For everyone who has access to the Nocturne Playtest, we’re releasing a patch.

This patch contains fixes to some of the larger bugs you’ve all reported, plus some experimental changes to the game. We decided this was a good opportunity to test some bigger changes and get early feedback to see if we’re going in the right direction.

The full changelog will be at the end of this post, but for now I’ll cover the biggest items.

EXPERIMENTAL CHANGES

Stat Simplification

Stats and Items have been completely reworked. The original build contained 9 stats and we observed most players didn’t understand how the stats affect gameplay, resulting in items being underused as players couldn’t make good decisions about what to equip.

So we’ve simplified the stats down to the most important; how much Health you have, and how much Damage you do. All the previous stats are now “hidden”, so we can still balance the combat and items as before, without the confusion. Here’s an example:

Both versions of Wasabi Chips function the same, but the old version required you to understand what “Regen” and “Stunned” means. It was also written in an awkward format rather than in plain english, leaving room for doubt on how it worked.

Windup & Energy Damage

There was a lot going on in combat that wasn’t very well explained. So we’ve separated out some mechanics and now introduce them slower.
By default, there is no longer any effect for hitting the enemy during its attack Windup.
Karma no longer deals damage to the Enemies Energy from the start.
Instead, these effects will be unlocked via items.

After you learn how to Attack with Satoru, you’ll then find items later in the chapter that provide bonus effects if you hit the enemy during Windup, or deal energy damage. This makes items more impactful, and teaches an important mechanic.

Speaking of items, most of them have been replaced with brand new TEST items. We’d really like to hear your feedback about which items you found most/least useful, or any you didn’t understand.

Combat UI

Probably the most requested change is the Combat UI. We were aware it wasn’t great going into the playtest, but also knew the best way to improve it was your feedback. So we’ve taken a first pass at addressing the major issues.

Everything is much larger and more readable now. We also found that players focus varies significantly, with some players preferring to focus their eyes close to the hitbar, and others looking far up the columns to anticipate incoming notes. So we made the UI cover most of the length of the columns so no matter where your focus is, you can easily glance at the UI.

Enemy Health & Damage

Enemy health is now a solid bar instead of segments. This is because we’ve rescaled Karma’s damage and Enemy health. You now deal 5 damage right from the start instead of just 1.

We did this so we could rebalance your ability to kill Crawlers before the song ends. You might not have even realised this was possible before! Now we provide +1 Damage every level up, so you’ll really feel yourself getting stronger as you progress and are able to kill Crawlers faster every levelup.

Full Changelog

If you’ve made it this far, you might be dedicated enough to read all the remaining changes below. But if not, enjoy the new patch and leave your feedback in the Discord!

Combat & Items
- Enemies are now much easier to kill by attacking.
- The end of hold notes now auto PASS at 0ms instead of +150ms.
- Late timing on notes is now stricter, and will auto MISS at +100ms instead of waiting until the end of the MISS timing.
- Adjusted Karma’s 2AP attack animation to feel more responsive.
- Added a visual effect for when Enemies are stunned.
- Clean Bandage no longer gives +Dex and instead gives more Regen than Soggy Bandage.
- Wasabi Chips item description now better explains it’s functionality.

Maps
- Almost all treasure chests in the game have been updated with new TEST items.
- The Firefly in Industrial Central has been switched for a Pillbug.

Menu & UI
- Added a Speedrun Timer which can be enabled in the Menu. This timer will auto pause upon reaching the Playtest End screen.
- The combat results screen no longer gets stuck in view if you exit the game during combat.
- You can no longer “cancel” the death screen and cause a softlock.
- Support for 16:10 aspect ratios added.
- Adjusted font textures to render better at lower resolutions.

Cutscenes
- The Ladder dialogue in Industrial Yard has been moved to the correct position.
- Added an extremely important full stop that was missing at the end of a dialogue line.
- Increased the duration of the sleeping fade at Satoru’s house.
- You can no longer speak to an invisible ghost Kimothy in Satoru’s map.

Starting a New Game after beating the game
Yes this gets its own category for how much was broken
- All the audio doesn’t break anymore. (But it might still break some audio, this one was a headache)
- The combat columns are no longer stuck in “Yako special attack mode” where they’re split down the middle.
- Kimothy no longer hangs around in a strange ethereal darkness during the opening scene.

Audio
- Exiting to Main Menu no longer breaks some audio.
- The Title Card music no longer fades out too early.
- The low health heartbeat now correctly syncs to the BPM during songs with BPM changes.
- Adjusted some scene transitions to prevent audio from being clipped.
- Audio filters during the chase music no longer continue if you open the menu.
- Adjusted music transition from the Main Menu to Overworld when loading a save.