A 2D tag fighter built on bullets and brawling
東方憑依華 ～ Antinomy of Common Flowers is a 2D fighting game starring characters from the Touhou series, built around the interplay of shooting, close-range melee, and free movement across the whole screen. You switch constantly between firing bullets from a distance and rushing in to fight up close, moving in every direction as you do. The goal is straightforward: beat the opponent. What sets this entry apart is the 2V2 tag format. Two fighters team up, and their combined bullets and tactics make for denser, more layered exchanges than a standard one-on-one duel. Music from a variety of creators accompanies the fights and is worth listening to on its own.
How a group plays together
The game includes VS PLAYER, where two players fight each other locally, and NETWORK, where you play against players at a distance. VS COM lets you pick a computer-controlled character to fight, and PRACTICE is there for working on your controls. Remote Play Together is supported, so friends can join in over a connection rather than sharing one screen in person. With the tag format, each side brings two characters, so the back-and-forth involves reading your partner's positioning as much as your opponent's.
The story behind the incident
The premise centers on a strange phenomenon called "Complete Possession," where an entirely different person takes over both the mind and the body of someone else. Reimu had already traced the cause, but rumors spread through the village anyway: the strongest pair had teamed up, something bad might happen to humans, or an enemy too tough for one person had appeared. This is one of the unresolved "Urban Legend Incidents," where vague rumors with no solid form tend to become real. The story follows those who monitor Complete Possession, those who use it, those swept up in it without understanding why, and those working to expose a threat lurking underneath — along with people who mistakenly believe the "strongest two" are themselves.
Modes and setup
Alongside STORY, VS COM, VS PLAYER, NETWORK, and PRACTICE, the game includes REPLAY for watching saved replay data, MUSIC for listening to the soundtrack, and CONFIG for adjusting game settings. The fighting is tagged as difficult and leans on bullet hell patterns alongside traditional fighting game footsies, so PRACTICE is a sensible first stop before jumping into matches.