#10 - Nocturne: Rebirth

20 May, 2025

This will contain some mild spoilers for Nocturne: Rebirth, but mainly for the very early story and a couple pictures of familiars or equipment you'll see later in the game.

Nocturne: Rebirth is a 15-ish hour long RPGMaker game, made in RPG Maker XP back in 2009 by Shou, aka Cogwheel, along with a team of talented artists and other individuals who assisted with the game. It's a remake of an earlier 2002 title with slightly expanded content. It was given a great fan-translation courtesy of eplipswich back in 2015, available on itch.io over here.

I have a brief and not terribly interesting history with this game, by which I mean I found out about it in early 2024, began playing it, got extremely filtered by a boss part of the way through the game, got distracted for 6 months (don't ask, because I don't remember why!), came back to finish it, and went 'hey, damn, that's pretty good'. A few weeks ago in 2025 I decided to replay it so I could see what it's like when you don't, uh, have a giant 6 month gap in between halves of the game. Now, it's probably one of my favorite RPGM games. Still beaten out by Zakuzaku, Hat World, Demon King Chronicle, etc... but, it's a title I'd easily recommend to anyone, so now I'm going to unnervingly stare you in the eyes and tell you why that is.

Nocturne follows the journey of a vampire, Reviel Von De Russert, a figure clad in black, wielding two swords with a level of skill completely incomprehensible to normal people. One day, aimlessly wandering through a forest he woke up in after a long slumber, he finds a young girl being attacked by bandits, easily dispatches them, and is all too pleased to escort her back to her village--after all, what better than to be escorted to his next set of meals? The young girl, Luna, quickly takes a liking to Reviel, and this kicks off the events of the game surrounding Reviel and the small village of Algiz.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this is some sort of segue into some edgy, grimdark tale of Reviel feasting on the blood of innocents and reveling in his nature as a vampire, but Nocturne is not about that. While I won't say he doesn't ever do anything bad, per se, Nocturne's more focused on examining his immortal lifestyle, how he perceives the world around him, and above all, how he perceives the beings he sees as beneath him--humans, of course. Despite being offered shelter by Luna, unaware of his true nature and just treating him as a handsome, wandering swordsman, and even reconvening with one of his fellow equally immortal friends, a glasses-wearing sage by the name of Khaos, Reviel is a guy perpetually at odds with his own being. He's tired. He's a vampire, he should have no issue taking what he wants, killing as he pleases, doing whatever suits his current mood.

But, the void inside of him just isn't satisfied by that anymore. It's all a momentary pleasure and then he's left wanting more, to the point that the act of the hunt itself has lost its appeal.

Perhaps worst of all for Reviel, that insufferable human, Luna, keeps trying to appeal to the better nature she insists she can see within him, even after she learns a few extra little details about who he is. But of course he doesn't have any better nature, right? He's completely different from humans! Why would he care about dealing with a species doomed to a miserably short life cycle where people are born, live for a little while, and perish, leaving behind no trace of their existence, and leaving behind no mark on the world? It's a fun back and forth, honestly, because for every time Reviel tries to tell Luna off and position himself as a big bad serious guy, he'll go off on his own to monologue in the night, feeling a growing anxiety at his own existence.

Luna functions as a secondary protagonist of sorts. She does fight alongside Reviel early in the game, although Reviel mostly snaps at her to stay back and keep herself safe, so she's there mainly as a supporter who dispenses healing items. She has her own dreams of becoming a traveling doctor and seeing the world to help those in need, although Reviel's appearance throws a wrench in her plans as she realizes just how far she needs to go. Her regular spear fighting lessons seem like a joke compared to Reviel who can cut down any number of demons with ease, who knows various kinds of magic, and who is even capable of controlling familiars. Demons are abundant in the outside world, so it's not enough for her to be a good doctor, but she needs to be able to defend herself too.

I won't cover the remainder of the story of the game--I think it's a genuinely fun ride even if you can kind of see where some things are going (yes, it's pretty obvious that Luna thinks Reviel is attractive, and it's just plain text, not sub-text, that Reviel is slowly becoming more and more like a human and is clearly more than affected by life in a small, idyllic village, even if he'd never admit it) with a couple of extremely cool curveballs.

I will say though, if you're a big fan of stories regarding "evil" characters who have their edges slightly softened, never losing their identity and perhaps still being a bit brusque and curt but also finally starting to see a pathway to connecting with others... well, there's something here to enjoy. Reviel's not the only important vampire in the setting either, and the act of him questioning his own existence and nature and what that means to his equally immortal vampire friends who see Reviel as starting to lose his edge is a major driving factor in Nocturne's events. It's a fun time.

I'm going to talk a lot about why everything else in the game is just so damn good to me.

Bearing in mind again that this is a 2009 RPGM title, Nocturne has an incredible presentation, along the lines of something like Hat World. Reviel, your familiars (more on that later!), enemies--everyone has well-designed, expressive sprites and portraits. Reviel has over a dozen sword skills all with varying animations, including some truly flashy ones that are basically like super moves. The main characters and even some minor NPCs have a variety of custom portraits. Everything just looks good and I cannot stress enough how nice the game looks in motion. This isn't at the cost of suffering overly long, flashy animations. Everything is quite brief outside some of the higher level spells which don't come up too often. I know some people are sensitive to turn-based games that get bogged down by overly long animations you have to watch all the time, and I can sympathize and say that it's thankfully not the case here.

The nice presentation isn't just about the battle sprites and portraits themselves looking good though. Even the menus are pretty snazzy! The game also has an extremely generous run speed and 8-way movement--I feel kind of funny making a note of this, but you'll have to forgive me given the engine. It ends up making the game feel very breezy to play through, being able to go through dungeons at a fast pace if you know where you're going, and if you're returning to Algiz to pick up supplies, you'll be in and out in a hurry. Of course, some secret passages in dungeons might be much easier to find if you slow down a bit, like in the picture here¹.

One last note about the stellar presentation is that since the game uses its own dialogue bubbles, it does do some occasionally fun things with them. Characters' portraits will change mid-line, from Reviel giving someone a menacing, over the shoulder glance while talking to finally a dead-on sneer facing the viewer, usually reserved for when he's getting seriously smug at someone. There are also little touches like characters interrupting each other and having their dialogue bubble pop up during someone else's line to talk over them. These sound like small details, and they are small details, but they're cool ones to me!

While I like pretty much everything about the game in terms of presentation, the story, the general look, I actually think where Nocturne shines the brightest is in its gameplay. It's got the look of a traditional side-view ATB game, akin to some older Final Fantasy games and the like, but there's a lot more little things going on under the hood than you'd expect at first glance.

First, everyone's ATB gauge is visible at all times--while you can't be sure how fast an enemy might be with respect to their speed stat, you do have a good idea of how close they are to their next turn. Secondly, there's a hotkey explicitly for stalling, which can be useful if someone's turn REALLY depends on what an enemy is about to do--perhaps it might be better to have someone hang on a second to see if an enemy is about to start casting a spell if you have an interrupt like Reviel's Ray Wings lined up. Or maybe someone with a healing spell is taking a turn right before the enemy, and you'd rather let the enemy get their hit in first so you can top someone off in a hurry.

Secondly, critical hits exist but are more than about a bit of extra damage. Critical chance is some formula of comparing the attacker's Tec stat to the enemy's Eva stat, and on top of the extra damage, also give the attacker a small bump to their ATB, resulting in their next turn faster. This heavily incentivizes making sure to pay attention to those stats instead of raw attack power and defense. And since Reviel can equip two swords, there's a consideration in having at least one sword with good Tec handy since many of his skills deal multiple hits and thus you have an even better chance of landing a critical. Some armor may focus more on evasion than defense, or some necklaces might tank your evasion but have better resistances against certain elements--is it worth the risk of being hit by criticals more and the enemies getting more turns if you're taking less damage from certain attacks?

Thirdly, there's... a lot of skills, and Reviel even has a skill tree that earned EXP can be spent on. Spending experience points on skills is what actually counts towards leveling up, and also gives bonus stats as well based on the skill too. Reviel can learn sword skills, magic of every element but light, skills utilizing his vampiric evil eyes to inflict status ailments, and a host of passives that both help defensively (status effect resist! element resist!) and offensively (crit chance! MP regen!). His sword skills don't cost MP outside of a few specific magic sword skills and instead have 'SCT' which is effectively a cooldown time.

This persists between fights--if you use Meteor Drive to wipe out a pack of enemies, you're not gonna have it for the next few fights. But since they don't cost resources, and normal enemies are quite capable of doing damage to you, you're still encouraged to use them freely--though you might want to have at least 1 or 2 ready to use by the time you get to the boss of an area just to get things started on the right foot.

In comparison, most basic magic has effectively no cooldown, but does have MCT--an actual cast time, and of course they cost MP. Much higher level magic does also come with cooldowns but tend to be pretty powerful to compensate. Reviel's evil eye skills behave the same but cast instantly, and nearly every boss is capable of being hit by at least one status effect, though it may take some experimentation or good guesses to figure out which ones work.

This includes certain ailments you might not expect to work on bosses at all, by the way!

What throws an extra fun complicating factor in all of this is that Reviel is capable of using familiars. Basic enemies can drop a 'core' component that is a permanently reusable item that lets you summon them as a party member. A core cannot be lost--if the familiar dies, the item is temporarily broken until you touch certain healing crystals found back at town, or usually as a checkpoint inside dungeons.

Beyond having their own stats--and yes, they can level up too!--and skillsets and elemental resistances, they can have up to three 'sorceries' attached to them. Sorceries are basically modifiers you can create or find that are also permanently reusable, and can modify their stats, teach new passives or actives, or even confer elemental resistances. Finding a Quick Magic sorcery to attach to a caster familiar is reason to rejoice, and finding a Meditation sorcery that can give MP regen to one is incredibly powerful. If a familiar dies or is removed from the party, you get the sorceries back. The only way to lose them is to sell them (don't do that!) or using them to craft other sorceries.

While Reviel is always the strongest damage dealer, being able to have up to 4 familiars prepared--although only two can be active at a time, you can rotate them at any time during Reviel's turn in a fight or between fights--is hugely beneficial since they can act as damage dealers, supporters, healers, and they can even use items! If you're like me and prefer Reviel to use his cool sword skills², magic casting familiars are extra handy.

All of these considerations are pretty important because boss fights in Nocturne generally do not screw around. Bosses have a lot of HP, many can summon minions or may throw in extra gimmicks (a permanent buff at low HP, barriers that require certain elements to break) or continually add new attacks as their health decreases. They'll stretch your healing resources thin in a game where you don't have a "real" healer for quite some time, and if a familiar dies, there's no way to revive them mid-fight. Reviel can't use healing magic, and very few familiars have it too--and worse yet, you have to consider if you should be using herbs (cheaper, but they regen HP over time) versus potions (much more costly, but they heal instantly). Healing spells have a similar gap where the instant heal spells are strong but also much more expensive to cast, and AOE healing magic just does not exist until later on.

Money is also tight early on. It becomes a lot easier later in the game, but at the start where you both want to buy new equipment for Reviel but also be stocked on healing items... you'll have to make some sacrifices. It eases up as you progress, and to be honest, nothing is stopping you from grinding if you think you really need to.

There's a lot to think about, overall. While you can churn through fights in dungeons fairly easily without fear, although it's not uncommon for your familiars to die and have to get replaced mid-dungeon, the boss fights are the real meat where you might have to do some planning or party rearranging to succeed. Adding to this is that Nocturne features a Brave Clear system. If you've played games that reward you for fighting bosses beneath a certain level threshold--Labyrinth of Touhou 2, for example--it's exactly that. Since Reviel's level only goes up by spending experience points in his skill tree, controlling his level is extremely easy, and there's even reset items although they're not exactly common.

Familiars generally are all easily "safe" to use the instant you get them, meaning you won't somehow end up with one above the boss's level unless you deliberately do some mid-game areas out of the intended order, so you won't have to worry about them messing up your brave clears--and even then, you can just remove them from the party and use a different one in their place.

One final note on what I think makes Nocturne really sing mechanically is that it's a game where by design you're not expected to get everything. Item drops are uncommon, and when you get a Brave Clear on a boss, many of them have a pool of potential rewards. On my replay I got completely different items, including an astoundingly powerful (relative to the point at which you get it) sword called the Decalogue, boasting superb stats and capable of inflicting several status ailments on every hit at a low success rate, but also makes Reviel passively take damage over time. I ended up using it for the rest of the game. Some Brave Clear rewards are crafting materials you can use on equally exclusive feeling gear--those materials can drop elsewhere, but it's better to treat them as if it's the only one you'll see. Is that Garnet you got better used on the Ignard sword, so that Reviel's non-magical sword skills can exploit enemies weak to fire? Or is it better to use it on a Fire Ring which anyone, even your familiars, can equip to raise fire resistance?

Unless you decide to farm, which you don't ever need to do, you'll likely just be getting by with whatever you have on hand. Enemies in the final dungeon even have a host of unique, incredibly strong equipment pieces they might drop, like a sword with ludicrous stats that also makes Reviel's skills come off cooldown way faster, at the cost of inflicting a LOT of damage over time to him, but it's very possible you won't find a single one of them. Ultimately, the game is tuned such that while you can definitely luck into some things that can make things easier, it is not a requirement to complete the game.

All in all, I really like Nocturne now that I've revisited it and managed the lofty goal of not separating a 15 hour game into two ~7-8 hour chunks I played six months apart. It's short, it's pleasing to look at, and it just feels good to play. It uses on-field symbol encounters over random ones so you can dodge fights when you want to, especially if Reviel's already brushing up on the level cap for the next boss's Brave Clear requirement. You move fast, dungeons are rarely long until the end of the game and even then they're only "long" relative to the earlier ones in the game. Funnily enough, many dungeon puzzles will also let you literally spend some of Reviel's stored experience points to blow past them, so if you don't want to deal with them or are truly stumped... well, might makes right, I guess?

The story is fun and also serves as a nice break point between sometimes stressful boss fights. And if you just want to experience the story, there's nothing stopping you from doing a bit of extra grinding and ignoring the Brave Clear rewards. In short, if you're looking for something on the shorter end to play, and if you like occasionally problematic vampires (both men and women!), then I'd say it's an exceedingly good title to try.