Nocturnal: Enhanced Edition

This is a very well made, well designed game with a very unique premise. It is short and there aren't a ton of enemies but the combat is intense. While not a hard game, veteran platform gamers will find some familiar mechanics and newcomers will likely need a few minutes to get used to the game. The graphics and visuals are impressive and create an engrossing atmosphere. The checkpoints are very close to each other so the game can be played in short increments. The game requires the player to keep torches lit to maintain "fire" power and to keep the "mist" at bay, and your character has a limited amount of time before the fire power runs out. It can be maintained or regained by slashing lit torches. Fire power gives your character special, powerful abilities like combos, projectiles, and healing. There is a cool little skill tree that is not overly complex and you can gain skills by gathering "points" from slashing jars, statues, or killing monsters. A fun addition is that much of the background is destructible when you have fire power. Find hidden areas by burning random stuff! The platorming is straightforward but still requires some skill. Boss battles are intense and challenging, just make sure you keep slashing torches to keep your fire power! It is a short, 3+ hour game but the developers valued quality over quantity. This is a must play for anyone who likes action games but would like something a little different. The story slowly develops but really keeps the player interested. There aren't really any instructions on how to play the game, but the game has tips that can be disabled at any time. Ther gameplay is easy to figure out, though, and this also adds to the mystery of the game. Highly recommended and hopefully, we get a sequel or expansion some day.

You know its fun when they throw 5 bad guys at you and you can defeat them after a few more times with a little extra effort, but you are not constantly getting wasted for stupid defeats. With this game I would even appreciate a little more grind... Just add a few more levels; there is a good amount of different enemies... Its Fun! ::: make some add ons; bigger levels this time! I appreciate the fact that the bosses are hard but not enough to make me want to quit. The special powers are really good and the response times are excellent

Game took me a bit under 2.5 hours to get to the end of. The gameplay itself is not bad, but nothing wholly unique either. What this game does do quite well though, is the atmosphere, and those light and shadow effects look quite nice. I quite liked how a major mechanic of the game is to light torches to drive back the darkness. Sadly not too much variation. But for what time it takes to finish, it does bring up variations on the mechanic until near the end. For some reason this game really gave me a Sands of Time vibe, in a good way. So if you're up for a short, quite nice looking and serviceable platformer with slightly too simple combat, this is quite nice. If you hunger for a mechanically deep platformer with demanding combat or a sense of wonder at always new areas, this is not for you.

Pros: Good controls Excellent atmosphere Cons: Short May Vary: Very easy. I hardly ever had to retry for puzzles or fights.

Short game, excelent for an afternoon, less than 4 hours direct game