LUNA The Shadow Dust is a stunning game to look at. The beautiful hand drawn art evokes the feeling you’re peering into a storybook. How the game is set up – having you complete a series of one-screen puzzles – …
LUNA The Shadow Dust is a stunning game to look at. The beautiful hand drawn art evokes the feeling you’re peering into a storybook.
How the game is set up – having you complete a series of one-screen puzzles – only further cements that similarity.
You play as Uri, who has to solve the problems posed on each screen via the help of her strange dog-like companion Layh.
Both characters have their own abilities – Uri can flip switches for instance, and Layh can interact with certain items that Uri cannot.
The whole game sees you climbing a mysterious tower, and there’s actually very little plot. You simply have the rooms to solve, with – refreshingly – no dialogue to get in the way.
So it hurts to say this, but despite this promising set up LUNA is a game that is definitely missing a certain something.
The puzzles by and large are simple, but certainly not easy to solve. Yet a fair few are dragged out simply due to the slow speed of the characters, and others are just a chore to solve – with much back and forth switch flipping.
There’s also the fact that despite the impressive presentation there feels like there was a missed opportunity when it came to the overarching plot.
The mysteries of the tower you’re climbing are never revealed in a particularly satisfying way – and considering the puzzles could have been designed around helping to remedy this issue it makes LUNA a strangely hollow experience at times.
There are minor issues with the Switch port and the controls – this is a title best suited to a mouse and keyboard – but ultimately LUNA is a solid fit for the console and there are no performance issues.
LUNA is far from a failure of course, and is certainly worth checking out for fans of slower paced puzzlers – its beautiful presentation should help attract a good helping of casual problem solvers too, even if the experience might leave them feeling a little empty in the end.
