Touhou Luna Nights

Touhou Luna Nights is a Metroidvania, in which the player must navigate around a large castle, killing enemies and maneuvering through platforming sections, and occasionally encountering puzzles and boss fights. The player controls Sakuya Izayoi, whose main abilities, owing to her Touhou origins, consist of being able to stop time, and throw knives.[1]

Usage of Sakuya's powers depletes the MP (magic) meter, which regenerates very slowly, and the HP (health) meter, which depletes upon being hit, does not regenerate at all. In order to get more, the player must find one of few vending machines scattered around the map, or graze enemy attacks – having enemy attacks reach the edge of Sakuya's hitbox will replenish MP and HP,[2] a gameplay concept from the official Touhou games. 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 combat abilities, giving her new weapons and moves, and improve her HP and MP reserves.[3]

Sakuya attacks various enemy spirits.

Sakuya Izayoi, the head maid of Gensokyo's Scarlet Devil Mansion, is sent to a parallel universe that superficially resembles Gensokyo, by her mistress, Remilia Scarlet.[4] Ostensibly, this is for Remilia's own amusement, but after Sakuya defeats Reimu, Flandre, who is forced to stay in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's basement to avoid creating an incident, complains to her sister that she is ignored and Sakuya gets all of her attention. Remilia explains that the reason she created this universe was actually so that Flandre could freely use her powers. After the fight, the spirit energy created by Reimu and Sakuya causes the universe to collapse, and everyone escapes in mechs created by Nitori Kawashiro.

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.[5]

The game was ported to the Xbox One on September 3 2019, and a Nintendo Switch port was announced in October 2020.[6] The Nintendo Switch version, which was published by Phoenixx,[7] released on December 17 2020.[8]

In December 2020, an update featuring Cirno as a boss fight was announced,[9] and was released on January 18 2021.[10]

In a review for Noisy Pixel, Jahanzeb Khan gave the game an 8.5/10, saying that "Touhou Luna Nights is one of those video game experiences that feels all so familiar but is executed so well that you can’t help but enjoy what it offers. Sure, every game should aspire to reinvent the wheel or try to emulate the best qualities of standard-bearers, but games like this simply recapture the magic and feel of genre classics."[11] Other reviewers praised the fluidity of the gameplay and movement mechanics,[12] but noted that the game only took about six hours to beat, which would leave players wanting more.[13]

On Steam, over 97% of users rated the game positively.[14] By June 2019, the game had reached a total of 100,000 downloads on Steam,[15] and 150,000 by August 2020.[16]

At IndiePlay 2019, Touhou Luna Nights won the "Best Overseas Game" award.[17]