As Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle V was first announced, I was really excited for the 3rd person arena fighter/shooter. Especially since Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet was a really fun in-depth title. When I jumped into Burst Battle on for the first time, I found out I was getting into something from a different nature.

Audio

Like any Touhou titles, the music is terrific! Compiled of remixes of character theme songs, the music is something that all players can enjoy in this title. The sound effects sort of work, but can get repetitive, and other than that, there is nothing more, or new. A lot of the sound effects were just reused sounds from Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet.

Gameplay

This is usually where Touhou titles really shine, but in Burst Battle, the development just wasn’t executed right. First off, there is no video or game play tutorial, which this title really needs to have in order for players to understand what they are doing. There is only a manual that is on the main menu, which many players will probably miss since it’s in such a weird spot.

Once players finally start to figure out the game, they will notice it has the core mechanics of an arena battle game. The down side is that it is slow, clunky and there is no character balance. Players will spend most of their time waiting on each stamina meter to refill to try to use the most powerful attack through a match. As for game modes, players will have a choice of the single player story mode, arcade mode, score attack, VS, and online. 

When jumping into the single player story mode, one of the first and upsetting part was that I didn’t get to pick a character. Automatically, I was thrown into the story of Reimu Hakurei. After completing her story, you are forced to do the next character story and so on. Wasn’t too big of a deal, but I would have liked to choose which character to play. As for the other modes, it’s just the story mode without the story.

Verdict

It really disappointed me as a fan of arena battle style titles that Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle missed out on being a great title. It has the mechanics, the music… the pointless story, but I felt like it had no signs of a fast pace, bullet hell, Touhou feel that the other titles have. This is not a game to pick up for the price, but rather a borrow from a friend that is a hardcore Touhou fan. It sucks to say but I have to give this title a 1 out of 10.