When a game has an amazing story to it and is destroyed by brutally punishing difficulty you get Nocturne
User Rating: 9.5 | Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne PS2
The MegaTen games are famous in the JRPG world and Nocturne is a revolutionary game but sadly I found out this is the third of the series so I'm going to find the first two. Anyways the Story for Nocturne is amazing. *Note* I will be using the characters default names in this review. Nocturne takes place in Japan... sorta and you the protagonist goes to find your teacher name Yuko Takao with your friends who told you to go to a hospital since she said to meet her there, but not any hospital this hospital was abandon for strange reasons and thus your findings in this hospital turns out to be a safe zone for whom ever isn't in the hospital dies. Now after a scenes of events the world is devoured by a void by turning this world into a demon world and there are only a few human survivors in this demon world and who are those humans? They are two of your friends; a boy name Isamu Nitta and girl name Chiaki Tachibana, a guy name Hijiri Jyoji who is trying to find out what is up with Hikawa another survivor who is the leader of a corp and a secret cult who runs in the abandon hospital, and of course Yuko. Now I know what your thinking why didn't I include you the MC? well some might say it's obvious you play as him so he should be a survivor but if you didn't read it carefully I wrote "Human" survivors, that's right after the world plunges into the void of the demon world you basically die and resurrected as a demon but you are not a demon nor human so they call you a Demi-Fiend. After that your on your own in this apocalyptic world and soon you must find out how to go back... or not. There are multiple ending to this game find out what you'll get by choosing choices in this game or doing certain tasks too. The Gameplay is great, the mechanics are organized from the menus to the gameplay itself. The free roam gets kind boring after awhile since there was a few back tracking but overall is still gets in there. When roaming around your compass shows if you will get encounter by a demon by it's color yellow for ok, orange for warning, and red for near battle. The Kagutsuchi system is confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it later, the Kagutsuchi resembles the moon; new, half and full, and will also affect the demons in battle. Also it changes the whole first person view of the original two into third person as well as in the battles. The battle system is like any JRPG game, in Nocturne you can either fight (numerous ways), pass turn, talk (numerous ways), use item (MC only), summon demon (MC only), dismiss demon (Demon only), or flee. When fighting there is a certain amount of turns for each the player or enemy, for the amount of demon on either side that is the amount of turns you or they will have, but you can have greater chances of getting more by hitting their weaknesses or hitting a critical, by doing this you will only use half of a turn and use more moves or just pass to use half as well but when the enemy dodges a move or they void the move (nullify) you lose two turns, even worse if an enemy drains or repels a move you lose all your turns, but this also works vise versa so use this to your advantage. The only problem with the game is the ultra hard difficulty this game literally pushed me further away from the game due to this, and I was on normal. The Sound is amazing when using fire, ice, wind, thunder, physical strikes, special moves, healing spells, skill-up spells, (I can't keep this up!) the sound effects match each and everyone of them, the demons also sound good but some of them may sound a bit off. The music fits great, from the outside world, to dungeons, to battles, the outside world only has one song, but the dungeons have a variety of songs in them (one for each) and also depending on which dungeon your in the battle music changes as well, which I though was awesome so you won't get bored with just one song. The Graphics are great, the whole 3D outlook is great to watch when doing puzzles that affect the outlook of the dungeon which makes it fun. and the stunning graphics on battles when using some skills or spells are amazing as well. The cut scenes graphics are also great too when looking at the story you have got to look at the graphics as well, especially the worlds void from the beginning, sad but beautifully well done. The controls can be frustrating. The character moves a bit weird but you'll get the hang of it, and also the camera works well, it's smooth and doesn't mess you up during dungeons. And since this is a JRPG you don't control the character during battles since you use a command instead, but that is the glory of a JRPG. Nocturne can be a pain in the butt when it comes to the horrible difficulty but overall when you get the change to play this you'll never see the world the same way again.
Score:
Story: 9.0
Gameplay: 8.5
Sound: 10
Graphics: 10
Controls: 9.5
Overall: 9.4
