The story of Nocturnal is that you play as a soldier named Ardeshir. Ardeshir has returned home to his island, only to find that it’s been engulfed and ravaged by an entity known as the Mist. It’s now up to Ardeshir to defeat the Mist and reclaim his home.
Nocturnal plays like your typical side-scrolling action adventure game but with a dark and gritty feel to it. As the name of the game suggests, the game takes place primarily at night or in the dark recesses of underground labyrinths. As you traverse each area you are tasked with solving puzzles and dispatching various enemies, both large and small. You have to use the destructive nature of fire to either light or burn your way through each puzzle. This will either unlock a new ability/weapon, or get you through to the next area.
Enemies in the game, even the small ones can pose a significant risk to your mortality, and this gives it a real souls like feel and forces you to really approach each enemy strategically. The larger enemies tower over you and really make you feel small and significant, but are very satisfying to take down. In addition to the enemies you will find, there are also environmental hazards in the form of the evil mist that engulfs your world or falling debris that will crush you with one wrong move.
Nocturnal is easily one of the most graphically impressive 2D games I’ve had the opportunity to play on Switch. I previously mentioned how dark the game is and how you have to use fire as a main staple in the game. Well the developers worked really hard to make fire stand out not only in the mechanics of the game in it’s entirety, but also from a graphical standpoint.
The locations you find yourself in are very dark. Often you will have to use fire to illuminate your surroundings with the weapon you wield. The glow of the flame tapers off at a rather small distance and really hits home as to just how dark and mysterious the environment is that you find yourself in. Given how well the flame an the light it emits behaves, it produces some really beautiful shadows. This all results in Nocturnal having some of the best lighting and shadow effects I’ve ever seen in a 2D action adventure game, and it is truly a sight to behold.
So with as much emphasis as the game puts on lighting and shadows , how does this translate to performance? Well because the game is a 2D game, it performs spectacularly well with absolutely no slowdown to speak of. The game is fast and fluid the way a game like this would be expected to be.
Nocturnal soundtrack is as haunting as it is beautiful. The music in the game has a very melodic and yet very dark tone to it that really helps to set the mood of the game as a whole. I think that if it was anything but a hauntingly dark and melodic soundtrack, that it wouldn’t fit the game well at all.
The sound effects in the game are as impressive as the graphics. The sound of the flame traveling through the air, lighting things aflame is very authentic and gives a nice sense of power to the flame itself. Outside of the powerful sounds of fire and flame, the environmental sound effects are nice and make the world come alive, even if it does feel a bit empty at times.
Nocturnal is a game that you’re going to want to play if you a fan of souls like games or are looking for a really good side scrolling adventure game. Nocturnal use of light and shadow is at a level that is unmatched when it comes similar games found in it’s genre. I would definitely recommend checking this beautiful game out for yourself.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.