Touhou Puppet Kagura: Scattered (Neron Software)

Editorial Review

Touhou Puppet Kagura: Scattered positions itself as a fan service RPG built squarely within the turn-based tactical framework, offering the kind of character-driven content that keeps the Touhou doujin ecosystem robust. Unlike the increasingly saturated space of real-time action adaptations, this takes the genre-standard route—but executes it with the specific intention of maximizing roster depth rather than mechanical innovation.

The puppet-collection premise is the work’s primary distinction. Rather than controlling established Touhou characters directly, you acquire and battle with them as party members, which reframes the entire appeal around team composition and collector mentality. The inclusion of 60+ characters spanning the full Touhou canon suggests comprehensive fan service, covering both mainstream characters and deeper cuts. This breadth is the inverse of typical visual novel gatekeeping—it’s designed to reward series familiarity without requiring it. The difficulty selector that explicitly scales boss encounters is a practical design choice that removes artificial friction; too many RPGs hide scaling behind vague “hard mode” labels, so transparency here matters for replayability.

The New Game Plus system deserves mention because it suggests the developers understood their own pacing. Post-game retention mechanics are standard elsewhere, but explicitly preserving equipment and progression indicates confidence that the base playthrough justifies a second run rather than demanding it. Area exploration without a traditional field map is a neutral trade—it avoids exhausting overworld navigation while potentially losing environmental discovery satisfaction.

Target audience here is precise: Touhou enthusiasts seeking extended engagement with the franchise who prioritize character quantity over narrative depth, and turn-based RPG players comfortable with fan-game production values.

A competent roster-building RPG that understands its primary job is maximizing Touhou character representation. For collectors, that’s sufficient.