Chrono Trigger meets Guitar Hero was not on my bingo card, but I’ll take it regardless
Limit breakcore
You’re dead at the start of rhythm-combat RPG Nocturne, just arrived in some sort of afterlife waiting room after the apparent extinction of humanity. You get your bearings, and you soon meet up with another, only slightly irritating, small child. His name is Kimothy, which sounds like something you’d only say as a joke to annoy friends named Kim, and then only once because it would be stupid to say it again. It’s fine! Leaves flutter, rays of sun cavort through trees, and the music is utterly gorgeous. The game opens on twinkly piano and mournful strings, infused with a good dose of stirring JRPG whimsy, and soon transforms into whatever the genre of music is called that makes you want to immediately go on a massive adventure. Potion-punk. Slime-swing. Limit breakcore etc.
Kimothy challenges you to a fight for your soda, and the fun begins. In terms of input, the rhythm combat is simple. Quick presses and lengthy hold attacks come at you via the traditional musical conveyer belt, and you fend them off one key press at a time. Conceptually not too tricky, but actually quite busy. Kimothy bobs up and down clutching his stick and talking about special moves. I do not think the game is going to let me shove that stick up his nose later, but what are we without hope?
Next up, you find a giant mantis. The game tells me I can sneak past, but I am a slave to the rhythm, so I charge right in. He messes me up pretty bad, but I do pull through, and then it’s off to find more things to rhythm at.
“Master an entirely skill based rhythm combat with fierce battles and unexpected challenges,” reads the Steam page, which also offers a demo. Ah, skill based. There’s my problem. “With multiple difficulty options, Nocturne is a game suitable for beginners and veterans of the rhythm genre.” One of the features is “Befriend a giant orange fish”, and I also like the idea of unlocking each defeated enemy in an optional arcade mode for high score. The game got a prelude chapter in 2020, and seems to have come a long way since. It’s due out sometime next year.