Shrine Road
Shrine Road sã̠ndo̞ː | |
|---|---|
 The road in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle | |
| Information | |
| Full Name | Senri Shrine Road (闡裡神社参道) |
| Location | Starting from the Senri Shrine and stretching on through the Sanctuary |
| Appearances | |
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The Shrine Road (参道 Sandō), or the full name Senri Shrine Road (闡裡神社参道), is a very long and straight road that leads to the Senri Shrine, stretching through the Sanctuary. The road has been a common setting throughout the Len'en Project, being the typical Stage 1 location, as well a prime location in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle.
General Information[edit | edit source]
The Shrine Road is a neverending cobblestone footpath that leads to the Senri Shrine, and has trees following it on both sides as it stretches throughout the Sanctuary. Whether it ever leaves the Sanctuary is unclear as only a few people know where the road leads to, although it is said that Tenkai Zuifeng does.[1] The road stretched so far it is hard to picture the end of it at the far-off horizon.[2]
The start of the road is lined with several torii gates, which can supposedly weaken any nearby youkai.[3] However, it is also said that the humans of Mugenri are incapable of passing through them, making worshipers to the shrine a rare sight.[4] Described to be the "pathway of the gods",[1] the road in general has an atmosphere that drove off anyone who approached it.[5] This kind of idea can also be applied to snow seemingly avoiding the road, where the flakes would pile up around it, but the paved section would never have a single flake on it.[2] An illustration of Jinbei, seemingly taking place atop one of the torii, suggests that stairs can be found along the road.
There is a path that leads to the Human Village from the Shrine Road, simply called "Path from the Shrine Road to the Human Village". It is presumed that the Unlost Woods is on the left side of the road, whereas the Frontline River is located on the right, both not far from the road. The road is so long it can be split into multiple sections, the names known so far being "far", "remote" and "distant". The "far" section has a purple atmosphere. The "remote" and "distant" sections in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle's Extra Stage became monochrome due to the heroes having their memories fuzzied thanks to Suzumi Kuzu. This, however, is not the remote and distant area's actual appearance.[6]
Despite the similar appearances, the Shrine Road is not to be confused with the Shrine Road that appears on the Extra Stage of Evanescent Existence.[7]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
Danmaku Games[edit | edit source]
- Earthen Miraculous Sword
The road makes its first appearance in the series on Stage 1 of Earthen Miraculous Sword, where Jun Amanomiya appears to be selling umbrellas on the Shrine Road, taking advantage of the cloudy weather. Unfortunately for them, the heroes assumed that they are the cause of the incident and defeats them.
- Reactivate Majestical Imperial
The road appears again as the Stage 1 location of Reactivate Majestical Imperial, where Sese Kitsugai seems to be wandering around on the Shrine Road. The protagonists beat them up just because they happened to be there.
Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle[edit | edit source]
The Shrine Road is the primary setting in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle. The protagonists wander around the road, trying to see if they can find any leads about the strange rumor and/or other interests, all while a war game is happening between the Dragonfly Army and the Imperial Military, covering the entire road with danmaku.
Stage 1 of the game is defaulted to be located at the Shrine Road. However, the player can pick different routes to new locations for later stages. As such, going left onto the Haze route will lead to the Unlost Woods on the next stage, but going right onto the Brilliant route will lead to the Frontline River. The Haze (left) boss is Souko Shirami, whereas the Brilliant (right) boss is Mitsumo.
- Neutral Route
If the player chooses to stay on the Neutral (middle) route, then they will remain on the road at later stages. At the end of Stage 1, Kurohebi or Jun Amanomiya are the first encounters, and thereafter, the heroes run into all sorts of people that have appeared in previous games, examples being Sese Kitsugai, Aoji Shitodo and Sukune Katano, each having their own little reasons to battle. No new characters will be encountered. Stage 4 onwards will change the aesthetics of the location, to Shrine Road (Far), giving off a purply atmosphere and a new stage theme. The theme of encountering random old bosses will continue up to stage 6, which would give the player a random boss picked from Yabusame Houlen, Tsubakura Enraku, Clause or Tenkai Zuifeng.
However, if the player has beaten every final boss of the game, Suzumi Kuzu will appear on Stage 6, instead. Suzumi wished to take down the heroes for numerous reasons, mainly to upset Tsubakura Enraku, but was defeated. They show the heroes an empty book, which made them forget about encountering Suzumi, allowing Suzumi to escape down the road to prepare for another battle.
- Extra Stage
The Shrine Road continues to be the setting and only location of the Extra Stage, called Shrine Road (Remote), giving a light grey atmosphere due to the heroes' memory being fuzzy. Three Extra Stage bosses can be encountered here. Yago Ametsukana on the left, who wants to test the strength of the heroes, Haiji Senri on the right, who wants to steal the heroes' spell cards, and Xeno a in the centre, who simply wants to battle and taste the heroes strength. Xeno especially is surprised that the heroes have managed to get this far down the road due to the war games.
The Extra+α Stage is again on the Shrine Road (Distant), approximately 20km away from the Senri Shrine[8], where the atmosphere is even more monochrome. The heroes meet "Tsurubami" here, who is actually Suzumi Kuzu pulling a prank, and whose goal is to kill the heroes. They fail, however, but manage to escape by erasing their memories of their encounter.
Additional Information[edit | edit source]
- There is a pattern between "Unfailing Piety ~ go to work...?", "Decayed Tranquility ~ be motivated" and "Suddenly-Opened Cannon Lid ~ Slow Starter", the stage 1 themes that play in Earthen Miraculous Sword, Reactivate Majestical Imperial and Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle respectively. They are variants of EMS's versions, which are based on seasons. Since JynX is following this pattern, the Shrine Road is assumed to appear as a stage 1 location at least one more time.[9]
Gallery[edit | edit source]
The road in Earthen Miraculous Sword
The road with with the distance more visible in EMS v1.01a
The road in Reactivate Majestical Imperial
The road with with the distance more visible in RMI v1.00a
The road on the left side in Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle
The road on the right side in BPoHC
The road (far) in BPoHC
The road (remote) in BPoHC
The road (distant) in BPoHC
An illustration of Jinbei showing the road in the background.
The road in Book of the Cafe, within NiLU's Memories
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle: Preschool Team's Good Ending
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Reactivate Majestical Imperial: Prologue
- ↑ Earthen Miraculous Sword: Stage 1 Text
- ↑ Earthen Miraculous Sword: Stage 3 Text
- ↑ Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle: New Emperor Team's Good Ending
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2017): Len'en Miscellaneous, Question 84
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2017): Len'en Miscellaneous, Question 83
- ↑ Interview with JynX (2021): The Story Setting and Lore of Len'en, Sanctuary - Question 107
- ↑ Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle: Music Room - Senri Shrine Road's theme
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