Lanota

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

.

Review:

Lanota is a touchscreen-only Music-Rhythm game originally released to smartphones in 2016 and ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2018 by Flyhigh Works, who were also responsible for publishing Voez, Deemo, and Cytus α on the Switch. If you’ve followed my music-rhythm reviews for any length of time, you should know that this in itself is plenty reason for me to get excited, as all three of those games are absolutely phenomenal must-have music-rhythm games, so clearly Flyhigh Works knows what it’s doing when it comes to the genre on the Switch.

Much as with those titles, the presentation here puts the focus primarily on the music and the gameplay, accented by some lovely hand-drawn artwork in the menus and backgrounds. It’s more of an accent than anything, though – no one’s going to be playing this game for its visuals. On that note, this game also has a confusing, somewhat poorly-localized fantasy story players will also likely want to skip – this game is all about the music and the gameplay, and these things are just garnishes on the side of that.

Much like Voez, Deemo, and Cytus α, this game comes with a healthy number of songs (over 70), in a variety of genres ranging from J-Pop to techno to orchestral works. In Lanota, these songs are unlocked over the course of the game, but generally in generous enough quantities that you’re not left struggling to find something you like. The music here is all pretty fantastic, and as long as you don’t have a problem with non-English-language music, you’re sure to find plenty of music to suit your tastes.

However, where those other games were generally better played in handheld mode, Lanota dispenses with the pretenses altogether and outright demands it: this is a game that must be played using the touchscreen, period. Preferably with the Switch resting on a flat surface so both your hands are free. However, once you try the gameplay, it becomes clear why this is.

The screen has a large circle that moves notes out to the player that need to be hit, much as with something like Guitar Hero, and similar to Voez and Deemo. However, freeing the game from a controller means that the gameplay can make things more interesting. See, the circle doesn’t just sit there stationary. It moves around, it grows and shrinks, and it rotates. What’s more, even inside the circle, the game’s designers were tricky about the note placement – players need to use both hands to hit notes, but the way they’re laid out and the way they shift around often leads to the game gradually pulling one hand to the other side of the screen, which makes it tricky when suddenly your right hand is all the way on the left, and then more notes start appearing to the right of it. Do you swap hands? Do you just cross your hands over until you get to a good place to swap them? This sort of fiendish use of the touchscreen is clever in a way that really made me smile.

However, while I’d say this clever design is the game’s best feature, it is also occasionally the worst. In at least a few songs, the circle suddenly shifted just as I was about to hit a note, as if the game’s designers were pulling a prank on the player. At times like these, the game’s design felt like it had crossed the line from clever and devious to outright unfair and frustrating.

However, while the handheld-only gameplay and occasional moments of unfair design make Lanota not quite as spectacular as the other Flyhigh Works Nintendo Switch Music-Rhythm games, make no mistake that this is still an absolutely top-notch Music-Rhythm game that’s well worth playing on the Switch. The tricky gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s still refreshingly original and loads of fun, and fans of the genre should absolutely snag this game… well, after they get Voez, Deemo, and Cytus α, that is.

tl;dr – Lanota is a touchscreen-only Music-Rhythm game that has players tapping out notes as they come towards the screen from within a large circle that dances around the screen. The music here is excellent, and the gameplay is fun and inventive, though occasionally it crosses over from “devious” to “okay, that was just plain unfair”. Still though, this is a must-have game for fans of music-rhythm games who play their Switch in portable mode.

Grade: B+

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}