Sometimes, you get Touhou games that are beyond hard. Sometimes, you get Touhou games that give you easier modes but then lock you out of content for it. And then sometimes, in rare circumstances, you get Touhou games that respect all difficulty levels and give varying levels of challenge that are all effective.

Dangerous Patchouli is one of the last of those!



Coming with four difficulty levels, Dangerous Patchouli stars Suwako and Patchouli, capable of switching between them at specific save points. Patchouli is better for horizontal movement, seeing as how she can float, while Suwako just high jumps for better vertical movement. They can each break a specific type of block, and by finding keys in one of eight colors, can open matching blocks that bar the path. From that simplistic description comes a surprisingly complex and very fun game!



The difficulty levels in question... well, the first two are pretty basic. Normal is just running around the world, trying to find your way to the boss of each level. You get graded at the end of each level - if you beat the target score and find every one of the hidden treasure chests (one per room) you get a gold medal. One of the two is worth silver, neither is bronze. Going for a gold medal in every level on every difficulty is the real challenge! Another mode abandons the score aspect (but not the chest) and focuses on massive, map-spanning puzzle, where you are given keys of different colors and never enough to unlock every single block. In Another mode, it's all about finding the right path to the end without locking yourself out. Masochism mode trades that away for sheer platforming difficulty, simply throwing challenge after challenge you. Thankfully, you never get sent back too far, always just having to restart the same room over and over again.



One of the biggest advantages of all the difficulty levels is the sheer amount of replay value. All the difficulty levels go through the same set of six worlds, but rather than simply taking the same map and editing it a bit, each version has its own map. The map for a level may be a square of 10 rooms in one version, a sideways hourglass of 24 rooms in another, or an extra-large rectangle of 24 in a third level. Each of them feels like its own unique map, allowing what is only 6 unique worlds to be functionally 24 different levels. Playing Normal doesn't mean you've played anything like Hyper, Another, or Masochism!



Of course, all games tend to have something I don't like, and here that's knockback. While there's plenty of real difficulty, the knockback in this game is a frustratingly strong one, meaning many boss battles can end up with losing a huge chunk of your life bar just by getting knocked around and around and around until the game takes pity on you. Really, the boss battles overall are I'd say the weakest part of Dangerous Patchouli. The strengths here lie in the solid platforming, the challenge of either skills or mind as you try to solve each puzzle or overcome the latest difficult platform challenge. Bosses and their waves of bullets all boil down to "stand in one place and use the move that erases bullets next to you" on higher difficulties... which makes the boss rush mode a tad lackluster.



Still, don't let that stop you from playing Dangerous Patchouli. It's clear from this game that UTG software refined their game design to its best form ever... which, of course, means they immediately closed up shop without ever putting out another game. That's always the way!

THE VERDICT
Dangerous Patchouli was one of those games I had lying around for a while before I decided it might be worth playing. I wasn't expecting it to be that solid - I enjoyed Operation Bigburn and Dangerous Suwako, but none of them were top tier games for me. This, though? Playing through Normal hooked me, playing through Hyper made me interested in trying EVERY level, playing through Another was a wild experience where I even drew maps on paper, and playing through Masochism put my skills to the limit without ever feeling unfair (looking at you, Marisa World!). Dangerous Patchouli kept me going back even when I felt frustrated, invested as I kept playing, and just generally very happy to go back and keep playing. Heck, it's one of the few Touhou games that I went all the way to 100% for!

Honestly, I'd give it a full 5 out of 5 Reimus for me. Sure, it's got flaws, but I feel like Dangerous Patchy overcomes those well enough to make it worth playing. Of course, that's just my opinion - but hey, this garrison is literally me saying my opinions!

I said it in Discord but this is one of the best platforming games I have ever played.