Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Japanese: 東方紅魔郷 〜 the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.; lit. "Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil") is a 2002 bullet hell vertically scrolling shooter developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the sixth game in the Touhou Project series, and the first installment to be released for Microsoft Windows. The story follows either the miko Reimu Hakurei or the magician Marisa Kirisame as they battle enemies through the world of Gensokyo to find the cause of a red-colored mist which has covered the sky in the midst of summer.

ZUN, the creator of the Touhou Project series, had planned to end the series after the release of Mystic Square in 1998. After graduating, ZUN started work at Taito as a game developer and composed music for games created by Amusement Makers, publishers of the original five Touhou Project games released for the aging PC-98 computer. Leaving Amusement Makers in 2001 but remaining at Taito, he formed the one-man doujin circle Team Shanghai Alice, initially applying as a music circle to the 61st Comiket. After being denied, ZUN instead decided to develop a full game to submit at Comiket 62, reviving the Touhou Project series. The jump from PC-98 to Windows represented a "clean slate" for both the series and its developer, and Embodiment of Scarlet Devil served as a soft reboot of the series.

Due to the handmade nature of indie doujinshi works, initial sales of the game were low, being sold for one day at a single Comiket booth. Over the next few months, ZUN would start to open mail orders online for the game. Embodiment of Scarlet Devil received critical acclaim upon release, and the series soon developed a substantial cult following. At Comiket 63, four months after release, there was a single derivative circle dedicated to the Touhou Project; this number would grow to 2,372 circles seven years later, breaking the convention's record. The series' move to Windows allowed for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to reach a much wider audience, and it remains one of the most acclaimed entries in the series, with physical copies of the game having been self-published and sold in the years since release.