heres to hoping they fix this but this is definitely not worth 60 dollars lmao. its a pretty lazy port with some very miniscule QoL enhancements and voice acting. you're better off just playing the ps2 version.
lol atlus
I've played and beaten the original nocturne before and I just beat Nocturne HD. while Nocturne is an amazing game this is just a genuine meh remaster
the game is a 5/5 for me but I'm putting it like this due to the remaster, the remaster also has poor performance issues even when it's locked at 30 frames per second. also you can't even play in true 4k on the pc version of the game, the best part though is that they changed skill inheritance so it's like IV and IV Apocalypse. it IS the best version of the game but I expected more for $50
the game is a 5/5 for me but I'm putting it like this due to the remaster, the remaster also has poor performance issues even when it's locked at 30 frames per second. also you can't even play in true 4k on the pc version of the game, the best part though is that they changed skill inheritance so it's like IV and IV Apocalypse. it IS the best version of the game but I expected more for $50
Rating is based on the port specifically. I'd only recommend this if this really is your only way to play the game any time soon. Just really bizarre seeing this in juxtaposition to Persona 4 Golden being $20.
Nocturne is one of the best JRPGs out there, and I don't think this remaster quite does it justice. It looks pretty good, adds voice acting, and has some cool QoL stuff like demon fusing being less annoying. However, it also runs kinda choppy, and has a lot of little quirks that make it feel like a rushed job. I don't think this is a bad way to play the game, but I also wouldn't recommend buying it for full price.
sure, it has its fair share of issues with slowdown (at least on switch), but when you get right down to it it's a port of one of the best RPGs of all time with its one huge flaw (the skill inheritance) completely fixed. this game's absolutely worth getting even if you've played nocturne before
As someone who had recently gotten into Atlus games with Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Persona, I had been wanting to try an SMT game for a while, so getting one of the most regarded titles ported onto modern consoles was a huge incentive to finally dive into the series.
The port itself..... well it has a few big issues. For an "HD Remaster" to have music sound like it's coming out of a GBA speaker is awful. The music was so good, I loved the battle themes but my gosh the quality was garbage. Then there's the FMV cutscenes playing in 4:3 and looking super pixelated and the slowdown when there's particle effects on screen (though I've learned that's due to the PS2 generation way of rendering these particles being difficult to emulate on newer hardware) The last awful thing with the port is it having DLC. This is a rerelease of a PS2 game, how is there DLC for it at launch? Surely you would want to combine everything into one package for people to experience without an extra cost?
Ok, gripes about the port out of the way, I will say I thoroughly enjoyed my first true mainline SMT experience. While I can see how the Persona series spun off from it, I really appreciated the tone, atmosphere and greater focus on the actual demons of this game. Seeing demons like Thor and Loki play roles in the story was a nice touch and allowed me to form a greater appreciation of these demons.
It was also cool exploring the world after it was essentially ended and in the middle of being reborn. With the focus of the story being on finding your own Reason to rebuild the world in, it is super interesting seeing the characters you met at the start of the game follow their own path and ideals and slowly lose their humanity as they adapt this demon world. There are six different possible endings and I ended up with the Freedom ending which was enjoyable. It offers some good replay value but with it being a JRPG, I'm in no rush to go back and earn all six endings anytime soon.
The battle system was excellent too, with you being able to earn extra turns with critical hits and weakness hits while also losing turns for missing hits or having attacks reflected back. Add in using half a turn for passing to another party member and it offers a good amount of risk/reward as well as strategy.
Your party members are all demons you've recruited and fused during your journey so that is also a nice way to help familiarise yourself with them.
The other focus in this game compared to other Atlus titles I've played are the dungeons. The layouts are really old school, like you can tell that they were bring the first person layouts of older titles into a 3D environment with how corridory they are but I definitely prefer being able to see them from a third person perspective. They're well designed, full of traps and puzzles to make your way through and I had a good time getting through them despite getting lost on numerous occasions!
So despite the port issues that really shouldn't have been there for the most part, I can really see why this is held up as cult classic by many people. The atmosphere of the game is unlike anything else I've played and I loved my time in the world of Nocturne
The port itself..... well it has a few big issues. For an "HD Remaster" to have music sound like it's coming out of a GBA speaker is awful. The music was so good, I loved the battle themes but my gosh the quality was garbage. Then there's the FMV cutscenes playing in 4:3 and looking super pixelated and the slowdown when there's particle effects on screen (though I've learned that's due to the PS2 generation way of rendering these particles being difficult to emulate on newer hardware) The last awful thing with the port is it having DLC. This is a rerelease of a PS2 game, how is there DLC for it at launch? Surely you would want to combine everything into one package for people to experience without an extra cost?
Ok, gripes about the port out of the way, I will say I thoroughly enjoyed my first true mainline SMT experience. While I can see how the Persona series spun off from it, I really appreciated the tone, atmosphere and greater focus on the actual demons of this game. Seeing demons like Thor and Loki play roles in the story was a nice touch and allowed me to form a greater appreciation of these demons.
It was also cool exploring the world after it was essentially ended and in the middle of being reborn. With the focus of the story being on finding your own Reason to rebuild the world in, it is super interesting seeing the characters you met at the start of the game follow their own path and ideals and slowly lose their humanity as they adapt this demon world. There are six different possible endings and I ended up with the Freedom ending which was enjoyable. It offers some good replay value but with it being a JRPG, I'm in no rush to go back and earn all six endings anytime soon.
The battle system was excellent too, with you being able to earn extra turns with critical hits and weakness hits while also losing turns for missing hits or having attacks reflected back. Add in using half a turn for passing to another party member and it offers a good amount of risk/reward as well as strategy.
Your party members are all demons you've recruited and fused during your journey so that is also a nice way to help familiarise yourself with them.
The other focus in this game compared to other Atlus titles I've played are the dungeons. The layouts are really old school, like you can tell that they were bring the first person layouts of older titles into a 3D environment with how corridory they are but I definitely prefer being able to see them from a third person perspective. They're well designed, full of traps and puzzles to make your way through and I had a good time getting through them despite getting lost on numerous occasions!
So despite the port issues that really shouldn't have been there for the most part, I can really see why this is held up as cult classic by many people. The atmosphere of the game is unlike anything else I've played and I loved my time in the world of Nocturne
Rejecting God NOW IN HD
Not worth $50-$70.
Megaten's best repackaged for a new generation
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. It's a game I always think about and something I always bring up in conversation when I talk about what games people should play in my personal experiences. What the game lacks in story manages to excel in everything else: The world, the soundtrack, the gameplay, a game you really can't lose focus on unless you want to be punished on (at least on Hard mode). I completely understand that the initial price and what it adds and the disappointment from the longtime fans when they realized this remaster was looking more like a "port" compared to other JRPGs remasters like FFX and FFXII to the complete remakes like Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition which costs just as much or less than this version of the game at the moment. Nonetheless despite all that and the little it adds in the grand scope of things, it's Nocturne with voice acting and skill inheritance with the only caveat being Dante is replaced unless you got a DLC.
Gonna start by saying the voice acting here in the remaster is actually solid, there are some really "off" moments with I think one of the main characters not sounding appropriate for the character itself. It shines the most with the most imposing demons and bosses where you can actually feel the "power" of the demon speaking especially in the final boss and the "extra" boss after. Skill inheritance makes things a lot more convenient in terms of fusion and being able to make the demons the way you want them to the point I probably won't return to the PS2 version of Nocturne for this reason alone.
Sadly though this remaster isn't perfect or doesn't do enough to have "remaster" in the title, the game gets an upscale and widescreen support but sometimes the game uses some dynamic resolution during attacks in battles and makes things blurry albeit keeps the game smooth which is important. The game doesn't really add anything here thus being the same game content-wise to the Chronicles version at default which has Raidou and TDE which I'm alright with but it's also disappointing Dante has been relegated to DLC considering it's especially in the version the west was introduced to. The compressed music from the PS2 is still here despite the original reason the PS2 version was compressed to begin with was because of memory issues which shouldn't be a problem with modern consoles. The small nitpicks here are that sometimes when you interact with an item/person, you get a black screen for like less than second and it only got a bit annoying at most and the game only had a few slowdowns during scenes and a certain part of a dungeon but the impact is small since it only lasted a couple of seconds at most.
After 55 hours of playing the Switch version completely in portable mode, I can say the game has never crashed on me once and I was sorta expecting one at some point but it never came. For what the remaster flounders for me which isn't that much, the additions of voice acting and skill inheritance made it worth it in the end. I can say it's the better version of Nocturne but get it when it lowers in price or get it via other means if you want. Despite it all, it's still Nocturne in the end of the day and it's still one of the best JRPGs in the medium of video games.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. It's a game I always think about and something I always bring up in conversation when I talk about what games people should play in my personal experiences. What the game lacks in story manages to excel in everything else: The world, the soundtrack, the gameplay, a game you really can't lose focus on unless you want to be punished on (at least on Hard mode). I completely understand that the initial price and what it adds and the disappointment from the longtime fans when they realized this remaster was looking more like a "port" compared to other JRPGs remasters like FFX and FFXII to the complete remakes like Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition which costs just as much or less than this version of the game at the moment. Nonetheless despite all that and the little it adds in the grand scope of things, it's Nocturne with voice acting and skill inheritance with the only caveat being Dante is replaced unless you got a DLC.
Gonna start by saying the voice acting here in the remaster is actually solid, there are some really "off" moments with I think one of the main characters not sounding appropriate for the character itself. It shines the most with the most imposing demons and bosses where you can actually feel the "power" of the demon speaking especially in the final boss and the "extra" boss after. Skill inheritance makes things a lot more convenient in terms of fusion and being able to make the demons the way you want them to the point I probably won't return to the PS2 version of Nocturne for this reason alone.
Sadly though this remaster isn't perfect or doesn't do enough to have "remaster" in the title, the game gets an upscale and widescreen support but sometimes the game uses some dynamic resolution during attacks in battles and makes things blurry albeit keeps the game smooth which is important. The game doesn't really add anything here thus being the same game content-wise to the Chronicles version at default which has Raidou and TDE which I'm alright with but it's also disappointing Dante has been relegated to DLC considering it's especially in the version the west was introduced to. The compressed music from the PS2 is still here despite the original reason the PS2 version was compressed to begin with was because of memory issues which shouldn't be a problem with modern consoles. The small nitpicks here are that sometimes when you interact with an item/person, you get a black screen for like less than second and it only got a bit annoying at most and the game only had a few slowdowns during scenes and a certain part of a dungeon but the impact is small since it only lasted a couple of seconds at most.
After 55 hours of playing the Switch version completely in portable mode, I can say the game has never crashed on me once and I was sorta expecting one at some point but it never came. For what the remaster flounders for me which isn't that much, the additions of voice acting and skill inheritance made it worth it in the end. I can say it's the better version of Nocturne but get it when it lowers in price or get it via other means if you want. Despite it all, it's still Nocturne in the end of the day and it's still one of the best JRPGs in the medium of video games.
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)
Notes about the PC port/HD version in particular at the end. Shit's weird.
Nocturne is a cool game. Playing through it made me get why people shill it so hard, but also some of this shit drags lol.
Gameplay's a lot of fun, bosses in particular are a high. This game has some fantastic bosses, maybe my favorites bosses in a JRPG in general. I had a calculator next to me for one of them counting out turns and planning around it, it fucking ruled. The game on normal I think hits a good level of difficulty, where if you fuck around you'll find out but it's not gonna constantly murder if you're smart with party building. Expect to hit a few spikes tho (shoutouts to marador). Plus, if you really want to fuck around and really find out, hard mode is waiting for you.
This game has some really cool dungeon designs too, but also this is where my biggest complaint with the game kicks in, almost every dungeon in this game drags out and felt like it goes on way too long. Part of it is because the dungeons are long, especially if you're secret hunting. The other part is that you are getting jumped every 3 seconds.
This game's random encounter rate is fucking insane. I probably got hit with a new fight after walking two steps from the previous fight hundreds of times. While compensating for this does add to designing your party, trying make party members that are good with clearing out these fights with aoe/ability to regen/ect, you are very quickly gonna figure out how to beat each random encounter in a dungeon as painlessly as possibly, and it really fucking grinds. According to steam I put like 70 hours in this game, but god this felt like a 100 hour game. If you don't like RPGs where you get jumped every 10 steps, you might not like this game.
The story isn't much to write about. It's pretty straightforward, characters wax on about shallow philosophy, some old guy tells you to look out for skeletons who are currently celebrating Hanukkah (Fight To The Death Edition), ect ect. While the story pretty dry, it's held up by a some cool atmosphere and visuals, that Kino Kaneko Art Direction, and some really memorable dialogue. A demon with shoulders asked me if it had shoulders, and told me to fuck off when I told him yes. Can't get that in any other game.
The story's whatever, but I was never unengaged with it either.
Party making is a lot of this game, and it's done very well. The fusion path can be really confusing at times, but there's resources out there. There's a lot of customization with demons, and dedication to it will get you some really strong demons, and it's very satisfying, even if I had to read that gamefaqs page from 10 years ago multiple times to make Metatron. Combining the demon customization, how you get demons, the magatama system and multiple endings (even if everyone goes for TDE lol) leads to a ton of replayability in the game.
Fun combat with some top notch bosses, tied together with a cool atmosphere/aesthetic and a pretty deep party building system, but has a bad habit of dragging on too long, and a pretty dry cut story. Still rec'd, it's a cool game. I wish daisoujou was my husband in real life.
Some notes about the HD version/Pc Port:
It is a pretty barebones HD remake. On one hand the game does look better, and amongst what little gameplay updates they actually made is the ability to actually choose what skills you demons when fusing them, which single handily makes the HD versions the definitive version to play this game. The english dub is pretty solid too!
On the other hand, a lot of cutscenes (including the death screen) are still in 4:3, the audio is still insanely compressed, and it runs at 30 fps. I'm not a guy who will die on the every game needs to be 60fps hill but it's still pretty lame, and with the previous points I understand that it's nowhere near as simple as hitting the Make It Widescreen And Uncompress Audio button, but maybe we can get some of that Put Joker In The Mobile Game time and money into making a game with a lot of legacy like Nocturne's HD port better.
If you're on PC people are already making strides on things like soundtrack recreation mods for the audio compression, so there's that.
Also, wtf is up with this game's dlc stuff? HD added an easy mode (that shit gives you 3x exp/money btw. if you're grinding pop that bad bitch and hurry things up), but it's not included in the base game and is some free dlc? More bizarre is the maniax/chronicles version of the game with the updates isn't in the game by default and is a free dlc, which means a lot of people wont know about it, grab the game and start playing base Nocturne. And while it's cool that base nocturne is included, you want to play Chronicles. And again, the chronicles that's free is the version with Raidou. If you want Dante you have to put down an additional $10 bucks for some fucking reason. There's even another dlc which adds dungeons that exist just to grind for like 7 bucks, which is kinda pointless because the merciful is free and just as good for hitting the grind. It's all weird.
If you're confused, if you get the game just make sure to grab the free dlcs, or Maniax if you REALLY think replacing Raidou with Dante is worth $10.
Nocturne is a cool game. Playing through it made me get why people shill it so hard, but also some of this shit drags lol.
Gameplay's a lot of fun, bosses in particular are a high. This game has some fantastic bosses, maybe my favorites bosses in a JRPG in general. I had a calculator next to me for one of them counting out turns and planning around it, it fucking ruled. The game on normal I think hits a good level of difficulty, where if you fuck around you'll find out but it's not gonna constantly murder if you're smart with party building. Expect to hit a few spikes tho (shoutouts to marador). Plus, if you really want to fuck around and really find out, hard mode is waiting for you.
This game has some really cool dungeon designs too, but also this is where my biggest complaint with the game kicks in, almost every dungeon in this game drags out and felt like it goes on way too long. Part of it is because the dungeons are long, especially if you're secret hunting. The other part is that you are getting jumped every 3 seconds.
This game's random encounter rate is fucking insane. I probably got hit with a new fight after walking two steps from the previous fight hundreds of times. While compensating for this does add to designing your party, trying make party members that are good with clearing out these fights with aoe/ability to regen/ect, you are very quickly gonna figure out how to beat each random encounter in a dungeon as painlessly as possibly, and it really fucking grinds. According to steam I put like 70 hours in this game, but god this felt like a 100 hour game. If you don't like RPGs where you get jumped every 10 steps, you might not like this game.
The story isn't much to write about. It's pretty straightforward, characters wax on about shallow philosophy, some old guy tells you to look out for skeletons who are currently celebrating Hanukkah (Fight To The Death Edition), ect ect. While the story pretty dry, it's held up by a some cool atmosphere and visuals, that Kino Kaneko Art Direction, and some really memorable dialogue. A demon with shoulders asked me if it had shoulders, and told me to fuck off when I told him yes. Can't get that in any other game.
The story's whatever, but I was never unengaged with it either.
Party making is a lot of this game, and it's done very well. The fusion path can be really confusing at times, but there's resources out there. There's a lot of customization with demons, and dedication to it will get you some really strong demons, and it's very satisfying, even if I had to read that gamefaqs page from 10 years ago multiple times to make Metatron. Combining the demon customization, how you get demons, the magatama system and multiple endings (even if everyone goes for TDE lol) leads to a ton of replayability in the game.
Fun combat with some top notch bosses, tied together with a cool atmosphere/aesthetic and a pretty deep party building system, but has a bad habit of dragging on too long, and a pretty dry cut story. Still rec'd, it's a cool game. I wish daisoujou was my husband in real life.
Some notes about the HD version/Pc Port:
It is a pretty barebones HD remake. On one hand the game does look better, and amongst what little gameplay updates they actually made is the ability to actually choose what skills you demons when fusing them, which single handily makes the HD versions the definitive version to play this game. The english dub is pretty solid too!
On the other hand, a lot of cutscenes (including the death screen) are still in 4:3, the audio is still insanely compressed, and it runs at 30 fps. I'm not a guy who will die on the every game needs to be 60fps hill but it's still pretty lame, and with the previous points I understand that it's nowhere near as simple as hitting the Make It Widescreen And Uncompress Audio button, but maybe we can get some of that Put Joker In The Mobile Game time and money into making a game with a lot of legacy like Nocturne's HD port better.
If you're on PC people are already making strides on things like soundtrack recreation mods for the audio compression, so there's that.
Also, wtf is up with this game's dlc stuff? HD added an easy mode (that shit gives you 3x exp/money btw. if you're grinding pop that bad bitch and hurry things up), but it's not included in the base game and is some free dlc? More bizarre is the maniax/chronicles version of the game with the updates isn't in the game by default and is a free dlc, which means a lot of people wont know about it, grab the game and start playing base Nocturne. And while it's cool that base nocturne is included, you want to play Chronicles. And again, the chronicles that's free is the version with Raidou. If you want Dante you have to put down an additional $10 bucks for some fucking reason. There's even another dlc which adds dungeons that exist just to grind for like 7 bucks, which is kinda pointless because the merciful is free and just as good for hitting the grind. It's all weird.
If you're confused, if you get the game just make sure to grab the free dlcs, or Maniax if you REALLY think replacing Raidou with Dante is worth $10.
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster is an excellent port of an excellent game (keep in mind I am playing on PS5.) It is everything I love about nocturne and more with new added dialogue, upscaled textures and minor QoL features that make this game worth replaying or anybody who has played it before. For new comers there has never been a better way to experience Nocturne officially, and I highly recommend anyone who is slightly curious about SMT to pick it up, at least on PS4 and PC. WARNING: EXTREMELY UNPOPULAR OPINION AHEAD.... I know a lot of people have complained about the game not running on 60fps or higher but honestly I don't think you need 60fps for a turn based RPG. Would it have been nice if it did? Sure, but when paired up with the original that didn't run at 60fps to begin with I have no qualms with what we got. I know the switch version in particular likes to dip below 30fps, but I have yet to encounter this once in my 60 hour play through on the ps4 version through PS5 backwards compatibility. Overall this is everything to love about Nocturne with the engaging Press Turn System combat, and challenging and memorable boss fights. Even if you are a fan coming in from P5 and P5R I highly recommend trying this out as this was directed by Katsura Hashino, director of P3, P4, and P5 and you can definitely see the DNA of those games in this one. Keep in mind it is a game that originally came out in 2003 so it isn't perfect, but the minor adjustments they made here should keep it fresh for any new comer.
this game was so cool but Atlus is a dumb as hell company, why no DMC graphics when you bring dante back whys the music compressed why redo things in unity and not add any new content, why are they not rolling out patch updates to make it better and buff out the little shit. why. And its a rhetorical "why" because i know none of us will ever get them directly saying they dont feel like it. But otherwise i loved nocturne and being able to pick skills and the voice acting is cool and sometimes the HD looks really good.....but that being said i really wish they even went half the mile with this remaster
pretty bad remaster but i love the game
I got a Japanese copy on release. I'll admit this port has plenty of issues, but I would say most of them are really not that bad. People are bashing on the game for no real reason. There was definitely some lag issues on PS4 before the 1.01 patch which has since been solved. Sure, Unity looks like a trashcan on fire; but I really don't give a shit when I just want to play Nocturne without hooking up my PS2. And yeah, I'll concede that the fusion system is outdated by modern SMT standards; but I also don't give a shit as that's part of the charm of replaying these old JRPGs for me. Otherwise, Nocturne is Nocturne. It's just a good game.
Ultimately, if you have never played Nocturne before and are just interested in checking it out but don't own a CRT or can't be assed to set up PCSX2 this is a decent way to play the game. I would skip the PS3 release as it's just emulated anyway and if you're going to emulate then just learn how to use PCSX2.
Ultimately, if you have never played Nocturne before and are just interested in checking it out but don't own a CRT or can't be assed to set up PCSX2 this is a decent way to play the game. I would skip the PS3 release as it's just emulated anyway and if you're going to emulate then just learn how to use PCSX2.
I usually use this account as a bad joke, but as a SMT fan that really wanted this game being ported and seeing how atlus did a really poorly job, is infiurating seeing how they want us to buy a PS2 port for 50$
the price gouging, especially considering they couldn't even bother to replace the low quality music, is astounding. why are you selling DLC for a remaster of a game from 2003? it's a shame since Nocturne is one of my favourite games but this is "new funky mode" level greedy.
rating this as a "remaster"
it’s way too expensive for what it is: a lazy port that doesn’t deserve to be called remaster that still has compressed ost and features paid dlc
don’t buy it unless it’s the absolute only way to play this game. if you have a ps3 then you can get this for 10 bucks i guess. if you have a pc then you know the other option.
this isn’t a remaster. it’s a lazy port. even the mario 3d collection was a better offering than this right here.
it’s way too expensive for what it is: a lazy port that doesn’t deserve to be called remaster that still has compressed ost and features paid dlc
don’t buy it unless it’s the absolute only way to play this game. if you have a ps3 then you can get this for 10 bucks i guess. if you have a pc then you know the other option.
this isn’t a remaster. it’s a lazy port. even the mario 3d collection was a better offering than this right here.
i love nocturne yessir i do
No. Don't do it.
It's a five star game for me still, but with some issues on the Switch.
I played while docked and there was notable slowdown at times, particularly during evolutions or the end of fusions.
There was a really strange refresh that would happen when picking up items that would cause the screen to flash black once for a few frames -- it didn't cause performance issues, but it was weird and worth noting.
I don't mind all the archaic aspects of the game save for one -- if this game ever needed one updated feature, it would be to either have a way to move quickly through phases of Kagatsuchi, or
(USEFUL SPOILERS IF YOU'RE PLAYING THIS HERE)
a simple redesign on mystic chests so that they have better odds of producing the good fixed item on non-FULL MOON phases.
(USEFUL SPOILERS IF YOU'RE PLAYING THIS END HERE)
Tons of optional bosses, enemy formations that will actually challenge the player to think at times about party composition, optional areas, multiple ending paths (although we all know the real path to take), frustrating dungeons.
I love it and can live with the design decisions made in each case for the most part. Still glad I got to get it again and play it again many years later.
I played while docked and there was notable slowdown at times, particularly during evolutions or the end of fusions.
There was a really strange refresh that would happen when picking up items that would cause the screen to flash black once for a few frames -- it didn't cause performance issues, but it was weird and worth noting.
I don't mind all the archaic aspects of the game save for one -- if this game ever needed one updated feature, it would be to either have a way to move quickly through phases of Kagatsuchi, or
(USEFUL SPOILERS IF YOU'RE PLAYING THIS HERE)
a simple redesign on mystic chests so that they have better odds of producing the good fixed item on non-FULL MOON phases.
(USEFUL SPOILERS IF YOU'RE PLAYING THIS END HERE)
Tons of optional bosses, enemy formations that will actually challenge the player to think at times about party composition, optional areas, multiple ending paths (although we all know the real path to take), frustrating dungeons.
I love it and can live with the design decisions made in each case for the most part. Still glad I got to get it again and play it again many years later.
I can't believe turn based combat peaked in 2003
Nocturne has been one of my favorite games of all time for about 15 years now. Half of my lifetime at this point, so it's a very important game to me. It must not be as important to modern Atlus though, as they offloaded it to some 3rd party developer who made a lazily slapped together and inferior version they could use for a quick cash grab.
For $50 you get:
THE GOOD
+ The ability to manually choose inherited skills.
THE BAD
- Constant stutter before and after attack animations with particle effects that wasn't present in the PS2 original. (Bonus of more additional frame drops all over the place if you're on the switch version, too!)
- A new lighting system that is overblown and severely compromises the artistic vision of the game.
- A low effort dub that feels like it was recorded as a joke at points, which negatively impacts the atmosphere of the game. (thankfully this can be turned off, but the fact that it's on by default and is how most new players will experience the game is saddening)
- A questionable retranslated script. (Nekomata's Club Inferno dialogue has been sterilized, Incubus using an internet meme phrase that will seem dated in 5 years, ect)
- Music that is STILL compressed to high hell
- 4:3 non upscaled cutscenes that cause a jarring effect when it switches to one from the 16:9 gameplay.
- 30fps cap.
- The opportunity to buy additional day one paid DLC for a PS2 game.
For $50 you get:
THE GOOD
+ The ability to manually choose inherited skills.
THE BAD
- Constant stutter before and after attack animations with particle effects that wasn't present in the PS2 original. (Bonus of more additional frame drops all over the place if you're on the switch version, too!)
- A new lighting system that is overblown and severely compromises the artistic vision of the game.
- A low effort dub that feels like it was recorded as a joke at points, which negatively impacts the atmosphere of the game. (thankfully this can be turned off, but the fact that it's on by default and is how most new players will experience the game is saddening)
- A questionable retranslated script. (Nekomata's Club Inferno dialogue has been sterilized, Incubus using an internet meme phrase that will seem dated in 5 years, ect)
- Music that is STILL compressed to high hell
- 4:3 non upscaled cutscenes that cause a jarring effect when it switches to one from the 16:9 gameplay.
- 30fps cap.
- The opportunity to buy additional day one paid DLC for a PS2 game.
Nocturne is still one of the best JRPGs of all time, and is an eternal classic. It is very hard for me to convey how much i love this game, but i really like the way it treats the topic of free will and choices in our lifes. Its a dense and well crafted art piece, and every RPG fan should give it a try!
>About the port:
A pretty ok port, the ratio on the cutscenes is unforgivable, but overall it gets the job done. Bad price tho.
>About the port:
A pretty ok port, the ratio on the cutscenes is unforgivable, but overall it gets the job done. Bad price tho.
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.
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.
Don't let the rating fool you; I really really liked this game. My overall rating consists of an average of: 1) my rating of the actual game, which is 4.5/5 and 2) my rating of the quality of the remaster, which is 1.5/5.
The game (4.5/5): yeah, this game fucks. The atmosphere, themes, demons, dungeons, battle system, everything is there. I didn't think it was as hard as people made it out to be, but I did use a lot of guides to help me though, mostly to figure out where to go next which the game isn't great at telling you how to do (which btw, it really hit different going on GameFAQs posts from 2007 to figure out where to go. That really took me back). With the right preparation, this game is very doable, but will punish you for not preparing and learning from earlier attempts. I was surprised how a game from 2004 felt so good to play in 2021, which is a testament to its legacy.
The one fatal flaw, and the reason the game doesn't get a 5/5, is the random encounters. Playing this really makes you understand why these systems have been phased out in newer RPGs. At first it almost comical that you get another random encounter just 2 steps after finishing the previous one, but it doesn't really hit until the final dungeon, where the encounter rate is insane AND the demons barely let you escape which made me wanna tear my hair out. It completely interrupts pacing and it sucks, but bitching about random encounters isn't anything new.
By the way, I completed this on normal and went for the True Demon ending, and I had NO IDEA how fucking tough and how much grinding I would have to do for that final boss. I feel like its not mentioned often, so here's your fair warning.
The remaster (1.5/5): It's bad. I never played the original, so I was very happy that there was a way to play this game without a PS2, but there are glaring quality errors here that Atlus should be embarrassed about. The best thing about it is the new voice acting, and there's something to be said about not changing the game too much to maintain the experience of the original game, which is cool. However; the shitty quality music (I patched this out with a mod on PC), the 480p cutscenes, and some of the shitty looking textures, and FRAME DROPS (even with my beefy PC I still had some of this, but I know this was pretty bad on Switch), for $50 USD at release should be inexcusable in a modern remaster. Atlus could've and should've done much more for this game to give it the remaster it deserved, but it really feels like a big cash grab with how little work it seems they put into it, which is a shame really. Unless you Really Want the voice acting, there really isn't much of a reason to play this version over the PS2 version, if you happen to have access to it. Hopefully we get more remasters for the older MegaTen games, but I do hope that at least Atlus puts in a bit more work next time (or don't, and just port them and sell them cheap!).
The game (4.5/5): yeah, this game fucks. The atmosphere, themes, demons, dungeons, battle system, everything is there. I didn't think it was as hard as people made it out to be, but I did use a lot of guides to help me though, mostly to figure out where to go next which the game isn't great at telling you how to do (which btw, it really hit different going on GameFAQs posts from 2007 to figure out where to go. That really took me back). With the right preparation, this game is very doable, but will punish you for not preparing and learning from earlier attempts. I was surprised how a game from 2004 felt so good to play in 2021, which is a testament to its legacy.
The one fatal flaw, and the reason the game doesn't get a 5/5, is the random encounters. Playing this really makes you understand why these systems have been phased out in newer RPGs. At first it almost comical that you get another random encounter just 2 steps after finishing the previous one, but it doesn't really hit until the final dungeon, where the encounter rate is insane AND the demons barely let you escape which made me wanna tear my hair out. It completely interrupts pacing and it sucks, but bitching about random encounters isn't anything new.
By the way, I completed this on normal and went for the True Demon ending, and I had NO IDEA how fucking tough and how much grinding I would have to do for that final boss. I feel like its not mentioned often, so here's your fair warning.
The remaster (1.5/5): It's bad. I never played the original, so I was very happy that there was a way to play this game without a PS2, but there are glaring quality errors here that Atlus should be embarrassed about. The best thing about it is the new voice acting, and there's something to be said about not changing the game too much to maintain the experience of the original game, which is cool. However; the shitty quality music (I patched this out with a mod on PC), the 480p cutscenes, and some of the shitty looking textures, and FRAME DROPS (even with my beefy PC I still had some of this, but I know this was pretty bad on Switch), for $50 USD at release should be inexcusable in a modern remaster. Atlus could've and should've done much more for this game to give it the remaster it deserved, but it really feels like a big cash grab with how little work it seems they put into it, which is a shame really. Unless you Really Want the voice acting, there really isn't much of a reason to play this version over the PS2 version, if you happen to have access to it. Hopefully we get more remasters for the older MegaTen games, but I do hope that at least Atlus puts in a bit more work next time (or don't, and just port them and sell them cheap!).
I was very happy when I could finally get my hands on 'Nocturne', as I’m a huge fan of the 'Persona' series, but never played any of the 'Shin Megami Tensei' games. In general, I enjoyed it, although not as much as 'Persona 4' or 'Persona 5'. It felt a bit too dark and was way too battle-oriented for my taste.
The story, which is always the main selling point for me in any game, was really complex, and the main characters were interesting enough, however, nowhere near as much as I came to expect in a JRPG.
As for the technical aspects, the remastered graphics look good, but unfortunately, the FMV sequences maintained their original SD resolution and aspect ratio, so those are definitely not a treat for the eyes. I didn’t have any issues with the controls, and the music and sound effects were OK, too.
With all the different endings and difficulty settings, combined with the ‘Maniax’/’Chronicle’ versions, there’s certainly lots of replay value here, and even for one playthrough you will need at least around 50 hours, so all in all, I can recommend 'Nocturne' to all JRPG fans out there. But be prepared for LOTS of hard and long battles, especially on hard difficulty.
The story, which is always the main selling point for me in any game, was really complex, and the main characters were interesting enough, however, nowhere near as much as I came to expect in a JRPG.
As for the technical aspects, the remastered graphics look good, but unfortunately, the FMV sequences maintained their original SD resolution and aspect ratio, so those are definitely not a treat for the eyes. I didn’t have any issues with the controls, and the music and sound effects were OK, too.
With all the different endings and difficulty settings, combined with the ‘Maniax’/’Chronicle’ versions, there’s certainly lots of replay value here, and even for one playthrough you will need at least around 50 hours, so all in all, I can recommend 'Nocturne' to all JRPG fans out there. But be prepared for LOTS of hard and long battles, especially on hard difficulty.
“Tokyo died... and I was given life”
I jumped into nocturne with it being my 4th mainline megaten I’ve played so far. I thought I had a good idea on how the structure of the game would be, since for the most part, they’ve been fairly similar. I was definitely mistaken, as I had no idea how experimental nocturne truly was for mainline. You start off in search for your teacher in Tokyo, meeting up with some classmates along the way and then boom the conception happens.. what is the conception you ask? This actually ties into what I just mentioned regarding nocturne being a little different in structure compared to other mainlines. The conception is an event that brings forth an apocalypse with the purpose of rebirthing a new world, now this part isn’t new for any of the Shin Megami Tensei titles.. what’s different is alignments(Law, Chaos, and Neutral) aren’t present. Instead it’s something called reasons. Reasons are very crucial in Nocturne considering their purpose is having laws abiding to how this rebirth will actually go. Another major difference, and also probably my favorite part about this game, is how different the mc is in Nocturne compared to the other protagonists in the previous and future entry’s of the mainline series. That being, you can build him however you want just like a demon in forms of something called Magatama. This leads to you being completely free to add whatever skills you want to suit your play style. I found playing around with different skills until eventually making my endgame build extremely fun and amusing for the most part.
The story in nocturne seems lackluster at glance, but really it’s quite complex. Discovering and learning about what people are doing within the vertex world, learning lore and secondhand background knowledge thru exploring the kalpa’s, meeting the manikins and diving into their background and current events, the list goes on. Story wise I wouldn’t say it’s nocturnes strongest suit, however I wouldn’t say it’s the weakest either.
The music for this game is good, not the best I would say for a megaten game but still great nonetheless, they always deliver in this area so I’m not surprised. The ost is still compressed from the original version which is a bummer, but still some of the tracks(and everyone of them towards the end) hold up really well despite that issue. Admittedly I found the battle theme stuck in my head after a bit.
Let’s talk about the gameplay and battle system. If you didn’t know, nocturne is the first game within the megaten franchise to introduce press turn, which became the staple of the series in terms of gameplay going forward. Press turn involves exploiting the enemy’s weakness or landing a crit to gain more turns in battle resulting in being able to dish out tons of damage, or even sometimes completely rendering an enemy to dust not letting them get a single hit in. It makes the random encounters pretty fun especially when playing around guessing what the enemy is weak to. Aside from the battle system, nocturne is faithful in terms of story progression you have to do outside of fighting. That being finding individuals you have to talk to, fighting multiple bosses in rooms, gathering information about characters and the world, etc. Demon negotiation and fusing, another major element to these games that, for the most part, don’t have any major changes. Unfortunately in my experience of my playthrough I did find the negotiations in this game compared to others dissatisfying. Perhaps this just had to do with me not having much interest after a decent amount of negotiations early to somewhat mid game and just focusing on fusing and re summoning thru the cathedral, but the demons dialogue didn’t give me the personality I wanted like the others I have played. Still though, negotiation is still present and there could be some interesting moments when demons approach you, ask for items, etc. Fusing in this game is also the same except the Kagutsuchi phases play a decent role into fusing for some of the more powerful demons. I won’t go into that due to spoilers but I found that really cool.
In terms of atmosphere I think that’s where nocturne shined the most for me. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever played a jrpg before that made me feel so alone, so isolated. You start the game by yourself making it seem like that will change but it never really does; you’re own your own with the demons you recruit and fuse along the way. I found the soundtrack of this game compliment the general atmosphere and vibe of it very well, almost too well.
Overall Nocturne is not only a game I would recommend to JRPG fans, but to video game fans in general. It was an experience I truly enjoyed and didn’t want to end. There’s loads of content in this game that can warrant more playthroughs(like multiple endings), as well as loads of content within the first playthrough you can choose to do or save for another. This port isn’t optimized the greatest, but I rarely had issues aside from some frame drops at the areas that had more demanding particles. If you do decide to play this game enjoy, it truly is an experience like no other :)
I jumped into nocturne with it being my 4th mainline megaten I’ve played so far. I thought I had a good idea on how the structure of the game would be, since for the most part, they’ve been fairly similar. I was definitely mistaken, as I had no idea how experimental nocturne truly was for mainline. You start off in search for your teacher in Tokyo, meeting up with some classmates along the way and then boom the conception happens.. what is the conception you ask? This actually ties into what I just mentioned regarding nocturne being a little different in structure compared to other mainlines. The conception is an event that brings forth an apocalypse with the purpose of rebirthing a new world, now this part isn’t new for any of the Shin Megami Tensei titles.. what’s different is alignments(Law, Chaos, and Neutral) aren’t present. Instead it’s something called reasons. Reasons are very crucial in Nocturne considering their purpose is having laws abiding to how this rebirth will actually go. Another major difference, and also probably my favorite part about this game, is how different the mc is in Nocturne compared to the other protagonists in the previous and future entry’s of the mainline series. That being, you can build him however you want just like a demon in forms of something called Magatama. This leads to you being completely free to add whatever skills you want to suit your play style. I found playing around with different skills until eventually making my endgame build extremely fun and amusing for the most part.
The story in nocturne seems lackluster at glance, but really it’s quite complex. Discovering and learning about what people are doing within the vertex world, learning lore and secondhand background knowledge thru exploring the kalpa’s, meeting the manikins and diving into their background and current events, the list goes on. Story wise I wouldn’t say it’s nocturnes strongest suit, however I wouldn’t say it’s the weakest either.
The music for this game is good, not the best I would say for a megaten game but still great nonetheless, they always deliver in this area so I’m not surprised. The ost is still compressed from the original version which is a bummer, but still some of the tracks(and everyone of them towards the end) hold up really well despite that issue. Admittedly I found the battle theme stuck in my head after a bit.
Let’s talk about the gameplay and battle system. If you didn’t know, nocturne is the first game within the megaten franchise to introduce press turn, which became the staple of the series in terms of gameplay going forward. Press turn involves exploiting the enemy’s weakness or landing a crit to gain more turns in battle resulting in being able to dish out tons of damage, or even sometimes completely rendering an enemy to dust not letting them get a single hit in. It makes the random encounters pretty fun especially when playing around guessing what the enemy is weak to. Aside from the battle system, nocturne is faithful in terms of story progression you have to do outside of fighting. That being finding individuals you have to talk to, fighting multiple bosses in rooms, gathering information about characters and the world, etc. Demon negotiation and fusing, another major element to these games that, for the most part, don’t have any major changes. Unfortunately in my experience of my playthrough I did find the negotiations in this game compared to others dissatisfying. Perhaps this just had to do with me not having much interest after a decent amount of negotiations early to somewhat mid game and just focusing on fusing and re summoning thru the cathedral, but the demons dialogue didn’t give me the personality I wanted like the others I have played. Still though, negotiation is still present and there could be some interesting moments when demons approach you, ask for items, etc. Fusing in this game is also the same except the Kagutsuchi phases play a decent role into fusing for some of the more powerful demons. I won’t go into that due to spoilers but I found that really cool.
In terms of atmosphere I think that’s where nocturne shined the most for me. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever played a jrpg before that made me feel so alone, so isolated. You start the game by yourself making it seem like that will change but it never really does; you’re own your own with the demons you recruit and fuse along the way. I found the soundtrack of this game compliment the general atmosphere and vibe of it very well, almost too well.
Overall Nocturne is not only a game I would recommend to JRPG fans, but to video game fans in general. It was an experience I truly enjoyed and didn’t want to end. There’s loads of content in this game that can warrant more playthroughs(like multiple endings), as well as loads of content within the first playthrough you can choose to do or save for another. This port isn’t optimized the greatest, but I rarely had issues aside from some frame drops at the areas that had more demanding particles. If you do decide to play this game enjoy, it truly is an experience like no other :)
Qué juego... No sé ni por dónde empezar, lo he reposado durante más de una semana, repasando partes de la historia, informándome más de sus referencias, y aun noto que estoy en la punta del iceberg. Voy a extenderme y a desvariar como un sábado noche harto de vodka.
Empezando por lo primero que entra por los ojos: su increíble ambientación. Una rara avis dentro de la industria. Sabe utilizar tan bien sus limitados recursos, usando esa simpleza como potenciador de la soledad y el pavor que se siente en cada escenario. Partiendo de una arquitectura contemporánea (algo no demasiado típico en el RPG) la retuerce hasta sus entrañas para maximizar esas sensaciones. Esto entra en consonancia con una bso atmosférica de lo más original. Una bso que no se entiende sin el juego, claramente no está compuesta para que la escuches en una playlist de youtube (aunque se pueda).
Y todo esto está hilado al dedillo con cada elemento del juego. Su narrativa no deja de lados las mecánicas. La falta de puntos de guardados en muchas zonas, zonas donde cualquier despiste o un rng muy cabrón pueden hacerte perder horas de progreso. La falta de cualquier aliado más allá de aquellos que dominas por pura fuerza y que no son más que simples herramientas en tu viaje. El constante avasallamiento de batallas sin tregua alguna, una dificultad que si no dominas el sistema de combate te puede joder la partida...
El propio combate es uno de los legados más importantes que ha dejado Nocturne, introduciendo el sistema "Press Turn" que heredan una gran parte de Megaten. Siendo clave explotar las debilidades del rival para ganar turnos extras, o esquivar sus ataques para que ellos lo pierdan. Un combate que además está muy enfocado a la fuerza bruta. Usando las debilidades o los críticos para ganar turnos extras y a través de los buff y debuff reventar a la mayoría de enemigos a puñetazo limpio, algo que encaja a la perfección en su narrativa.
Otro elemento que se ve muy bien potenciado, pese a su corto presupuesto, es el diseño de niveles. Escenarios bastante bien interconectados, sin ser una locura, pero quedando coherente y donde puedes ver un cofre a lo lejos y saber que de alguna forma, será posible llegar. Estos escenarios estarán también plagados de puzles, algunos bastante entretenidos y que se implementan mejor que en muchos rpgs actuales.
Aunque esto me enlaza al tema más negativo que le encuentro a Noctuner (y casi que el único). La exploración es algo que mola bastante en el juego, y el mapeado y sus puzles invitan a ello, sin embargo, el esfuerzo-recompensa está bastante desequilibrado. No serán pocas las veces que des 500 vueltas para terminar llegando a un cofre que te dará un par de Piedras vitales de mierda que te da cualquier enemigo u otra cosa del estilo, de hecho, serán las que más. Se puede contar con los dedos de las manos (puede que incluso con los de una) las veces que el esfuerzo invertido en la exploración para descubrir zonas que no son necesarias de visitar, o puzles que son opcionales, se verán recompensados con algo de igual valor al tiempo invertido, demasiadas pocas veces. Y entiendo que el juego sea cabrón y muchas veces te trollee, ahi está la pareja del Laberinto de Amala que te manda al inicio diciéndote que te recuperará, el juego juega (valga la redundancia) en ese tono. Pero en este tema pasa de ser discurso a fallo de diseño. Está claro que es complejo dar recompensas equivalentes en un juego que no tiene equipamiento per sé, y solo puede dar objetos (muy limitados) y magatamas (que seguramente sean una recompensa demasiado grande para ir dándola a la ligera), pero algo se podría haber hecho mejor en este punto.
Mención especial a la exigencia que tiene el juego para obtener la información necesaria para avanzar, descubrir cosas de su lore o simplemente saber jugar. Nocturne no hará nada por ayudarte y eres tú mismo quien debe buscarse la vida (algo que vuelve a referenciar su narrativa).
Nocturne es de los muy pocos juegos donde veo útil de verdad el personaje avatar. Ni de coña sería el mismo juego si tuvieramos un protagonista con personalidad propia. No encajaría igual nuestro poder de elección hacia qué Razón queremos decantarnos o qué mensajes extraemos. En definitiva, no seríamos nosotros. En un primer momento se nos da el rol de observador, iremos descubriendo cada uno de los personajes secundarios y sus diferentes motivaciones, las 3 Razones que podrán crear el nuevo mundo y nos dan el poder de decidir este nuevo mundo. Lo interesante de esto, es que ninguna decisión parece óptima. En un universo donde no existen malos o buenos, y cada bando tiene sus motivaciones, unas motivaciones llevadas a un extremo donde sea cual sea la elección que hagamos nos dejará mal sabor de boca.
Aquí empieza a entrar una de las partes más interesantes de Nocturne: su carga filosófica. Se abandona a Jung como el pilar de los Persona para dar paso a Nietzche, principalmente con sus 2 obras Así habló Zaratrusta (esta sobre todo) y Anticristo. Temas como el super hombre, la muerte de dios, el eterno retorno, el individualismo y otras tantas referencias al filósofo, se ven muy ligadas a otro punto más teológico como es el Budismo (aquí por ejemplo el eterno retorno convergen). Y aunque los principales actores estén interpretados por figuras claves del cristianismo se afronta desde un punto de vista más budista. Dios representa el orden, pero no el bien, Lucifer el caos, pero no el mal. De hecho, la libertad se atribuye al caos por poner un ejemplo.
Aunque todos estos elementos pululen por el juego, y el propio Nocturne tenga una mayor inclinación hacia el bando caótico y el super hombre de Nietzche, ni mucho menos es cerrado su mensaje, pues son ideas que están, al igual que sus contrapuestas, y tú decides qué camino tomar, qué interpretación es la válida.
Entre las Razones tenemos Yosuga, alineada al caos, centrada en la ley del más fuerte, llevando al extremo ideas como la Moral de amos y esclavos o el Super hombre. Otra razón sería Shijima, contrapuesta de Yosuga. La unidad total del colectivo en búsqueda de una paz total. Shijima sería una razón que atentaría totalmente contra Nietzche, pues erradicaría el individualismo completamente y llegaría al equilibrio suprimiendo consciencia propia. Algo igual más cercano al Nirvana budista. En la alineación neutral se encuentra Musubi, la Razón que llevará al extremo el individualismo, donde cada ser vivirá dentro de su propio universo ideal sin ningún contacto externo.
Otro camino bastante interesante a comentar, y que romperá con el ciclo eterno de destrucción-creación, siendo el que más natural se acerca a Nietzche, el final True Demon. Donde nuestro cometido será la muerte de Dios, siendo el final más complejo de sacar, algo que también se da la mano con Nietzche, pues la muerte de dios no es una tarea fácil y es un paso necesario para llegar al Super hombre, abandonando la moral en pos de la verdad. Desechando la religión y la figura de Dios, y trascendiendo como simple hombre a demonio (Super hombre), rompiendo las bases que rigen el propio universo. El juego empuja a este final como canónico, pero en ti está el elegir y pensar sobre los diferentes caminos que se plantean, todos válidos.
Y aunque Nocturne sí cuenta con críticas marcadas, como las dadas a la humanidad como origen del mal, ejemplificadas en la evolución de los diferentes humanos que quedan con vida y cómo se van "demonizando" pasando por unas fases muy claras. Ofrece más preguntas que respuestas. Es una de las cosas que más me han enamorado del juego, el exigirte a pensar para dar con tu respuesta, una respuesta que no tiene por qué ser única. Y cómo todo esto encaja a la perfección con su narrativa, su simbolismo, su ambientación... Todo tiene un sentido en la propuesta.
En definitiva, un juego que exprime al máximo sus recursos, que tiene una propuesta clara y todos sus elementos caminan hacia ella, que se fundamente en mil referencias filosóficas y religiosas que es imposible descubrir de una única pasada. Un juegazo, simplemente.
PD: Y eso que se me ha pasado mencionar la atmósfera de pesadilla Lynchiana que tiene en muchos puntos, o profundizar más en simbolismos que se alejan de la autoexplicación (ejem Persona 5) y te obligan a descubrirlos por ti mismo. Y yo que sé, mil cosas más. Jugad Nocturne.
Empezando por lo primero que entra por los ojos: su increíble ambientación. Una rara avis dentro de la industria. Sabe utilizar tan bien sus limitados recursos, usando esa simpleza como potenciador de la soledad y el pavor que se siente en cada escenario. Partiendo de una arquitectura contemporánea (algo no demasiado típico en el RPG) la retuerce hasta sus entrañas para maximizar esas sensaciones. Esto entra en consonancia con una bso atmosférica de lo más original. Una bso que no se entiende sin el juego, claramente no está compuesta para que la escuches en una playlist de youtube (aunque se pueda).
Y todo esto está hilado al dedillo con cada elemento del juego. Su narrativa no deja de lados las mecánicas. La falta de puntos de guardados en muchas zonas, zonas donde cualquier despiste o un rng muy cabrón pueden hacerte perder horas de progreso. La falta de cualquier aliado más allá de aquellos que dominas por pura fuerza y que no son más que simples herramientas en tu viaje. El constante avasallamiento de batallas sin tregua alguna, una dificultad que si no dominas el sistema de combate te puede joder la partida...
El propio combate es uno de los legados más importantes que ha dejado Nocturne, introduciendo el sistema "Press Turn" que heredan una gran parte de Megaten. Siendo clave explotar las debilidades del rival para ganar turnos extras, o esquivar sus ataques para que ellos lo pierdan. Un combate que además está muy enfocado a la fuerza bruta. Usando las debilidades o los críticos para ganar turnos extras y a través de los buff y debuff reventar a la mayoría de enemigos a puñetazo limpio, algo que encaja a la perfección en su narrativa.
Otro elemento que se ve muy bien potenciado, pese a su corto presupuesto, es el diseño de niveles. Escenarios bastante bien interconectados, sin ser una locura, pero quedando coherente y donde puedes ver un cofre a lo lejos y saber que de alguna forma, será posible llegar. Estos escenarios estarán también plagados de puzles, algunos bastante entretenidos y que se implementan mejor que en muchos rpgs actuales.
Aunque esto me enlaza al tema más negativo que le encuentro a Noctuner (y casi que el único). La exploración es algo que mola bastante en el juego, y el mapeado y sus puzles invitan a ello, sin embargo, el esfuerzo-recompensa está bastante desequilibrado. No serán pocas las veces que des 500 vueltas para terminar llegando a un cofre que te dará un par de Piedras vitales de mierda que te da cualquier enemigo u otra cosa del estilo, de hecho, serán las que más. Se puede contar con los dedos de las manos (puede que incluso con los de una) las veces que el esfuerzo invertido en la exploración para descubrir zonas que no son necesarias de visitar, o puzles que son opcionales, se verán recompensados con algo de igual valor al tiempo invertido, demasiadas pocas veces. Y entiendo que el juego sea cabrón y muchas veces te trollee, ahi está la pareja del Laberinto de Amala que te manda al inicio diciéndote que te recuperará, el juego juega (valga la redundancia) en ese tono. Pero en este tema pasa de ser discurso a fallo de diseño. Está claro que es complejo dar recompensas equivalentes en un juego que no tiene equipamiento per sé, y solo puede dar objetos (muy limitados) y magatamas (que seguramente sean una recompensa demasiado grande para ir dándola a la ligera), pero algo se podría haber hecho mejor en este punto.
Mención especial a la exigencia que tiene el juego para obtener la información necesaria para avanzar, descubrir cosas de su lore o simplemente saber jugar. Nocturne no hará nada por ayudarte y eres tú mismo quien debe buscarse la vida (algo que vuelve a referenciar su narrativa).
Nocturne es de los muy pocos juegos donde veo útil de verdad el personaje avatar. Ni de coña sería el mismo juego si tuvieramos un protagonista con personalidad propia. No encajaría igual nuestro poder de elección hacia qué Razón queremos decantarnos o qué mensajes extraemos. En definitiva, no seríamos nosotros. En un primer momento se nos da el rol de observador, iremos descubriendo cada uno de los personajes secundarios y sus diferentes motivaciones, las 3 Razones que podrán crear el nuevo mundo y nos dan el poder de decidir este nuevo mundo. Lo interesante de esto, es que ninguna decisión parece óptima. En un universo donde no existen malos o buenos, y cada bando tiene sus motivaciones, unas motivaciones llevadas a un extremo donde sea cual sea la elección que hagamos nos dejará mal sabor de boca.
Aquí empieza a entrar una de las partes más interesantes de Nocturne: su carga filosófica. Se abandona a Jung como el pilar de los Persona para dar paso a Nietzche, principalmente con sus 2 obras Así habló Zaratrusta (esta sobre todo) y Anticristo. Temas como el super hombre, la muerte de dios, el eterno retorno, el individualismo y otras tantas referencias al filósofo, se ven muy ligadas a otro punto más teológico como es el Budismo (aquí por ejemplo el eterno retorno convergen). Y aunque los principales actores estén interpretados por figuras claves del cristianismo se afronta desde un punto de vista más budista. Dios representa el orden, pero no el bien, Lucifer el caos, pero no el mal. De hecho, la libertad se atribuye al caos por poner un ejemplo.
Aunque todos estos elementos pululen por el juego, y el propio Nocturne tenga una mayor inclinación hacia el bando caótico y el super hombre de Nietzche, ni mucho menos es cerrado su mensaje, pues son ideas que están, al igual que sus contrapuestas, y tú decides qué camino tomar, qué interpretación es la válida.
Entre las Razones tenemos Yosuga, alineada al caos, centrada en la ley del más fuerte, llevando al extremo ideas como la Moral de amos y esclavos o el Super hombre. Otra razón sería Shijima, contrapuesta de Yosuga. La unidad total del colectivo en búsqueda de una paz total. Shijima sería una razón que atentaría totalmente contra Nietzche, pues erradicaría el individualismo completamente y llegaría al equilibrio suprimiendo consciencia propia. Algo igual más cercano al Nirvana budista. En la alineación neutral se encuentra Musubi, la Razón que llevará al extremo el individualismo, donde cada ser vivirá dentro de su propio universo ideal sin ningún contacto externo.
Otro camino bastante interesante a comentar, y que romperá con el ciclo eterno de destrucción-creación, siendo el que más natural se acerca a Nietzche, el final True Demon. Donde nuestro cometido será la muerte de Dios, siendo el final más complejo de sacar, algo que también se da la mano con Nietzche, pues la muerte de dios no es una tarea fácil y es un paso necesario para llegar al Super hombre, abandonando la moral en pos de la verdad. Desechando la religión y la figura de Dios, y trascendiendo como simple hombre a demonio (Super hombre), rompiendo las bases que rigen el propio universo. El juego empuja a este final como canónico, pero en ti está el elegir y pensar sobre los diferentes caminos que se plantean, todos válidos.
Y aunque Nocturne sí cuenta con críticas marcadas, como las dadas a la humanidad como origen del mal, ejemplificadas en la evolución de los diferentes humanos que quedan con vida y cómo se van "demonizando" pasando por unas fases muy claras. Ofrece más preguntas que respuestas. Es una de las cosas que más me han enamorado del juego, el exigirte a pensar para dar con tu respuesta, una respuesta que no tiene por qué ser única. Y cómo todo esto encaja a la perfección con su narrativa, su simbolismo, su ambientación... Todo tiene un sentido en la propuesta.
En definitiva, un juego que exprime al máximo sus recursos, que tiene una propuesta clara y todos sus elementos caminan hacia ella, que se fundamente en mil referencias filosóficas y religiosas que es imposible descubrir de una única pasada. Un juegazo, simplemente.
PD: Y eso que se me ha pasado mencionar la atmósfera de pesadilla Lynchiana que tiene en muchos puntos, o profundizar más en simbolismos que se alejan de la autoexplicación (ejem Persona 5) y te obligan a descubrirlos por ti mismo. Y yo que sé, mil cosas más. Jugad Nocturne.