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Marisa!ReturnTheBook!

Marisa!ReturnTheBook!

by NARROW, TSUKUYOMIC · Published by NARROW&TSUKUYOMIC

Price $5.99
Avg Players 13
Released Nov 21, 2025
2DAdventureAnimeCasual
Offline progress
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A light strategy idle game featuring Touhou characters in charming pixel art, where you deploy attackers, carriers, and supporters to collect books and defeat bosses across Gensokyo. The game handles most progression passively while you manage unit abilities and positioning, offering a respectful approach to the idle genre that won't demand constant attention.

About this game

What players are saying

▲ Recommended 14 hrs
[後半に日本語レビューあり]

Cute pixel dolls in a “not-so-idle idle” resource-management strategy


Famous Touhou characters drawn in cute pixel animations move around a charming fantasy-like field, collect books to raise their abilities, and defeating the boss 15 times becomes the primary goal of this strategy game.

On the screen, attackers, carriers, and supporters move busily at all times, and as the number of companion characters increases, the screen changes accordingly, making the lively motion fun to watch on its own. Meanwhile, the content itself is far more for serious play than expected, and although it claims to be an “idle game,” the system is unique in that it actually does not progress if left completely idle.

The game proceeds based on book collection and character unlocking/upgrading, and repeated battles occur against Marisa, who launches large-scale attacks at set intervals. In the later stages, carry speed and production costs rise sharply, and generally firepower, carry efficiency, or support effects become bottlenecks. Once things start stalling, you end the run, use the points earned to enhance shared upgrades, and attempt the next challenge—there is also a roguelite-style design here. However, the points obtainable per run have a limit, and in the end, the important factor becomes how you allocate those finite points to passive upgrades (you can also reset points, allowing for various builds).

Each character has a clearly defined role: attackers drop books, carriers transport them, and supporters raise overall efficiency. In the early stages you can progress simply by lining up your favorite characters drawn by their cuteness, but from the midgame onward, carry efficiency and the priority of upgrade routes have clear impact, naturally making you aware of the depth of team building. Contrary to its outward cuteness and casual appearance, this part of the tuning carries a strategy-game-like feeling.

Another major attraction of this title is the hidden characters (treated as Easter eggs) unlocked through interactions such as clicking on the field. Eyes lurking between trees, fallen leaves, small shadows on rooftops—there are many little elements scattered across the screen that make you chuckle when you notice them. Each unlock provides a new way to play or makes the run slightly easier, helping maintain motivation for exploration.

Overall, while wrapped in cute visuals and lively animations, it offers a highly rewarding experience that balances lightness with strategic depth. Those seeking a very relaxed game that can be left fully idle may find it a bit busy, but if you enjoy the type of strategy game where you stack passive builds and moment-to-moment upgrades while pursuing large and small optimizations, it is guaranteed to be deeply enjoyable and worth more than its price.

可愛いドット絵の人形たちと巡る、「放置できない放置系」資源管理ストラテジー


可愛らしいドットアニメの著名東方キャラクターたちが、ファンタジー感あるフィールドを行き交い、本を回収して能力を高めていき、ボスを15回撃破することが第一目的となるストラテジー。

画面上では攻撃役・回収役・補助役が慌ただしく動き続け、仲間キャラクターの増加に応じて画面に変化が生まれるため、見ているだけでも楽しい賑やかさがある。一方で内容自体は想像以上にやり込み向けで、「放置ゲーム」とは謳っているが、実際は放置しっぱなしでは進まないという独特な仕組みとなっている。

ゲームは本の回収とキャラクター解放/強化を軸に進み、一定時間ごとに大規模な攻撃を仕掛けてくる魔理沙との連戦が発生する。後半になるほど回収スピードや生産コストが跳ね上がり、だいたい火力・回収効率・補助効果あたりがボトルネックになってくる。詰まり始めたら周回を切り上げ、集めたポイントで共通強化を伸ばして次の挑戦を行うという、ローグライト的な設計も存在している…が、周回で得られるポイントにも上限があり、最終的にはその有限ポイントをどんなパッシブ強化に割り当てるか(ポイント戻しも可能なのでいろんなビルドが可能)が重要となってくる。

各キャラクターには明確な役割が設定されており、攻撃役が本を落とし、回収役がそれを運び、補助役が全体効率を底上げしていく。序盤は見た目の可愛さに惹かれて好きなキャラを並べるだけでも進めるが、中盤以降は運搬効率や強化ルートの優先度が如実に影響し、自然とチーム構築の奥深さを意識するようになる。表向きの可愛さとカジュアルさに反して、このあたりの調整には戦略ゲームらしいプレイ感がある。

また、本作の大きな魅力として、フィールド上のクリックなどの要素によって解放される隠しキャラ(イースターエッグ扱い)が挙げられる。木々の隙間に潜む目、落ち葉、屋根の上の小さな影など、画面のあちこちに散りばめられた“気づけばくすっと笑ってしまう”ようなものが多い。ひとつ解放するたび、新しい立ち回りが生まれたり少し楽になったりするので、探索のモチベーションにもつながる。

全体として、可愛い見た目と賑やかなアニメーションに包まれながら、気軽さと戦略性を両立した非常に遊びがいのある作品だ。完全放置のゆるい作品を求めていると少し忙しさを感じるかもしれないが、パッシブビルドと都度強化を重ねながら大小の最適化を積むタイプのストラテジーが好きなら、価格以上に深く楽しめること請け合いである。
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25 found helpful Steam ↗
▼ Not recommended 2 hrs
It's cute, but pretty basic, you really aren't doing much most of the time and the loop is pretty much the exact same throughout the whole thing. As much as I'd love to recommend it based on the amazing art, there just isn't enough here to be worth actually playing, most would be better off watching someone else play it.
23 found helpful Steam ↗
▲ Recommended 5 hrs
Cute clicker Touhou fan game that actually is respectful of your time. The pixel art is extremely cute and the premise goes hand in hand with the madness of Gensokyo. A certain ordinary magician really, really loves to "borrow" books. Well, no it's time to get them all back! A big cast of support characters is willing to help you in your quest, along a bunch of secret ones. My only complaint is that I think it only uses one BGM through the main bulk of the campaign and that brings me back to the old NES days. I mean, glad the arranged song is nice but not nice enough to sustain it for hours. tl;dr, you can lower the music volume and put some Slayer or Metallica if you may and continue one or, even better, Crow's Claw or other Touhou metal arrangements of your choosing. Not gonna extend much but, yeah, worth a try and definitely a yes during a sale!
15 found helpful Steam ↗

Reviews are by Steam users, hosted on Steam.

Latest updates

【Version 1.50】

75 days ago
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Version 1.50New Gameplay: Combat Stage Mode---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After her house was destroyed, Marisa took her remaining books and fled into an underground passage. Don’t let her get away! Alice personally ventures deep into the lair, chasing Marisa with special dolls imbued with everyone’s feelings, to defeat her once and for all!★ (After clearing part of the idle gameplay content, a wanted poster will be unlocked in front of Alice’s house. Click on the poster to play the new content.) ★ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New Meeting Point Rewards:★ Clear Normal difficulty of the new gameplay to get an extra 5 Meeting Points.★ Clear Hard difficulty to get an extra 10 Meeting Points.★ Clear Lunatic difficulty to get an extra 22 Meeting Points.Meeting Points are used in the idle gameplay section.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fixed a bug that could cause the clear time to display as 0.This game uses AI translation, which may contain inaccuracies.

【v1.13】

203 days ago
1. Easter egg characters only need to be unlocked once. After obtaining the corresponding achievement, the easter egg characters will be automatically unlocked in each game (excluding Rin Satsuki and the Yorigami sisters; some characters can only be automatically unlocked after reaching the corresponding specific stage).2. The number of stages required to unlock the meeting page has been generally reduced.3. Tewi Inaba added a new upgrade: Prank. It can simulate player operations to click Marisa's house.4. Sanae's upgrade cost is reduced, and new content is added to Sanae's meeting options (double recovery effect when drawing a Great Good Omen).5. Brave Cirno's doll quantity requirement is canceled.6. Weak point damage is calculated separately in the leaderboard, and the weak point clicking efficiency is optimized.7. Satori Komeiji's meeting content is optimized (changed from 2 weak points to 1, and all weak point damage is doubled, including weak points created by other characters).8. Suika's Giantization upgrade adjustment: Attack power is reduced, but attacks can automatically trigger all weak points.9. Enhanced Iku Nagae's BUFF application efficiency. Enhanced Tenshi's ultimate skill damage.10. Reduced one additional anchor attack of the Seirensen.11. Significantly enhanced Yuuka's counterattack magic cannon damage, which will increase with stages.12. Adjusted the number of projectiles Marisa throws in the late game: reduced the number of bottles and increased the number of Eight Trigrams Furnaces.13. In Overload state, Scout Kappa's interception speed is increased by 100%.14. The initial upgrade price of some characters is reduced, and the price of early-game characters is lowered.15. Aya's News added new reminders: 1. Hold down the left mouse button to click automatically; frequent single clicks are not required. 2. Saving is not performed during the tutorial; saving is only available during normal game progress. Saving is also not possible during BOSS battles...

Posts come from Steam's official announcements feed.

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