Touhou Mother

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Touhou Mother is a fan-made crossover game of Touhou and EarthBound/MOTHER, made by 'S'.

Made in RPG Maker 2000, the game begins when a Meteor crashes into Gensokyo. After Reimu and Marisa fight of the mysterious alien that arrived with it, they find an unconscious boy nearby, who reveals that he has no memories. Soon after, things go to hell in Gensokyo. Not that that stops the lightheartedness and endless references to other works.

The translated game can be found here, while a playthrough can be found here. A sequel to the game, Return of Touhou Mother, is currently being uploaded as a series of videos by vgperson here.


Tropes used in Touhou Mother include:
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: When he first arrives, Porky has no memory of his past. Later, he pretends to to be this to mask the fact that he remembers everything.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: After Reimu, Marisa and Yuka are sent to Old Gensokyo, Sanae stars in her own chapter. She returns after Reimu collects the seventh melody.
  • Apologetic Attacker: Reisen.
  • Art Shift: The early designs for Reimu, Marisa and other cast members are used when they're in Old Gensokyo.
  • Big Damn Heroes: ...This happens a lot, let's just say that. It's subverted almost as often.
  • Break the Haughty: After the party defeats Future Badass Cirno, she's reduced to staring at the wall and muttering about how useless she thinks she is.
  • The Cavalry Arrives Late: Played with horribly near the climax, when everyone else shows up and mistakes the roboticised Reimu, Marisa and Tenshi for mere Mooks.
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: This is how Mima joins the party.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Eight Melodies.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: Tenshi gives Scarlet Weather Rhapsody of All Mankind a second try during her second fight... and the Rainbow Sword can't take it and snaps to pieces, which knocks her out.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture
  • The Dragon: Tenshi works against the heroes more than almost anyone else, effortlessly beats down Remilia and Yukari, and unlike the other Touhou characters is never persuaded to switch sides until the very end of the game, after Porky turns her into a robot to cover his escape.
  • Darker and Edgier: Especially on the take of the relationship between humans and youkai in Gensokyo.
  • Demoted to Extra: While the gameplay leans decidedly towards the MOTHER side of things, the characters from said series are for the most part pushed to the wayside.
    • Not so on the sequel though.
  • Future Badass: A few characters become this after the party returns from Old Gensokyo.
  • Guest Star Party Member: Several, always filling a 'fifth' slot. These include Nitori, Sanae and Tenshi.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: Source of a fairly big Mood Whiplash in the sequel. En route to your next destination you happen upon Sanae and a very transparent Kanako. They explain that the incidents in the previous game caused a great many humans to no longer believe in or care about gods, so Kanako's physical being is vanishing from the world. And then when you return to that area later, neither Kanako nor Sanae are present.
  • Grey and Gray Morality: Are the humans justified in liberating themselves from the youkai they had feared for so long by merging Gensokyo with the Outside World? Or is it the youkai who are justified in keeping the humans under their thumb if it means preserving Gensokyo?
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out: Both times against Tenshi's final attack. The first time has Ridley's battle music, the second time has Bhava Agra As Seen Through A Child's Mind start back up at full force.
  • Fantastic Racism: One of the conflicts for the sequel, found near the end of Chapter 1. Porky was just the nudge needed for the humans and youkai to realize just how much they disliked each other.
  • Friendship Moment: Several between Marisa and Porky, until his Face Heel Turn.
  • Heel Face Turn: Eirin, Kaguya, and Kanako.
  • Heroic BSOD: Reimu and Marisa refuse to fight all of Gensokyo, mostly ignoring the player's input.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Several, but the worst comes right at the end, against all of Gensokyo.
  • Homage: Sanae's side of the story is a loving tribute to Metroid and Metal Gear Solid.
  • Karma Houdini: Unfortunately, Touhou Mother is set before Mother 3, meaning that Porky gets to escape justice. Considering the Cold-Blooded Torture she engaged in, Eirin is also Easily Forgiven.