Touhou Chireiden (lit. 'Earth Spirit Palace') ~ Subterranean Animism (東方地霊殿 ～ Subterranean Animism) is the Touhou Project's 11th official game, whose full version was released at Comiket 74 on August 16, 2008.The story of this title starts during the Winter season, when a geyser erupted near the Hakurei Shrine with lots of earth spirits gathering around the area. While recurrent playable characters Reimu and Marisa think to take advantage of the situation by opening a spa, the youkai are worried and conjure the heroines to delve into the Underworld to find out the geyser's cause. The heroine chosen by the player is paired with one of three youkai and kept in contact to the surface thanks to a device by Yukari Yakumo. The investigations will ultimately lead to the Palace of Earth Spirits and its mistress Satori Komeiji, asking the heroine after a fight to look after her pets Orin and Okuu (nicknames of Rin Kaenbyou and Utsuko Reiuji), the former of which has acquired nuclear fusion powers by eating the divine crow Yatagarasu, ultimately resulting with Okuu causing the geyser steam to send youkai to prepare the grounds for her arrival to conquer Gensokyo.
Gameplay-wise, Subterranean Animism's main features are a couple of aspects which are from former Touhou Project shmups and updated to the 2nd Windows generation's engine, the first of which being the already-anticipated return of the partner system from Imperishable Night. In this game, Reimu and Marisa's upgrading shots/collectible satellites are depending on the youkai partner from the surface that is chosen to support the selected heroine; for Reimu there are the aforementioned Yukari, Suika and Aya, while Marisa can choose between Alice, Patchouli Knowledge (from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil) and Mountain of Faith's Nitori Kawashiro. the other big returning feature is the grazing system (term in shooter games indicating the movement of characters very close to the bullets), on which Subterranean Animism's item/scoring rules all gravitate around.
The trio of arrangements from Subterranean Animism's 18-piece soundtrack all received early Taiko arcade relevance in 2014, with only one of the three being linked to event exclusivity.
 |  | |
 -Subterranean Animism songs- | ||
 | |
 | | |
| ||
 |  |
Back to Touhou Project Corner
Back to Song Series Showcase page
