SMT Nocturne is the JRPG from Hell. At times it feels like the game is sentient and hates you. Once you accept this, however, it's surprisingly fun.

So yes, this game is difficult. But now that I've actually PLAYED it rather than just watched boss fights and consumed memes, I realize it's also surprisingly well-designed. Yes, you will die a lot. But save points are fairly frequent and reasonably-placed, as are heal points. I rarely lost enough progress from dying to be frustrated. Dungeons are also fairly short, so tend not to overstay their welcome. And it's not ALL dungeons, there some towns with NPCs to speak to, and said NPC dialogue is pretty good at giving gameplay tips to newcomers along with guidance on where to go next.

Speaking of newcomers, this was the first Shin Megami Tensei game to introduce the now-standard (and beloved) Press Turn system. Hitting an enemy weakness turns one of your turns into a half-turn, effectively granting you another action. (You can also "pass" your turn for the same effect) While hitting an immunity or missing an attack consumes 2 tuns. And in classic SMT fashion, mechanics work the exact same way for both sides. Minus Beast Eye and Dragon Eye, anything the enemy can do, you can do too.

If you haven't played a Shin Megami Tensei game before, you'll quickly find that buffs and debuffs are your friend. Status ailments are deadly, but they're also part of the element system, letting you punish the enemy for using them with the right Demon allies.

Aside from the customizable "Demi-Fiend" protagonist, you'll be making your party out of the Demons you battle, like a twisted version of Pokemon. Demons always have the same weaknesses and resistances on your side as they do as enemies, and this is... a little hit-or-miss in Nocturne. A surprising number of Demons, even early ones, have no weaknesses at all, forcing you to rely on physical critical hits to gain turn advantage. And then these same Demons, once recruited, essentially let you forget about enemies gaining turns off YOUR weaknesses, which kinda saps some of the fun. The Fiends are especially notable here. Optional bosses added in the "Maniax" version, they all lack weaknesses and nullify ailments (therefor robbing the enemy of turns for attempting them), AND tend to have overpowered skills, so can trivialize gameplay once you unlock them.

Most Demons are obtained via Fusion (which should be familiar to those who played Persona) or the dreaded negotiation. Some Demons can also evolve, Pokemon-style, though this is left as a fun "easter egg" to discover. I was surprised at how little I minded negotiation though. As long as you're not too stingy with money and items, you'll get the demons you want eventually through sheer persistence. There are skills that make it easier, but I was fine embracing the randomness most of the time. Once you unlock the Compendium you can re-summon any Demon you've had before, which helps.

Having played through the whole game, even the difficult optional dungeon, my main criticism is Evasion buffs and debuffs are actually pretty broken. As missing means you take no damage AND the enemy loses turns, Fog Breath on the foe and some Sukukajas on the party can make you practically invincible. Only late-game bosses carry buff/debuff cancel skills, and some don't even have both.

Being an older SMT game, Nocturne has its fair share of jank you'll have to live with. The protagonist learns skills from Magatamas (think equipped armour), but if you refuse a skill you never get a chance to re-learn it, and only the next skill a Magatama learns is visible, meaning it's easy to give up skills you later realize you need if you don't have a guide, or give up on a Magatama too soon.
Hard Mode is what the bosses are designed around (Normal is secretly an Easy mode, halving damage taken), but it also triples shop prices and prevents running from random encounters. If that sounds annoying to you, I'd recommend playing on Normal for exploration, and switching to Hard for bosses. (Difficulty can be changed from the menu at any time, at least in the remaster) The HD Remaster at least lets you select inherited skills in fusion (after a patch), while keeping the option of randomized inheritance if you prefer that.

I haven't even talked about the story yet. If you're playing Nocturne, you're likely doing it for the gameplay. It has less "story" and more "lore" and "atmosphere", but both are very good. You'll be exploring some of the most unique and creative-looking locations in any JPRG, with an excellent soundtrack by the legendary Shoji Meguro setting the mood. The difficult gameplay enhances the atmosphere, making you feel like you're struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where everything wants you dead. The characters are all varying degrees of unlikable, but that's kind of the point.

My only real criticism isn't to do with the plot itself, but how one of the Maniax additions impacts it. The original story had multiple endings, all shades of grey, but Maniax added a new ending with far more content that essentially invalidates all the others. As a result, you don't see the original 5 (yes, FIVE) endings discussed or considered much, which is a shame as they're all conceptually interesting.

Overall, do not go into Nocturne unless you have some experience with Shin Megami Tensei and/or Persona already and are looking for a challenge. But if you do, you'll find some of the best gameplay, boss fights and atmosphere in the JRPG genre.