2017 video game
, often abbreviated to AoCF, is a fighting video game developed by Twilight Frontier and published by Team Shanghai Alice for Microsoft Windows in 2017. It is the latest fighting game in the "Touhou Project" series, being a continuation of the extra story mode from "Urban Legend in Limbo's" PlayStation 4 port, released in 2016.
"Antinomy of Common Flowers" ports for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch port were announced in May 2019, and released on April 22, 2021.
Gameplay.
"Antinomy of Common Flowers" is a fighting game in which the player will attempt to deplete their opponent's health bar using various moves, such as basic punches and kicks, as well as more complex special moves, which require special inputs in order to be performed. Spell cards, special moves that are considerably more powerful than the regular special moves, can also be used by charging a meter through damaging the opponent, which once full, allows the spell card to be activated. Each character in the game has a total of three spell cards to choose from. "Antinomy of Common Flowers" has no ground, allowing for complex aerial movement.
In "Antinomy of Common Flowers", the player will control two characters in any given match. The 'master' is the main character that they control, and can temporarily switch to their 'slave', who can be used to quickly extend combos. Additionally, when the player takes damage, some of their health will be retained with a white bar, and when playing as a slave, the white health will slowly increase. Taking damage while playing as the slave character will decrease the player's 'occult meter', and if it is emptied, the player will be forced to switch back to the master, until the meter increases again, which will gradually happen by default, but it can be increased faster by damaging their opponent.
In "Antinomy of Common Flowers", the player can engage in single matches, either against the AI or with other players online, play a training mode in which they can freely test their attacks, or in the game's story mode, wherein the player will fight many enemies in succession, and can unlock new characters by defeating them.
Plot.
As part of the Urban Legend Incident, a phenomenon called "Perfect Possession" occurs, in which people have their mind and body completely taken over by somebody else. Reimu sets out to investigate the cause of the Perfect Possession.
Characters.
In "Antinomy of Common Flowers", all characters except Joon and Shion are available from the start in the game's versus mode. In the story mode, the player is given preset master-slave pairs, more of which are unlocked by completing the game with specific characters. The game has a total of 19 characters, each of which have their own stage.
Development.
"Antinomy of Common Flowers" was first announced via ZUN's blog in December 2016. The game was then released at Comiket 93 on December 29, 2017, and on Steam on January 5, 2018. PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch ports were first announced in May 2019, and on March 21, 2021, "Phoenixx" produced a promotional video, which revealed a final release date of April 22, 2021. The Switch and PS4 version of "Antinomy of Common Flowers" use an English fan patch, making it the first "Touhou" game to be officially released in a language other than Japanese.
Reception.
IGN Japan gave the PC version a score of 8.5/10, praising the game's music, the originality of the story, and how the gameplay allowed for a variety of fighting styles, and was very accessible for people who were new to either "Touhou" or fighting games in general. However, they complained that a lack of players made it difficult to find matches with other people online. Comparatively, "Noisy Pixel" rated the PlayStation 4 version 7/10, praising its soundtrack, art direction, and gameplay, but lamented the lack of a move list on the game's pause menu, as well as the "somewhat spotty" translation. "Movies Games and Tech" gave particular attention to the large number of characters and gameplay options, but criticised the game's input lag and lack of voice acting.
On Steam, 90% of player reviews were positive.