Touhou Project #1
Release Date: November 1996
Songs: 15 (1 unused)
Link Count: 71
The music from Highly Responsive to Prayers is largely hit-or-miss: while there are a few stand-out songs, most of them are pretty strange and hard to listen to while you’re playing the game. It was, after all, ZUN’s first time doing music for a game(of his own creation, of course), so it’s understandable. However, there are some arrangements that bring light to even the bad ones, and those that do justice to the good ones.
Explanation on different original versions: When ZUN made Touhou 5, he included the “Music Room Special”, which contained all tracks from the first four games along with the tracks from 5. However, he slightly arranged every track from Touhou Reiiden; and then he used that track as a base for another slight arrangement on Akyu’s Untouched Score Vol. 5. In addition, Touhou Kaikidan has an additional MP3-format arrange that ZUN composed in the void between the PC-98 era and the Windows era.
001 / A Sacred Lot The title screen song. In other words, everything started from here. It’s not much to listen to, but the Banbra DX arrangement is fairly good.
| Type | N | Y | Artist | Name | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official | N | ZUN | A Sacred Lot | ||
| Official | N | ZUN | A Sacred Lot | Touhou 5 Version "PMD Arrange" | |
| Doujin | N | Sound Online | Veyron | Trois Bleu - Track 5, arr. Masayoshi Minoshima | |
| Jisaku | N | Ji-o- | A Sacred Lot | Band Brothers DX Arrange |
002 / Eien no Miko One of the most famous songs from the PC-98 era – Reimu’s first theme song, translated to “Eternal Shrine Maiden”. It was the stage music for levels 1-4, as well as 16-19 on the Jigoku route. It’s a catchy tune that doesn’t take long to get stuck in your head(especially if you watch the whistled version). This song was also arranged for the Dolls in Pseudo Paradise album.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version (Chotto Arrange)
- [ZUN] Dolls in Pseudo Paradise Arrange
- [EastNewSound] Lyrical Crimson – Track 5 “Kanade Ugate, Shinonome no Kanata e” (KOBATYU feat. Cryu)
- [Pizuya's Cell] ETERNAL CIRCLE NINE – Track 5 “Bloody Flower Connection” (pizuya)
- [XL Project] ~the last hope~ Tracks 1 & 2 “Introduction” & “After World” (estha feat. mintea)
- MIDI Arrange
- Mimi-Copy
- Mimi-Copy(DiPP)
- Piano Easy Mode
- Surround Sound
- Whistled
- 003 / The Positive and Negative
Theme song of the stage 5 boss, Shingyoku. It’s not very good.
- [ZUN] Original
- Arrange “Tha Positive and Negative” (Uchigi)
- Midi Arrange
- 004 / Highly Responsive to Prayers
A very odd sounding song; the theme of Makai levels 6 through 9. Touhou Reiiden has been compared to Breakout, but it’s got a different feeling all together, both in gameplay and in music.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version (Honnori Arrange)
- [Alstroemeria Records] The Brilliant Flowers – Track 2 “Highly Responsive to Prayers” (Masayoshi Minoshima feat. Haruka)
- 005 / Tōhō Kaikidan
Strange Oriental Discourse(or, Oriental Lesson) – the song ZUN professes to have been born just to make. As such, it was one of the two songs he made an extra MP3 arrangement for in that void between the PC-98 era and the Windows era(along with Reincarnation). It wasn’t originally made for Touhou Reiiden, but ZUN wanted to use it when he was first learning C. Anyway, it also happens to be where the Touhou OOO naming scheme for the games came from. This song was also arranged for Dolls in Pseudo Paradise.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version (Sawayaka Arrange)
- [ZUN] Dolls in Pseudo Paradise Arrange
- Arrange “Touhou Raidendan” (mocchie)
- Piano Easy Mode
- Raideen-esque Arrange
- 006 / Tenshi Densetsu
The theme of the stage 10 boss, “Angel’s Legend”. Depending on which route you take, it’s either YuugenMagan(the evil eyes) or Mima’s theme. The bosses start getting hard at this point, even if you’re playing Easy Mode. I greatly recommend the SD-80 arrangement.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Akyu’s Untouched Score Version
- Midi Arrange
- SD-80 Arrange
- 007 / Oriental Magician
A nothing(?) song for Makai stages 11 through 14. Like the others, it was arranged for Touhou 5, then again for Akyu’s Untouched Score. It kind of hurts my ears. And no, this has nothing to do with Marisa.
- [ZUN] Original
- Arrange “abyss world” (heric)
- 008 / Haja no Kodachi
The Kodachi of Destruction; or, as ZUN calls it, Blade of Banishment. A song that fools you into thinking it’s going somewhere it’s not, and ends up being fairly boring. It’s the theme for Jigoku stages 11 through 14.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Akyu’s Untouched Score Version
- 009 / Makyō
Or, “Magic Mirror” – in my opinion, one of the best songs from HRtP. It has two different version based on which route you’re on – Elis on the Makai route, or Kikuri on the Jigoku route. The Jigoku version is lower in pitch, but other than that… Anyway, the arrangements are all really nice, so you should give them a listen.
- [ZUN] Original (Makai Version)
- [ZUN] Jigoku Version (Makai Version)
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version
- Arrange “Devil Moon” (Lyude)
- Band Brothers DX Arrange
- Piano Easy Mode
- SD-80 Arrange
- 010 / The Legend of KAGE
The final stages of the Makai route used this song. It’s actually kind of a cool song. It manages to convey the intensity of the unwritten state of things as you progress towards the final boss.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version
- [CYTOKINE] ±PM – Track 3 “The Legend of KAGE” (Linjin)
- Piano Easy Mode
- 011 / Iza, Taore Yuku Sono Toki Made
My favorite song from this game, hands down – the final boss theme of Sariel, on the Makai route. In the sound test, it’s “Die to Pay your Sins”, while it’s fan-translation is “Now die, for the sins you have committed”. A more accurate translation would be “Now, and until the time you fall and die”. Anyway, go listen now.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version
- [Unlucky Morpheus] Jealousy – Track 6 “Makyou Datenroku Sariel” (yuki feat. Fuki)
- Arrange “GooD Bye To YOU” (Loewy)
- Arrange “Iza, Kudake Chiru Sono Toki Made” (mocchie)
- Band Brothers DX Arrange
- Piano Arrange
- Piano Easy Mode
- Pokemon Arrange
- Ringtone
- SD-80 Arrange
- 012 / Civilization of Magic / Shinaba Morotomo
A little-used song made solely for Sariel’s second form(it only lasted a few seconds). The original title of the song was Shinaba Morotomo, but in the Touhou 5 sound room, as well as Akyu’s Untouched Score, it was renamed to Civilization of Magic. It’s actually not bad.
- [ZUN] Original
- [ZUN] Touhou 5 Version
- Mimi-Copy
- Piano Easy Mode
- SD-80 Arrange
- 013 / Seiyū Kenshi
The Jigoku route’s final boss(Konngara) theme song, which isn’t as good obviously. Most of the time comes up as “Swordsman of a Distant Star” or something. However, it was later renamed to Seiyū Tenshi (Angel).
- [ZUN] Original
- Piano Easy Mode
- SD-80 Arrange
- 014 / Iris
The ending song, which closes the game out with more weird sounds as you watch Reimu sweeping after her adventure in hell ends.
- [ZUN] Original
- 015 / Kaze no Jinja [Unused]
An unused song, Shrine of Wind. ZUN couldn’t really find a place for this in the game, but he threw it in the sound test anyway.
- [ZUN] Original
- Piano Easy Mode