- Joined
- Dec 12, 2024
- Messages
- 72
- Level up in
- 28 posts
- Reaction score
- 95
- Points
- 1,077
---
# **Kamidori Alchemy Meister Is Still the Gold Standard — And That's Exactly the Problem**
*A love letter to a buried masterpiece, a comparison with how ZUN just showed everyone how it's done, and a long-overdue rant about Valve.*
---
## Part I: What Kamidori Actually Is
It's 2011. Eushully releases what should have been a landmark in SRPG history. A dungeon exploration SRPG built on ZOC mechanics, attribute effects, ally support, area attacks, and cooperative combined strikes — all layered into a single combat system designed to expand tactical range with every map. [Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/game/kamidori-alchemy-meister/) The protagonist runs a workshop, hires three women as bodyguards, gathers materials, and crafts gear to equip or sell.
Kamidori's crafting isn't tacked on — it *is* the game. Having different weapons is crucial for defeating enemies with certain elemental resistances, meaning you're crafting to solve tactical problems, not just inflate numbers. [WordPress](https://deluscar.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/kamidori-alchemy-meister-review/) The loop is clean: kill → gather → craft → sell → upgrade → kill harder things. If you're dying, you probably skipped crafting. Go back, make better gear, reconsider your formation. That's a game with design integrity.
Three routes, nine chapters each, New Game+ unlocks, 80+ hours of content across routes and sidequests [Renfa Review](https://renfareview.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/kamidori-alchemy-meister-review/) for a careful playthrough — and none of it is padding. One reviewer who clocked 120+ hours called it "excellent SRPG gameplay" that focuses on the gameplay department in a way unusual even for visual novel hybrids. [Blogger](http://tirofinale-news.blogspot.com/2016/08/visual-novels-you-might-wanna-check-out_14.html) This game earns its runtime.
---
## Interlude: How ZUN Just Showed Everyone How It's Done
Something relevant dropped yesterday. Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic – The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was announced at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct, coming to Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and Steam on September 10, 2026. [Siliconera](https://www.siliconera.com/touhou-scarlet-devil-remake-announced/) The first official remake of any Touhou game. [AUTOMATON](https://automaton-media.com/en/indie-games/touhou-projects-oldest-windows-game-embodiment-of-scarlet-devil-to-get-a-remake-by-an-older-and-wiser-zun/) Also the first official Touhou title with an international localization — 11 languages — and for translation accuracy, the team collaborated directly with fan translators from the Touhou Patch Centre, the same community that had kept the games alive for decades. [Touhou Wiki](https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Koumakyou:_New_Classic_-_the_Embodiment_of_Scarlet_Devil)
The original came out in 2002. Twenty-four years of fans doing the work themselves. ZUN didn't sideline them — he pulled their expertise in, gave them a seat at the table, and built the best possible version of what started everything. Graphics and music fully remastered, all BGM re-arranged by ZUN himself — "an older and wiser creator," self-described. [Touhou Project](https://touhou-project.news/shanghai-alice-reprise/en/) Unlimited lives for accessibility, plus a classic mode preserving the original gameplay systems intact. [Nintendo Everything](https://nintendoeverything.com/touhou-koumakyou-new-classic-the-embodiment-of-scarlet-devil-announced-for-nintendo-switch-2-switch/)
That's how you go international without betraying what made the original matter. Now contrast that with Eushully.
---
## Part II: Eushully's Missed Opportunity
In September 2025, Shiravune announced Wayblazer Dämmerung — the first-ever international Eushully release in 25 years. [Anime Backgrounds](https://animebackgrounds.home.blog/2025/09/06/wayblazer-dammerung-coming-to-steam/) The community lost its mind. It launched on Steam February 19, 2026. [Steambase](https://steambase.io/games/wayblazer-dammerung/info) Within weeks: Mixed — 65% positive. [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3196500/Wayblazer_Dammerung/?l=english) More than a third of buyers didn't recommend Eushully's own triumphant Western debut.
Why? The game deviates from the tactical grid-based combat of cult classics like Kamidori, opting for a party-based turn-based system where speed stats and equipment weight determine initiative. [Notebookcheck](https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-party-based-RPG-from-acclaimed-studio-launches-on-Steam-alongside-launch-discount.1230115.0.html) The ZOC system, positional tactics, formation-based chain attacks — all gone. One critic who'd played the entire translated Eushully catalog called it "probably the worst of the Eushully titles I've read" — with the caveat that it still had fun parts, comparing it to enjoying a cruise while fighting severe seasickness. [June | 2024 | Mainly a Visual Novel Blog now](https://vengilikes.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/wayblazer-dammerung/)
ZUN looked at 24 years of fan work and said: *let's make the best possible version of the thing that started this, with the people who loved it most.* Eushully looked at 15 years of Kamidori devotion and launched with their newest, safest, most commercially sanded product. One studio understood why people cared. The other is sitting at 65% and wondering why.
---
## Part III: The DT2-2 Situation — Valve's Inconsistency on Full Display
When Dungeon Travelers 2 launched on PS Vita in 2015, Atlus edited four images to hit ESRB Mature instead of Adults Only, working closely with Aquaplus to preserve the game's themes. [Niche Gamer](https://nichegamer.com/dungeon-travelers-2-to-have-slight-censoring-to-avoid-esrbs-ao-rating/) It worked. Adults played it. The world didn't end.
2022-2023: Shiravune attempts to bring both DT2 and Dungeon Travelers 2-2 to Steam. Both cancelled. Official statement: "Steam's guidelines made it impossible to pass their review while maintaining the high quality standards we hold for these titles." [Niche Gamer](https://nichegamer.com/dungeon-travelers-2-and-2-2-steam-cancelled/) Both now live on Johren — a platform most people outside the eroge niche have never heard of.
Valve's enforcement history is a mess. After promising in 2018 to "allow everything except what is illegal or straight-up trolling," years of unpredictable moderation followed — Bokuten was removed from Steam in 2020 despite being fully censored for all ages, then restored after Valve admitted the removal was for "false, invalid reasons." [Bounding Into Comics](https://boundingintocomics.com/video-games/to-heart-2-spin-off-dungeon-travelers-2-denied-release-on-steam) The specific problem with DT2 appears to be artwork featuring characters with a distinctly young appearance in suggestive contexts [TechRaptor](https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/dungeon-travelers-2-steam-release-apparently-blocked-by-valve) — a line enforced inconsistently, hitting high-profile releases harder than obscure shovelware flying under the radar.
A game that passed Western rating board scrutiny in 2015 can't pass a single platform's internal review in 2023. No appeals. No published threshold. No clear standard. That's not content moderation. That's content roulette.
---
## Final Word
Kamidori is still, fourteen years later, one of the most complete and mechanically coherent eroge SRPGs ever made. The people who found it have been recommending it in whispers ever since — because there's no official version to point anyone toward. Touhou's remake shows exactly how you fix that. Eushully's debut shows what happens when you don't.
The genre isn't dead. It's buried under bad decisions made by people who never played the games.
# **Kamidori Alchemy Meister Is Still the Gold Standard — And That's Exactly the Problem**
*A love letter to a buried masterpiece, a comparison with how ZUN just showed everyone how it's done, and a long-overdue rant about Valve.*
---
## Part I: What Kamidori Actually Is
It's 2011. Eushully releases what should have been a landmark in SRPG history. A dungeon exploration SRPG built on ZOC mechanics, attribute effects, ally support, area attacks, and cooperative combined strikes — all layered into a single combat system designed to expand tactical range with every map. [Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/game/kamidori-alchemy-meister/) The protagonist runs a workshop, hires three women as bodyguards, gathers materials, and crafts gear to equip or sell.
Kamidori's crafting isn't tacked on — it *is* the game. Having different weapons is crucial for defeating enemies with certain elemental resistances, meaning you're crafting to solve tactical problems, not just inflate numbers. [WordPress](https://deluscar.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/kamidori-alchemy-meister-review/) The loop is clean: kill → gather → craft → sell → upgrade → kill harder things. If you're dying, you probably skipped crafting. Go back, make better gear, reconsider your formation. That's a game with design integrity.
Three routes, nine chapters each, New Game+ unlocks, 80+ hours of content across routes and sidequests [Renfa Review](https://renfareview.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/kamidori-alchemy-meister-review/) for a careful playthrough — and none of it is padding. One reviewer who clocked 120+ hours called it "excellent SRPG gameplay" that focuses on the gameplay department in a way unusual even for visual novel hybrids. [Blogger](http://tirofinale-news.blogspot.com/2016/08/visual-novels-you-might-wanna-check-out_14.html) This game earns its runtime.
---
## Interlude: How ZUN Just Showed Everyone How It's Done
Something relevant dropped yesterday. Touhou Koumakyou: New Classic – The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil was announced at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct, coming to Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and Steam on September 10, 2026. [Siliconera](https://www.siliconera.com/touhou-scarlet-devil-remake-announced/) The first official remake of any Touhou game. [AUTOMATON](https://automaton-media.com/en/indie-games/touhou-projects-oldest-windows-game-embodiment-of-scarlet-devil-to-get-a-remake-by-an-older-and-wiser-zun/) Also the first official Touhou title with an international localization — 11 languages — and for translation accuracy, the team collaborated directly with fan translators from the Touhou Patch Centre, the same community that had kept the games alive for decades. [Touhou Wiki](https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Koumakyou:_New_Classic_-_the_Embodiment_of_Scarlet_Devil)
The original came out in 2002. Twenty-four years of fans doing the work themselves. ZUN didn't sideline them — he pulled their expertise in, gave them a seat at the table, and built the best possible version of what started everything. Graphics and music fully remastered, all BGM re-arranged by ZUN himself — "an older and wiser creator," self-described. [Touhou Project](https://touhou-project.news/shanghai-alice-reprise/en/) Unlimited lives for accessibility, plus a classic mode preserving the original gameplay systems intact. [Nintendo Everything](https://nintendoeverything.com/touhou-koumakyou-new-classic-the-embodiment-of-scarlet-devil-announced-for-nintendo-switch-2-switch/)
That's how you go international without betraying what made the original matter. Now contrast that with Eushully.
---
## Part II: Eushully's Missed Opportunity
In September 2025, Shiravune announced Wayblazer Dämmerung — the first-ever international Eushully release in 25 years. [Anime Backgrounds](https://animebackgrounds.home.blog/2025/09/06/wayblazer-dammerung-coming-to-steam/) The community lost its mind. It launched on Steam February 19, 2026. [Steambase](https://steambase.io/games/wayblazer-dammerung/info) Within weeks: Mixed — 65% positive. [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3196500/Wayblazer_Dammerung/?l=english) More than a third of buyers didn't recommend Eushully's own triumphant Western debut.
Why? The game deviates from the tactical grid-based combat of cult classics like Kamidori, opting for a party-based turn-based system where speed stats and equipment weight determine initiative. [Notebookcheck](https://www.notebookcheck.net/New-party-based-RPG-from-acclaimed-studio-launches-on-Steam-alongside-launch-discount.1230115.0.html) The ZOC system, positional tactics, formation-based chain attacks — all gone. One critic who'd played the entire translated Eushully catalog called it "probably the worst of the Eushully titles I've read" — with the caveat that it still had fun parts, comparing it to enjoying a cruise while fighting severe seasickness. [June | 2024 | Mainly a Visual Novel Blog now](https://vengilikes.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/wayblazer-dammerung/)
ZUN looked at 24 years of fan work and said: *let's make the best possible version of the thing that started this, with the people who loved it most.* Eushully looked at 15 years of Kamidori devotion and launched with their newest, safest, most commercially sanded product. One studio understood why people cared. The other is sitting at 65% and wondering why.
---
## Part III: The DT2-2 Situation — Valve's Inconsistency on Full Display
When Dungeon Travelers 2 launched on PS Vita in 2015, Atlus edited four images to hit ESRB Mature instead of Adults Only, working closely with Aquaplus to preserve the game's themes. [Niche Gamer](https://nichegamer.com/dungeon-travelers-2-to-have-slight-censoring-to-avoid-esrbs-ao-rating/) It worked. Adults played it. The world didn't end.
2022-2023: Shiravune attempts to bring both DT2 and Dungeon Travelers 2-2 to Steam. Both cancelled. Official statement: "Steam's guidelines made it impossible to pass their review while maintaining the high quality standards we hold for these titles." [Niche Gamer](https://nichegamer.com/dungeon-travelers-2-and-2-2-steam-cancelled/) Both now live on Johren — a platform most people outside the eroge niche have never heard of.
Valve's enforcement history is a mess. After promising in 2018 to "allow everything except what is illegal or straight-up trolling," years of unpredictable moderation followed — Bokuten was removed from Steam in 2020 despite being fully censored for all ages, then restored after Valve admitted the removal was for "false, invalid reasons." [Bounding Into Comics](https://boundingintocomics.com/video-games/to-heart-2-spin-off-dungeon-travelers-2-denied-release-on-steam) The specific problem with DT2 appears to be artwork featuring characters with a distinctly young appearance in suggestive contexts [TechRaptor](https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/dungeon-travelers-2-steam-release-apparently-blocked-by-valve) — a line enforced inconsistently, hitting high-profile releases harder than obscure shovelware flying under the radar.
A game that passed Western rating board scrutiny in 2015 can't pass a single platform's internal review in 2023. No appeals. No published threshold. No clear standard. That's not content moderation. That's content roulette.
---
## Final Word
Kamidori is still, fourteen years later, one of the most complete and mechanically coherent eroge SRPGs ever made. The people who found it have been recommending it in whispers ever since — because there's no official version to point anyone toward. Touhou's remake shows exactly how you fix that. Eushully's debut shows what happens when you don't.
The genre isn't dead. It's buried under bad decisions made by people who never played the games.
