Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend

I see people comparing this game to Slay the Spire. I haven't played that so I can't comment on how similar it is or how it compares but it does have quite a few similarities to Magic The Gathering. The mana system functions very similarly to MTG. There are even Planeswalker cards in the game!

Card art is very pretty and quite a few of them are funny by leaning into memes, community jokes and references. (My favourite card currently is Perfect Servant. It's Sakuya holding a Fumo of herself.)

Game is smooth, flashy and can be as fast paced as you like. The music is also incredible, holy...

Even in an unfinished state this game is incredibly good. Can't wait to see what things get added in the future.

One of the best deckbuilder games out right now. Can't wait for the full release.

Unbelievably good for a game that's still technically in early access. Don't let the price point put you off, it's 100% worth it if you have even the slightest interest in this genre.

Gets into Touhou games.
Saw youtuber AspreyFM play one day.
Buys game.
Plays Game.
Realizes has to wake up for work in 3 hours, continues to play.........
11/10 would buy again.

Slay the Spire if balance was "if everything is overpowered, nothing is overpowered". In other words, it's just Slay the Spire on crack.

Kagerou Imaizumi can glomp me any time, any day.

I've played many different roguelike deckbuilders, but this game takes the cake in depth, complexity, and replay value. The color system, build-around cards/equipment, challenge modes, and the 10 different starting decks make every run feel unique.

There is also lots to love as a Touhou fan, with great music, art, and story.

I hope we can see more playable characters for all of the two-color combinations!

not knowing how to read your card description is your biggest enemy

good game tho

Roguelite indie devs don't understand what they're meant to do to differentiate themselves from the material they're building off of. Players will just ask themselves "why aren't I playing the game this concept comes from?" Lost Branch of Legend answers this question and proves itself above other roguelites. Stating what I think sets this game apart would mean just stating what all the mechanics are. The mana system alone expands the depth of the game immensely, and makes the identity of characters, the agency of players to build, and the expression of skill very noticeable.

Despite still being EA and having unfinished art, everything feels very good and complete. Not to mention you can run some pretty funny cards. Marisa is pretty fun for how much damage you can do.

As a long time Touhou Project fan I really like this game. I hope the team will add Suwako Moriya as a playable character either in base game or as DLC.

Very fun game. Each character has multiple starting decks that can be built in a multitude of different ways throughout each run, so each run can have its own flavor which is key in a good deckbuilder. I dont know anything about Touhou lore or whatever but didnt take away from the experience at all. Graphics are dope and soundtrack is a vibe. I play a ton of roguelike deckbuilers and id give this 8/10

underrated actually

Fantastic Slay-the-Spire-inspired game with frequent updates and a very high level of polish.

Nominated for "Labor of Love" in The Steam Awards 2024

Slay the spire walked so touhou could graze, I seriously did not expect to have so much fun.

Great game! If you like turn-based roguelike deck-building but with Touhou then just buy this game, it's so fun!
I play the game when it's still in Early Access so it might change, but, Marisa needs work on her burst skills IMO.
I personally like Eiki's theme (Fate of Sixty Years) & Youkai Mountain. Damn catchy and repeatable.
I look forward to Alice's release & hopefully balance updates :]

For starters, I feel it is only fair that I mention that while I'm not a gigantic Touhou fan (most would call me a fake fan as I've only ever 1CC'd EoSD on Normal with Marisa B), I'm definitely a weeb so I may be biased, because, well, it is a very anime game.
However I personally feel the game is able to stand strong on its own, even if you don't know anything about Touhou. Between its actual gameplay, characters that play very differently from one another and artstyle that is really well made I often come back to this game. But what does this game do differently from other Slay the Spire clones, you may ask.
That would be introducing colors in the mana/energy system that most roguelike deckbuilders use in their games which adds a more significant change to the genre than I initially assumed it would. If you've played Magic the Gathering (which the devs themselves mention in the game what the idea is based on) it's similar in terms of limiting what cards can be played at any given time. Don't worry about being mana flooded or screwed because of Lands though, barring some effects from your own cards and enemy debuffs, you always get at least a mix of colored mana for a total of 5 which differ depending on your chosen character and their loadout, which I'll come back to later.
Of course it means that you have to put more brainpower in terms of building your deck and actually playing it (for deckbuilding doubly so since your colors decide which cards you can actually find), but it adds some good tools for both the player (the aforementioned deckbuilding aspect) and the developers (being able to add some crazy cards into the pool by gating/balancing them with both rarity and multicolor costs).
Coming back to loadouts, every character has 2 to choose from and with 4 characters (5 in beta and another one already in plans) that gives quite a number of starting positions to choose from and quite heavily change the way you play.
For example, Hakurei Reimu, the beginner-oriented character, can start with either an Exhibit (Relic) that heals you for 3 HP and grants +1 Firepower (Strength) for the rest of the combat for every enemy you kill or an Exhibit that grants you 1 Barrier at the beginning of combat and 3 Barrier every time you end your turn with at least one mana remaining in your pool. Barrier is effectively like Block in Slay the Spire, but it doesn't get removed at the start of your turn (unlike aforementioned Block which is also in this game).
Those Exhibits are only one part that change between loadouts, there's also different starting decks (no huge changes for Reimu, but the other characters' loadouts have much more defining differences in their decks) and Spellcards.
Spellcards are an Ultimate of sorts, that can do different effects either simply damage one/all enemy/enemies, apply debuffs or even give you an extra turn. You can't just use those whenever you want, you need to charge them primarily by defeating enemies, but there's also cards, events and Exhibits that can give you more charge (which is marked as the red P letter) and using a different resource also means you can use them even if your hand is empty and your mana pool is dry.
In my opinion there's enough differences between this game and Slay the Spire that warrants giving Lost Branch of Legends a chance. Hell, I find LBoL more entertaining out of the two myself.

Very enjoyable game. Looking forward to more.

It plays like Slay the Spire but uses Magic the Gathering style mana instead. Each Touhou starts with 2 mana colours but can gain boss relics to get access to the others or just more mana generation of their own colour. This gives it an interesting built in power ramp-up as you progress acts.
All the Touhous also have their spell cards in a way as well. You have a super meter that fills by defeating enemies that can be used for a big no mana cost attack.
There's tons of build variety between the different character's mechanics and mana colour builds. If you liked Slay the Spire or other card battlers, give it a try.

The short version:
This is literally just "Slay the Spire but Touhou and some twists". If you like Slay the Spire, you'll probably like this, and even in its still Early Access state it's fairly fun.

The long version:
As mentioned, the game is, mechanically ALMOST 1:1 Slay the Spire. You start a run, pick a boon, then pick a starting point on the map (which admittedly is horizontal rather than vertical) and go through three stages collecting cards and shaping your deck before either finishing or moving on to the True Boss depending on if you unlocked certain conditions (or seemingly one condition, as I have only found one event that allows you to move on to the true final boss; which is one criticism I currently have but it's early access so forgivable. Edit: Of course, literally the next run I do after I post this review I find a second - much more reliable - method.)

The big differences come in four forms: First, the fact cards and mana are split by color and there are large number of neutral cards in each color, as well as character specific ones (and you can gain a character's starting item as a stage boss drop which unlocks their specific cards). This I feel adds a lot more depth to runs and can make choosing to swap your starting item for a different exhibit (relics in STS terms) very viable depending on the character (swapping Cirno's green starting exhibit for one that gives white mana for example can be rather powerful for the cards it unlocks) and also can help you narrow down and nudge your deck towards certain builds (cards of colors you don't have will never show up) and makes planning your turns more than just "is my mana number big enough?" and opens a lot of design space for card effects (such as a card that gives you an extra effect if you paid White, Green, Red, and Blue to cast it; or effects growing the more of a specific color you pay in; or cards reacting to the color of spells played; etc. - all of which exist in the current build.

The introduction of a new card type - Teammates - and the expansion of card traits and keywords. Card rarity now matters beyond the generation of cards as I've encountered at least one card that takes effect each time you play a common card, and a number of effects tied to basic cards, just as an example.

As for Teammates, they function similarly to planeswalkers in MTG in that they linger after being played and have a loyalty counter which raises or lowers based on which skills you use... However they remain in the hand and cannot be attacked directly, and are discarded if you use one of their active abilities (or exiled entirely if you expend all of their loyalty counters) and have to be redrawn (at which point they'll resummon themselves for free) to continue using their abilities.

Third: Each character has a choice between two 'styles' which grants a different starting deck, exhibit, and most importantly a spellcard - a powerful attack that you always have access to but costs 100 power points to use (you can store 200 power points max) and often gives some effect that aids in the chosen 'style's' gimmick.

And the final difference is in the difficulty: It's honestly a lot easier than STS if you let it, thanks to the options available to customize your experience... And most notably the option to reveal outcomes of event choices, which allows you to make a more informed decision moment to moment. Personally I love this because the whole "take a big risk and maybe get something good, or completely throw your run in one move" thing was something that I never really liked in STS. Also you fully regain HP between stages by default, which allows you to play the first two stage bosses a bit more recklessly as even if you just limp across the finish line you'll be fine come the next stage.

Personally, while I really like Slay the Spire, I find this game to be a lot more enjoyable to play and would definitely recommend it and I look forward to seeing it polished up a bit more as development continues. My current favorite character is Fairy Branch Cirno, but since Koishi was recently released I might check her out to see how she plays.

Круто конечно раскидывать картонки, до тех пор пока не встречается статус который весь урон урезает до единички)))
А так игра чувствуется бодрее чем STS. особенно мне понравилось наличие таких карт как с интригующим описанием ,
и другие. Это действительно уникальный игровой опыт, который нигде больше не получить.

Very good, I never played StS but now I never have to.
This is difficult and some reviews tout balancing issues but i've seen videos of people going on massive win streaks on hardest difficulties so skill issue i guess

Absolutely addicting! Like it!
Rogue like MtG with Touhou style.
Draw cards? Yeah
Scry? Yeah
Exile? Yeah

You get the ideal.
Music arrangement is great!

g

This game blows Slay the Spire out of the water. It is not even a competition. The art, the gameplay, the variety, the mechanics, everything is just strictly better. I got bored of StS after beating A20; I am still not bored of this one after 500 hours of play. I feel it would be better if it were not Touhou-themed because then it could be appealing to a greater number of people. I have never played Touhou or heard of Touhou before I stumbled upon this, so even if you do not care about the franchise, you should give this a go. Well worth the price.

Incredible!!!

Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend is essentially Slay the Spire but with Touhou characters. That's really all there is to it. They have implemented their own mechanics into the game and multiple characters with two different decks and playstyles which is pretty fun, allowing for a more unique experience if you also factor in that you can gain an exhibit after the first boss which adds the cardpool from the boss you just faced.

The game however isn't very balanced. It's arguably slightly bit harder than StS but that's because of how unfair some bosses feel like. The latest rework on the true final boss where she doesn't immediately steal all your exhibits ala Mithrix from RoR2 is a lot more balanced to how she was prior yet she has some mechanics that make me rather want to play StS than TLBoL because the Heart feels a lot more fun to fight than her.

The biggest offender in my opinion is Remilia Scarlet who has the same abilities as Slay the Spire's Time Eater where she ends your turn after playing a certain number of cards. The issue is that her damage output is pretty damn high, capable of healing herself, increasing her own firepower and all that to top it off by not allowing you to play 5 cards each turn. This limits your gameplan significantly compared to Time Eater with his strict 12 cards which carry between turns. She is the one boss where if I see her in the Act 3 preview, I'll restart the run because of how little joy it is to fight her. By far my least favorite fight among a few others.

It's usually just the Act 3 boss and the actions the true boss takes that make this game not a fun experience for me. The rest of it? It's a blast. The enemies and elites are fun, the music is really nice to listen to, it is a good time until you reach the boss of Act 3 and beyond.

Overall, the game suffers from balancing issues which can be addressed since it is early access. The 3rd act bosses need a few changes but there isn't really anything where I'd say that people should avoid the game because of it. I think the replayability of it makes it almost on par with StS, it just needs some changes.

In short, good game. It has Cirno as a playable character. Recommended.

Very honestly, i found this game amazing and i'd recommend it for any touhou fans
For non touhou fans, if you are interested, then i guess you can check it out, but since it's a touhou fangame, there may be alot of weird or unsettling things, but if you don't mind a cast full of girls in a style close to an anime (even tho it's technically not), then it's worth a shot!
This game is still in developpement, but the core gameplay is there, the only things missing are characters, because we only have 4 currently (koishi is in beta, and alice will be next, though they tend to take a lot of time), and apart from the intro cutscene, there isn't really any story, since they plan to make the story in a future update

This game is a mix between a roguelike and a deckbuilder, it can look weird, but trust me, as the game they are inspired from (Slay the Spire), the gameplay is really interesting



POSITIVE :

-> Pretty simple to understand, you have HPs, attack removes HPs, block well, blocks attacks, if HP = 0 you loose, and it's still very enjoyable to play with all its more complex mechanics, you learn throughout your gameplay
-> As said before, the mix of roguelike deckbuilder really is a good combo, even if surprising, and it also gives a longer lifespan to the game, there is enough roguelike and mechanics to make you feel that unique effect for alot of your runs
-> The game is of course heavily insipred by a more known one, but not to the point of copying it, its core as well as the map organisation and some mechanics are taken from StS, but they did added their own touch to it, alot of things are completely original and honestly very well thought
-> It's a very nice game in a fangame point, it portrays the touhou cast pretty well for now (even tho we still don't have any actual story mode yet), but mostly the wave of resprites and new designs being added are neat
-> There is Miyoi into the game
-> You feel very rewarded by making good strategies against some bosses, and well since it's difficult to heal, or at least you generally sacrifice the opportunity of doing other things by healing, and in general the game is adapted for any kind of players, a lot of achievements for completitionists, a very easy version of the game for those who wants to chill, with still some nice challenge for those who wants it
-> A nice ost, still some more added (and yeah a pretty good change since now it's alot less the sames)


NEGATIVE :

-> It may be very subjective, but the characters are taking too long to unlock, it would discourage a lot of players to play the first ones more to more to unlock the latter, since you have to be on a certain level to unlock them, which requires you to basically do and finish your games as well as you can
-> The game is in beta, but it really feels empty inside without any actual story, more like a mish-mash of various touhou characters. Well we have the opening cutscene, but thats about it, nothing that really illustrate the personalities of each character, and even if "thats one of this character's attack/spellcard" or "oh yeah knifes thats from sakuya", well you don't really feel her like how she is, just as someone that fights you with 200HP, not that one elegant maid from the SDM, that would cut your tongue if she wanted. But well, still in early access i guess
-> The price. I think that really, even if the game is great, it's not worth that much- is what i would say, but objectively, it's just a little bit more expensive than Slay the Spire, so im not that sure
-> Probably too subjective again, but the chats, short interractions with other characters, especially in the first act, they really feel repetitive, and there isn't alot of them, as well as ennemy variations, having more possible fights



Overall the game is really nice, and if that is affordable for you, i'd recommend you to check it out, even more if you are a touhou fan, it is really a nice experience to have, and this game might be one of my favourite touhou fangames, along with others like Mystia Izakaya, which really, would be gratifying, if alot of people placed it along amazing fangames like that one, and I believe a lot of people do
And, this game deserves alot more attention from the touhou community, maybe though, when it will be fully out

this game clicks way better with me than slay the spire for some reason.
Amazing roguelike deck builder, and feels way too polished for an early access game.

ai generated art (hopefully just a placeholder at least) in latest beta update

It's really fun depsite not being completely finished yet!
Although I would say some elites are more challenging than others for the same difficulty. It could just be about personal affinity, but I find Rin cheap with her attacks when Aya and the Three Fairies feel much easier to handle.

But that's all I have. I recommend the game!

Peak Touhou game (Koishi when).

Touhou, Slay the Spire, Magic the Gathering. If you like 2 out of 3, game's worth it.

Fun Deckbilder, although some combos are currently Op. ex. any kind of mana preservation and the card that doubles mana.

This got me into Library of Ruina and Limbus Company

Very good game. Its difficulty is better-thought than Slay The Spire, and deck archetypes often reach a far greater depth. The soundtrack and card art are also nice.

I would strongly recommend this game if you have already completed everything Slay The Spire has to offer and want something new, especially if you are familiar with Magic: The Gathering. I personally consider this game to be an upgrade to Slay The Spire in most respects.

That being said, if you are somebody who is not a veteran of card games, this one may be overwhelming. When I've recommended this game to friends, several of them have dropped the game because they find the game's mechanics too complex. Colored mana makes building a deck more complicated, and the game's auto-tapper is often a bit weak, which forces you to manually tap your mana to pay costs.

Basically, this is a must-buy if you're looking for something beyond Slay The Spire, and a probable skip if you're a casual of the genre. It's a great game, but cerebral and complex to the point of being overwhelming.

placeholder, will write when in a more finished state. currently 57.5% recommended

Don't know anything about Toe-Hole but this shit slaps.

You can compare it to Slay the Spire all you want, but this game add a lot to the recipe including mana management, double decks and a lot of fun cards to break the game.
My only problem would be that some event are pretty much useless compared to other and that the difficulty tends to fall down at the end of the run.

You ever get tired of using the same cards over and over in Slay the Spire (great game btw)? This game's got the variety you're looking for! Thanks to the color system and the first boss being another playable character, not only can you get some wildly different runs, but you can even combine characters' card pools to put some absolutely absurd danmaku in your deck. If you're looking for a roguelike deckbuilder that you'll hardly get tired of replaying, I suggest giving this game a whirl.

I'm 50/50 on this, but deckbuilder fanatics will get a great kick out of this one.

What I adore about Slay The Spire is the upfront simplicity that hides a lot of depth and strategy behind it. You have energy, you play cards, cards cost a certain amount of energy, done. There is a very large amount of strategizing to be found here, even then, but it makes the game feel less overwhelming.

This game makes every single combat feel like you're playing The Watcher. The main gimmick of this game, what sets it apart from Spire, is that energy is based on Magic The Gathering's "mana" system instead, meaning you have different colors of mana available each turn, and cards use certain amounts of each. You don't just have "3 energy", you have "3 red energy and 2 yellow energy, unless some opaque mechanic in the current fight changes this". This drives the complexity up by a factor of 100, which I'm sure people with many games of Spire and Magic under their belt can appreciate. But me personally, I don't really like it. The whole point of Spire is that it had that simplicity going on.

Combats are a bit overtuned. Imagine if the hallway fight in StS with the 3 Louses was actually 5 Louses instead. I guess the game is still fine, but I consider myself pretty good at Slay The Spire and find myself constantly getting rekt at Act 2. There is an Easy Mode, but it locks you out of the last act. Why? Because Touhou did it. I don't think they really gave this any thought, they just blindly copied what Touhou did.

The potions system has been replaced with spell cards, which frankly are nowhere near as deep. Instead of stocking up on a wide variety of potions and using them at the right times, you now have a single pre-assigned spell card that just hits the enemy really hard, and you charge it up just quick enough that you can use it on one elite and a boss. The strategic depth here is gone.

Referring to what I said earlier, where every run feels like you're playing an even more complex Watcher... there's less heavy math and setups involved than what Watcher has, but the player is overwhelmed with way too many statuses, special effects, buffs/debuffs, card effects, and more. I can't follow anything that's happening. There are too many rules and exceptions. Every turn, 6 icons flash across the screen denoting some extremely gameplay-altering mechanic that's been applied to either me or the enemies. That watcher meme of every card being an essay like "Scry all karma, enter downward dog position, if this was your only Skill this turn, die next turn and put this card on the freaky pile" comes to mind.

Thanks to the mana system, card draw feels really lackluster. Sure I just spent 1 mana to draw 2 cards, but what good is that? Most cards that aren't basic strikes or blocks cost insane amounts of mana and I never have the right colors. I draw 6 cards total at the start of my turn but I can only play one card and a block, and that's it. Why am I even building a complex deck when the one thing that actually wins me runs is just spamming mana relics and only taking low-cost cards that are actually playable?

So then why the positive review? Well, the game is pretty good still as it stands. I can't wrap my head around it at all and I still think Spire's simplicity wins out over this game, but someone who really enjoys sitting down for a very long time and bashing their head against a game that's way more difficult might enjoy it a lot. Personally I think the fact that every boss allows you to choose to branch out into different cards or different mana pools is interesting. StS's boss relics generally take away some gameplay aspect to give you more energy (such as no longer being able to heal at rest sites), this game instead opts to hand you more creativity and control to build your own decks.

gud vidya james

mods good

roguelike deckbuilder with insanely high replayability

the production quality (music, art, etc) is good quality, lots of funny/meme-y references to other series as well

would highly recommend if you like any of roguelikes, deckbuilders, or touhou

Even if you dont like 2hu, its a pretty damn good deckbuilder, if still cooking a bit.

toehoes

Great game and artwork. Pretty enjoyable even now and can't wait to play the complete version!

Love the game. Can't wait for more characters.

good

Roguelike Deckbuilder like Slay the Spire but with currently 4 Touhou characters, at the time of this review, each with their own unique play-style. Pleasantly visual attack animations/effects accompanied by great soundtrack. Game's still in "early access" and continues to modify/change existing cards and add playable characters once in a while. Once you get a good run going and have "exhibits" that work super well, game is a blast. Would recommend.