Play as Fuijiwara no Mokou, an immortal who must destroy in order to survive, as she pushes forward to solve the mystery of what is sapping her health in Mokou’s Quest.
Mokou’s Quest, from YawningFox, is a platformer made as part of the recent Touhou Fan Game Jam. In the jam, entrants created games either within the Touhou universe, or using Touhou assets — something that series creator ZUN fully allows.
For Mokou’s Quest the developer took this year’s theme of ‘Life and Death’ and placed a life-draining curse on the series’ immortal character, Fujiwara no Mokou. This creates a stub of a story for the game (get to the end, lift the curse), but also delivers a method for the game’s main mechanics: destruction of life to replenish your own, and revival.
Trees, shrubs, and enemies fill each of Mokou’s Quest‘s rooms. These can all be destroyed with your main attack, which sees you lob a fireball forward or vertically, setting most living things aflame. Their defeat restores your energy, or, in turn, your life. Energy is something to keep an eye on, because if you drain down fully then you will start to sap your own life with your efforts.
Should you fail to keep your health up (which may sometimes happen as you run short of time, as each level requires you to kill all enemies to proceed), then Mokou will die. However, you have a brief opportunity to revive by killing off an enemy.
While Mokou’s Quest is a bit rough around the edges, it is a fun game with some interesting ideas to it.
Mokou’s Quest is available on Itch.io.
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