Shattered Nocturne advertises itself as a "poetic experience," which basically means it's a regular game with uninteresting machanics anc about 5000% more xylophone and acoustic guitar. I'm a firm believer that narrative alone is enough to hold up a game, hence my love for games like Chrono Trigger, which didn't have bad gameplay, but I think we can all agree that it was a narrative-driven experience. The problem comes when games decide to forego interesting game mechanics for the narrative rather than use the mechanics to drive the narrative.
Unfortunately, this game does just that. It's pretty much the same problem I had with Douse. Just pointing out a character and playing some placid music in the background does not count as a "poetic experience." Poetry makes you think; you don't think because you're reading poetry. See the difference? The thing you can do is walk around and collect little pieces of the moon. It's a very similar game, now that I think of it, to Slender. Both games give you only the ability to move and rely wholly on the atmosphere to make the experience entertaining.
Now, I'm not a fan of Slender, personally, but I can at least understand the appeal of it. For all its flaws, the game does a pretty good job of maintaining tension for the most part. In Shattered Nocturne, I feel no motivation to keep pushing forward. The walking speed is mind-numbingly slow, the world is bland and uninteresting, and the whole game just feels pretentious as a whole.
So yeah, the mechanics get a big fat F- in my book, but as long as the game tells a good story, it might still be able to get a recommendation out of me. You know what? I'd be lying if I said this game's atmosphere didn't have some kind of charm, especially toward the end when you walk on previously inaccessible, glistening water, but there's just not enough here to form any kind of decent narrative. The game's description says that it is a metaphor for dealing with depression, which I don't understand at all. Just coloring your world dark blue and making it incredibly boring to walk around in does not emulate the feel of tackling depression. Depression is many things, but it is not boring, I tell ya that. This game, on the other hand, is.
The best compliments I can give Shattered Nocturne are that it doesn't overstay its welcome and that it does look very nice. The game is pretty enough to look like a professionally made game from 2008 and it's over in less than 5 minutes, so at least there's not a whole lot to get mad at.
That's all I got for today. Until next time, stay nocturnal.
Links
Shut Her Narc Turn: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=26679
