Touhou Luna Nights

Sakuya attacks various enemy spirits.

Touhou Luna Nights is an action-adventure game, in which the player must navigate around a large mansion, killing enemies and maneuvering through platforming sections, and occasionally encountering puzzles and boss fights. The player controls Sakuya Izayoi, whose main abilities, hailing from her Touhou appearances, consist of being able to stop time, and throw knives.[1]

Using Sakuya's powers drains the MP (magic) meter, which regenerates very slowly, and the HP (health) meter, which drops upon being hit, does not regenerate at all. In order to replenish either one, the player must find one of the few vending machines scattered around the map, or graze enemy attacks (having enemy attacks reach the edge of Sakuya's hitbox will replenish HP and MP, a gameplay mechanic from the official Touhou games).[1][2] Like most Metroidvanias, the player can acquire gold (which is used as currency), and experience points by killing enemies. Gold can be spent on upgrades to Sakuya's abilities, giving her new weapons and moves, and improve her maximum HP and MP.[1]

Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid of Gensokyo's Scarlet Devil Mansion, is sent to a parallel universe that mysteriously resembles the mansion, by her mistress, Remilia Scarlet.[3] Apparently, this is for Remilia's own amusement, but her younger sister Flandre Scarlet disguises herself as Nitori Kawashiro and hijacks the parallel universe in revenge for Remilia using her magical jewels to create Luna Nights without permission. After Sakuya defeats Flandre, Remilia apologizes and undoes Luna Nights.

In the game's alternate ending, the real Nitori discovers that the world is collapsing and sends Sakuya to investigate. She finds Reimu Hakurei had infiltrated the parallel universe as it is affecting the real Gensokyo. After they fight, Remilia, Nitori, and Flandre arrive and explain to everyone that the purpose of Luna Nights is to create a universe where Flandre could freely use her powers to avoid creating an incident in the real Gensokyo, but were unsuccessful leading to Reimu's appearance. The spiritual energy built up during the fight causes the universe to collapse, with Sakuya barely escaping in Nitori's mech.

Touhou Luna Nights was launched through Early Access on Steam in August 2018, and had its Version 1.0 release in February 2019. In June 2019, an update to the game was added, featuring Reimu as the game's final boss (previously Flandre), a dash ability, a new weapon, a boss rush mode, and achievements.[4]

The game was released on Microsoft Store for the Xbox One and Windows 10 on September 3, 2020; this version of the game features an additional boss battle against Cirno.[5] In December 2020, Team Ladybug announced that the Cirno boss fight would be coming to the original Steam version.[6] This update was released on January 18, 2021.[7]

A Nintendo Switch port was announced in October 2020.[8] This version was published by Phoenixx, who also assisted with porting, on December 17, 2020.[9][10] On July 1, 2023 the Nintendo Switch publishing duties were transferred back to Playism to streamline customer support.[11] A port to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 was announced in September 2023, and is set for release on January 25, 2024 alongside physical editions.[12]

Touhou Luna Nights garnered positive reception from critics and holds a near-perfect user-review score on Steam, while the console versions also garnered similar response.[4][13] Reviewers praised the fluidity of the movement and gameplay mechanics, but noted that the game only took about six hours to beat, which would leave players wanting more.[4] 3DJuegos' Alberto Pastor praised the game's fast-paced action, combat system, intense boss fights, graphics, and high-quality sprite animations but criticized its short length despite the intensity and uneven level design. Pastor also felt that the fighting could get chaotic at times.[16] Oprainfall's Steve Baltimore stated that the game "has some of the best sprite work I’ve seen in years", commending the detailed character and enemy sprite animations, as well as the gameplay and chiptune music.[18] Jeuxvideo.com's Hyiga gave positive remarks to the time manipulation and grazing mechanics, well-balanced difficulty, boss fights, pixel artwork, fluid character animations, and remixed music from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. However, he criticized the short length, slow character status improvement, and the shopping feature for being very simplistic.[15]

Nintendo Blast's Juliana Paiva Zapparoli reviewed the Nintendo Switch port and gave positive remarks to the game's fluid and intense gameplay due to the time manipulation and grazing mechanics, responsive controls, faithfulness to the original series, and audiovisual presentation, but criticized the lack of replay factor and additional content, in addition to the large map and unnecessary backtracking compared to the overall length.[17] Also reviewing the Switch port, IGN Japan's Fuminobu Hata praised Touhou Luna Nights for implementing features from both Touhou Project and regular Metroidvanias, allowing for the removal of various elements typically seen in the genre, and suggested that the game should be used as a template for future Metroidvania games.[14]