Lunadra Review: The $4.99 Switch Roguelite That Wants You Dead 

Come with me on a journey, a journey to awaken a Legendary Dragon. A journey upon which I couldn’t pass the first level. Clearly built for mad men, Lunadra has a difficulty curve at the very start. From a very quick jump in enemy health and damage, to making the Soul Spheres needed to level up a drop you have to collect mid-game, let me take you on a Journey.

Lunadra, an interesting beginning.

Lunadra, Luna awakens the Legendary Dragon, which i shall henceforth shorten to Lunadra, is a bullet heaven that kind of gives of Maple Story Vibes, if Maple Story decided it didn’t like you, and wanted you dead every 3 minutes. As mentioned in the intro, I frankly never cleared the first level. The majority of the following screenshots come from the devs themselves, and not my playing. Yes, you read that right, dear reader. I, known Gaming Master, simply couldn’t hack it in Lunadra, but I have theories as to why.

The nitty gritty of playing Lunadra

In Lunadra, you begin with access to two characters: Luna, a black lollipop-loving cat, and the cleverly named Parrot, who is a parrot that carries a hammer. Hold your applause till the end please, thank you. You also very quickly unlock access to several other characters, such as Hawkwood, a legally distinct Aragorn, the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who fires comical carrots from a self-reloading crossbow, and a lizard who is also a knight. I didn’t get to use the lizard. Lunadra possesses 2-player couch co-op, but I didn’t particularly use it, probably the real reason I didn’t get far.

What I tell myself to sleep at night, though, beloved reader, is that the devs hate new players and me. To start, the game ramps enemy difficulty incredibly quickly, and whilst it does feature a system of tech trees, the Soul Spheres needed to buy these stat upgrades are dropped in missions as collectible items. If you don’t get it due to enemy density or simply being killed very quickly by a large floating fish, one of the enemy types, then you don’t get to increase your stats. It takes ten spheres to buy one stat upgrade, for reference. When enemy difficulty steps up, they don’t just deal more damage; they also become bullet sponges.

Where Monster Rush Survivors gave you an occasional get out of jail free card in its unique dash ability, Lunadra has no such thing. You are required to rely on your wits and whatever weapons and items you can get per level up. With only seven slots available, one of which starts filled with your starting weapon, you are required to know what type of items fit your chosen character’s stats the best, and hope they come up. The devs made a big deal of their unique size mechanic, “Grow giant and challenge Legendary Monsters.” Getting big is the last thing you want to do.

Lunadra lets you change your size

In Lunadra, you charge up a special skill during combat: the ability to change your size. You can become bigger, doubling your hit box size and your raw damage numbers, or smaller. Smaller is by far the better choice, because it reduces your hit box by 50%, doubles your speed, and doubles the speed of your attacks, which greatly increases your DPS. Changing your size also grants zero immunity from damage, so be prepared to die very quickly if you grow right in the midst of a horde of enemies.

The only character who actually interacts with the system in a unique manner is Vargas, the Komodo Knight. He gets a 1% boost in damage. To quote Vtuber Shylily, “Womp womp”. Kind of underwhelming if you ask me.

Overall, the game has a decent Maple Story-like aesthetic, to me anyway. Combine that with a high difficulty curve and incredible enemy density, which make it hard to collect monster parts and soul spheres for leveling up, and I give Lunadra a solid 5/10. Released on July 1st, 2026, for a small sum of $4.99, it only exists on Nintendo Platforms right now, but it’s coming to Steam as well. Good for fans of the genre, not for newbs.

With Total Apex Entertainment, this is Aj Day, signing off. Be sure to follow all my socials for more Gaming and Entertainment news. https://beacons.ai/ajday