Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Players: One
Age Rating: Mature

Review:

I've been interested in the SMT series for quite a while; since I heard of Persona 2 in magazines a few years back, I thought it would be an interesting series to check out. Mainly because of the art direction; Kazuma Kaneko has a distinctive, depressing art style that just draws you in.

More games were released in the SMT series, but I never had a chance to play them because I didn't have the required hardware. When I finally got a PS2, Persona 3 came out a few months afterward, and I finally dipped my feet into the pond.

Persona 3, in Final Fantasy terms, is my Final Fantasy VII. It brought me into the fold, of SMT and JRPGs in general, and now I'm a fan.

So how does this relate to Nocturne?

You could equate Nocturne to pretty much any classic 16-bit JRPG. I haven't played much of them, but 16-bit JRPGs were about pushing the limits of a given direction. You play a game like Chrono Trigger, and you feel it push against what players expected of the era. The fair scene in the beginning, the trial, the battle from the side profile; all little nudges, such small strides towards the greater goal of doing more.

Nocturne feels like this. It starts, literally, with a bang; the end of the world, with the goal of reforming it. You play the role of one of the few who actually can impose a Reason, or a way of life, for all beings, demon or not.

The new world in Nocturne, the Vortex World, is fascinating. Vestiges of the previous world remain, representing humanity obsession with the grossly material; shopping malls, giant monoliths, construction sites. Soothing music plays, only to juxtapose the reality of the new world with the memory of the old.

Nocturne is a very richly developed game. You play it, and you can just feel the craftsmanship, the depth of it all. So many design touches, like the slowly decaying Labyrinth of Amala, to the distinctive character and dungeon design, to the demons. Visually, it gets more and more twisted, more and more willing to fuck with the player: the Diet Building is evidence of this. From an art direction standpoint, Nocturne is gorgeous, if you can appreciate its sometimes macabre, always somber tone. Technically, it is no Final Fantasy XII or even X, but the cel-shaded look helps to offset the lower technical performance.

Aurally, the game is a masterwork. I wish Shoji Meguro made music like this again; pulsating, alive, but never resorting to cheap tricks and Persona 3's "baby baby baby"s. Half the time, the music is barely there, just mere wisps of a synth bleat, but it fits perfectly. Then, of course, there's the piano which seems to be in every SMT game, and it always does what it has to: soothe. The music which plays prior to battling the Fiends has to be some of the best I've ever heard in a game.

There isn't really a main character to Nocturne, as the player character doesn't really develop. Absolute in his inability to talk, it isn't about him; it's about the world around him. This will, probably, throw off a lot of potential players: because there is no "resolution" for the character. But why does one need resolution when he is so formless to begin with? The paradox in the player character - being half-demon, half-human - and the rest of the world, which has never seen anything like him, is the point. The delivery of the game hinges on the fact that everything is foreign, unknown, and relies on the players will to explore the new world and learn more and eventually define it: not curing amnesia. The way it's directed, Nocturne is about watching how others change around you, realize themselves. It's enjoyable, like how The Shining was an enjoyable movie.

To enjoy Nocturne, you have to realize that it's not always about you in a game. It's a lesson that Nocturne preaches not only in the definition of the main character, but also with the progression of the story. Many characters in Nocturne develop their own Reason, and when you learn more about each individual, you realize there isn't a "bad" or a "good"; just perspectives, each of them justifiable to varying degrees. How much you agree with them determines your ending; or your can forge you own path, in which ever direction you wish. There's multiple endings, encouraging multiple playthroughs, and I think with how well Nocturne is designed, it can with stand it.

Nocturne is notorious for being a hard game. It's not too bad. I mean, yeah, you do die, and quite a bit; I just never got why many RPG players felt the need to be so inhumanly strong that nothing should be able to take them out. The basic system of Nocturne is that: you get demons, make a party, and use this party to fight those who get in your way. Combat-wise, Nocturne has something that many RPGs don't have: crunch. Or, the feeling that you are actually doing something.

You play a game like Street Fighter 4 or Daytona USA, and you can feel how connected the player and the gameplay system become, where every action feels right. That's how Nocturne is. It mainly achieves this through what Atlus calls the Press Turn system.

There are no time bars or anything here: just simple system that every character on your team gets one action per each player phase. However, if you hit an enemies weakness, or perform a critical hit on an enemy, you only use up "half" an action; in effect, you get an extra turn. This need for strategy is what makes Nocturne tick: because enemies can do this to you too. Not only that, if you decide to pass an action, you only use half of it as well.

As a result, battle in Nocturne almost has a motor-like rhythm to it, to keep up the pace, to keep going, skillfully using your turns, planning ahead, making the most of what you have. This would have been enough, in the case of other SMT games like Persona 3 and 4. But, you can also negotiate with the demons as well.

It's a good idea, but to be honest, if there is one major flaw with Nocturne, it's with the negotiations. Other games, namely Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, does the negotiation deal much better. It's nothing like negotiating with anyone, because most of the time, demons are money and item grabbing whores. You can teach members of your party negotiation skills as well, but why would you do that? Give up a precious skill slot so you can talk? Fuck that. So as a result, negotiations break down into really just you giving them stuff, and then they'll join you. Yes, this is the primary method for obtaining demons for your party, so get used to it.

The other way to get demons is to fuse them together to make a more powerful one. It's in many SMT games, and it's addicting as hell. It's Pokemon, except with a creepy priest. Skills can be transferred over from old demons to the new one, and if you fuse under certain conditions, you can also sacrifice a demon to infuse your new one with even more attacks and better stats. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and Nocturne makes you know, with nearly every aspect of it.

With Nocturne, you may not enjoy it. It's different. With a game that is so seemingly not typical JRPG, it doesn't expect alot of RPG gamers to enjoy it. But those that do? It's easily the best in the business, so far ahead of its peers its influence can't even be felt.

A damn shame, for that. But for all the innovators, time is needed for people to appreciate.

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Ratings:

Graphics: B+ technically, not the best on the PS2, but the overall direction helps this game immensely.
Sound: A gorgeous. If you don't play this game, at least scope out the soundtrack.
Gameplay: A- the actual battle system is genius, but the demon negotiation is lacking.
Replayability: A+ with six different endings, each of which change the game fairly signifigantly, Nocturne offers tons to do.

OVERALL: A just play it. It's worth experiencing, even a little bit of it.

So then, in six or seven years, once I finish P3 and P4, if P5 hasn't come out by then, I'll give this a try, yeah?

I've always dug games like you've made this sound, just...completely open and free. Bonus points if you can actually shape the world to your will.

Nicely done review.

The whole Reason concept, you can't completely shape the world as you want it - at the end of the day, depending on the choices you make in game, you end up with one of the endings - but it does give Nocturne a certain freedom beyond most JRPGs. The feeling of just playing the game though, it does have a freedom to it; it encourages the player to experience as much as you can through rather minimal prodding. The concept itself is so out there, I personally felt a need to experience the world.

I was scared my review was too tl;dr at first D: I looked at it afterwards and went "shiiiiiiiiiiiit". Thanks for the compliments though! On Kombo (the other forum i frequent), I write I guess "impressions" of a game; it's not structured on graphics or anything, just how I feel about it when I play it. So writing something a little more stuctured took a while.

P4 is actually much shorter than P3. They way it's designed, you can knock off good sized chunks of it really easily. Maybe I'll review that next.

Not a whole lot's tl;dr for me. I've loved reading since I was about 3, so I tend to not mind walls of text.

But sure, I'd quite like to hear a review on P4. I've heard various views from people, but all anyone seems to agree on is that it's shorter.