When you hear the word Nocturne, what do you think of? If you look up the word Nocturne, the first thing that may come up is the League of Legends character; this character is described as “A demonic amalgamation drawn from the nightmares that haunt every sentient mind, the thing known as Nocturne has become a primordial force of pure evil.” However, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Nocturne means a work of art dealing with evening or night, especially: a dreamy, pensive composition for the piano. At PAX East 2025, we were introduced to an upcoming game from Pracy Studios called Nocturne.

Although we met with Pracy Studios at the Indie Mega Booth, we did not get a lot of time with the demo. This was partially due to a crowd being around the station, but also the limited demo length. For the PAX East build, the developers were showing off the tutorial of the game that teaches the combat mechanics and a little bit of the open world. For the demo, players could choose between Beginner, Novice, Adept, Expert, Elite, and Zen.

Now, with these difficulties, you would think that adept is the equivalent of normal difficulty in other games, but some would say that it is closer to hard. Trying the demo on Expert, Elite, or Zen while playing through the game for the first time seems like a form of torture. The Steam demo responds to the player’s movement with a controller, but that’s all the mechanics the player can utilize while using a controller. 

Unlike other RPGs, Nocturne is a music-based RPG that relies solely on the music. In combat and when resonating with different objects in the world, you will need to hit the notes displayed on the screen correctly. In combat, you charge your AP gauge by hitting the notes correctly; if you fail to hit a note, it will temporarily stun you and stop your AP bar from charging. There are two ways to successfully fight: Survive or kill the enemy. 

For the first half of the demo, you are unable to attack enemies and must survive against their attacks until the end of the song. Once you meet a wise fish, you are finally able to fight back against enemies. Attacking an enemy while they are attacking deals critical damage to them and, if used at the right time, can kill them. 

Although the Nocturne demo can be fun, if playing on the right difficulty, there are a few issues that we noticed that might affect other gamers. First is the lack of an HP numerical stat for the player and enemies, without knowing how much health an enemy has left or how much damage each AP gauge attack does. With the player having to occasionally use potions to heal, these numbers are fairly important.

Our second biggest complaint was the game’s visuals, not the artwork. The game lacks a mini-map, so unless you want to explore every nook and cranny, you will easily miss chests and interactions. The second problem with the game’s visuals is the lack of a defined character outline when moving outside of the player’s view there are points where there are paths that you cannot see where you are going and have to play that you don’t accidentally break through a wall and glitch out of the map. Additionally, the game lacks a colorblind and strobing sensitivity option, which makes it a bit problematic for some gamers.

Our third and final complaint with the Nocturne demo is the game’s experience system. Whether you pass the fight with a C or an S score, you still get the same amount of experience (75) in most fights. In the demo, there are only two exceptions to this rule, and that is during boss fights. Implementing a system where you get more experience based on how well you do during the fight would be more rewarding.

Overall, Nocturne seems like it will be a fun game when it releases in 2026, but it still has a way to go on its journey of self-discovery. We look forward to seeing what else the game has to offer beyond its demo. Hopefully, within the next year, the developers will implement some of those changes that we mentioned that we would love to see. 

The music within the game is unique, where each enemy has its own theme. Some of the songs in the game are better than others, where you will feel energy coursing through your veins. The Boss fight’s song in the demo, while challenging, made us remember some epic battles against ungodly foes (Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy).

Make sure to wishlist the game if it sounds up your alley and keep an eye out for additional coverage.