One of the best JRPG's ever made!
GAMEPLAY: 10/10
The game play in SMT Nocturne is really amazing. On the surface, it looks as though the game plays like a typical old-school JRPG where you take turns in the battle choosing what attacks to perform from a menu. While this is true, there is so much more to it than just that. In battle either your team or the enemies team attacks (Your team will all take their turn and then the enemies team will take its turn). In this game you get these things called turn icons that you see at the top of the screen. Attacking an enemy uses up an icon. NOW, if you happen to get a critical hit or hit an enemies weakness the turn icon will flash instead of going away giving you an extra turn. This can be done until all icons are flashing (an icon can only flash once after that it will disappear even after a crit hit/ hit weak point), which can lead up to 8 actions in a round based on having a maximum of 4 team members in battle (in other words you could all have the potential for two attacks in a round). The same is true for the enemy though, if they hit your weak spot/crit you, they will get extra (flashing) turn icons. Hitting an enemies weakness/crit hit will give you an extra turn BUT if you hit them with an attack that they VOID (no damage) you will loose TWO icons instead of the one. If you hit them with an attack that they DRAIN (attack heals them instead of damaging them) or REPEL (Attack bounces back and hurts you) you will loose ALL TURN ICONS. The same is true for the enemies as well. Besides the basic battle system you have a demon recruiting system in this game instead of having a preset cast of characters for battle. Each demon has its own weaknesses and strengths that make recruiting demons a blast. On top of this your character has his own skill leveling system that itself is very deep. I could go on and on but I will leave some of the other finer points for the reader to experience themselves.
STORY: 8/10
I gave the story 1 extra point for only one reason. That is because it is a lot darker and more unique than what you will find in a typical JRPG. It involves the end of the world (or just Tokyo, I cant really remember) and everyone dying except for you and some of your friends. While the story is in no way bad, it isn't particularly deep or engrossing. Not a plot heavy game. The game does, however, toy with a lot of religious/philosophical themes that definitely boosts the experience for me.
CHARACTERS: 8/10
The characters in the game are there for the sake of the story and mostly serve to move the plot along. There is character development with all of the main characters in the game which is a HUGE plus for me even if they are not that particularly deep or engaging characters.
SOUND: 10/10
The music in the game is awesome and the battle music is just as good. I recommend youtube just to see if it fits your taste.
TILT: I add/subtract points based on my overall experience of the game. I will even give bad games extra points if there is something in there that just speaks to me. For this game I give it an extra .5 points bringing the total to:
9.5
I have played JRPG's with better stories and more interesting characters (Persona 4 and 3 for example) but this was the game that started my love for JRPG's. I had played other JRPG's before but this is what really got me into the genre. I would really like to go on and on but I think this review ended up being a tad bit too long.