Released in Japan on March 21st, the next entry of the Touhou shoot ’em up series is now available for locations everywhere else to pre-order. Let’s take a look at Touhou Scarlet Diabolique Fantastica on exA-Arcadia.
The Touhou Series
As a quick refresher, Touhou is a shoot ’em up series that originated in Japan and has a strong following there. Most of the games had been restricted to PC, until exA-Arcadia released Touhou Perfect Sakura Fantastica to arcades back in 2022. Even though the strongest portion of the fanbase is in Japan, the series is also known here in the States. It doesn’t seem to have the same fervor that CAVE does though with the genre, but that’s just an anecdotal guess from snooping around the internet on the subject.
Touhou Scarlet Diabolique Fantastica
The second Touhou game to grace the arcade scene is a remake of the 6th game in the PC series (Perfect Sakura was based upon the 7th). Like they did with the previous remake, this new edition enhances the graphics, lowers the input lag, and employs several popular anime voice actors for the characters. The official game page can be found here, but below the video, I’ll sum it up for anyone who prefers that:
Some other data points:
- 4 selectable characters, each with a story and voice acting
- 3x faster on input lag than the PC version (Only 2 frames of IL)
- Supports horizontal or TATE mode (best played in the latter)
- New info gadgets
- 3 play modes (Original, Extra, Score Attack)
- Original and new Arranged soundtrack
- New character voices provided by 12 professional anime voice actors
- Developed by exA-Arcadia’s TEAM EXA-AM5 under direction of Team Shanghai Alice
- Available in two kit configurations
TSDF Kits
There are two kits that buyers can order – the Standard and Limited. Note that in certain regions like Europe, you may have to order through an exA authorized distributor like Red Sun Systems.
Standard kits are $1857 plus freight. This comes with a couple of posters, game instructions, a marquee header (for American cabs), Vewlix marquee & stickers, and a red cartridge instead of the usual black.
Limited kits are currently $2267USD. They come with everything above, plus an exA Sanwa joystick kit and four POP standees (one for each of the playable characters).
According to Arcade Belgium’s exA game tracker, most copies of both Touhou’s are found in Japan. However, there are currently four venues in the US that have the first game. Assuming it did well for them, perhaps they’ll be adding Scarlet to the mix. Otherwise, I imagine a few collectors out there will be grabbing it too.
Do you want a location to grab one? If they already have an exA, the best way to let them know you’ll play a game like this is by playing what they already have. If their existing shmups get little to no play, then they have little to no incentive to add on more. On the flipside, that point should be obvious. Operators invest into what makes money for them (usually 😛 ).
What do you think about Touhou Scarlet? If you are an operator, does it interest you?
