i knew there was a strong chance this game wasn't for me, and I knew that going in.

While not the hardest game in the world, SMT III builds upon tedious gameplay and navigation. I personally do not seek out games for the challenge, and as someone who (admittedly and unabashedly) likes their hand being held a bit for game progression, i expected myself to feel at times annoyed towards this game.

With that said and done, i still beat the game (albiet grasping onto the hand of online guides) and still liked it! I enjoyed the games artistic direction and the profound narrative. I wouldn't seek out games like this in general, but as a Persona fan, it was a nice change of pace to see where the Persona franchise was built upon.

my first mainline SMT game - the desolate atmosphere makes playing this in 2021, a year in which I have often felt like I am living alone on my own barren planet, extremely difficult at times! the game's inciting incident taking place in an empty hospital is very fitting for the cold tone the rest of the experience evokes, which feels sometimes at odds with the world created by the Conception, described in dialogue as one of action where passionately believed philosophies compete with each other by necessity. I've often thought about dropping it and coming back to it later to play something with a brighter view of the world, but the game being so good at just about everything that it does makes it very hard to put down. The turn press system is absolute genius and is executed with the kind of precision that makes this hold up years later while many other JRPGs trying to emulate it have come and gone

the knowledge that the soundtrack exists somewhere else in the world in a form that's not total shit and it isn't included here drives me up the wall

This game is fucking insane. It absolutely beats the hell out of you any chance it gets, including some design choices that knocked me back on more than one occasion. The story is definitely gripping in ways I hadn't expected, and re-contextualizes a lot of demons that I recognize from the Persona series. Overall I can recommend it to anyone already previously familiar with Persona games.

From what I've seen, the HD version definitely beefs some things up from the original, but if you're a previous Nocturne fan, Demi-Fiend is no longer a smartass. Other than that pretty solid localization.

A lazy remaster of one of the hardest turn-based JRPGs around. So much so, the remaster added an easy mode to entice new players. The game forces you to think of strategies and team composition when tackling bosses. In some cases, you wouldn't even be able to grind past them due to certain mechanics. The game itself has the usual things of an SMT game with similar demon designs and an in-depth fusing mechanic. The extent of the remaster is simply to upscale it to fit modern TVs, other than that, the textures are pixelated and the cutscenes are still 4:3. The world and environment are bleak with not a lot to it, you're pretty much playing this game for its difficulty.

they say demons get locked in ramadan, i beat the shit out them in this game with my unga bunga fists

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHH

bruh fr wnna fuck a pixie

This is a very shitty remaster, the improved localisation is nice and the widescreen is as well, but there are many issues with it, such as frame drops and sprite flickering, the compressed music is fucking embarrassing. Also, paid DLC for a remaster? AND ITS FUCKING DAY DLC Atlus, please get your shit together. I only enjoyed it because of the quality of nocturne itself, this is still the definitive version of the game, but a very terrible remaster(also note to new fans, don't play on merciful nocturne isn't that hard)

This is one of those games where you must have the proper mindset to enjoy, as pretty much everything about it is arguably an acquired taste. In my case, I did alright through most areas, but I was NOT prepared for some difficulty spikes that came at me without any warning. The story takes a much more indirect method of telling the player what they must know, with relatively minimal dialogue compared to most JRPGs. The additional detail for the plotline is there, you just have to look for it and interact with NPCs in the very few towns there are. Gameplay was unexpectedly fun if you like dungeon crawlers, with sprawling and sometimes labyrinthian environments to systematically explore, complete with puzzles! Combat was manageable and nuanced with taking advantage of elemental weaknesses, and given that this is SMT, there's the necessary demon fusion. Art and OST are rough with this particular remaster. The OST is good but sounds like it is being played from a speaker on the other side of the room, muffled by a blanket. The demons look great with the art style, but you could totally tell this is an old game by looking at the character models. Lastly, THERE ARE ENOURMOUS DIFFICULTY SPIKES IN CERTAIN SPOTS, USE A GUIDE IF THEY PROVE TO BE TOO MUCH!!! I cannot stress this enough, going through a few bosses began to feel like Dark Souls, or RNG was not on my side 90% of the time. Still like this game though.

I'll start by stating that I've never played the original, but I can't imagine playing this one without the voice acting. While not always great, it was often quite enjoyable. Took the True Demon Ending, and while there were certainly some difficulty spikes the overall challenge felt good with the right amount of tension. The characters were pretty thin, which was a shame considering the overall story had more depth. The art style is incredible, and probably the biggest selling point of this game outside of the combat, and it suits the atmosphere of the game well. Punching everything to death was super fun, and the combat as a whole was enjoyable. Easily recommended.

i found this game for like 14 bucks at my work and since it had been recommended to me by a friend a while ago, i decided to pick it up and finally give it a shot. i was then sucked into a rabbit hole that culminated in me getting into the SMT series as a whole and playing this game for 115 hours on my first playthrough. oops

SMT:N is probably one of the best rpgs ive ever played. of course, the story is phenomenal and is a heart wrenching tale of friends turning against each other in the wake of a colossal disaster, and the struggles of those at the bottom of the food chain vs the people who are at the top because they were just born that way. but also, nocturne has probably the most interesting system mechanics out of any rpg ive ever played. in a genre where it feels like a lot of the gameplay is just window dressing for a story, nocturne really hits it out of the park with its magatamas and press turn system, letting you customize your character to be literally anything you want, and letting you play off of your game knowledge to sweep the enemy team if you know what you're doing. the game also looks phenomenal for a 2003 PS2 game. (i did play a portion of the ps2 version to confirm this, but my main playthrough was done on the switch version, which suffered from some pretty bad frame drops at times)

of course, the thing SMT is known for (besides its younger brother, persona) is the demon summoning and negotiation, and nocturne does... an alright job with this. it gets the job done, but it feels somewhat frustrating even if you know what you're doing, and monsters can just deny you because they feel like it. there's also not THAT much interesting dialog to make up for this, and by about halfway through the game i just gave up on negotiations all together and resorted to the compendium and fusion to get all the demons i wanted. SMT3 also suffers from "i'm a 20 year old JRPG" syndrome and doesn't make it super clear where to go sometimes. i found myself wandering around feeling very lost sometimes, especially near the beginning of the game. the game is also famously REALLY fucking brutal. i recall at one point near the beginning, i spent an entire day of playing just grinding to be able to beat Matador, and that shit sucked. i ended up shelling out a couple bucks to get the shitty grinding DLC, which is really dumb, but i was struggling so much and i just wanted to start having fun again. that being said, i do eventually want to do a playthrough of hard mode (without using the DLC areas, of course) and i can respect the game's difficulty. the press turn system does somewhat make up for that as well, since if you know what you're doing you can totally sweep an enemy just by using the right combo of moves. still doesn't make up for puzzle boy though, i spent like 3 hours on that shit and then i gave up and use a guide. i admit it, im weak

one last point before we move to the conclusion, this game's soundtrack fucking owns. if you haven't listened to it, please, i beg you, do yourself a favor and listen to the whole thing. that shit rocks, my favorite tracks are mystery, ikebukuro, pretty much all the battle themes, the kalpa music, and puzzle boy. such a good blend of aggressive rock with synthesized voices and ominous, droning synths that really just resonates with me

alright, now for the conclusion. nocturne is a phenomenal game that i cannot recommend enough. but is the MSRP of 50 fucking dollars worth seeing the game in widescreen and a larger resolution with full voice acting and a couple other things? iiiii dunno man. i got my copy preowned for a steal, so i would say 15 dollars was no doubt worth it for me, but the full price is kind of a ripoff, especially considering the ps2 version was like 10 bucks on the ps3 as a ps2 classic. phenomenal game with a couple of minor issues, if you plan on getting the HD remaster, wait for it to go on sale or try to find it pre owned at a gamestop or something.

Nocturne is Shin Megami Tensei distilled and evolved. It strips the series' mythology down to its bare essentials, giving you a barren world and a distant echo of a story to hold onto as you try to figure out your demi-fiend's place in this game's interstitial world. This sort of arms-length approach to storytelling usually doesn't do all that much for me, see my opinions on Dark Souls for that, but here it felt really purposeful. Here is an event that turns all participants into potential kings, of course human nature would push the few humans apart so they can try and achieve that power.

As a sort of inverse to the simplicity of Nocturne's aesthetic and story, the gameplay has been deepened significantly from the previous installments. Magatama now acts as both a replacement for equipment and a sort of Final Fantasy V-esque job system. The press-turn system is introduced here and it turns the challenging-but-flawed battle system of games past into a locked-tight, competitive-feeling system that makes every boss encounter feel like a genuine triumph. I could sit here for days trying to explain just how amazing this system is, and how its steadfast set of rules perfectly make the game easy to understand and soul-crushing when you slip up. It's brilliant stuff.

I spent like 70 hours on this thing over like two and a half weeks and I'm feeling a sort of withdrawal from it days after. It's an utterly fascinating and exciting experience and I'm so excited to explore the rest of the series to see where it's gone from this crystallized gem of a game.

Note: I did play this for the first time on the HD remaster, and yes it has some pretty big flaws that your mileage will surely vary on. Personally, I didn't care that much about the frame drops or whatever but I did find the compressed music and DLC situation a huge bummer. The portability on switch and skill inheritances for demons pushed this version over the edge for me though, so that's why I'm here and not on the PS2 page. My score reflects my feeling on the game itself though and not the port. I do hope Atlus has learned something from this port and tries to do better on (hopefully) more ports in the future.