The Touhou Project (Project, Tōhō Purojekuto?), also known as Toho Project or Project Shrine Maiden, is a series of manic shooters made by Team Shanghai Alice whose sole member is Japanese game maker ZUN, who does all the graphics, music, and programming. The Touhou Project began in 1996 with the release of the first game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, developed by the group Amusement Makers for the Japanese NEC PC-9801 series of computers. The next four Touhou games released between August 1997 and December 1998 also were released on the NEC PC-9801.

The Touhou Project was inactive for the next three and half years until the first Microsoft Windows Touhou game, The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, was released in August 2002 solely by ZUN after he split from Amusement Makers and started Team Shanghai Alice. As of August 2008, five more games in the main Touhou series have been produced by ZUN, along with two games made in conjunction with Twilight Frontier, and a spin-off by ZUN entitled Shoot the Bullet. The Touhou Project is a one-man project by a Japanese game maker, ZUN, who does all the graphics, music, and programming alone, with the exception of the dual effort with Twilight Frontier in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody.

The player's bullet power increases on a linear scale as the player collects power-ups dropped by enemies, and eventually maxes out. The player can also collect 'point' icons to earn extra lives; the number needed grows exponentially as the player gains lives. The player can use 'focus', the shift key by default, which slows down the player's movement, makes the collision box visible and (generally; some characters are reversed) focuses the player's attack to make it more powerful.

In Imperishable Night, this mode actually brings in the Phantom teammate. This function is essential for navigating through complex bullet patterns and defeating bosses more quickly. The graze counter tracks how many bullets entered the character sprite but avoided the collision box, and rewards the player with a score bonus for living on the edge.

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