Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character

Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character is a beast that should have arrived years ago. In ZUN's constant act to make each game fresh and different, most of the rules were rewritten in this one. Definitely making this one stand out more clearer than its predecessor.

Although, its difficulty is kind of flipped in some areas. The standard weapons used with Reimu and Marisa since Mountain of Faith are kind of crap, and have to fight twice as hard to stay alive.Whereas there  divine weapons are much more destructive, usually at a cost.

Stage one is straightforward with a mermaid at the end, with Cirno coming back as the mid-boss.
Stage two has a girl whose head keeps detaching, making it harder to dodge projectiles.
Stage three is a wolf constantly moving around, and criss-cross bullets during normal battle.
Stage four has two musicians, who, depending on your weapon type, may be hard or easy for you.
Stage five is a girl who constantly flips the field, and even inverts your D-pad.
Stage six is your general difficulty, but has a survival card half way in, and your grow so big!
Extra is the third musician who's a drummer, and focuses on bullet rhythm

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It really doesn't get hard until after stage four. Which is weird, because the difficulty usually starts spiking after stage three. And Extra is what it is. Usually looking impossible to begin with, but after a few attempts, feel easier than it looks. I feel really crossed, because Ten Desires is stupidly easy,. Yet, it took me quite awhile to master it. DDC difficulty feels around the lines of UFO, but I finished it faster. MUCH faster.

One of the few things I praise it for is the exclusion of "extra" spell cards. Like in Imperishable Night and Ten Desires having more sadistic versions of a spell card you already went against. It is a blessing, but at the same time, kind of sad to know it may have been too hard for others. Or maybe ZUN was just not in the mood. Whatever the case may be, Spell practice is still there, and its a lot of fun.

The music is on par for what you come to know and love. Although, my little gripe with it comes on stage six, when the boss's theme is just an intense theme of the stage itself. The theme on Extra is very intense, and coming to the boss, you may want to adjust your bass, as it is wickedly intense in a good way. Although, listening carefully, you still hear a little bit of Flandre's theme in it. Which is kind of disappointing, because Mamizou's theme was the most creative in years.

The last major gripe I have is all Extra bosses from the PC era was always conceited. Having their portrait art smacked in the background during the fight. Raiko, for some reason, doesn't have this. The only other time this has happened was when you went against Ran, but was quickly cleared up when you unlocked Phantasm, and saw that Yukari was the true Extra boss for the game. But this wasn't the case. Which made me frown a little.

Overall, the 14th game shows that ZUN still has a trick or two up his sleeves, and I'm looking forward to the release of a future 15. The game lacks in some areas, but like with all the others, its not enough for keeping me from recommending it to you.