Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Touhou Koumakyou ~ The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil (Japanese: 東方紅魔郷 〜 the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.; lit. "Eastern Lands of the Scarlet Devil") is a 2002 bullet hell video game developed by Team Shanghai Alice. It is the sixth entry in the Touhou Project series, and the first to be released for Microsoft Windows. It follows either the miko Reimu Hakurei or the magician Marisa Kirisame as they battle enemies through the world of Gensokyo to find the cause of a red-colored mist which has covered the sky in the midst of summer.

ZUN, the creator of the Touhou Project, had planned to end the series after the release of Mystic Square in 1998. After graduating, ZUN started work at Taito as a game developer and composed music for games created by Amusement Makers, publishers of the original five Touhou Project games released for the aging PC-98 computer. Leaving Amusement Makers in 2001 but remaining at Taito, he formed the one-man doujin circle Team Shanghai Alice, initially applying as a music circle to the 61st Comiket. After being denied, ZUN instead decided to develop a full game to submit at Comiket 62, reviving the Touhou Project series. The jump from PC-98 to Windows represented a "clean slate" for both the series and its developer, and Embodiment of Scarlet Devil served as a soft reboot of the series.

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was released on 11 August, 2002, to positive reviews but low sales, being sold for one day at a single Comiket booth. Over the next few months, ZUN would start to open mail orders online; it soon became a commercial success and earned the Touhou Project a substantial cult following. At Comiket 63, four months after release, there was a single derivative circle dedicated to the Touhou Project; this number would grow to 2,372 circles seven years later, breaking the convention's record. The series' move to Windows allowed for Embodiment of Scarlet Devil to reach a much wider audience than previous installments, having been given retrospective praise for its characters and soundtrack.