Touhou Project games are famous for reimagining specific genres of games but featuring Touhou characters. That’s similar to one such title I recently played, Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER. Specifically, this Touhou game takes inspiration from Super Robot Wars.
Game Name: Fantasy Maiden Wars – DREAM OF THE STRAY DREAMER
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Developer(s): さんぼん堂 (Sanbondo)
Publisher(s): Phoenixx Inc.
Release Date: October 21, 2025
Price: ¥4950
A mysterious red mist appears over Gensokyo. Reimu, a shrine maiden, notices and decides to investigate after some encouragement from her friends. Marisa, a witch, also notices and launches her own investigation. You can choose either character as your main protagonist. Each has a unique starting point and conducts her own investigation within her respective group. Their paths intersect at times, and eventually, everyone comes together as one giant team.
The Good
I love Touhou Project games, but I have to say this is probably one of the easiest to recommend to those who may not already understand the world of Touhou. Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer features an impressive library and collection system when it comes to the characters you encounter and unlock. Many Touhou titles have basic entries with minimal descriptions or personality traits, but this one blows them out of the water. It also has a cohesive narrative that serves as a culmination of the Touhou games from Team Shanghai Alice, originally created by ZUN, the father of the Touhou universe.
Combat in Fantasy Maiden Wars is implemented extremely well. It’s a top-down tactical RPG where you control multiple units and must complete specific objectives on grid-based maps. As the story progresses, you’ll unlock more characters, and the enemy layouts become more complex. You can have your characters enter a focused state to increase accuracy and graze through attacks at the cost of movement speed, or go unfocused for more damage but less accuracy.
I absolutely love the background music and soundtrack in this game. When a unit attacks an enemy, each character has their own theme music, making it fun to experiment with different teams. At first, it might not sound that exciting, but when you realize there are over 70 Touhou characters to choose from, it becomes a real treat.
The Bad
There’s a substantial amount of text in Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer, and while most of it is enjoyable, some dialogue suffers from awkward phrasing or odd translations. The backlog function also leaves something to be desired. While it’s nice to be able to scroll back through previous dialogue, you can only go one text box at a time, and there’s no full log view. It’s a small gripe, but for players like me who enjoy capturing dialogue screenshots, having a complete text record would have been helpful.
Bonus objectives on the maps could also be clearer. The main goals and fail conditions are straightforward, but the bonus ones often feel vague or oddly worded. I’m not sure if it’s a translation issue or just map design, but it often left me making multiple save files to test different strategies.
The Verdict
Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer is one of the best entry points into the Touhou Project universe. It offers the most robust glossary and in-game reference material I’ve seen in any Touhou game, paired with an engaging gameplay loop that blends the spirit of Super Robot Wars with Touhou’s rich character roster. It’s a passionate, lovingly made title that clearly understands what fans want while remaining accessible to newcomers. If you’ve ever been curious about getting into the Touhou series, this is the one to start with.
Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer launches on Steam on October 21, 2025.
Review Disclosure Statement: Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer was provided to us by Phoenixx Inc. for review purposes. For more information on how we review games and other media, please see our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.
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Summary
Fantasy Maiden Wars – Dream of the Stray Dreamer – is a fan game made with so much love for the Touhou universe and the Super Robot Wars combat style. It blends the two seamlessly.
Pros
- Each character has their own animation and background music during their attack segments
- Incredibly detailed and deep glossary in the library
- Easy-to-follow narrative that makes it a great entry point
Cons
- Translation can be a bit awkward
- Later in the game can be a bit too much to manage
