Recommended mods

[COWABUNGA]

Surprised there isn't a popular post about this? Can someone please post their top recommended mods. I just got the game and I thought everyone was joking about the compressed audio, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the music from the first fight you get into made my ears bleed.

[Top Rascal]

The only mod I would deem essential is HD Audio for HD Ears[gamebanana.com], which should fix your issue with the music compression. The only drawback is that since the HD music is taken from the soundtrack, the music during battles is no longer dynamic.

For other mods, I reccomend:
Widescreen Cutscenes[gamebanana.com]
OR
True HD Cutscenes[gamebanana.com]

Original PS2 Font[gamebanana.com]

[COWABUNGA]

Originally posted by Top Rascal:

The only mod I would deem essential is HD Audio for HD Ears[gamebanana.com], which should fix your issue with the music compression. The only drawback is that since the HD music is taken from the soundtrack, the music during battles is no longer dynamic.

For other mods, I reccomend:
Widescreen Cutscenes[gamebanana.com]
OR
True HD Cutscenes[gamebanana.com]

Original PS2 Font[gamebanana.com]

Nice, thanks for the recommendations.

[Sir Dindon]

There are a few other mods I would recommend if you want to ease your experience with QoL features:
- Display Buff[gamebanana.com]: show buff and debuff on your target, useful to keep track on what already applied
- Display Future Skills[gamebanana.com]: show the skills you will get on leveling your megatama
- Minimap over compass[gamebanana.com]: replace the compass with a true minimap
- Skip Amala Minigame[gamebanana.com]: skip useless (imo) minigame
- Show Skill Changes[gamebanana.com]: when a demon is trying to evolve a skill, show you which one

And then some more gameplay changes which makes for more flexible combat:
- Demon Self Switching[gamebanana.com]: allow your demons to switch themselves to another demon
- Modern Press Turns[gamebanana.com]: using action such as summon or analyze with consume half a turn

A bit more groundbreaking:
- Everyone Gets Exp[gamebanana.com]: allow your demon that are not in combat to gain exp
- Red Numbers[gamebanana.com]: red damage numbers when enemy is low on health

[Top Rascal]

Also check out Nocturne Graphics Configurator[gamebanana.com] which can unlock the framerate!

[COWABUNGA]

Thank you, Kings. I've already beaten the game with the TD ending and in the end I only downloaded the HD Audio mod. I didn't even enjoy Nocturne and felt disappointed with it, but oh well.

Thread may be helpful for anyone else who's thinking of trying Nocturne, I seriously wish I knew about the "Skip Amala Minigame" mod, because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I genuinely hated going through them every time I wanted to enter or leave a kalpa. I personally wouldn't use any of the other mods listed because I actually wanted to play Nocturne because it's quite famous for being one of the hardest JRPGs, and I didn't want to experience an "inauthentic" playthrough. I don't think the game is hard enough to warrant the reputation so if anyone is reading this and thinking of playing the game, only play it if you genuinely enjoy the niche atmosphere it provides, and don't be as stubborn as me in what mods you download.

Thank you blessed thread contributors.

[CrystalCore]

Originally posted by PEPSI DOG:

Thank you, Kings. I've already beaten the game with the TD ending and in the end I only downloaded the HD Audio mod. I didn't even enjoy Nocturne and felt disappointed with it, but oh well.

Thread may be helpful for anyone else who's thinking of trying Nocturne, I seriously wish I knew about the "Skip Amala Minigame" mod, because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I genuinely hated going through them every time I wanted to enter or leave a kalpa. I personally wouldn't use any of the other mods listed because I actually wanted to play Nocturne because it's quite famous for being one of the hardest JRPGs, and I didn't want to experience an "inauthentic" playthrough. I don't think the game is hard enough to warrant the reputation so if anyone is reading this and thinking of playing the game, only play it if you genuinely enjoy the niche atmosphere it provides, and don't be as stubborn as me in what mods you download.

Thank you blessed thread contributors.

why didnt u like it?

i finished it recently and think it was great, sure i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate the amala labyrinth with a passion but that is optional and wasnt even in the og release
the game is as hard as u want it to be, theres nothing stopping u from grinding levels in the hospital reskin area, its above average in terms of difficulty in normal mode id say, especially if youre not overleveled, hard mode is a whole other story

[COWABUNGA]

Originally posted by CrystalCore:

Originally posted by PEPSI DOG:

Thank you, Kings. I've already beaten the game with the TD ending and in the end I only downloaded the HD Audio mod. I didn't even enjoy Nocturne and felt disappointed with it, but oh well.

Thread may be helpful for anyone else who's thinking of trying Nocturne, I seriously wish I knew about the "Skip Amala Minigame" mod, because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I genuinely hated going through them every time I wanted to enter or leave a kalpa. I personally wouldn't use any of the other mods listed because I actually wanted to play Nocturne because it's quite famous for being one of the hardest JRPGs, and I didn't want to experience an "inauthentic" playthrough. I don't think the game is hard enough to warrant the reputation so if anyone is reading this and thinking of playing the game, only play it if you genuinely enjoy the niche atmosphere it provides, and don't be as stubborn as me in what mods you download.

Thank you blessed thread contributors.

why didnt u like it?

i finished it recently and think it was great, sure i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate the amala labyrinth with a passion but that is optional and wasnt even in the og release
the game is as hard as u want it to be, theres nothing stopping u from grinding levels in the hospital reskin area, its above average in terms of difficulty in normal mode id say, especially if youre not overleveled, hard mode is a whole other story

I could probably sit here and write for hours about stuff I didn't like about the game, and I've spoken to a lot of different people who enjoy the game and they always loop back to "I loved the atmosphere" or some such, which always irks me as it doesn't really address any of my criticisms, and I have no idea what they mean by atmosphere. But I suppose that's besides the point.

I don't want to get into it too much, but probably my biggest problem with the game is that every dungeon is designed to waste your time, that's it. The puzzles in almost every single one of the dungeons can be boiled down to "Guess the correct way to go" when you've been given 3 different directions that each lead to a hallway which connects to 5 doors. You then run up and down each hallway trying every door, and every 2-5 seconds you get hit with a random encounter. Repeat until you guess the correct door and you progress the dungeon. It becomes excruciating by the halfway mark, and the game doesn't improve on it's dungeon's or puzzle designs in the later half of the game.

My other complaint is that most of the dungeons use very repetitive textures on the floors and walls, which makes you feel like you're just running down an empty, boring tunnel. It gives me an impression that the devs are testing your patience, that they want to see how long you can stomach running into empty rooms while being interrupted every 3 seconds with relatively easy encounters. For me, it became borderline impossible to deal with by the 4th Kalpa. I know you said you could skip the Amala dungeon, which is true, but I was under the impression it was important to play through, as many of the reviewers on the store page complain about having to restart as they forgot to install the free DLC. So I forced myself through them to achieve "TDE" without giving away what that is.

When I think of atmosphere I think of scenes from FF7, RDR2, VTMB, etc. Nocturne just gives me nothing. If they're trying to convey a feeling of drab emptiness then I suppose the game achieved that perfectly, but I wouldn't call that fun to play through, or much of a reason to play the game.

I'd love to give more specific examples of dungeons and exactly why I just flat out did not enjoy playing through them, but it's been months since I finished the game so I can't remember the exact names. I will say the final dungeon was the epitome of everything I hated about the dungeons in Nocturne, especially the section after Thor where you're literally just walking around into different teleportation traps, and if you walk into the wrong one it resets you. It's not like it's a well structured puzzle, it's literally just a couple hallways with *invisible* and *unmarked* traps that will either progress you through the area, or reset you all the way back to the start. Of course only 1 correct path exists to progress the game, and it's just a literal guessing game as there's no way to use your wits to find the correct path. You just walk into the traps and hope you guessed the right one. Meanwhile the walls and floor all look identical, just the same ugly red texture you've been looking at for the past few hour's since you started the dungeon. It is the literal definition of "time waster."

On the flip side I liked the Diet building a lot. It's ironic as the entire point of the dungeon is that you don't know where you're supposed to go, and the demons guarding the dungeon are purposely trying to waste your time. It's just done in such a fun and ridiculous way that it becomes entertaining, and it's also possible for you to just *look* and use your brain for a few seconds and you can tell if you're going the wrong way, saving you from wasting your time. If you're paying attention, all of the real doors are displayed on the map, which felt like you were rewarded for at least attempting to plan things out, as silly as it may be. I also liked that the dungeon had plenty of bosses, and there wasn't long drawn out gaps between them. It was genuinely fun. But it was the only part of the game I really enjoyed, besides maybe the first 10ish hours when I was still trying to figure out what everyone loved about the game. Pixie is a cool character tho.

Oh. and I don't know why the game is so famous for it's difficulty. If you fail in your first boss attempt you are all but guaranteed to win on your 2nd attempt because you can just swap your magatama, and maybe fuse a demon that is immune to their dmg type. There isn't enough depth or build variety in the game, it normally just boils down to stacking resistances and using a couple buffs/debuffs, which just feels repetitive and shallow.

So that covers most of my feelings about the game. I don't want to complete hate on it too badly because this is the discussions page for the game, so it'll just upset a lot of people. So ultimately it's just my opinion. But honest to god I will never understand why people love this game as much as they do. I could see someone enjoying it when it was first released, and you were just experiencing this weird Japanese game. But to play it now for the first time, having experienced so many other Japanese games, as well as the Persona series, and a bit of SMT5, the game just felt "not good."

[CrystalCore]

Originally posted by PEPSI DOG:

Originally posted by CrystalCore:

why didnt u like it?

i finished it recently and think it was great, sure i ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate the amala labyrinth with a passion but that is optional and wasnt even in the og release
the game is as hard as u want it to be, theres nothing stopping u from grinding levels in the hospital reskin area, its above average in terms of difficulty in normal mode id say, especially if youre not overleveled, hard mode is a whole other story

I could probably sit here and write for hours about stuff I didn't like about the game, and I've spoken to a lot of different people who enjoy the game and they always loop back to "I loved the atmosphere" or some such, which always irks me as it doesn't really address any of my criticisms, and I have no idea what they mean by atmosphere. But I suppose that's besides the point.

I don't want to get into it too much, but probably my biggest problem with the game is that every dungeon is designed to waste your time, that's it. The puzzles in almost every single one of the dungeons can be boiled down to "Guess the correct way to go" when you've been given 3 different directions that each lead to a hallway which connects to 5 doors. You then run up and down each hallway trying every door, and every 2-5 seconds you get hit with a random encounter. Repeat until you guess the correct door and you progress the dungeon. It becomes excruciating by the halfway mark, and the game doesn't improve on it's dungeon's or puzzle designs in the later half of the game.

My other complaint is that most of the dungeons use very repetitive textures on the floors and walls, which makes you feel like you're just running down an empty, boring tunnel. It gives me an impression that the devs are testing your patience, that they want to see how long you can stomach running into empty rooms while being interrupted every 3 seconds with relatively easy encounters. For me, it became borderline impossible to deal with by the 4th Kalpa. I know you said you could skip the Amala dungeon, which is true, but I was under the impression it was important to play through, as many of the reviewers on the store page complain about having to restart as they forgot to install the free DLC. So I forced myself through them to achieve "TDE" without giving away what that is.

When I think of atmosphere I think of scenes from FF7, RDR2, VTMB, etc. Nocturne just gives me nothing. If they're trying to convey a feeling of drab emptiness then I suppose the game achieved that perfectly, but I wouldn't call that fun to play through, or much of a reason to play the game.

I'd love to give more specific examples of dungeons and exactly why I just flat out did not enjoy playing through them, but it's been months since I finished the game so I can't remember the exact names. I will say the final dungeon was the epitome of everything I hated about the dungeons in Nocturne, especially the section after Thor where you're literally just walking around into different teleportation traps, and if you walk into the wrong one it resets you. It's not like it's a well structured puzzle, it's literally just a couple hallways with *invisible* and *unmarked* traps that will either progress you through the area, or reset you all the way back to the start. Of course only 1 correct path exists to progress the game, and it's just a literal guessing game as there's no way to use your wits to find the correct path. You just walk into the traps and hope you guessed the right one. Meanwhile the walls and floor all look identical, just the same ugly red texture you've been looking at for the past few hour's since you started the dungeon. It is the literal definition of "time waster."

On the flip side I liked the Diet building a lot. It's ironic as the entire point of the dungeon is that you don't know where you're supposed to go, and the demons guarding the dungeon are purposely trying to waste your time. It's just done in such a fun and ridiculous way that it becomes entertaining, and it's also possible for you to just *look* and use your brain for a few seconds and you can tell if you're going the wrong way, saving you from wasting your time. If you're paying attention, all of the real doors are displayed on the map, which felt like you were rewarded for at least attempting to plan things out, as silly as it may be. I also liked that the dungeon had plenty of bosses, and there wasn't long drawn out gaps between them. It was genuinely fun. But it was the only part of the game I really enjoyed, besides maybe the first 10ish hours when I was still trying to figure out what everyone loved about the game. Pixie is a cool character tho.

Oh. and I don't know why the game is so famous for it's difficulty. If you fail in your first boss attempt you are all but guaranteed to win on your 2nd attempt because you can just swap your magatama, and maybe fuse a demon that is immune to their dmg type. There isn't enough depth or build variety in the game, it normally just boils down to stacking resistances and using a couple buffs/debuffs, which just feels repetitive and shallow.

So that covers most of my feelings about the game. I don't want to complete hate on it too badly because this is the discussions page for the game, so it'll just upset a lot of people. So ultimately it's just my opinion. But honest to god I will never understand why people love this game as much as they do. I could see someone enjoying it when it was first released, and you were just experiencing this weird Japanese game. But to play it now for the first time, having experienced so many other Japanese games, as well as the Persona series, and a bit of SMT5, the game just felt "not good."

Oh yeah, i get you, the puzzle were kinda ♥♥♥♥, the diet building was pretty cool tho,

i wouldve said i liked the athmosphere as well, its a mix of the old graphics (they do play a big role in old games, like gothic, or stalker), the general weirdness (i talk to a soul and i makes a strange sound) and the fantastic soundtrack

i just had a lot of fun with the fighting in this game, even if endgame was a ♥♥♥♥♥ if u didnt have the right fusions, banger soundtrack, the cool demons and even the graphics and animations were much much better than i expected for a 2002 game

i think a lot of the difficulty comes from having the wrong abilities or demons and rng (which cannot happen in a persona game for example), + the press turn system can be very frustrating on top of that, also i think the original game was a bit harder, i read the removed mots ability to spam beast/dragon eye repeatedly

i came to the game with the expection it was persona but without all the social stuff and more fighting and that is what i got, it just was much better executed than i had thought itd be,

and the puzzles arent too troubling either when u follow a guide (which i did cuz im a brainlet when it comes to logical thinking), but i get they can be SUPER annoying if the only bad thing that happens is that u have to restart at the beginning

[COWABUNGA]

Originally posted by CrystalCore:

Originally posted by PEPSI DOG:

I could probably sit here and write for hours about stuff I didn't like about the game, and I've spoken to a lot of different people who enjoy the game and they always loop back to "I loved the atmosphere" or some such, which always irks me as it doesn't really address any of my criticisms, and I have no idea what they mean by atmosphere. But I suppose that's besides the point.

I don't want to get into it too much, but probably my biggest problem with the game is that every dungeon is designed to waste your time, that's it. The puzzles in almost every single one of the dungeons can be boiled down to "Guess the correct way to go" when you've been given 3 different directions that each lead to a hallway which connects to 5 doors. You then run up and down each hallway trying every door, and every 2-5 seconds you get hit with a random encounter. Repeat until you guess the correct door and you progress the dungeon. It becomes excruciating by the halfway mark, and the game doesn't improve on it's dungeon's or puzzle designs in the later half of the game.

My other complaint is that most of the dungeons use very repetitive textures on the floors and walls, which makes you feel like you're just running down an empty, boring tunnel. It gives me an impression that the devs are testing your patience, that they want to see how long you can stomach running into empty rooms while being interrupted every 3 seconds with relatively easy encounters. For me, it became borderline impossible to deal with by the 4th Kalpa. I know you said you could skip the Amala dungeon, which is true, but I was under the impression it was important to play through, as many of the reviewers on the store page complain about having to restart as they forgot to install the free DLC. So I forced myself through them to achieve "TDE" without giving away what that is.

When I think of atmosphere I think of scenes from FF7, RDR2, VTMB, etc. Nocturne just gives me nothing. If they're trying to convey a feeling of drab emptiness then I suppose the game achieved that perfectly, but I wouldn't call that fun to play through, or much of a reason to play the game.

I'd love to give more specific examples of dungeons and exactly why I just flat out did not enjoy playing through them, but it's been months since I finished the game so I can't remember the exact names. I will say the final dungeon was the epitome of everything I hated about the dungeons in Nocturne, especially the section after Thor where you're literally just walking around into different teleportation traps, and if you walk into the wrong one it resets you. It's not like it's a well structured puzzle, it's literally just a couple hallways with *invisible* and *unmarked* traps that will either progress you through the area, or reset you all the way back to the start. Of course only 1 correct path exists to progress the game, and it's just a literal guessing game as there's no way to use your wits to find the correct path. You just walk into the traps and hope you guessed the right one. Meanwhile the walls and floor all look identical, just the same ugly red texture you've been looking at for the past few hour's since you started the dungeon. It is the literal definition of "time waster."

On the flip side I liked the Diet building a lot. It's ironic as the entire point of the dungeon is that you don't know where you're supposed to go, and the demons guarding the dungeon are purposely trying to waste your time. It's just done in such a fun and ridiculous way that it becomes entertaining, and it's also possible for you to just *look* and use your brain for a few seconds and you can tell if you're going the wrong way, saving you from wasting your time. If you're paying attention, all of the real doors are displayed on the map, which felt like you were rewarded for at least attempting to plan things out, as silly as it may be. I also liked that the dungeon had plenty of bosses, and there wasn't long drawn out gaps between them. It was genuinely fun. But it was the only part of the game I really enjoyed, besides maybe the first 10ish hours when I was still trying to figure out what everyone loved about the game. Pixie is a cool character tho.

Oh. and I don't know why the game is so famous for it's difficulty. If you fail in your first boss attempt you are all but guaranteed to win on your 2nd attempt because you can just swap your magatama, and maybe fuse a demon that is immune to their dmg type. There isn't enough depth or build variety in the game, it normally just boils down to stacking resistances and using a couple buffs/debuffs, which just feels repetitive and shallow.

So that covers most of my feelings about the game. I don't want to complete hate on it too badly because this is the discussions page for the game, so it'll just upset a lot of people. So ultimately it's just my opinion. But honest to god I will never understand why people love this game as much as they do. I could see someone enjoying it when it was first released, and you were just experiencing this weird Japanese game. But to play it now for the first time, having experienced so many other Japanese games, as well as the Persona series, and a bit of SMT5, the game just felt "not good."

Oh yeah, i get you, the puzzle were kinda ♥♥♥♥, the diet building was pretty cool tho,

i wouldve said i liked the athmosphere as well, its a mix of the old graphics (they do play a big role in old games, like gothic, or stalker), the general weirdness (i talk to a soul and i makes a strange sound) and the fantastic soundtrack

i just had a lot of fun with the fighting in this game, even if endgame was a ♥♥♥♥♥ if u didnt have the right fusions, banger soundtrack, the cool demons and even the graphics and animations were much much better than i expected for a 2002 game

i think a lot of the difficulty comes from having the wrong abilities or demons and rng (which cannot happen in a persona game for example), + the press turn system can be very frustrating on top of that, also i think the original game was a bit harder, i read the removed mots ability to spam beast/dragon eye repeatedly

i came to the game with the expection it was persona but without all the social stuff and more fighting and that is what i got, it just was much better executed than i had thought itd be,

and the puzzles arent too troubling either when u follow a guide (which i did cuz im a brainlet when it comes to logical thinking), but i get they can be SUPER annoying if the only bad thing that happens is that u have to restart at the beginning

I agree the sound track is awesome, that's usually a given with Megaten games for sure. I got real lazy on some puzzles too. I kinda just wanted to beat the game by the whole black/red/white pyramids so I used a guide for completing them (not the boss ofc, that's where the fun is.) I also gave up on puzzleboy and used a guide at around puzzle 12? So no shame in using guides for stuff like that, I didn't sign up to play an arcade puzzle game lol. It is fun to discover new spells, and I liked that the game had evolutions, to name a few positives.

[reggie.ps]

Originally posted by Sir Dindon:

There are a few other mods I would recommend if you want to ease your experience with QoL features:
- Display Buff[gamebanana.com]: show buff and debuff on your target, useful to keep track on what already applied
- Display Future Skills[gamebanana.com]: show the skills you will get on leveling your megatama
- Minimap over compass[gamebanana.com]: replace the compass with a true minimap
- Skip Amala Minigame[gamebanana.com]: skip useless (imo) minigame
- Show Skill Changes[gamebanana.com]: when a demon is trying to evolve a skill, show you which one

And then some more gameplay changes which makes for more flexible combat:
- Demon Self Switching[gamebanana.com]: allow your demons to switch themselves to another demon
- Modern Press Turns[gamebanana.com]: using action such as summon or analyze with consume half a turn

A bit more groundbreaking:
- Everyone Gets Exp[gamebanana.com]: allow your demon that are not in combat to gain exp
- Red Numbers[gamebanana.com]: red damage numbers when enemy is low on health

OH man you beaut, sorry for responding to years old thread but ♥♥♥♥ me, I needed the Everyone XP mod, Modern Press Turns and the Show Skill Changes one. You beaut.

[Shadowlet]

I'd also like to add

Display true level
https://gamebanana.com/mods/417721

FMV Remastered
https://gamebanana.com/mods/400151

Buyable hourglass consumables for modifying the moon cycle
https://gamebanana.com/mods/441740

I do not recommend using those bottom four mods in the other comment as they just change the gameplay and screw with balance.

[Lukja]

Get the 60 fps mod as well.

[Marcel]

Do mods break achievements? I wanna play nocturne for the first time with good audio but i need my cheevos

[Sir Dindon]

Originally posted by Commander Venus:

Do mods break achievements? I wanna play nocturne for the first time with good audio but i need my cheevos

None, and I've tested a few of them

[COWABUNGA]

Originally posted by Commander Venus:

Do mods break achievements? I wanna play nocturne for the first time with good audio but i need my cheevos

Originally posted by Sir Dindon:

Originally posted by Commander Venus:

Do mods break achievements? I wanna play nocturne for the first time with good audio but i need my cheevos

None, and I've tested a few of them

I thought they did? Isn't there a mod that reenables achievements too? I might be misremembering...