Perfect Cherry Blossom delivers on many levels.
The story of PCB is a little far-fetched, where an unknown force is stealing spring away from Gensokyo by sapping all of spring's energy somehow. Using one of the three playable characters, the player has to find the root of the problem and stop it. The plot itself is decent and holds together well, however strange it may be, but the writing doesn't always fully support the intriguing underlying story, causing the experience of the story to falter on occasion.
Perfect Cherry Blossom is a top-down scrolling shoot-em-up, so if you've played games like Gradius, Ikaruga, or DonPachi, you should be right at home. Just replace the sci-fi setting with a more fantasy-style setting and replace all aircraft with girls. Like other shmups, Perfect Cherry Blossom requires the player to shoot down enemies and bosses alike, all while avoiding the enemies' attacks. Like a typical danmaku (bullet hell, curtain fire, etc.), there will be a lot of bullets to dodge. The challenge is in dodging these bullets.
PCB allows you to pick from one of three characters, two of which were the playable characters of the last game, Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, while the third was a boss in said game. In addition, each of the three girls has two different shot-types to work with. For the most part, one shot type is more newbie-friendly while the other is typically more for experienced players. For instance, series protagonist Reimu has either Homing Amulet, which does exactly what is sounds like it does, or Persuassion Needle, which is fired straight ahead, and hass more power than the Homing Amulet, but doesn't have much range (suitable for more experienced players). The girls also have their own inherit abilities depending on who you pick, such as Marisa being the fastest and generally strongest character, Reimu has a smaller hitbox than the other two thus making dodging hard patterns slightly easier, and Sakuya has a large graze box, allowing you to rack up a lot of points with her for grazing (explained later).
The game itself has 4 difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Lunatic. New players are definitely recommended to start with Easy, but anyone well-versed in shoot-em-ups can probably get a fair challenge with Normal. Typically, the higher difficulties are more difficult because more bullets will fill the screen, and most of the time they will also move faster, making it harder to dodge. During the game, the player has a stock of lives (the default amount can be set from 1 to 5 in the Options), and a stock of "bombs", which are the player's special attack they can use to get in massive damage or, because a bomb will clear all on-screen enemy fire it touches, be used defensively to keep the player alive longer.
The exact "spell card" that your bomb is depends on both your chosen character and shot type. For instance, ReimuA (Reimu and Homing Amulet) has Fantasy Seal. To top this off, the bomb will act differently if the player is focused or not. Focusing of which can be done by holding Shift, which changes the player's secondary shot (for example, Reimu's Homing Amulet), makes the player slower and thus easier to control, and makes the character's hitbox visible, allowing you to see exactly what part of your character needs to be hit by a bullet in order to lose a life.
The player's shot power is measured by a power bar on the right side of the screen, along with score, lives, bombs, graze count, and point items collected. The more power the player has, the more shots are typically fired out with the shot button (default is Z), and power can be increased by collecting red blocks dropped from enemies. The amount of point items, which are blue blocks, is crucial to gaining extra lives, and the amount needed to gain the next extra life is displayed right after how many you have at the moment.
Grazing is a very dangerous but crucial, and fun, part of the Touhou games. If a bullet comes dangerously close to a player's hitbox but it doesn't touch it, you get points for grazing. Grazing typically contributes a large portion of a player's score, so grazing often is very important for higher scores.
Also in Perfect Cherry Blossom is a "Cherry Point" system, whereas if the character collects enough Cherry items, they gain a Supernatural Border, which is basically a temporary shield where if the player gets hit, the border breaks in their place and causes all on-screen bullets to vanish as well as protect the player from death. The player can also manually break the border by pressing the same button they would to use a bomb (X is default). Bonus points are awarded if the player doesn't break the border and the border disappears on its own, which happens after a specific amount of time.
The main game of PCB has 6 stages on all difficulties, with an unlockable Extra mode and an unlockable Phantasm mode, found only in this game, which is a harder version of the Extra stage with a different boss. During any stage, the player fights a midboss halfway through a level, and then a boss at the end of the stage, though there are a few exceptions, such as Stage 3 where the player confronts a midboss twice instead of just once, and Stage 6, which like most Touhou games, the boss comes directly after the midboss. Bosses are usually the highlight of the game, with hard attack patterns to dodge and having attacks personalized (under the "spell card" system, attacks get names to give the attack more detail).
Beating any mode of Perfect Cherry Blossom besides Easy without continuing (losing all your lives gives you the option to use a continue, of which a player has 3 continues for the main game) unlocks the Extra stage for that character and shot type. Finally, the player can practice any stage they have cleared with that character and shot type in practice mode, allowing you to get better at a certain part of the game without having to get to the stage in order to try to improve.
Overall, the gameplay is just as outstanding as Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, and with tweaks made to the gameplay like the Cherry Point system, secondary shots being changed while focused and getting a different bomb attack depending on if you're focused or unfocused, on top of the new playable character Sakuya and the new system of earning extra lives, Perfect Cherry Blossom takes an already amazing gameplay formula and pushes it even further.
The graphics for Perfect Cherry Blossom blow Embodiment of Scarlet Devil's out of the water. Highly polished backgrounds, crisper and sharper sprites, and even more beautiful bullet patterns will fill your screen. Much like EoSD, PCB's graphics aren't exactly high-definition, but the style allows it to stick out and keep the player captivated. Stage 6 is absolutely jaw-dropping when one first gets there, to say the least. The colorfulness of the game more than makes for the lack of high definition graphics, and the simplicity allows the player to take in everything while still being able to focus on what's important; the enemy bullets. The special effects used in a few parts of the game also stick out in a good way.
The music is of a higher-quality than EoSD, and much of the songs are beautifully done, with catchy beats and memorable tunes filling the soundtrack. Each stage has its own theme and each boss has a boss theme, and the game has close to 20 tracks in total. Don't be surprised if you find yourself with one of the songs of the game stuck in your head. Sound effects are also improved from EoSD's quality, with every bomb use, death, and shot giving off a satisfying sound effect. The cacophony of sound effects compliments the music well and provides a great atmosphere. Much like EoSD, PCB's music and sound effects go for simplicity and catchiness over the highest-definition sound, but as a result an amazing aural experiences awaits you.
The game is highly replayable, being a short shoot-em-up, allowing you to improve and come back for more whenever you want to. With a practice mode, it's not hard to jump in and play a little without the frustrations that might come with a full run of the game (that perfect run being ruined by one wrong move can be frustrating for players that've played the game a while). With the three playable characters and 2 shot types for each, it's also easy to try something new and change things up. And it all comes in an intense, fun, and challenging package.
Pros and Cons:
+Outstanding and addictive gameplay
+Cherry system and new point item system improves upon mechanices EoSD introduced
+New visible hitbox while focused allows sharper dodging
+Amazing music and devilishly cute visuals
+Highly replayable
-Story is still a little weak, despite the great character cast
Score Breakdown:
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 7/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Tilt: 10/10
Overall: 9.0
Perfect Cherry Blossom isn't an "epic adventure" spanning dozens of hours or a game with dozens of stages, but what PCB is is a highly addictive experience with outstanding music and an emphasis on replayability. What it lacks in length (what all Touhou games lack in length), it more than makes up for in just how fun it is and easy it is to go back to it again and again. If you're looking to play a good shoot-em-up, the Touhou series can always deliver, and Perfect Cherry Blossom is probably one of the best games to start you off.