An adventurous spinoff of the Touhou Project franchise is heading toward the PlayStation family of consoles.
Touhou Luna Nights was originally released on Steam in 2018, but it’s only now heading to the Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The game is published by PLAYISM, which is adding it to the PS4/PS5 library in 2024. This includes a standard physical release (which contains the original soundtrack as a first-print bonus) and a limited edition that has a special box, the soundtrack, three replacement cover arts, and eight tin badges. Beforehand, Touhou Luna Nights was released for Xbox One and Windows 10 (via the Microsoft Store) in 2020, with this version adding another boss fight. Phoenixx initially handled the Nintendo Switch port of the game, though this role eventually reverted to PLAYSIM.
Touhou Luna Nights is a Metroidvania title (combining elements of Konami’s Castlevania horror games and Nintendo’s Metroid series) starring Sakuya Izayoi as its protagonist. A human maid who serves the Scarlet Devil, Remilia Scarlet, is sent to an alternate world that somewhat resembles Gensokyo (the setting of the Touhou Project games). Sakuya traverses a large mansion in a combination of platforming and action-based gameplay. Like others in the genre, Touhou Luna Nights combines these gameplay features with RPG elements, allowing Sakuya to level up and add to her stats as she defeats enemies. Some of these enemies are powerful bosses, all of which are fellow protagonists from the main Touhou games.
Touhou Luna Nights was developed by Team Ladybug, which previously worked on video games for other existing franchises. These included Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth — based on the Dungeons & Dragons-inspired Record of Lodoss War series — and Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue, which was a sort of prequel to one of Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei games.
The Touhou Project franchise began in 1995, starting out on the Japanese PC-9800 computer hardware. It eventually transitioned to Windows, with 19 main entries being developed by series creator Jun’ya “ZUN” Ōta. These games are “bullet hell” shoot ’em ups, which take the premise of classic arcade shooters such as Galaga and take them to excruciatingly difficult extremes. Instead of spaceships, the playable characters and enemies are magical girls, many of whom are magical “yokai” spirits. There are also “.5” entries in the main series that serve as spinoffs, with most of these being in the form of fighting games. Touhou Luna Nights is an example of the many unofficial fangames of the series, including Taito’s puzzle game Touhou Spell Bubble and Gensou SkyDrift, a racing game developed by creators involved with previous games in the Mario Kart series.
Touhou Luna Nights releases on PS4 and PS5 on January 25, 2024.
Source: YouTube, Anime News Network