Nocturnal is a side-scrolling action-adventure game developed by Sunnyside Games and published by Dear Villagers. You will take the reigns of Ardeshir, soldier of the Enduring Flame as he returns home to his native island of Nahran only to discover it all covered in a dark and mysterious fog. Journey across his native land armed with the sacred flame of your ancestors and try to uncover what happened to your people and why a peculiar mist obscures the land. Released on June 7th 2023, Nocturnal should be on everyone’s wishlists at the minimum, as it was a joy to experience, let’s get into it!

Very melancholic environments

Fight For Your Home

You’re met with melancholic environments from the moment you begin your journey across Nahran. It’s very simple in regard to its story, which sees Ardeshir return home to a mysterious mist and try to uncover what is going on. Simple does not mean bad as the story functions fine here and gives you a reason to press forward. Along the way, you’ll meet a character who says a brief few words but aside from that a lot of the storytelling is very much environmental. From destroyed rooms and scattered corpses, you’re able to paint your own picture of what happened here.

The mist is an interesting mechanic and plays a huge role during Nocturnal’s short adventure. Ardeshir can wield the flame of his ancestors, so you’ll be able to use this to your advantage. Lighting up torches along the way to ensure you keep yourself within the light. Straying into the dark for a prolonged period of time leads to an inevitable death. This mechanic evolves over time as the game introduces enemies and new abilities. Phoenix shrines can be found along the way and providing you have enough points (collected by smashing pots and defeating enemies) you can upgrade Ardeshir with more health or even extend his burn time. Once you strike a lit torch, you will have the flame for a short period of time and later on in the game, you can use this flame to heal yourself in a tight situation at the cost of the rest of your flame essentially turning combat and health remedies into a challenging and fun juggling act. Add to this, enemies you face off against that appear to be shrouded in the mist are invulnerable to standard attacks and you have to be powered by the flame to deal any damage. There’s plenty to juggle around here during combat without ever feeling overwhelmed.

A gorgeous landscape

Whilst most of the enemies are quite basic, they provide enough of a challenge and there’s enough variety here to keep it fresh. You won’t find yourself lambasted with 8 of the same enemy within a tight space either to give you a false sense of challenge. The larger the group, the more challenge and of course you’ll still need to be avoiding the mist and keeping your flame topped up. The bosses are where the game poses a real challenge and caused me to repeatedly die and try to learn their attack patterns to get the best of them. It’s enough of a challenge to keep you engaged but not frustrated which can be a hard line to walk but Nocturnal does a great job of this.

Whilst the enemies are quite basic in attack patterns, it works and I enjoyed it. The icing on the cake is the world and enemy design. Some of the creatures you will face off against have very cool designs and they take place in some stunning-looking locations. Plenty of beautiful landscapes to traverse across topped off with some neat animations making for what I personally consider to be a visual treat. A charming experience with plenty of moods, having stopped and stood still outside in the rain, listening to it land against the trees above proves the audio also plays a great part here.

Become The Flame

A Deadly Mist

Overall, Nocturnal was just a pleasant surprise for me. I went in blind and didn’t really know what to expect but came out the end of it having a brilliant experience. The animations are great and it’s a beautiful game through and through. Whilst the combat can feel rather simplistic, it worked really well for what it did do and I loved it. I definitely recommend this if you’re an action-platforming fan as I don’t feel as though you’ll be disappointed with Nocturnal. Taking me around 3 to 4 hours to reach the credits, it’s a great length to boot, as running any longer could have grown tedious so I’m glad it didn’t overstay its welcome. With the full 1000G not impossibly out of reach also, it’s a great all-rounder. A speed-run mode also opens up once you’ve completed the game once, which I haven’t checked out, so there’s that, too.

The Skill Tree is great but I feel like I didn’t get to reach most of the full abilities as points collected throughout feel a little scarce, although I’m unsure if finding the shrines towards an achievement would change this much. That said, I still appreciated the addition of a skill tree here as it did let me tinker with Ardeshir somewhat.

2023 is undoubtedly a crazily packed year for video games and hopefully, you won’t let Nocturnal slip through your fingers, it’s a great time. Kudos to Sunnyside Games.