Nocturnal: a restrained yet complete experience

Generally, games that have a short duration bet on narrating a story that the developers want to tell and this is not a bad thing, because in a market where there is a vast plurality of players and preferences, this guarantees that all tastes are met.

Nocturnal does it differently: It does have its part where it wants to tell a story, but here it is very simple and the main focus is solid gameplay and a good number of enemies, which also have a great variety.

Nocturnal is short, simple, but complete

The game’s plot begins showing Ardeshir, a soldier of the so-called “Eternal Flame” who ends up returning to his island after discovering that something happened on it and that there is now a fog taking over the entire territory. Worried about his sister and brothers, he decides to enter the now inhospitable place and try to expel this dark fog.

From there, the game already presents a simple gameplay, but extremely responsive and fun. You have a button for attack, jump, special attack and dodge. Of course, after some progress you end up gaining access to another ability to throw a dagger (this one that returns after a while) and which is surprisingly useful and doesn’t do a lot of damage to enemies.

The only thing that can bother you is the sensitivity of the direction that the dagger can be thrown, if you use a controller. However, after some time the player can get used to it and it becomes less of an issue.

There is also an experience system where the player, after collecting enough items, can improve the main character’s skills and stamina. What at the beginning does not seem very important, later in the game it can be crucial for some challenges that the game offers in these moments.

Nocturnal’s graphics are excellent and with the central idea that the flames repel the dark fog, we have eye-popping effects in the game. The game simply lets you burn various objects in the setting to open new passages or just quench your desire to see a great effect in practice.

These passages that open up may contain altars that hold pieces of history, which tell how fire is so important to the island, and also letters that explain more about events that took place before Ardeshir returned there.

Great choice for livestreaming

Adding the story, the lush graphics and the gameplay, this becomes good content for those who like to broadcast their experiences on streaming platforms. It is also worth complementing that there are good battles against bosses in the game, which are challenging and well balanced and that can often make the player make a different strategy to win the challenge, leaving his audience attentive to the results of each attempt.

Nocturnal’s soundtrack also shines brightly, complementing the game’s Persian setting. Moments of action, fights against bosses and even calmer moments have very well composed tracks that can draw the attention of the public that is more attentive to the audio of the transmission.

Technically the game has no problems. I didn’t find any bugs in the whole experience and it’s also a very accessible game for more modest settings, not presenting any challenges for content creators with more timid hardware.

If there is a negative point in the experience, it is very relative and this can be linked to its short duration, where the player only has available to collect the pieces that tell the history of the island and experience points (which are also in breakable objects of the game) to evolve the character’s skills. Also, there’s not much replay factor to complete as even the achievements are few and easily obtained.

Katsutoshi