TOUHOU ARTIFICIAL DREAM IN ARCADIA is a MUST OWN for SMT 1 & 2 fans. If you liked Persona 1/2A/2B, youll feel right at home there, as youll be used to the natures of such games too. The game is much less mature, however, which means its a bit more normie-friendly as its a very "tumblr safe" game on all fronts. Loved it regardless! Its TOUHOU!! And ITS A GOOD GAME TOO!? How rare! <3


PROS:
- Same game structure as SMT 1 and 2. Its so close, even the UI is almost 1:1! Love it. <3
- Excellent Soundtracks. My favorites are "Moon Palace" (very omnious! <3) and "Lunar Sea." Seek them out on YT! :3
- Most iconic Touhou waifus are there. Even the poison bird! <3 Or the bandages-wrapped arm SAGE Kasen Ibaraki!! <3
- You can fuse monsters into weaker ones, STILL able to transfer higher level attacks/spells/passives on them at will. In short, it can make lower tier FLAT-CHESTED shrimps like Cirno (kek) really powerful, if you so wish! I love that. I know CrimsonHysteria (another NSFW artist I know) would keep its NUCLEAR BIRD from start to finish, for example (Lucky for C.H., that one can be gotten early game).
- Open-ended builds. You can also re-do your stats at will, for a simple low fee. Thats great! :D OCD gamers wont feel as annoyed or the impulsive urge to try and redo your whole game on a whim. BUILD DIVERSITY is high in this game!! <3
- You can go to harder dungeons (mid game only) before whats recommended. I loved that. When I was given a choice of three, I immediately went to hell/monster world. It was brutal, but I made it. ITS NOT IMPOSSIBLE! :D It felt awesome to triumph over what wasnt meant to be tackled as early. Then you go do the other ones you left and you R*** everything instantly. >:D
- Sprites are really well made.
- Lore of monsters/characters explain Touhou characters to non-Touhou fans, if they are in your party/inside your compendium.
- "Take it easy!" meme makes a cameo.
- Grinding feels rewarding.
- Controller Support is good.


CONS:
- First serious dungeon is brutal on new players, as batteries mean life or death early: If you dont happen to find the save/dream spot in the dungeon, youll lose yourself in battery draining areas, which will disable your map near instantly, DELETE (okay, okay: "disable") your ENTIRE PARTY (they are permanently unsummoned until you find batteries (PS: They still drain FAST AF at "that place" of the first dungeon) OR the save point. Meaning youll be crawling like a b**** on the floor, completely lost and WEAK (I was since I started as a support build). This is based off VERY OLD dungeon crawling games, meaning getting lost is REAL in this game without your map. <3 Its a dread that feels nice though, as an SMT fan. <3 After that its a non issue. :)
- Sometimes, finding where to go is obtuse/not clear. The game makes it clear to you the middle tower is "filler" content but then youre STILL required to go there from time to time or else "it just so happen the next area of the game wont unlock." =_=; [insert gamer words slurs here]
- Fusion is strangely limited at times. Let me explain. In SMT 1/2 Persona 1/2A/2B, you can fuse weak monsters to make stronger ones constantly. In theory, you could stay at a weak dungeon eternally making yourself a team of GODLY demons. Sure, the LV LIMIT (you as a summoner must have EQUAL or HIGHER LEVEL than the resulting monsters you wanna fuse) and the fact it would take a unreasonable time to reach broken status isnt feasible there early on - the fact remain, THE OPTION IS THERE. Here, the fusion results feels, near the mid game, very strict. Like the devs DO NOT want you to go above a certain pool of demons (sorry - here they are called puppets). Its weird and I hate it.
- Blonde Thick MommyMilkers Kitsune GF cant be gotten until MUCH, MUCH LATER in the game. You can find her cute cat (Chen) though, early on. ;w;
-The story is weak and led on a string. In the end, however, it gets really good, at the last minute... On the flipside its somewhat lighthearted.



CONCLUSION: Is it a good game? YES. Do I recommend it? YES! Is it for ADHD zoomers? NO!! xD I've had a lot of fun playing this game. And Ill come back to it to do the post game eventually too. The grind-hill is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ steep to even DARE try the post-game content (the difficulty is cranked up high AF), so Ill take a break for now. SMT FANS, you DO NOT get a say in this: You HAVE to get this game! <3 Cheers.