Touhou Youyoumu (lit. 'Ghostly Dream') ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom (東方妖々夢 ～ Perfect Cherry Blossom) is the 7th Touhou Project official game, distributed in form of early trials since 2002's last days and officially released in its full version for the 64th Comiket on August 17, 2003.The Gensokyo 'Incident' being narrated in Perfect Cherry Blossom is the unnatural extension of winter-like weather conditions, despite being already halfway throughout the month of May. Much like with Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, only the playable character chosen by the player will be going out to investigate. For Hakurei Shrine maiden Reimu, the prolonged Winter season has lit in her the curiosity to discover the reasons behind the odd weather; Marisa spotted a cherry blossom petal and wonders to see if Spring is beginning elsewhere in Gensokyo, while newcomer playable character and Scarlet Devil mansion maid chief Sakuya Izayoi (from EoSD) want to put an end to the cold season due to the mansion's Winter supplies running low. Once again, the cause discovered is the same one for all three heroines, as a trip to the Netherworld will lead them to Hakugyokurou ghost princess Yuyuko Saigyouji, who is stealing Gensokyo's Spring essence with her yokai minions in order to make the titular Perfect Cherry Blossom bloom from the youkai cherry tree known as the Saigyou Ayakashi, so that Yuyuko could be able to revive a certain soul who was sealed within the tree.
As mentioned earlier, this game is the first one in the series to feature a third playable character, with Reimu Hakurei being now classed as the all-around average stats character and Sakuya Izayoi being the new weak wide-shot attacker. PCB also features a new scoring system dubbed 'Cherry', which will grant to players a temporary shield once a Cherry Point quota is met by shooting enemies and not bombing/dying. Exclusive to this game, however, is the presence of an additional stage after the recurring Extra Stage ('Phantasm Stage'), whose difficulty degree easily ramps up the game's already-existing secondary level.
For the game's abstract concepts of decay and 'fading away' touched in the Netherworld, ZUN wanted to create a soundtrack for the game that was "intense, emotional, and a little exotic", going for the route of oriental-echoing chimes worked in with a Western tone (as opposed to the other way around, as in his usual modus operandi) and ultimately generated one of Touhou gaming's largest soundtrack collections with 19 different tracks, with some of these also becoming popular models for Touhou arrangements. Much like with EoSD, the brand-new characters also gained a cold following from many fans along the years.
Despite the wide soundtrack supplied by Perfect Cherry Blossom, Taiko gaming's featured Touhou arrangements selection is very slim, currently consisting of Demetori's arragnement of Necrofantasia and the Reitasai Collaboration Unit's collective creation.
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 -Perfect Cherry Blossom songs- | ||
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