Okay, my Touhou music file is now my second-largest collection of music on my hardrive. Only my Final Fantasy section has more music. It's official now; I have more Touhou music than I do Dragon Quest music! How did that happen!?
Well regardless, let's talk more about the music of Touhou. After all, it was the music that hooked me into the series.
There is no denying that ZUN is a talented composer. I would even say music composition is his best talent, and am still curious as to why no professional game developer has commissioned him yet. Just about all of the Touhou games, including the spinoffs, as well as Touhou's companion series, Seihou, have, if not a bunch of great music, at the very least, a few great pieces of music. Not very many game franchises have consistently great music, but Touhou does, and it's not surprising that it earns comparison to the Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Chrono, and Dragon Quest franchises.
Not only that, but since Touhou is a doujin product, there is also a ton of remixes of Touhou music. Some of these remixes are as good as the original compositions, or even better. For example, I don't really like Youmu's themes from the actual games, (funny, considering that she's my favorite character) but 50% Alive 'n Dead by SOUNDHOLIC is a fantastic piece of music. But sometimes, it's the other way around. I love ZUN's version of Aya's theme, but I've yet to find a remix of her theme that sounds as good as the original. And sometimes, the originals and the remixes will be great in their own way. I love Chen's theme from the actual game, as well as IOSYS' version of Chen's theme.
Another thing I noticed, (okay, technically, I didn't notice this one until Usually Dead mentioned it in a Let's Play video) but there's a lot of variety of Touhou music. Some games, even games with soundtracks I love, will just reuse the main theme over and over and over again. Star Ocean 3, for example, has about 40 different variations of its main theme, (I may be exaggerating the number, but whatever.) Granted, the main SO3 theme is beautiful, and many of its variations sound great, but there's not as much variety. Not so with the Touhou games. The only pieces that re-occur are the main title screen music, (which always gets heavily remixed with every new game) and some of the character themes. And even when a theme is re-used, it will always be arranged in some form. "Phantom Ensemble" the theme of the Prismriver Sisters, first appeared in Perfect Cherry Blossom, and appeared again in Phantasmagoria of Flower View. And guess what? Both versions sound great. Some of the more prominent characters have more than one theme motif, such as Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, and Yukari. Yukari's theme in PCB, Necrofantasia, sounds quite different from her theme in Immaterial and Missing Power, Night Falls ~ Evening Star, and yet, both themes not only sound great, but are both appropriate for a character like Yukari.
In fact, it would probably be easier to list Touhou music I don't like. Let's see . . . I don't like Tei's theme very much. Umm . . . . some of the bosses of the 1st and 2nd stages of the games have forgettable music. And . . . I'm not really fond of Marisa Stole the Precious Thing by IOSYS, (hence why I recommended the metal version instead.) There's more, but it's hard to list music I don't like.
Oh, you want another link, don't you? Okay, here's one: A remix of Nitori's theme. Don't let the kawaii drive you nuts. (I like that version of Nitori's theme more than the original ZUN version.) Oh, here another one: a vocal version of Kaguya's theme. Let's just say Touhou music hardly disappoints.
