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Gameplay[]

Controls[]

The game may be played using either a keyboard or a gamepad.

Keyboard controls are as follows:

  • The Arrow Keys move the character around
  • Z causes a short barrage of shots to be fired; it may be held down for rapid fire
  • X releases a bomb, also known as a Spell Card or spiritual attack (presuming you have bombs left)
  • Shift slows the character's movement, and changes the nature of the character's shot; it generally makes your attacks more focused. Holding Shift will also increase the size of the character's item collection box. This makes it possible to snag items that are just out of reach or more effectively collect raining items.
  • Esc pauses the game and brings you to the in-game menu
  • Ctrl fast-forwards through any dialogue
  • Home or P produces a .bmp screenshot in the /snapshot directory. (Only works in 32-bit color mode.)

Basic Gameplay[]

Undefined Fantastic Object plays like a fairly typical vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting game, in which the player's character is always facing towards the top of the screen, shooting at anything that moves, avoiding and weaving between enemy bullets, and confronting difficult bosses at the end of a stage.

There are 4 levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. Each difficulty level features differences in the number of bullets fired by each enemy, rate of fire, variations in the bullets' pattern of movement, and the number and type of enemy Spell Cards used.

Shot[]

A character's "shot" is the player's primary method of attacking enemies. The shot's attack area and behavior varies depending on the character and attack type the player has chosen.

Point of Collection[]

Like previous Touhou games, there is a line most of the way up the screen called the point of collection. If you move your character at or above this line, all items on the screen will be drawn to your character. Unlike previous games, you don't need to have full power or focus to use the POC - it's always available.

Bomb[]

Undefined Fantastic Object re-introduces bombs with distinctive visual styles that differ between characters, and even between shot types for the same character. A character's "bomb" is the player's limited-use method of getting out of difficult situations. A bomb's attack area, duration, and power varies depending on the character type and attack type the player has chosen, but it typically deals heavy damage to every enemy it touches, in addition to canceling out any bullets in the bomb's way. The player's character becomes invincible during and for a short time after the bomb's effect wears off. At the beginning of the game and any time your character revives, you will start off with 2 bombs. You can increase your bomb Stock by collecting bomb pieces (3 are needed for a bomb) or bomb items. Green UFOs drop a bomb piece when defeated and a full bomb when their score multiplier is full. You can carry up to a maximum of 8 bombs at a time. If you receive a bomb when you already have the maximum, that bomb will be lost. Unlike previous games, if the player loses a life the bomb counter only resets to default value of 2 if the player has less than 2 bombs—which means the player can always utilize all his accumulated bombs. Also, unlike every Windows game up to Subterranean Animism, bombing does not auto-collect every item on screen.


Lives[]

You start off the game with 3 lives. You can lose a life by getting "hit" by an enemy attack.

The hit box for your character is quite small in comparison to your on-screen sprite, approximately only 5 pixels by 5 pixels in size. If you hold Shift, a colored dot will appear, showing the hitbox precisely. If the hit box of your character's sprite comes into contact with the hit box of an enemy bullet, laser, or the enemy itself, then you have been hit.

In Undefined Fantastic Object, the player's life stock is represented by stars. Red UFOs drop fractions of stars when defeated and when their score multiplier is full; if you collect four such fractions, you gain a life. You can carry up to a maximum of 8 extra lives at a time.

When you lose a life, you also lose 1.00 Power points (0.07 are scattered for you to collect). Also, all the bullets on the screen are cleared, and you become invulnerable for a short period of time.

Stages[]

There are 6 stages and an extra stage in the full version of the game:

  1. Stage 1:「春の湊に船の影」 A Ship's Shadow at the Dawn of Spring
  2. Stage 2:「雲に潜む一つ目の化生」 A Ghostly Life Lurking in the Clouds
  3. Stage 3:「高速の廃墟と巨人」 The Giant and the High-Speed Ruins
  4. Stage 4:「聖輦と不吉な船長」 The Unfortunate Captain of the Holy Palanquin
  5. Stage 5:「魔界の赤黒い封印」 The Red and Black Seal of the Underworld
  6. Stage 6:「八苦を滅した尼公」 The Nun Who Overcame the Eight Sufferings

Extra stage:「未確認飛行幻想物体」 Unidentified Fantastic Flying Object

Boss Battles[]

The main challenge and the main attraction. Each boss has multiple lives, which are represented by multiple health bars shown at the upper left of the screen. Bosses usually alternate between attacking normally and attacking with Spell Cards, switching once with each health bar. Colored sections on the health bar indicate the start of a Spell Card attack when the boss' health is depleted that far.

Normal attacks are typically incrementally stronger versions of the boss character's basic attack. Spell Card attacks bedazzle the player with combinations of complex patterns that often involve the use of projectiles and obstacles crafted especially for use with that Spell Card. If the player manages to defeat a Spell Card attack without getting hit or using any bombs, a substantial score bonus is rewarded for the feat.

Each attack is accompanied by a timer. When time runs out, the boss will switch to their next attack pattern even if their health bar isn't empty. Waiting for a boss character's attack pattern to self-destruct may be enough to beat them, but mere survival won't earn the player any score bonuses.


When fighting a boss, a position marker shows up on the bottom margin of the screen, indicating where the boss is on the horizontal axis. Since your target can be completely obscured by bullets or darkness at times, use this marker to help you aim your shots. The marker will dim when the boss is being hit, and will flash red when her health bar gets sufficiently depleted.

Character Statistics[]

Reimu Hakurei[]

Reimu type A
一点集中攻撃力重視型 (Concentrated attack type)
めざせ宝船、一攫千金! (Go for the treasure ship; let's get rich quick!)
Shot: パスウェイジョンニードル (Persuasion Needle)
Spell card: 退魔符乱舞 (Wild Exorcism Dance)
「宝船と言えば七福神。神様と言えば私の出番よね」
"Speaking of a treasure ship, there's gotta be the seven gods of luck. And speaking of gods, then it's my turn."
前方に最強の針を持ち、真っ直ぐな気持ちで空に挑め!
Hold your mightiest needle straight ahead, and challenge the skies with straightforward feeling!
Reimu type B
アンチパターン重視超誘導型 (Anti-pattern focused homing type)
また妖怪の仕業ね! (This is some youkai's doing again!)
Shot: ホーミングアミュレット (Homing Amulet)
Spell card: 夢想封印 (Fantasy Seal)
「宝船とか何とかいっても、結局妖怪の仕業に違いない」
"I don't know if it's a treasure ship or what, but it's definitely the work of some youkai."
いつもどおり勘の働くままに、目の前の妖怪を倒せ!
As always, follow your intuition and take down any youkai before you!

Marisa Kirisame[]

Marisa type A
宝船だとしたらお宝があるはずだ (If it's a treasure ship, there's gotta be treasure.)
Shot: イリュージョンレーザー (Illusion Laser)
Spell card: マスタースパーク (Master Spark)
「宝船には当然宝が積まれている訳だ。嘘を吐く訳にはいかんよな」
"It's a treasure ship, so obviously it's loaded with treasure. You can't lie to me!"
この上ない究極の魔法の光を持って、空に挑め!
Challenge the skies with the light of this peerless ultimate magic!
Marisa type B
何だか分からない物に興味津々 (I'm very interested in this, whatever it is.)
Shot: スーパーショートウェーブ (Super Short-wave)
Spell card: アルティメットショートウェーブ (Ultimate Short-wave)
「私は見た。空に何かが浮いているのは間違いない。行き先は空だ!」
"I saw it. There's no doubt that something is floating in the sky. Time to head to the sky!"
後方にも強い全方位魔法でどんな些細な事でも見逃すな!
Overlook nothing, no matter how trivial, even behind you, with your mighty omni-directional magic!

Sanae Kochiya[]

Sanae type A
神奈子様の仰るとおりに (Just as Lady Kanako says.)
Shot: スカイサーペント (Sky Serpent)
Spell card: 神代大蛇 (Orochi of Ancient Times)
「神奈子様は私にも妖怪を退治出来る様になれと言っています」
"Lady Kanako is telling me to master youkai hunting like they do."
魔に喰らいつく蛇の神力を持ち、危険を未然に防げ!
Brace for danger with the divine power of a serpent that devours evil!
Sanae type B
諏訪子様の仰るとおりに (Just as Lady Suwako says.)
Shot: コバルトスプレッド (Cobalt Spread)
Spell card: 手管の蟇蛙 (Wily Toad)
「諏訪子様は宝船より良い物が見つかると確信しているみたいです」
"Lady Suwako seems to be sure that I'll find something good in the treasure ship."
死してなお敵を倒す蛙の神力を持ち、謎の浮遊物体に挑め!
Tackle UFOs with the divine power of a frog that will defeat enemies even after it dies!

Extra Stage Equipment[]

UFOの手がかりを追え!
Follow the UFO's trail!
「UFOの中にいた姿を変える奇妙な蛇が逃げ出した!」
"That weird snake-looking shape-shifting thing in the UFO got away!"

Reimu Hakurei

Reimu type A
前方に最強の針を持ち、UFOの正体を暴け!
Hold your mightiest needle straight ahead, and uncover the UFO's true form!
Reimu type B
ホーミングするお札で、UFOの正体を暴け!
Use your homing amulets to uncover the UFO's true form!

Marisa Kirisame

Marisa type A
この上ない究極の魔法の光を持って、UFOの正体を暴け!
Uncover the UFO's true form with the light of this peerless ultimate magic!
Marisa type B
後方にも強い全方位魔法でUFOの正体を暴け!
Use your mighty omni-directional magic to uncover the UFO's true form!

Sanae Kochiya

Sanae type A
魔に喰らいつく蛇の神力を持ち、UFOの正体を暴け!
Uncover the UFO's true form with the divine power of a serpent that devours evil!
Sanae type B
死してなお敵を倒す蛙の神力を持ち、UFOの正体を暴け!
Uncover the UFO's true form with the divine power of a frog that will defeat enemies even after it dies!

Screen Layout[]

Screen Layout
  1. Your character
  2. Player Score
    • High Score: your highest score for the current character, type, and difficulty
    • Score: your current score
  3. The number of remaining lives and bombs / The approximate location of the point of collection
  4. Player Status
    • Power: your shot power level, maxing out at 4.00
    • Point value: the current value of point items
    • Graze: the number of enemy shots that have grazed your hitbox during the game
  5. Enemy Status
    • Left bar(s): the number of health bars the enemy has left. White bars indicate the boss will use regular attacks, red bars indicate the boss will use a spell card.
    • Right number: the amount of time left before the enemy's attack spell fails (self-destructs)
  6. UFO counter
  7. Spell Card Status
    • Title: the name of the Spell Card being used
    • Bonus: the constantly-updating value of the Spell Card Bonus
    • History: the number of times you have "collected" the Spell Card currently being used, and the number of times you have faced it.

Unlockable Features[]

  • Extra Stage
  • Level Practice: not available in demo.


Scoring[]

Enemies[]

Any damage you deal to any enemy, whether it be caused by your shots or your bombs, will cause your score to increase very slightly. Actually destroying enemies will award you slightly more points, but the points earned from this are around the range of hundreds to thousands of points per enemy. This is not a significant amount at all. However, destroyed enemies release items for you to collect, and those are very important for scoring as covered below.

Point Items[]

As its name implies, point items are the major source of points in the game. The higher up on the screen you collect them, the more points they are worth, up to a defined maximum. You can easily tell when you are collecting point items for their maximum value, since they show the value in yellow text. The auto-item-collect line is the same height as the height where point items reach their maximum value, so take advantage of this fact wherever you can for massive points. Unlike in the previous games, autocollected items don't lose their point worth if you happen to leave the autocollect area before items contact your hitbox.

The Point Items starting value depends on the chosen difficulty:

Easy5,000
Normal10,000
Hard15,000
Lunatic20,000

The value of Point Items is increased by 1,000 points for each small UFO collected while there is a summoned UFO on the screen, plus:

(number of enemy bullets canceled / 10) + (graze counter)

This is rounded down to the nearest 10. Enemy bullets canceled can come from summoning a UFO, a UFO explosion, finishing a boss attack, or using a bomb.

Power Items[]

Power items increase your power gauge by 0.01. Power items collected at full power will give you 100 points.

UFOs[]

Some enemies will have small green UFOs circling above them, they drop a small UFO after you destroy them, some stage mid-bosses will drop 2 small UFOs after you defeat their final attack. The small UFO will fly around the screen. They come in red, blue and green colours. There are two types, blinking and non-blinking. The blinking UFO will change colours every few seconds, however, keeping your character's sprite in close proximity to the UFO will prevent it from changing colors. The other type of UFO will stay a single colour. It should be noted that these non-blinking UFOs are not random, so their positions in the levels can be memorized to further advantages.

Collecting three UFO items causes a large UFO enemy to appear on the screen. Three of a specific colour of UFO will summon a big UFO of that colour, while collecting one of each will summon a flashing big UFO. If you have picked up two UFO items of the same colour and then pick up an item of a different colour, the first item in line will be replaced by the colour of the item you've picked up last. If you have two UFOs, a UFO of the color that will result in summoning a large UFO will be surrounded by a flashing pentagon so you will know what type to collect without having to look at the bottom-left corner. Each summoned UFO has a life bar and timer for how long you have to defeat it. At about two seconds left on the timer, the UFO will start ascending to leave the screen; it is important to defeat it before it leaves, otherwise all the items it has sucked in will be lost. If the UFO is on the screen at same time with a boss, it will fly away even if there is time left; however, in the case of mid-bosses, the UFO will stop flying away if the boss is defeated in time. In-game dialog will make summoned UFOs explode.

All UFOs suck in the point and power items on the screen. A circle around the UFO shows the score multiplier for the UFO. The multiplier increases for every item the UFO sucks in to a maximum of 100%. The number of items required for a maximum multiplier starts at 34 for stage one and increases as the player progresses through the stages (36, 39, 42, 46, 51). Extra stage UFOs require at least 56 items for a maximum multiplier.

The maximum multipliers for the UFOs are:

  • 1 for Red UFOs when not at full power
  • 2 for Red UFOs when at full power
  • 2 for Green UFOs
  • 4 for Flashing UFOs
  • 8 for blue UFOs

Blue UFOs are potentially best for increasing score. When defeated, they drop a small UFO and give you points.

Red UFOs are for life parts. When its multiplier circle is full, a red UFO drops a life part, and when defeated, it drops a small UFO, a life part, and several power items. When defeated, the score bonus counts power items as point items, and if defeated while at full power, power items are worth 2 point items each.

Green UFOs are for bomb parts. When its multiplier circle is full, a Green UFO drops a full bomb, and when defeated, it drops a small UFO and a bomb part.

Flashing UFOs change the items the suck in; power items will become point items and point items will be power items. This has strategic use in certain stages where a lot of power item drops are concentrated within a short time span. When the multiplier circle is full, a flashing UFO drops a small flashing UFO that starts at the same color as the third small UFO in your UFO gauge. When defeated, it drops another small UFO of the same color.

When defeated, a UFO provides a score bonus based on how far the score multiplier is filled.

(Point items in UFO * Point item Value at UFO destruction * multiplier) 

UFOs also clear parts of the screen when defeated, in a bomb-like fashion. The power of the explosion is based on how full the multiplier circle is.

Spell Card Bonus[]

Occasionally, a boss will attack using a Spell Card. You will know this is happening when the background changes and the Spell Card's name appears in the upper right corner of the screen. If the boss's health bar is depleted within the time limit and without getting hit or using a bomb, the Spell Card bonus will be added to your score.

The bonus starts at out at a value equal to:

2 million * (stage number + difficulty value)

with difficulty value being:

Easy 0
Normal 1
Hard 2
Lunatic 3

Bonuses in Extra have a starting value of 22,000,000.

Except for Nue Houjuu's last two Spell Cards, the bonus decreases over time, starting 5 seconds after the spell card starts. The bonus decreases at a constant rate of:

0.75*(starting value)/(time limit in seconds - 5) per second

Clear Bonus[]

At the end of a stage, the player is awarded a clear bonus.

(stage * 1 million)

At the end of the game, the bonus is calculated as following.

Easy: (lives in stock * 0.5 million) + (bombs in stock * 0.25 milion) + 
(power * 1 million) + (base point item value * 100) + 6 million points.
Normal: (lives in stock * 1 million) + (bombs in stock * 0.5 million) +
(power * 1 million) + (base point item value * 100) + 6 million points.
Hard: (lives in stock * 2 million) + (bombs in stock * 1 million) +
(power * 1 million) + (base point item value * 100) + 6 million points.
Lunatic: (lives in stock * 3 million) + (bombs in stock * 1.5 million) +
(power * 1 million) + (base point item value * 100) + 6 million points.
Extra: (lives in stock * 3 million) + (bombs in stock * 1.5 million) +
(power * 1 million) + (base point item value * 100) + 7 million points.

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