The Touhou series's approach to fan-created works has always been fascinating. Being a part of the doujin scene himself, ZUN has always allowed pretty much anyone to make and sell whatever they wanted using the franchise's characters and world. Which is kind of unprecedented, especially in the case of video games. So not only do we have a ton of great official titles made by ZUN himself, but there's a treasure trove of unofficial Touhou games made by both indie teams and even more prolific developers like CAVE and Taito. But the crowning jewel of the Touhou fangame scene for me has always been Touhou Luna Nights, one of the coolest games I've ever played.
Touhou Luna Nights is a Touhou fangame by Team Ladybug, which have quickly carved out a niche for themselves making bombastic action metroidvanias with ridiculously smooth spritework, like Deedlit In Wonder Labyrinth and a limited release sequel to Jack Bros that I am unfortunately unable to play (I'm heartbroken about this, by the way). Luna Nights in particular is inspired heavily by Castlevania which isn't too out of the ordinary for Touhou. Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil is very blatantly inspired by the series, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that many fangames tried to fuse the two series. But what makes Luna Nights especially notable is how it adds its own Touhou-y twist to the Igavania formula.
Touhou Luna Nights is about Sakuya Izayoi, the maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, being sent to a replica of her mansion and forced to fight her way back home. The story is very much an excuse for Sakuya to fight other Touhou characters, but boy does it do a fantastic job at that. Sakuya is known for her ability to stop time and throw seemingly endless amounts of knives, and instead of nerfing such an overpowered moveset, Luna Nights goes all in on making her play as badass as she canonically is. It's a game that really makes you feel like Sakuya Izayoi. Seriously, her moveset in Luna Nights is incredible. As you'd expect, you can move, jump, and throw a ton of knives. You can also unlock a bunch of knife-related sub weapons like a chainsaw to further beef up your arsenal. But on top of that, you can also slow down and stop time, and this applies to everything in the game world including environmental objects, enemies, and even your own knives. So eventually, you discover that you can throw knives, stop time, and then jump across them which expands your platforming capabilities to an incredible degree.
Having an awesome moveset is one thing, but even better is the fact that Luna Nights manages to truly make the most out of it. The level and enemy design does a fantastic job of encouraging you to use both types of time powers, there's a whole bunch of memorable time-related puzzles, the later areas force you to do some very tight platforming across stopped knives, and most importantly, Luna Nights still manages to be incredibly tough. It's one of those games where everyone is just as powerful as you. The enemies are aggressive and numerous, and the (incredible) bosses have vast and tough bullet hell patterns to dodge, meaning you'll need to operate on a high level to get through the game. On top of that, your MP and time points are limited, but you can get them back by grazing, a mechanic taken from the Touhou series where you get points by going close to bullets. This gives Luna Nights an engaging resource management element that encourages you to take risks so you don't run out of knives or time. Learning and mastering the bosses is tough but incredibly satisfying, and the degree to which you can decimate enemies with enough practice gives Luna Nights a massive skill ceiling. Speedruns of this game are incredible.
Despite all these mechanical differences, though, Touhou Luna Nights still feels like a love letter to the Castlevania games and manages to capture a lot of the same kind of magic. Exploring the Scarlet Devil Mansion and filling out the map to completion is just as satisfying and engaging as it is in all the best Igavanias, with Luna Nights packing in a ton of dense and memorable rooms throughout its runtime. And the clock tower area absolutely lives up to the Castlevania standards, if not even surpasses them thanks to the abundance of fun time-based gear puzzles. Luna Nights is a bit on the short side even compared to its contemporaries, but it quickly made up for it with the addition of an extra stage, just like in the series it's based on. Luna Nights's extra stage is incredible. It's easily the largest and hardest area of the game, with beautiful scenery, tons of memorable and tough opponents, a secret boss fight with Cirno, and quite possibly the best boss fight in the game against none other than Reimu herself. If you're a fan of games where you get to fight the series' protagonist, well, Luna Nights has one of the best.
As I touched on a bit, Touhou Luna Nights also looks absolutely incredible. There's no going around it, this game has some of the lushest, smoothest, and most detailed spritework I've ever seen, hands down. There are no shortcuts taken here. Every single character and enemy boasts incredibly detailed animations, and the backgrounds are rich with detail and texture. And Sakuya herself is animated beautifully, her stoic and cool personality perfectly captured solely through her movements, which heightens that sense of feeling like a badass you get from playing as her. As for the music, I mean, it's a Touhou game. The soundtrack is entirely remixes of pre-existing Touhou tracks, mostly from EoSD, but they're all great remixes of great songs from a great soundtrack so I really can't complain. However, special props should absolutely go to the phenomenal remix of Reimu's theme, Maiden's Capriccio.
Touhou Luna Nights has recently garnered a reputation as one of the biggest gateway games to Touhou as a series, and I couldn't be happier. Luna Nights was my first Touhou game even before I could play the official games. It does a great job of showing you some of the best aspects of the franchise like the characters, visual style, and music, while also standing on its own as an incredibly inventive and polished platformer. Team Ladybug took on the challenge and built a game entirely around Sakuya's unique capabilities, and they knocked it out of the park. Touhou Luna Nights is a slick, badass, and aggressively cool little gem that I will always absolutely adore.
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