The Touhou franchise is a long-runner in the realm of gaming, sprouting from it's danmaku origins to cover a smorgasbord of genres so wide that if you can think of it, there's probably a Touhou version of it already. Team Ladybug has decided to throw their hat into the ring with Touhou Luna Nights, a 2D Metroidvania spinoff entry about time-stopping maid Sakuya exploring an other-worldly mansion.

In most games, the ability to manipulate time is usually reserved for either an exceptionally powerful character or an expensive late-game skill of some kind due to it's inherently overpowered nature, but in Luna Nights, the power to stop time is not only a core tenet of both combat and puzzle-solving, it's a borderline necessity for you to stand a chance against your opponents. Smart use of your limited time stop gauge is vital to your survival against the tougher foes you'll encounter in the mansion, and the ways the time stop mechanic is toyed with for use in both environmental puzzle solving and combat is nothing short of genius. It's an incredibly solid central mechanic where all the pieces for it fall right into place with nothing feeling 'off' or unnecessary.

The shift from danmaku to 2D metroidvania is a hard one to make while still keeping the charm of the original gameplay, but Team Ladybug managed to do it by carrying over one of Touhou's central mechanics: Grazing. By narrowly avoiding contact with enemies and projectiles (AKA, 'grazing' them), you will recover Health and Magic, and in a game like Luna Nights, where recovery items are hard to come by and Sakuya can barely take a hit, you're gonna have to learn to take full advantage of it. It encourages a do or die mentality and a playstyle all about living on the edge to survive, and it makes the moments of near-death all the more exhilarating when you manage to narrowly avoid a bullet and gain enough MP to deliver the killing blow in a grueling boss fight.

Overall, Luna Nights is the perfect bite-sized package: Its relatively short length, beautiful sprite work, phenomenal soundtrack, challenging difficulty and strong gameplay mechanics make it a worthwhile play for both veterans of the genre and newcomers looking to cut their teeth on a great entry point.

A short metroidvania based on the Touhou Project (no prior knowledge required) with tight controls, phenomenal remixes of iconic series songs, and Team Ladybug's signature pixel-art style that might be the best in the business. Luna Nights' central mechanic, Sakuya's time stop ability, gets thoroughly explored while you're exploring the Scarlet Devil Mansion's many puzzle-platforming and combat rooms, where you'll challenge some really great boss fights, and maybe recycle some aluminum cans along the way.

A very fun and very short metroidvania, the levels movement and progression are all great, the secrets are a bit lackluster though, 99% of them are just you randomly throwing knives at the walls.
The bosses are very fun and the main appeal of the game, the only problem is that they are very easy unless you challenge yourself to beat them without using the main mechanics of the game. The bosses would be way better if instead of being damage sponges that force you to use broken spells, they used the time stop in creative ways, there's only 1 attack in the game that actually requires time stop to dodge, and only a handful of very easy to dodge attacks made to counter time stop.

I have a lot to praise about this game but the only complaint I have is that after getting the 1000 knives ability all other abilities for the most part are more of a hindrance in boss fights, so it's a bit of a shame there's not more variety to your strategy in fights. Despite this, it wasn't enough to stop me from enjoying the challenging bosses and the boss rush mode you unlock after getting the true ending makes up for that and makes it fun to go back fighting the bosses at your full power as fast as possible.