Sakuya Izayoi (Luna Nights)
Sakuya Izayoi as she appears in Touhou Luna Nights. She fights with her arsenal of magic weapons and the ability to temporarily stop time.
Sakuya plays differently from most platform fighter characters thanks to her mobile knife throwing abilities. Jab, Ftilt, Utilt, dash attack, Nair, Fair, Bair, Dair, and Uair all throw knives and can be done without stopping her momentum, even when moving on the ground. This allows her to approach on the ground while throwing knives, or to retreat backwards while throwing knives forward at her opponents.
Sakuya also maintains her Luna Nights ability to hover. If you hold the jump button when you start falling, Sakuya will slow her fall speed, and you can slow it further by using her Dair to throw knives diagonally downward. Be careful, though – she won’t be able to hover until she touches the ground again after she gets hit, so don’t try to use it to get back from a near-K.O.!
Aside from her Dtilt and Uspecial, all of Sakuya’s moves cost MP. MP naturally refills over time, or it can be restored through grazing or summoning Nitori for a pick-me-up. If you get close enough to an opponent’s hurtbox or any non-friendly hitbox, you’ll receive a Graze bonus of 10MP. If you parry an attack, you’ll receive a graze bonus of 20MP. If you can pull off the full duration of Sakuya’s taunt, she’ll summon Nitori, who will drop a vending machine that she can use to completely refill her MP, as long as it doesn’t get destroyed by an opponent first. Generally, the stronger the move, the more MP it costs. If she runs low on MP, her attack options will become severely limited, so be careful!
Sakuya’s Fstrong, Thousand Knives, throws more knives the more it’s charged, but the final set of knives always carries the majority of the move’s knockback. If you press Dodge during Thousand Knives, the attack will stop, but Sakuya will be frozen in place for a moment, and you won’t be refunded any of the MP.
Sakuya’s Ustrong, Chainsaw, has a hitbox on it while it’s charging, making it very powerful. When Chainsaw hits a player, it deals several hits of damage to them before exploding and dealing knockback. Charging Ustrong doesn’t change the trajectory of Chainsaw, but it does increase the power of the final explosion.
Sakuya’s Nspecial, Auto Aim, is activated by pressing and holding Nspecial. Then, for as long as Sakuya doesn’t get hit or make any other attacks, auto-aimed knives will shoot at the nearest opponent at a regular interval. Sakuya can move freely while channeling Auto Aim without canceling it.
Sakuya’s Dspecial, Time Stop, allows her to briefly freeze her opponents in time for a heavy MP cost. During Time Stop, her MP will passively drain, and taking any action will cause it to drain even faster. Sakuya can move and attack during Time Stop, and any knockback done to opponents will be applied when Time Stop ends. The maximum amount of knockback an opponent can receive during Time Stop is limited by their current amount of damage, so don’t waste MP using Time Stop on a low-damage opponent! Time Stop can be cancelled early by pressing Dspecial again.
Graphics and audio belong to Team Ladybug, Vaka Game Magazine, Why So Serious?, and PLAYISM. This is a non-profit fan work and is not associated with the original game’s developers or publishers.
Cover and win screen art source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/54531377 . Artist’s Pixiv bio lists permission for use for non-commercial projects.
