Touhou Luna Nights Review (Electric Soul)
Overall: B
Every once in a while, you’ll come across a title which is a capital-g Game—tight controls, satisfying core gameplay, and a killer soundtrack. Touhou Luna Nights knows exactly what it wants to be and plays the roll expertly. Loud, dumb, and fun.
The game plays like a standard metroidvania condensed to only the highlights. From start to finish, the game is only a few hours long unless you go for 100%. This spark-notes approach to games is fairly indicative of Team Ladybug’s design as seen in their other titles. While it won’t be able to keep your attention for more than a weekend, their laser-focused design always creates strong, evocative core gameplay.
Speaking of which, the game centers around Sakuya (I had to look up her name) who has the ability to alter the flow of time. A core combat ability is slowing or even stopping time entirely which is used both in and out of combat to great effect. Different environmental hazards respond to stopped time in a variety of ways which is used to make the exploration more interesting. Eventually being able to create your own platforms during stopped time both opens the game up for exploration and helps marry the combat and platforming beautifully.
As mentioned above the game has juice. Touhou’s music has long been a strong suit and the tracks help keep the energy high for the entire playthrough. Controls are responsive and the game encourages exciting, risky play through its glancing mechanic. Narrowly avoiding damage grants the player extra resources to use in combat meaning the most exciting way to play is often the optimal one.
The story isn’t amazing but it is largely unobtrusive. I’m sure it would be more interesting if I knew anything about the franchise more broadly. At the end of the day, this is a satisfying game—like a great burger. It is amazing in the moment and will leave you feeling satisfied for a while after. Yet, you’re probably not going to think about that really solid burger a week from now. There is nothing wrong with that. Not everything needs to create a paradigm shift, some things can be good for their own sake, and that’s more than enough for me.