's a cool thing to have happen. Of course this also means that the game will be getting a Switch/Switch 2 release, marking the first time one of the mainline games is making it to a console (it's also going to PS5). It'll be interesting seeing what this means for the fandom as a whole, as this level of fanfare & exposure could draw in many new fans, so long as the inherent barrier of entry this genre has isn't too oppressive- something they seem to be taking into account by introducing what seems to be an infinite lives mode?, which is neat. It is certainly my hope that some new blood could serve as a catalyst for parts of the community to improve, but we shall see.
All in all this was an incredible thing to see happen. It took a little bit for it to really set in, but it's been a long time since I've been this outright excited for the next Touhou entry. I always look forward to new releases and am eager to see what new things they add both to the world and in terms of music, but just seeing such an important old game get a fresh coat of paint like this is something else. It takes me back to my early days trying to figure out what all this was and how to get past stage 4. Memories. Also, the fact that much of the work is being handled by others on the team also makes me hopeful that the impact to new titles won't be too significant, so if these New Classic versions can keep on going on the side, we'll be in for quite a treat.
The official website can be found (again, in English!!!) here, and the game itself will release on September 10th (which may be 9/9 in my timezone and also Cirno Day, which is amazing) of this year. Time to toss it on the backlog!
That's all for now- 'til next time da ze!