Hello
this time the old gem of the past is called Nocturne: Rebirth (月夜に響くノクターン Rebirth), a RPG Maker XP game made in 2009 by Shou. And what we have here it's the english translation (really well done by Eplispswich) from the japanese.
This is a remake of the old Nocturne created using RPG Maker 2000 way back in 2002, but the improvement are just about graphics and battle system, since the story was not changed.

Our protagonist is Reviel, a cool dark guy armed with two swords that saves a young girl named Luna attacked by some bandits. He defeats the three goons easily, so the girls takes her saviour to her village... but Reviel is a vampire, and one of those that likes hunting the worthless humans.
What will happen? Well play the game, and see! The story is good, really well written and really well translated! For lenght of the game I completed it in 20-22 hours (considering the failed attempts, that are not listed in my savegame time).



Graphically the game is really great, there are a lot of custom assets (including hud and other details besides the sprites), and the battlers really stand out due to their cool animations and detailed sprites. The game is party based, but in reality it's abut a single one really powerful antihero and his (less powerful) sidekicks (You can even go solo if you really really want!).

Anyway do not underestimate the low numbers, the game is challenging (tough but fair.) and requires some strategy when you face the various bosses, at the same time it's not too hard since you can grind and there is also the "Brave Clear System" that indicates the difficulty of the dungeons. Complete them at a lower level required and you will get a bonus reward, but it's your choice of course!

Levelling up is made through the expenditure of experience points on skills.
If you don't learn skills, you don't level up, but still accumulate experience points in fights of course, and there are many active and passive skills of different kinds dividend on several trees. So yes, you can grind, and it's a good thing consiering that loot instead is often scarce (stronger enemies gives you better loot but I admit that's a lottery! So good luck!) so you have to make use of two other resources: the alchemy system that lets you craft items and consumables, and the Followers system that lets you summon familiars to assist your character... even if as said before they are not that useful considering how strong is our main guy Reviel. But this is still a cool additional system!

Anyway no, there is not just story and combat, but also puzzles! And yed, they are doable but if you really hate them or find these time wasters a bit annoying you can always sacrifice some experience points and BAM! You force your way through this obstacle!

What else? Map design is in my opinion pretty good and atmospheric (even if it does not really stand out) and music is excellent (some of the tracks are the same from Seraphic Blue, so if you play that game you will know how good they are!). This is a game that's clearly professionally made.



Verdict
Nocturne: Rebirth is a solid game, complete, long and free! Yeah, it's not perfect due to the need for grinding to loot and other little issues, but there aren't really problems or errors, it's just a stylistic choice that you may or may not like. Anyway this is a game full of cool ideas well executed, a classic that you have to play due to the unique features and story (no more heroic jpg party of heroes against evil beings to save the world, but one badass vampire and his familiars).
This game gets a 4/5 from me, for being a detailed and professional game, still free and available for everyone! So try it if you can and like the genre, you can't be disappointend!