Nocturnal
Last updated: 2025-07-28
- Highly enjoyable, well-crafted 2D action-platformer
- Stunning visuals and innovative fire mechanic
- Fluid combat and pleasant platforming
- Game too short for its price
- Repetitive, shallow combat experience
- Weak and unclear story reception
Emotions
Players expressed satisfaction primarily due to the game's high overall quality, engaging combat, appealing visuals, and well-crafted soundtrack. The game's value for money, especially when on sale, and its concise yet enjoyable design also contributed significantly to positive experiences.
Disappointment stemmed mainly from the game's short length and perceived lack of content, particularly when purchased at full price. Repetitive combat, unrealized potential, and a lack of depth in story or mechanics also contributed to negative feelings.
Frustration was caused by technical issues such as stuttering, poor visibility, and camera problems. Difficult or unengaging combat mechanics, confusing level design, and specific bugs also led to player frustration.
Enjoyment was consistently linked to the game's fun and entertaining gameplay, particularly its parkour, platforming, and fire mechanics. The overall quality, art style, and engaging combat also contributed to a positive experience.
Excitement was driven by the game's overall quality, unique gameplay, and the anticipation for a potential sequel. The engaging combat and captivating nature of the game also contributed to this emotion.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 86% · Negative 14%. Score: 14 / 100
Positives:
- Players consistently praise the game as a highly enjoyable, entertaining, and well-crafted experience. Its concise nature and engaging gameplay contribute to a satisfying and memorable adventure.
- The game receives overwhelming acclaim for its stunning visuals, art style, and atmospheric design. The use of fire and shadow effects, in particular, is highlighted as exceptionally beautiful and immersive.
- The central fire mechanic is lauded as innovative, well-executed, and integral to both combat and puzzle-solving. Its implementation creates a unique and satisfying gameplay loop.
- Combat is frequently praised for its fluidity, dynamism, and smooth execution. Players appreciate the variety of enemies, unlockable abilities, and well-balanced difficulty, making fights enjoyable.
- The platforming elements are described as fluid, pleasant, and well-designed, offering a balanced challenge without being overly difficult. It's considered a strong aspect of the game's overall design.
Negatives:
- Players consistently feel the game is too short (2-3 hours) for its price point, leading to a perception of low value. Many believe it feels more like a demo or a game that should be significantly cheaper.
- Combat is described as repetitive, simplistic, and lacking depth. Players found it often devolved into 'attack, dodge, repeat' or 'roll and hit' with little satisfaction or need for strategic thinking.
- The narrative is frequently criticized for being underdeveloped, confusing, or cliché. Players felt a lack of explanation for the world and story, which hindered their engagement.
- The puzzle elements are seen as monotonous and unchallenging, often relying on the same simple mechanics. This lack of variety and difficulty made puzzles uninteresting for players.
- Poor visibility due to dark environments and excessive lighting effects makes it difficult to see enemies and their attacks, leading to frustrating combat and exploration.
Gameplay:
- The game is consistently described as a short, linear experience, typically completable within 2-4 hours. This brevity is often highlighted as a feature that encourages speedrunning and makes 100% completion achievable in a single playthrough.
- The central and most unique mechanic revolves around a flaming sword. Players must keep the sword ignited to survive the pervasive darkness, illuminate environments, solve puzzles, and effectively combat shadow enemies. This fire mechanic is integral to both exploration and combat.
- The game is primarily a 2D side-scrolling action-platformer. While it shares some visual similarities with Metroidvanias, it is explicitly linear, focusing on platforming, simple hack-and-slash combat, and environmental puzzles rather than extensive exploration or complex RPG elements.
- Combat is described as functional and serviceable, relying on basic attacks, dodges, and parries. While not overly complex, it is generally considered satisfying and responsive, with an emphasis on movement and reflexes.
- The game features a small and straightforward skill tree. Players can unlock a limited number of abilities that enhance combat, and the skill tree is designed to be easily completed, often within a single playthrough.
Performance:
- Players report a largely bug-free experience, with only isolated incidents of minor bugs or none at all. This indicates a high level of polish in the game's stability.
- Some players experienced game crashes, and in one instance, a full computer crash. This suggests potential stability issues that could disrupt gameplay.
- Players found that adjusting video settings from 'Quality' to 'Performance' significantly helped in preventing frame rate drops. This suggests that default settings might be too demanding for some systems.
Recommendations:
- Many players highly recommend the game, especially when purchased at a significant discount or during a sale. They feel the game offers good value for its price point when reduced, making it a worthwhile experience for its length and genre.
- Players are very interested in and eagerly awaiting a sequel to the game, with some expressing a desire to support the developers for future titles. There's a clear anticipation for more content or a follow-up from the same creators.
- One reviewer stated they would not give a good review, while another did not regret their purchase. This indicates mixed individual sentiment that doesn't form a strong, actionable consensus.
- One player mentioned the game evoked childhood memories, suggesting a nostalgic appeal. While positive, this is a subjective and less actionable piece of feedback.
Miscellaneous:
- Player opinions on the story are mixed; some find it interesting, simple yet engaging, or beautiful, while others feel it's just 'okay' or even non-existent due to a fragmented narrative. The lore, particularly around the mist, is noted as intriguing.
- The game's visual style and atmosphere frequently draw comparisons to other titles, particularly Prince of Persia games from the 2000s, and also Himno and Children of Morta.
- The game lacks traditional cinematics and a narrator, with very few non-player characters who do not contribute to the story through dialogue.
- Players acknowledge that the game was developed by a small or tiny team, which often influences expectations regarding scope and content.
- The music receives varied feedback; some describe it as enchanting and top-notch, while others find it to be merely medium or just okay.
