This game is such a beautiful work of art. Everything is so purposeful, so meaningful, so impactful; and also somehow, misinterpreted.

I feel like a lot of people view Nocturne as edgy and hardcore which unfortunately scares off people from giving SMT a shot. I think that is a result of SMT fans taking a little too much pride in the fact that these games are much more difficult than most other JRPGs. Sure, Nocturne can be punishing and force you to reassess the way you play the game, but I never felt like it was anything crazy. If you get past the learning curve, SMT games are really not that hard if you know what you're doing.

I find the dungeons in this game incredibly fun, but that is very much a preference. I find Kabukicho Prison, Amala Temple, and the Tokyo Diet Building to be some of the most fun to navigate dungeons in Megaten. I can see how the dungeons in this game can be annoying to a lot of people, but I personally love that shit.

Nocturne was the first game to introduce the press turn combat system, AKA the greatest turn based combat system ever. This combat system is a true stroke of genius, and is so incredibly fun when you learn how to utilize it.

The music in Nocturne is extremely good at setting atmosphere, and the battle themes are also very fun. Some standout tracks for me were: Title Loop 1 & 2, Large Map (Real Universe), Normal Battle (Town), Last Boss Battle (Pre-Transformation), and Staff Roll. Some of Shoji Meguro's best work.

The world of Nocturne is perhaps my favorite thing about the game. Some may say that Nocturne lacks a real story, and I disagree because I feel that most of the storytelling is done through the world-building. Although admittedly, a lot of it is not outright shown to the player, and you have to do some digging to uncover a lot of the cool stuff in Nocturne.

The art of this game is also incredible. From the character designs, to the demon designs, to the environments, I think this is Kazuma Kaneko's greatest work. If you haven't seen the many different pieces of key art he did for Nocturne, I seriously recommend it.

Nocturne is excellent in just about every category. I'm searching for a major flaw with the game, and can't find one. It's an incredibly profound and fun experience for anybody who appreciates unique storytelling video games.

After finishing Persona 3 Reload in February I was eager to substitute it for another Atlus RPG. Nocturne seemed like the perfect choice as I had already bought it some months prior and I was excited to play it after hearing so many people rave about it, especially regarding it’s Press Turn system and rewarding difficulty. Unfortunately, the early game wasn’t moving at the pace I would like, and I was most likely feeling burnt out on RPGs, so I decided to put it down for a while.

I picked it back up again in April and managed to work my way through the frankly slow and unimpressive early game. Thankfully it really picks up after about 15 hours when options for demon fusion open up and I could get into the nitty gritty of curating my demon roster. Consequently, encounters also improve, as a more diverse set of skills are available to you, so strategising and optimising your turn count becomes deeper. Additionally, around this point in, the complexity and quality of the dungeons also sees a significant rise as they become far more labyrinthine; with pitfalls, dead ends, teleportation tiles, and puzzles to solve. My favourites being the Obelisk, Amala Temple, and Diet Building. This makes traversal far less monotonous and does well to break up the persistent and oftentimes overwhelming random encounters. Although obviously limited and quite primitive, I actually really enjoyed the dungeon crawling aspect of the game, navigating these homogenous environments is disorientating, obtuse, and unlike anything I’ve played before, so it was a new and refreshing experience for me.

The best aspect of Nocturne is easily it’s Press Turn Battle System. It’s fast and dynamic, encouraging players to exploit half turns so that they can gain every move and advantage at their disposal. This is achieved through careful consideration of the party’s skill set, the enemies’ strengths and weaknesses as well as the order of every action, and sometimes even foresight from the player to mitigate their own party’s weaknesses. Nowhere is the strength of Nocturne’s combat clearer than in its challenging boss battles, with highlights like Beelzebub, Baal Avatar, and Satan, which really require careful planning in regard to how to build your party and the execution of your strategy. No other game quite has you second guessing yourself as frequently as in Nocturne, weighing risk against reward, where whiffing a physical attack or striking an enemy strength can lead to the loss of two turn icons and subsequently even sudden death. This element of apprehension is fundamental to the experience this game offers as save points can be few and far between, so death has consequence, perfectly reflecting the hostility of the desolate wasteland that is the Vortex World. The soundtrack also excellently echoes this, from the eerie and ambient electronica that plays during exploration to the fierce and demonic rock in battles. All in all, Nocturne has great atmosphere thanks to its unique vision of a post-apocalyptic world both audibly and visually.

Although a tad antiquated, Nocturne is a fundamental title that establishes so many of the best elements found in Atlus’s modern RPGs such as Press Turn and streamlined Demon Fusion, however it is harder to appreciate when this hasn’t been my first exposure to these systems and 20 years after its initial release.

This was my first SMT game and first megaten game outside of Persona and Catherine, and it definitely met and exceeded my expectations on just how peak of a game it could possibly be.

This game manages to introduce to the world one of the most engaging turn based combat systems ever created, along with managing to explore different philosophical view points in an almost equally engaging and interesting way. I loved the reasons each character had and how they all have their benefits and flaws. While I did go for the good freedom ending, I will definitely be going back to this game to explore the different reason endings (specifically musubi and shijima and I find them more compelling personally than yosuga) along with TDK as I didn't do anything in labyrinth of amala in my first playthrough.

This game just blew my expectations away and my playthrough will definitely be one of my highlights of this year.

Fuck the random encounters though

كريماستر احتاج اقول هذا بجدية مبهر. كيف ان اعادوا صناعة اللعبة من الصفر باستعمال يونيت, هذا حرفيُا ريميك
اذا برجع لنوكتورن بلعب نسخة السوني 2 لانها اجمل برأيي لكن ما اقول هذا كذم للمطورين لان مثل ما قلت هذا الريماستر مبهر

اما بالنسبة ل نوكتورن نفسها فهي غنية عن التعريف. واحدة من افضل اعمال اتلس على الاطلاق
يمكن بكتب رأيي المفصل لها عندما اعيد اللعبة بنسخة السوني 2 يوم ما لكن اردت ان اكتب عن الريماستر فقط

I wish I enjoyed this more than I do... but I just cannot get myself to like this game all that much. The number of random battles is soul-crushing, its artificial difficulty, lack of save points, and bland environments make the game a chore to work through.

I do enjoy the story (as little as there is) and the overbearing, dreadful atmosphere that permeates throughout the game though. It almost feels like a survival horror game in that regard.

Nothing has given me a rage inducing moment yet, but there were a couple moments that were close... I feel I can chalk this up to being an Atlus/Persona/SMT veteran, so I understand the importance of demon fusing and skills (in particular buffs and debuffs). I just like Digital Devil Saga and Devil Survivor more...

At time of writing, I'm in the city retaken by the Manikins at Level 42... so I made some decent progress, but I'm shelving it for now.

The OSTs need to be modded since their qualities have been degraded in this version, game can boot up laggy and can even crash at times. Not very ideal for the re-master.

Otherwise, the designs and visuals are solid, story is good and all characters are reasonable in their own way. Though they could've been given more facial expressions.

P.s. Demon negotiations are tough but that's how it usually works. Wait until you play SMT IV.

There is a lot to love about Nocturne. The story is relevant and timeless, the characters engaging. The Vortex World of post-apocalyptic Tokyo is eerily beautiful, the dungeons varied. The voice acting is all around pretty solid (I played using the Japanese cast, since I prefer original language to dubs). Even the game’s vaunted difficulty, for all the anguish and frustration it caused, has its own charms. Some of the game design choices feel distinctly of their era and returning to them 20 years on feels archaic and cumbersome, but despite those flaws, Nocturne stands the test of time and remains one of gaming’s best RPGs. You owe it to yourself to play it if you haven’t before, and to revisit it if you have. The HD remaster is a fantastic addition to the SMT library.

https://operationrainfall.com/2021/05/26/review-shin-megami-tensei-iii-nocturne-hd-remaster/