Touhou Luna Nights is an action-adventure game, in which the player must navigate around a large mansion, killing enemies and maneuvering through platforming sections, and occasionally encountering puzzles and boss fights.

The player controls Sakuya Izayoi, whose main abilities, hailing from her Touhou appearances, consist of being able to stop time, and throw knives.

Gold can be spent on upgrades to Sakuya's abilities, giving her new weapons and moves, and improve her maximum HP and MP.

With the exception of Nitori and Akyuu, all of the characters in Touhou Luna Nights are either the protagonists of the series or are from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

[4][13] Reviewers praised the fluidity of the movement and gameplay mechanics, but noted that the game only took about six hours to beat, which would leave players wanting more.

[18] Jeuxvideo.com's Hyiga gave positive remarks to the time manipulation and grazing mechanics, well-balanced difficulty, boss fights, pixel artwork, fluid character animations, and remixed music from Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

[15] Nintendo Blast's Juliana Paiva Zapparoli reviewed the Nintendo Switch port and gave positive remarks to the game's fluid and intense gameplay due to the time manipulation and grazing mechanics, responsive controls, faithfulness to the original series, and audiovisual presentation, but criticized the lack of replay factor and additional content, in addition to the large map and unnecessary backtracking compared to the overall length.

[17] Also reviewing the Switch port, IGN Japan's Fuminobu Hata praised Touhou Luna Nights for implementing features from both Touhou Project and regular Metroidvanias, allowing for the removal of various elements typically seen in the genre, and suggested that the game should be used as a template for future Metroidvania games.