Short version: Come here if you want smooth, balanced, and action-packed ATB animated beautifully. Levelling system is amazing for people who want control over when and how they use EXP while leaving incentives for winning without grinding. Story is Twilight only more fighting and less awful, don't play this game if you still find yourself cringing at the past you who thought dual-wielding longswords was the best thing ever. Also horrible loot drop system.

>Story
Story first, let's clear out any misunderstandings: Yes there are vampires. Yes, you've got the vampire male lead and innocent human village girl in a love story. A lot of the romance tropes and borderline abusive/depression stuff happens. But our vampire male lead instead spends most of his time reveling in his edgy dark "killing is so great and humans are worthless". It's a little funny that way.

They do succeed near the end at tugging the heartstrings, and you won't feel that everyone is irredeemable scum by the end of it.

As this is a remastered game, the story actually extends beyond the romance plot. The next....arc, if you will, is significantly more serious and well done. At its heart, it's still a love story, but you'll find it a very different and more interesting one. Not for the plot twists, but for the depth of character and resolve.


>Roaming Graphics
Top notch. The only rpgm game I know where running feels fast. It's not the same as actually making the character move fast(because that then has problems of navigating precisely), but actual animation techniques are used to make the main character look like he's a fast runner. Face portraits are pretty and have varied expressions, even for select NPCs.


>Combat Graphics
This is the real deal, and I cannot stress how the animation firmly gives the feeling of fast-paced combat. When you're up against the really tough bosses, it is definitely a clash of 2 powerful forces instead of 1 powerful force and a static wall.


>Combat Mechanics
For pretty much the entire game, Nocturne is about one really strong dude and his sidekicks. The power level is asymmetrical, and balanced well for it. You can even go solo, and there are mechanics in place to support that style of play.

As an ATB, the bars are below or beside each combatant rather at the bottom or with a massive turn order bar. I've always felt that the turn order bar takes away from the atmosphere, makes things to ordered for what is supposed to be a chaotic battlefield, so I welcome this more modular approach. Besides, badly done turn order bars give you less information than eyeballing those ATB bars yourself.

There aren't many ways to control ATB, but they exist: stuns, interrupts, etc. exist, but are kept few to keep the meta away from constantly doing that. I appreciate how that opens up the way for varied builds that focus less or even not at all on ATB manipulation.


>Loot Drops
RNG will make you its bitch. 80% of the game's loot is lottery, very little control is placed on what kind of drops you get. Stronger enemies give you higher tier items, that's about it.

In terms of how bad this is in play, it's more maddening than, say, Tactics Ogre's crafting system, but will ultimately take you less time due to the smaller item list and faster drops in general.


>Difficulty
It isn't hard, and is in fact incredibly easy, to grind your way to victory. Rather than slow exp gain to a crawl, the game instead rewards you for beating each of the bosses at/below a clearly displayed Brave Clear level. In order to do this, you are free to choose not to use EXP or reset your level as you please.

On the hardcore scale, the challenges are tough but fair. With good equipment, I was even able to solo all the bosses at Brave Clear level.....except the last boss. Screw that.


>Music
I'm not a great judge of music. I really liked the boss music choices, but saying any more is spoilers. I liked individual pieces, but take that opinion with plenty of salt.

>Conclusion
see the short version above