JRPG or Visual Novel? Yes!: A Noctuary Review

By JT

Players: 1
Platforms: PC

Noctuary is developed and self-published by indie studio Gratesca, who currently don't have many games under their belt. There's no pulling punches with this one as the game is straightforward. Go through the novel portion, fight, choose mission, novel portion, fight, rinse and repeat. Is it any good though? Is the story engaging and compelling? Is the combat enough to justify the "RPG" formula? We will look at the story, the art, and the combat. All of which leads to a game that is more than expected. Let’s explore the world of Noctuary!

Noctuary begins with its two main protagonists, Francia and Alina, who have set off on a mission to find and recover a newborn Illuminator. An Illuminator is a race that can emanate light, and who can become nourishment for plants and plant life. They have high hopes of becoming Arborangers, which are those who are tasked with defending the world of Arboretia from enemies known as Darkritters. Darkritters are a combination of dark elements and souls who often fear light. Picture a battle between light and dark because that’s literally the premise here. While our heroes do find the newborn Illuminator, they lose her just as soon as they found her. She is seen walking into a clearing and helping another newborn Illuminator, but arrives too late. That soul was enveloped by the darkness and was laid to rest by another walking within the shadows. After a brief introductory animated scene, the real adventure begins. First a series of tests, then the main journey. The tests themselves are too long, and the many side-quests are only weak filler for the battles to come. The one thing Noctuary needs to survive is its story, as it’s a visual novel first and foremost. So let's discuss that next.

How’s the story? Noctuary has a somewhat predictable outcome from just about each of the main missions. The narrative doesn’t help with how the side-quests are written out and executed. Sometimes you watch and keep scrolling, then suddenly you’re finished with the quest. Sometimes it’s a gathering quest, where you must gather herbs, food, or something similar. Other times it’s just a simple battle. Side-quests are not exactly the fruits and veggies of the game, they’re more like the scent. “Oh, what’s this?” Followed by disappointment. Not to say they’re all bad or boring, but many turn out that way and don’t coincide with the story whatsoever. Some don’t even feel they mesh with the overall tone of the game. However, the story isn’t all disappointing, and can be very compelling at times. The developers have added auto-scrolling to the game, whether the main story has ever been completed or not. All too often, I would use it to get through at least the side-quest portion of the game. Other times I would just click through due to most text being one-liners. There is some choice, but they mostly result in short dialogue scenes, with only a fraction actually affecting the story.

The artistry of Noctuary is beautiful, especially when discussing the backgrounds. When animation comes in, the game looks just as beautiful. Even the avatars of the characters look good. The text boxes pop up, then the characters pop up on screen, and they’re not downgraded from what you see in the animations much at all. Even the characters placed on screen, and into the world itself, are not downgraded by much either in terms of artwork. For the most part they’re all bright and colorful. Whenever someone talks on screen they’re lit up, while others are darkened into the shadows. When a character speaks they'll usually have lip movements too, something not seen in too many other visual novels.

Controls for Noctuary in combat are very simple, allowing you to switch between different types of attacks by pressing either 1, 2, or 3, or unleashing a more powerful attack by right clicking your mouse. The space bar is used to dodge, which can be very useful for escaping most AOE attacks. Most of the time I found myself using basic attacks to dodge, which can lead to either jumping or disappearing from frame for a second or two. This was a powerful technique in an arsenal of otherwise mostly sub-par attacks. Time and time again I would only ever use basic attack chains to dodge, and only ever use the right click as my main damage dealer. Once an enemy is delt a percentage of damage, a button prompt will pop up over the enemy and when pressed will unleash a Focused Attack that deals significantly more damage than other attacks. Blessings can add to attacks or other areas of your character, and are slotted the same way accessories in most RPGs are, except these are done through the main menu. They have different requirements and effects, but it’s all more complicated than it needs to be. Going through all main and side stories, it's eventually possible to own all Blessings and customize your build slightly. However it’s more than likely you’ll switch to another game before that happens, unless you truly utilize the full auto story function. Perks are linked to your attack, ability to heal, HP, movement speed, and reviving speed, which make the game easier to sit through, but not any easier on the general tediousness. Not much changes with combat between “The Test” and getting near the end of the main story. Main attack, dodge, super attack, dodge, main attack, dodge, super attack, Blessing, full combo, rinse and repeat until the threat is gone.

The music is nicely composed, even though it mostly feels like familiar territory. The introductory music when animation is on screen is the best the music you'll get throughout the entire game. There are different musical shifts between different areas and battles, including some notable boss fights, but it’s not enough to sway thoughts of “We’ve been here before.”. Sound design overall hits good, and it’s something even large studios can easily get wrong, thankfully that's not the case here.

Overall Noctuary is a decent entry into visual novel storytelling, but take out either the visual novel element or the RPG element, and we might have had a stronger product. Try as they might, they never seemed to be able to work together. You often won’t get any combat, and just scroll through an entire quest, and even when there is combat it’s usually too short and tedious. Most every side mission seems to solely exist to be a random thing you read that ultimately questions whether it should even be here. If someone were to guess the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about a type of quest to develop, they would probably be correct in their assumption. It’s food. Most quests, at least in the beginning, deal with food in some way. It makes for some very boring questlines and adds to the filler feel. Outside of the game you'll find the usual visual novel staple a Gallery, a Music Box, and Archives for both help and descriptions. Price is also a factor in overall value, and I have to say that $29.99 feels a bit steep for what sometimes comes off more like an experiment of sorts.

Noctuary isn't a terrible game, but the questionable choice to make it an RPG means that some things come off as just being an afterthought. As someone who has delved deep into many RPGs across many consoles, both good and bad, Noctuary isn’t the worst by any means, but it should've been tweaked to make good use of the story and plot elements that worked. Perhaps then it would feel more worthwhile. Combat needs an entire overhaul, and perhaps Blessings need to be made less complicated. All that said, the art direction here is done well. Noctuary is a truly beautiful game, and that's the case across both of the genres it tries to dabble in.

Check Out Noctuary on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2143680/Noctuary/

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S​tory: B-
Gameplay: D+
Art/Graphics: A
Sound: B+
Value: D

Overall: C

Pros:
+ Story is engaging once it gets going.
+ Excellent art and animation.
+ The Gallery, Sound Test, and Archives are good to look through after finishing the main questline.
+ Slightly branching story paths offer some variety.

Cons:
- Tedious combat.
- Music, while good, felt too closely similar to loads of other visual novels.
- Side quests are rarely ever engaging, and pull away any immersion.
- The Blessings system felt needlessly clunky and complicated.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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