A combination of bullet-hell and metroidvania, TouHou Luna Nights is a fast-paced thrill ride with bangin tunes and challenging bossfights, all wrapped up into a nice, concise 5-6 hours of total playtime.
Whereas I'm not very keen on pixel-art indie titles (especially those with an anime theme), this one broke the mold by having a really slick and fluid animation style that made the game fun to look at.
The story wasn't amazing by any stretch, but it was at least intriguing, and the dialogue was quite charming. The focus obviously lies on the gameplay, which was handled very well.
Like a classic metroivania, you start off with little abilities aside from basic movement, a jump, and your basic attack (throwing daggers). As you explore and progress throughout the map, you find more abilites that allow you to progress even further and become more powerful.
Combat is tight and precise, and the integration of time stop/slow mechanics in combination with both the combat and the platforming made overcoming obstacles really rewarding. Regaining MP, HP, and Time was fun too as it involved needing to "graze" incoming attacks (narrowly dodge).
Some gripes include the inability to look up/down, making some platforming challenges a bit of a gamble if you weren't already familiar with them. This game also includes enemies who can move and attack through walls, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when they aren't ghosts or something that makes sense, and they just don't have hitboxes that collide with walls. In my opinion, those kinds of enemies are just artificial difficulty and lazy enemy design. Additionally, I felt the difficulty of some rooms was cheap and lazy as well, being packed with enemies who target you directly alongside little fireballs that can dodge your attacks, so that by the time you get through a certain room, it feels like luck more than skill.
All of this considered, this would've been a 3-star were it not for the awesome bossfights. Those weren't lazy at all, and were super fun to fight, especially once you got into the rhythm.
Overall, a fun little game that you can probably beat in a weekend if you're a seasoned gamer with experience in either bullet-hell or metroidvanias, or just titles that are known to be difficult. This game would be hard to get into for a newcomer, as the entry bar is pretty high in terms of difficulty.
I recommend.
Whereas I'm not very keen on pixel-art indie titles (especially those with an anime theme), this one broke the mold by having a really slick and fluid animation style that made the game fun to look at.
The story wasn't amazing by any stretch, but it was at least intriguing, and the dialogue was quite charming. The focus obviously lies on the gameplay, which was handled very well.
Like a classic metroivania, you start off with little abilities aside from basic movement, a jump, and your basic attack (throwing daggers). As you explore and progress throughout the map, you find more abilites that allow you to progress even further and become more powerful.
Combat is tight and precise, and the integration of time stop/slow mechanics in combination with both the combat and the platforming made overcoming obstacles really rewarding. Regaining MP, HP, and Time was fun too as it involved needing to "graze" incoming attacks (narrowly dodge).
Some gripes include the inability to look up/down, making some platforming challenges a bit of a gamble if you weren't already familiar with them. This game also includes enemies who can move and attack through walls, which is a pet peeve of mine, especially when they aren't ghosts or something that makes sense, and they just don't have hitboxes that collide with walls. In my opinion, those kinds of enemies are just artificial difficulty and lazy enemy design. Additionally, I felt the difficulty of some rooms was cheap and lazy as well, being packed with enemies who target you directly alongside little fireballs that can dodge your attacks, so that by the time you get through a certain room, it feels like luck more than skill.
All of this considered, this would've been a 3-star were it not for the awesome bossfights. Those weren't lazy at all, and were super fun to fight, especially once you got into the rhythm.
Overall, a fun little game that you can probably beat in a weekend if you're a seasoned gamer with experience in either bullet-hell or metroidvanias, or just titles that are known to be difficult. This game would be hard to get into for a newcomer, as the entry bar is pretty high in terms of difficulty.
I recommend.