Nocturnal

Nocturnal is divine. The playtime is just under five hours if you go straight through the game. I saw a player online who, with his enthusiasm, breezed through it in two hours. I could point out minor audio glitches, complain about the lack of voice acting, or bring up that controller issue. But the concept of a 2D platformer is absolutely magical, perfect, and—given the visuals—incredibly captivating. If you love these kinds of games, Nocturnal will become a favorite, and I swear you’ll be able to play it over and over again.

Nocturnal features fast and furious action as well as an interesting gameplay system with fire and light. With good graphics, atmosphere and entertainment, at least for the few hours it offers.

Nocturnal is a compact proposal, to the point and with interesting mechanics in terms of combat and puzzles. It is far from the great exponents of the genre, but it bets on some original elements that can undoubtedly attract an audience that does not want to complicate itself with the rigid, demanding and absorbing structure of a pure and simple Metroidvania.

That’s the best way to describe Nocturnal: it’s a neat game. It won’t take too much of your time, and it’s similar enough to other metroidvanias that you’ll probably only want to play it if you’re already a fan of the genre, but if you like the genre and want something that has enough spark of inspiration to carry it through a few hours, it’s definitely worth investigating.

A competent, yet underwhelming Prince of Persia-inspired puzzle platformer. Its good looks will get it far, but its shallow personality won't be bringing you back.

Nocturnal is a characteristic and original videogame which, however, does not innovate the videogame panorama, while proposing an interesting and satisfying context. The playful structure, pleasant and extremely well integrated, could entertain for a few hours. A work to have if you love the genre and if you are curious about it.

Its combat as far as the common enemies goes feels repetitive, however, and sometimes it’s best to avoid it whenever possible, and its audio design is very short, but fans of the genre have something to look for here.

Nocturnal focuses on one mechanic and builds everything around it beautifully. However, it ends too soon and fails to give its world and story justice.

Sunnyside have something very special in Nocturnal that could easily stand with the best if it had just a little more story and content.

Between a simple presentation and a deeply personal story, Sunnyside Games crafted a great game that has a lot of highlights in the visual side and combat, but is hard to recommend due to its short length, lack of replay value and finicky platform controllers in some precise moments of the gameplay.