Little Doll Queen

Little Doll Queen is a Touhou Project fangame in which you play as doll-like beings and fight through bullet-filled levels to resolve an incident in Gensokyo. You shoot enemies, dodge their attacks and clear each level in sequence. The four characters heading to the Nameless Hill are Okina Matara’s dancers Satono and Mai, Mayumi Joutouguu, sent by Keiki Haniyasushin, and Medicine Melancholy, who acts separately from the others.

The incident

A toxic fog has spread across Gensokyo, leaving the land gloomy and lifeless. At the same time, children’s spirits have poured out and begun possessing nearby phantoms and fairies. The phenomena originate at the Nameless Hill, a forgotten land of sin, and the spirits have spread from Sai no Kawara into Gensokyo. With the miasma taking the usual human incident resolvers out of commission, Okina consults the other sages and sends her two dancers to investigate. Keiki sends Mayumi in the hope of expanding her territory into Gensokyo, while Medicine sets out from the Nameless Hill on her own agenda.

Spirit Release

Defeated spirits and fairies drop infant spirit items, which fill the meter on the right side of the screen. Once it is full, you can release the spirits around you to create a shockwave that makes you invincible and clears nearby enemies and bullets. Each Spirit Release also gives you a spell card item, which provides an extra bomb.

Poison clouds

The game features eight kinds of poison cloud, each with a different effect:

• Pink clouds have a diamond texture and give you an extra life.
• Red clouds cost you a life if you remain inside for 2 seconds.
• Orange clouds fire bullets.
• Yellow clouds immobilise you.
• Green clouds increase your movement speed.
• Light blue clouds are safe and guide you through poison, but can distract you visually.
• Indigo clouds prevent you from shooting.
• Purple clouds slow you down.

The Poison Lab in the main menu lets you practise with the clouds and their effects.

Scoring and survival

Point items add to your score and raise your M-Point Item Value; their value does not depend on how high you are when you collect them. Collecting them, avoiding unnecessary hits and capturing spell cards successfully all contribute to your score, as do having more lives, spell cards and point items at the end of a stage. Grazing bullets fills the Heart’s Poison Meter. When the meter is full, you unlock a Last Word, an optional extra attack at the end of a level. Failing a Last Word does not cost a life or a bomb, and completing it gives a spell card bonus and point items.

If a bullet hits you, a flower wreath appears and shrinks away over half a second. Using a spell card during that window triggers a deathbomb: it works much like a normal bomb, with an expanding wreath that continuously damages enclosed enemies. A deathbomb consumes two spell cards, or one if you have exactly one left.