Noctuary

Noctuary is a rough yet intricately presented visual novel that personally resonated with me. I should start with the more debatable aspects of the game. The story takes quite a while to pick up - I would not expect much of the action part of the game right out the bat, especially if you take all the side missions as they come up. As the adventure goes on, you do get more of the 'action game' half Noctuary presents, and the intention seems that you'll engage with the Blessing perk system enough to meet the various challenges in the later story. You do have ways to adjust the difficulty further within the settings if you need it. The English localization doesn't read naturally, though I'm aware that's not the original text of Noctuary. Redundancies and typos are here and there; considering the astounding work on the visuals, I would have liked to see the same level of consideration for the text. The presentation of Noctuary, especially in its music, main menu, and flavor text rank highly among the VNs I have played. It's enough to really immerse you into the world. How can I describe the story of Noctuary..? I think Fancia and Alina's epic adventure will provide a surprising illumination to those who feel lost in their own struggles of life. Spoilers notwithstanding, there's several reasons I sat through the latter portions of the story. Fluctuating brevity, stakes, and the action shake the pacing enough, and the story's structure generally makes it easy to pick back up at certain intervals. I'm glad I chose to sit with this VN through to its end.

It's only happened a few times before, where I'll interrupt my playthrough in order to give a review. It's usually because I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to put hours into the game without screaming about how good it is. Goodness gracious it is so good. The music, the combat, the artwork, the designs, the narrative. There is so much to love about Noctuary. One of the most common complaints I saw in my pre-purchase browse was that the game had 'a lackluster narrative'. Frankly I have no idea what they're talking about. This weird VN-RPG hybrid has an absolutely compelling narrative with shocking stings, lovable characters, and a tasteful, nuanced conflict. I've only just finished the first mission of Act 2 before saying to myself: "Nope, I have to go write a review. At this point, this game can be nothing but a positive rating". I'm going to spend a bit of time elaborating on each point of the game that I love below. The music: I originally discovered this game *through* the soundtrack. I heard that Nhato, one of my favorite electronic composers, worked on a video game OST. Upon checking out a few of the tracks, and loving them, I discovered that not only Nhato, but Taishi, and Satella as well, all of whom are within my top 10 favorite electronic artists of all time. Absolutely needless to say, all of the composers absolutely knock it out of the park. There are emotionally charged tracks, funny tracks that seamlessly transition into flowing melodies, action-packed battle themes, and so many more in between, with alternate renditions, instrumental versions, and edits of existing tracks. The combat: I ordered a VN and I was delivered a stellar product with... Combat sequences??? I knew that this game had something like this, of course, I didn't just buy this completely blindly, but still, it's a shock to see something like this implemented. Unfortunately this inclusion has left reviews somewhat divided. There is a non-zero amount of players who are upset that their VN has combat sequences, or that their top-down bullet-hell has boring dialogue in between the slashy bits. Me? I love it. The combat serves as a wonderful pace changer, and a way to keep the player invested in the events as they happen, giving a direct impact towards the narrative in more than one way. On top of all of my previous points, I love the Blessing Flower system so much. Giving each character a representative flower, and being able to assemble a custom set of benefits based off of that resulting flower is a wonderfully creative system, as well as a wonderful way to inform the player of more aspects of each character that you'll come across. The way that each character is described in terms of their specific fictional flower is very fun, and I love learning more about them in this way. The artwork: Many of the CGs and BGs of Noctuary have held my attention for longer than the artist intended because of the level of detail poured into each one. Hallways awash with daylight come alive as all of the plants littering the interior within are illuminated, moonlight shines through the halls of a meeting room and reflects off of the dangling chandeliers. Narrative snippets are interspersed with humanizing insert arts, and even some animation on rare occasion. I really need to commend the artist on their sense of aesthetics and atmosphere for several reasons. Each Beacon town has its own identity, which is keenly felt on each first time visit, thanks to the fitting blend of art and accompanying music. The design: The character design of Fancia and Alina are somewhat busy, but I can't say that I dislike them at all, either. These two designs don't compliment each other very strongly, so it's hard to say that they fit super well together, but I also am not sure that they were meant to. I think that both Fancia and Alina were designed to highlight their own characteristic and narrative strengths. Each of the NPCs also follows this trend of having a very detailed appearance, and yet not appearing overwhelming. Each character plays to their own visual design strength, and none of them feel out of place in the world they appear in. Noctuary has, so far, been an absolute blast to play, and an even greater pleasure to experience. I'm surprised that I don't hear about this game more in English-speaking circles. It is true that the EN translation trips over its own toes a few times, but it's never enough to detract from the experience of the game overall. I hope that many more people can come to love Noctuary, as I really do think that it deserves its rating. I will surely enjoy the rest of the game from here on out, and I'm greatly excited to see the conclusion.

The action is almost top-notch, but the filler destroys the game: even if you skip everything, VN would take more of your time than the actual gameplay. The story is there, but the translation leaves much to be desired, (Note that I'm not a native speaker, so it is even worse if you are. ) and the plot can be summarized as "girls girls girls something-something and than girls girls something because girls".