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Too many people only know Shin Megami Tensei as the dungeon-crawler JRPG franchise that ultimately spawned the much more popular Persona series, but MegaTen is still an amazing, ongoing bunch of games in its own right, with 2021's Shin Megami Tensei 5 being its crowning achievement for my money. But old-school MegaTen DRPGs still have their following, and a new game in the impossible-to-pin-down Touhou universe has now recreated this retro style so perfectly that fans are asking MegaTen owner Atlus to hire the dev.
Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia – a remarkably tame name by Touhou standards – is a picture-perfect imitation of SNES-era MegaTen. It's a dungeon-crawler that jumps between turn-based battles, first-person dungeon exploration, and side-scrolling shoot-'em-up sequences. Recruit and train allies as you explore, and assemble an optimal party for the big boss battles. From the art to the menus, it's almost indistinguishable from its inspirations, cute characters aside.
Instead of recruiting demons, you ally with members (mostly magical girls) of the Touhou universe, which can loosely be defined as a collection of fan games based on a Japanese doujin series called Touhou Project. Touhou games are traditionally shmups, some fighting games, and more recently some bullet hell Metroidvanias, but as demonstrated here there's quite some variety in the margins. That's pretty much all I can say about Touhou without requiring a textbook or booking a two-hour appointment.
Remarkable authenticity aside, the thing that really drew me to this throwback JRPG was the reviews it's gotten on Steam. Its overall rating of 98% positive is impressive, sure, even with just 200 reviews. But what got me was the overlapping feedback from players, which goes to show just how well this love letter has been received.
"I only have two emotions, MegaTen and Touhou, and now, finally, I can experience both at once. Thank you," writes Steam user Mistiry Shak.
"This is absolutely a real Shin Megami Tensei," argues Kitsyfluff. "It genuinely deserves to be considered a game in the series. The gameplay is a perfect recreation of the classic SNES titles, but with all the improvements made throughout the series up to SMT V."
"Shin Usami Tensei," concurs Verse.
"I'm a huge fan of Shin Megami Tensei, and I've always wanted to see games inspired by it in a very faithful way, almost like a spiritual successor. Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia just nails it," adds ElevenWAV.
"Best SMT game to have come out since the Soul Hackers on the 3DS," says Dadpixel.
"SMTouhou," echoes Jabronii-chan.
"I don't normally write reviews," begins Glorf. "This game is good. The dev (solo dev) has a good understanding of SMT and has added quality of life changes that make it enjoyable to play."
"It's essentially an SNES-era SMT clone, which isn't an insult at all because I can't get enough of those games," as Borbe puts it.
The reviews go on and on exactly like this. I can't remember the last time I saw this kind of consistency within such a small niche. It's basically the highest praise a fan game can get. Touhou Artificial Dream in Arcadia is only $10 on Steam, and if you're not sold you can also try the free demo. It's clearly found an audience: on Twitter, the dev says that it's sold 8,400 copies since its September 22 launch, "over 8 times higher than what I was expecting."
Meanwhile, Atlus is re-releasing Persona 3 with a bunch of new story content that's apparently perilously easy to miss.
