A fan game based on the Touhou Project series, Touhou Luna Nights follows Sakuya Izayoi as she is sent to a parallel universe and robbed of her powers. Over the course of the game, she reclaims her powers and escapes to her homeland, Gensokyo. Touhou Luna Nights received positive reviews from critics, who praised its fluid movement mechanics, art direction, difficulty, and faithfulness to its inspiration, but critiqued its short length.
Gameplay
Sakuya attacks enemies using knives. "Grazing" occurs when enemies make near-contact with Sakuya, rewarding her with extra mana and health (jointly represented by blue symbols).
Touhou Luna Nights is a Metroidvania-style action game[2][3] in which the player must navigate through a large castle, defeat hostile enemies, maneuver through puzzle-platforming sections, and occasionally fight bosses. Said bosses consist of some of the main cast from the Touhou Project.[4] The player controls Sakuya Izayoi, whose core abilities, hailing from her native Touhou appearances, consist of being able to manipulate time and throwing knives, the latter being her primary offensive attack.[4][5]
Time manipulation is initially restricted to merely decelerating time passage for a limited duration. The player later unlocks the ability to freeze worldly movement altogether. During time stasis, which can be manually activated and de-activated at any point, the player can traverse atop non-solid terrain such as water.[1][6] They can also throw knives while time is frozen, but remain hovering in the air until time is resumed. Time stasis is governed by a self-replenishing meter that, if fully depleted, renders the ability temporarily unusable.[1][4]
Using abilities such as time manipulation drains the mana point (MP) meter, which refills at a slow rate. A health point (HP) meter, which drops upon being attacked by enemies, does not regenerate. Sakuya's HP can be refilled by using one of several vending machines scattered throughout the castle. MP and HP can together be increased by having enemy attacks scrape the edge of Sakuya's collision hitbox, an occurrence known as "grazing" and which originates from official Touhou games.[3][4][5] HP cannot be obtained through grazing if the move is performed while time is manipulated.[1] The player acquires collectible gems by defeating enemies, which can be exchanged for gold at a shopkeeper.[4][7] Players can spend gold to upgrade Sakuya's capabilities, acquire new weapons, and increase her maximum MP and HP.[4] Occasionally, new abilities such as double jumping can be learned by finding them strewn across the castle.[8]
Plot
Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid of Gensokyo's Scarlet Devil Mansion, is unwillingly transported to a parallel universe named Luna Nights that resembles the mansion by her mistress, Remilia Scarlet, losing her abilities in the process.[9] After exploring the entirety of Luna Nights and recovering her powers, Sakuya confronts Remilia, who alleges that displacing Sakuya from Gensokyo was done for her own amusement. However, her younger sister Flandre Scarlet, who previously disguised herself as engineer Nitori Kawashiro, arrives and hijacks the universe in revenge for Remilia using her magical gems 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 parallel universe is collapsing and sends Sakuya to investigate. Sakuya finds that the mikoReimu Hakurei had infiltrated Luna Nights, as it is beginning to affect the real Gensokyo. After Sakuya and Reimu finish fighting, Remilia, Nitori, and Flandre arrive and disclose to everyone that the true purpose of Luna Nights was to create a fictional reality where Flandre could freely use her powers to avoid creating an "incident" in Gensokyo. However, they were unsuccessful, gaining Reimu's ire. The spiritual energy built up during the fight causes the universe to disintegrate, with Sakuya barely escaping in Nitori's mech.
Development and release
Touhou Luna Nights was launched through Early Access on Steam on August 20, 2018, and saw its full release on February 26, 2019.[3][10] In June 2019, the game was updated, featuring Reimu as the game's new final boss, a dash ability, a new weapon, a boss rush mode, and achievements.[6]
The game was released on Microsoft Store for the Xbox One and Windows 10 on September 3, 2020; this version features an additional boss battle against Touhou character Cirno.[11] In December 2020, Team Ladybug announced that the Cirno boss fight would be included in the original Steam version.[12] This update was released on January 18, 2021.[13]Touhou Luna Nights was made available on Xbox Game Pass for a limited time, starting from September 3, 2020.[14] It was removed on February 28, 2022.[15]
A Nintendo Switch port was announced in October 2020.[16] This version was published by Phoenixx, who also assisted with porting, on December 17, 2020.[17] On July 1, 2023, Nintendo Switch publishing duties were transferred back to Playism to streamline customer support.[18] Ports for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released on January 25, 2024 alongside physical editions.[19] In commemoration of Touhou Luna Nights' five-year anniversary, a physical, limited-time collector's edition packaged with exclusive items was made available on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 on July 11, 2025.[20]
Touhou Luna Nights garnered positive reception from critics and holds a near-perfect user-review score on Steam.[6]
Reviewers commended the game's movement mechanics, Sakuya's time manipulation ability being noted as a standout inclusion. Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 wrote that the "interplay" between time manipulation and Sakuya's knife-based combat made for engaging gameplay.[4] James Archer of Rock Paper Shotgun praised the overwhelming hostility of enemies—with hordes often surrounding the player—as offsetting the strength of time manipulation.[5]Famitsu staff lauded time manipulation as satisfying to use during combat and puzzle sections.[7] Dominic Tarason of Rock Paper Shotgun opined that time stasis is a simple mechanic that nevertheless forces players to think critically about their actions during fights.[6]Eurogamer's Pablo Casado perceived time stasis as complex and well-developed.[8] The graze ability was seen by 3DJuegos' Alberto Pastor as contributing to an overall unique experience.[22]Famitsu staff called grazing an "exquisite" maneuver that adds a layer of complexity to traditional combat tactics.[7]Jeuxvideo.com's Hyiga additionally wrote that grazing felt satisfying to master.[1]
Touhou Luna Nights' combat and difficulty was generally praised. James Archer felt Touhou Luna Nights' emphasis on fast-paced, aggressive fighting was both engaging and exhilarating.[5]Jeuxvideo.com's Hyiga gave positive remarks to the title's difficulty during exploration and boss battles, deeming it well-balanced throughout.[1] The boss' attack patterns, which are modeled after the bullet hell format of official Touhou games, were praised by Jessica Ramey of TheGamer and Dominic Tarison for taking full advantage of Sakuya's weapon arsenal and movement capabilities.[3][24] While Alberto Pastor favorably viewed the game's intense enemy encounters, he felt that the fighting could quickly become chaotic.[22] Reviewing the Switch port, IGN Japan's Fuminobu Hata praised Touhou Luna Nights for melding features from both Touhou Project and ordinary Metroidvanias, allowing for a successful reinvention of traditional Metroidvania elements, and suggested that the game should be used as a template for future titles in the genre.[21]
The game's art direction and soundtrack were praised. Hygia and Kurt Kalata responded positively to the pixel artwork and remixed music largely derived from the mainline Touhou game Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, calling the songs memorable and lively.[1][4] Alberto Pastor and Dominic Tarason further commended the detailed character and enemy sprite animations.[3][22]GamesRadar+ staff described the pixel art as "marvelously smooth".[25] While some reviewers felt that prior knowledge of the Touhou universe is not strictly necessary to enjoy the title,[3][8][25] Kurt Kalata wrote that the game does little to formally introduce its main characters, assuming players have a general familiarity with the source material.[4]
Touhou Luna Nights' short length was a point of criticism for some. Dominic Tarason felt the title's brevity was its only shortcoming, wishing that more content had been present.[6] Pablo Casado critiqued the map's linearity as lending itself to a trite and unrewarding backtracking system.[8] Hyiga saw its duration as disappointing given the game's price and opined that players may be left wanting; he additionally critiqued the shopping mechanic for being overly rudimentary.[1]
Sales and accolades
On February 28, 2019, 50,000 copies of the game were sold.[26] According to Team Ladybug, sales reached 100,000 copies after the game's final update was launched in June 2019.[26] Japanese website 4Gamer.net reported that the game had reached 150,000 copies worldwide by August 2020.[27][28] In April 2021, Team Ladybug announced that the game reached 250,000 copies sold across all platforms.[29][30] At IndiePlay 2019, Touhou Luna Nights won the "Best Overseas Game" award.[23]
Notes
↑Nintendo Switch version was published by Phoenixx until July 2023
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