Publisher Playism and developer Areazero announced an early access release date for Valkyrie of Phantasm, their high-flying Touhou Project battling game.

A few months after its prelude release, Valkyrie of Phantasm is launching for Windows PC (via Steam) on October 23rd, and will support English, Japanese, and Chinese languages.

Here’s a new trailer:

English version

Japanese version

Here’s a rundown on the game:

Valkyrie of Phantasm

A meteorite suddenly falls to Gensokyo. A crack appears in its golden, egg-like surface, and small droplets of light emanate from the inside, which then scatter in all directions. Eventually, they arrive in the hands of Gensokyo’s most powerful.

One of these lights reaches Reimu Hakurei. It surrounds her, transforming into what looks like a suit of armor. A name echoes in her head, and she proclaims. “A Valkyrie Arm…” Sensing the beginnings of an incident, she sighs and looks off in the direction the light came from. She floats up and into the air—and a moment later she’s already gone, leaving naught behind but a thin red trail.

“My body feels so light…” Soaring faster than ever before, Reimu realizes her armor—her Valkyrie Arm—is to thank for her newfound speed. Who gave her this power, and for what purpose? Reimu hastens to find the cause of all this. But it doesn’t take long before someone stands in her way.

“It looks like I’m not the only one.” Before Reimu is another girl, similarly clad in a Valkyrie Arm. Each of them now possesses the same power, and inevitably… a high-speed danmaku battle begins.

Basic Actions

• 　Attack: Melee attack when in close range
• 　Shot: Blast bullets; can be rapid-fire
• 　Spell: Cast a powerful bullet pattern spell
• 　Step: Perform a quick evasion
• 　Boost Dash: Fly at high speeds
• 　Guard: Put up a barrier to deflect attacks

Special Actions

• 　Accel Drive: Temporarily power up (increases movement speed, motion speed, and power of all attacks)
• 　Stat increases change depending on the number of charges in the Drive Gauge
• 　Level 1 to Level 3 + Level MAX
• 　Has burst effects
• 　Accel Drive Spell: A powerful spell only usable during Accel Drive
• 　Ultimate Spell: An extremely powerful spell only usable at Max Level
• 　Charged Melee Attack: Breaks guards and deals knockback
• 　Blitz Attack: A mid-ranged charged attack
• 　Side Attack: A high-speed lateral flank attack (steps side to side, attacking from the side)
• 　Back Strike: Backsteps and then attacks
• 　Boost Dash Attack: A powerful strike out of a Boost Dash that deals knockback
• 　Step Cancel: Steps to cancel an attack action