Aeterna Noctis

What’s up guys? So I’ve been wanting a new MV game for a while. I just love the genre so much and am always looking for new ones. I’ve played a ton of them, but 2 I haven’t played are Ender Lilies and Aeterna Noctis. I absolutely love platforming and combat, so it’s been a hard choice on which to get. The difficulty of AN makes it appealing to me, since I’m a bit of a masochist with games. I absolutely love the art style of EL though. Any advice? The length of AN is kinda pulling me in that direction, but I’m still having a tough time deciding. Totally open to other suggestions as well! A few I’ve played are:

Hollow Knight, SOTN, Metroid Dread, Blasphemous 1 and 2, Moonscars, dead cells, Bloodstained ROTN, Axiom Verge. I loved all of these (except honestly, I did find Metroid dread to be just a bit too short, still fantastic though).

This game is really its own thing. I regret bouncing off of it in the first hour. Now that I'm back in, I'll share some things that might help it click for others looking for a great game:

1. IMO the pacing at the beg of the game is pretty slow and kinda bad. It feels large and aimless, with too many arcane UI screens and seemingly no gameplay to offer but screen after screen of basic platforming/combat. BUT I think it's smart to just think of this as "pre-game poking around". Before you know it, you'll be pulled into larger events with very compelling gameplay, and those arcane UI menus slowly reveal themselves without your conscious effort.

2. I had heard the game is "dark", but really it's just "goth", lol. In like, an endearing 90's-ish way where the world is just extra-dramatic and cynical but with sincerity underneath. It's more chill than I expected.

3. Oddly, I recommend this game for Ori lovers more than anything else. I have been STUNNED by the game-play centered ambitious set pieces so far in this game. First, the tower of light platforming sequence leading to the sword boss fight (honestly better than most such moments in the Ori games, which are my favorite two games of all time...), and now the unlocking sequence in the Forge. This stuff is Ori AF, in the best possible way. Just these big beautiful scenes with tons of moving parts you as the player must skillfully navigate.

4. The platforming in general - look, I know it gets mega-hard. But I feel like it's scaling up in a very inviting way, and I love that it defines itself as platforming (as opposed to combat) centric pretty early on. It's just a roller coaster of constantly flowing inputs. I know the higher difficulty level is another thing entirely, but I have no need to go there...

Anyway - in case anyone is hesitant, or wasn't pulled in right away like me. I'd say play all of the Light Tower sequence, and if you're not hooked, it may not be for you - but go at least that far if (like many of us here) you are always looking to fall in lover with/get lost in a huge deep MV.

Playthrough information:

This is a pretty well-known game here, but I figured I’d give my two cents on it after thoroughly completing the game on its original difficulty as a big fan of precision platforming. I’ve seen super mixed reviews, with more than a few people praising it as a masterpiece and one of the best games in the metroidvania genre, and other people dismissing it as a tedious and mediocre eyesore, and I kind of agree with both camps.

Also, shoutout to for recommending people play the game on Noctis mode without the Vertigo DLC gem that gives you a triple jump and trivializes a really significant portion of the game’s platforming. If you’re not interested in reading a wall of text, then I hope that you see that recommendation at the very least.

I’m going to start off with the singular aspect of the game that I believe to be noteworthy, and that’s its platforming. From the beginning of the game, before you unlock any additional abilities and are limited to a dash and grounded jump, it’s clear that the game will be demanding more from you than your typical metroidvania. Levels are designed such that there’s relatively little lenience when it comes to even the most basic of platforming. Basic traversal does get more forgiving when you unlock more abilities, but the difficulty is shifted to dedicated platforming sections, especially the optional challenges. There’s a nice difficulty curve, but by about halfway through the game, you’ll already be doing Path of Pain-tier platforming more often than not. This obviously isn’t for everyone, but if it sounds appealing to you, Aeterna Noctis really does deliver on that front.

My favourite areas were the Trials of the Kings, the Emperor’s Mausoleum, the Dream Kingdom, and the Cosmos (especially the final challenge in each Sea of Spheres section).

Unfortunately, this is where my praise ends. To get to the point, Aeterna Noctis is a ”bad metroidvania”, and part of me is tempted to call it an outright bad game despite how much I enjoyed the majority of its moment-to-moment gameplay.

My main gripe is with its visuals. Visual clarity is often poor and occasionally downright unacceptable, and that’s hard to overlook considering its direct effect on gameplay. Not only are platforming elements often hard to distinguish from the background, but the visual clutter from all the bloom and particle effects only exacerbates the problem. On top of that, stiff animations and minimal visual feedback for certain mechanics are an issue as well. In these regards, this game is one of the worst I’ve seen in the genre.

We’re not done with the visuals, though. The game’s art direction is non-existent. The artstyle is inconsistent, with individual models, backgrounds, effects, portraits, and cutscenes all having different styles. There’s a constant visual clash. I also think some elements are outright embarrassingly amateurish and ugly (to the point where I cannot believe they’re in the game), but I admit that’s more a matter of taste, and I’d be willing to forgive it if it were part of a cohesive vision and not an unholy amalgamation of styles that evoke Walmart Hollow Knight at best and Deviant Art at worst. Aeterna Noctis looks like a Flash game in 4K in the worst possible way.

Moreover, the is not a particularly “good” metroidvania. By that I mean its critical progression felt relatively linear. It’s open in that you can tackle individual areas in different orders, especially in the front half of the game, and achievements outright acknowledge these sequence breaks (I use this term lightly). For example, there are achievements for defeating certain bosses before getting the light arrows, teleport arrows, and double jump respectively. I got two of these three, but I never felt like I did any special platforming to bypass soft gates and do content out of order. I just completed whichever self-contained area I came across. And that’s just how most of the game felt, especially in the back half. You enter a big, vaguely squared-shaped area for the first time, and complete it without having to leave. Sure, you might need to come back later for quests and optional power-ups, but one-and-done’ing area after area is not my idea of a particularly non-linear progression. I’d much rather have the critical path bounce me back and forth between areas, with optional stuff being made available to be gradually and organically. I should clarify that I don’t think makes Aeterna Noctis a bad game, it’s just something that keeps it from being a top tier metroidvania in my eyes.

Here are the rest of my issues with the game in list form: unbalanced combat and wildly inconsistent boss quality with very low lows, generally tedious area design and some areas being unbelievably bloated, badly designed quests, shockingly unclear UI, and just a little bit of glitchiness as a cherry on top.

Any of these criticisms I could overlook in isolation, but I can’t believe the number of ways in which this game manages to suck despite how exceptional its platforming is.

I’m really torn on this game, and I’d like to hear more people’s thoughts it. I’m especially curious about Aeterna mode, because the way I see it, if you take away this game’s challenging platforming, then it has just about nothing going for it. Maybe I’m off-base here, but I feel the game would’ve been better off committing to its niche and improving its other aspects instead of presenting a version of the game that neuters the one thing it has going for it as the default experience.

I want a very hard challenging game that will make me rage but nothing impossible like beating the whole game without getting more than few hits.

Prefer if it was on PS5 or switch.

I don't want to just bash on it, but I've put in about 10 hours and it's not good. Drap, inconsistent artstyle and terrible combat. What the big selling point? I originally got it because I heard it has a lot of combat and good platforming.

I respect the ambition of the game and overall I think it's really fun. However there are so many mistakes, weird design choices, unpolished aspects that put it far from other modern titles like Blasphemous or Hollow knight. I'm going to list some of the more obvious points to me:

• some sound effects or animations feels like they come from a flash game (for example when you get a new power up or the sound when you finish a quest or get a potion)

• the healing system is confusing. It has some elements from Hollow knight, the potions like in souls games but done differently and badly.

• There is a system of a "soul" to get back when you die... except a gem very early in the game neglects this effect... so what's even the point of the mechanic? (And I'm glad this gem exists because it's just frustrating when your soul is stuck somewhere where you don't want to go back)

• The quest system seems useless and is not clear. I have a quest where it says that I need to use some coordinates... but no more details so I have no clue what to do.

• the map is huge for no reason. Lot of useless shortcuts, empty and boring rooms just to make a big area.

-The game is very linear for a metroidvania. The map is organized in a straight line so not a lot of interconnections between areas.

• The patterns of some bosses are just absurd and almost impossible to avoid, but no problem you can just be lucky, spam the sword mindlessly when you can and beat them without knowing how to avoid most of their attacks!

• sometimes you are deep into a zone and then you can't progress because you need an ability or something. In any game well designed there would be a teleporter or a way to an other area nearby. But no in this game most of the time you have to backtrack and do some difficult platforming section again for no reason.. (and yeah I know there is a potion to teleport you but for some reason enemies almost never drop it)

And honestly I could go on for a dozen of these points....

On sale for Switch now. I’ve heard some good things about it(some even calling it one of the best Metroidvanias ever and better than HK).

Is it really THAT good or does it get a lot of hype/praise for its difficulty and challenging platforming? How’s the actual Metroidvania parts? The power ups? Map? Etc. Is it a well made game?

It has kind of middling reviews on metacritic which is interesting since I’ve seen it talked about highly on here before. What are your thoughts on this game?

I guess for reference my favorite Metrodvanias are:

Afterimage(currently playing and loving it) Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom Axiom Verge

I also liked Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies as well.

I have never heard of this game. I only found it from wish listing on the ps5.

This is so good. Maybe it's just because I love platforming. But it's basically a love child between hollow knight and Celeste yet does them both perfectly in one game while turning up the metroidvania mechanics to 11. Having way more upgrades, collectables, side objectives then hollow knight.

The game plays very similar to hollow knight. It has a recharge mechanic that you use to gain health, or use attacks. Though you can also pick up a single potion to heal. Gives you at least an extra option to have more opportunities to use blood for battling.

Only done one boss so far but it was pretty insane.

The only complaints I've heard is it's too hard but it does have an easy mode. Basically gives you double health and removes the hard platforming. But I havnt found the platforming that difficult if you've played Celeste or any other harder platforming games.

3 hours in and this might be one of my all time favourites. I'd say in comparison to hollowknight so far it has less bosses. But the moment to moment gameplay I like far more in this game.

Metroidvania i love : Hollow knight Blasphemous 1&2 Quacamelee 1&2 Steam world dig 2

I keep reading conflicting reports of it either being a beautiful but overall bullshit slog, or tough but fair. I'm a big fan of FromSoft titles and enjoyed Nioh 2, Hollow Knight is one of my favorite games. I didn't complete Path of Pain, though, or any of the ascension stuff from the final DLC. Not sure if that matters but eh.

I can kill Grimm but not Nightmare Grimm. I've also played a ton of Salt and Sanctuary, the Oris, Blasphemous ruled, I enjoyed Elder Lilies and beat Celeste (but didn't get the extras) etc.

Tl;dr I'm by no means 'new' to the genre but not super great, is Aeterna Noctis reasonable or bullshit in its difficulty and design?

Update: This seems like a "buy on sale" kind of deal. Looks awesome but still a gamble.

Please do. I just pulled my old file out because of the upcoming DLC. This game is fun. It's large. It's got ingenuity that others don't. My last save location was in the Cosmos. For those that haven't played, it's a very clever biome with little planets and trying to navigate these little planets with the same controls was more fun than it should have been. I had forgotten about this place because I had rushed my first playthrough. Anyway, check it out.

I spend all my free time playing this game recently, and I can’t stop. Love it so far. Made my way to the Limbo so far and got the night cloak. But I have problem with collectors quest. I gave him the worm thing recently and unlocked the enemies log, now at 60ish % but didn’t get the lamp or anything.

However I’m having a blast and I think im addicted. I hope I wont f up my life coz of this game.

Just finished Blasphemous 2 - what a perfect, perfect game - and don't know what to play next. Im balanced between those two and I know that SoS is not a metroidvania, despite having lots of exploration and power upgrades. What makes me consider AN is the amount of praise I often see this game getting, otherwise SoS seems to be a cozy and ver immersive pixel art, which I use to like. I also love games with nostalgic or glommy atmosphere. Combat is a very important part, but not as important as the atmospheric feeling and the exploration. Some of my fav games are Hollow knight, Infernax and moonscars. Btw: any recommendations in this realm are VERY welcome

EDIT: the comments really made me want to play Aeterna Noctis, but I need to get a copy in another console, since the switch version (the one that I own) is very not recommended. For now, I'll wait for a sale or something and while doing that I'm going to start Sea of Stars. Thank you for all the comments. Also open for any recommendations.

- 9/10

- 8/10

- 88

The Good

• Challenging Platforming

• Hand Drawn

• Tense Boss Battles

The Bad

• Some May Find it Too Hard

• Soul System Not Needed

• The Odd Crash

Can i hear a "Boring" claim?!!!1

I really want to like it but between the terrible hitboxes for attacks and platforming surfaces as well as the complete copy and paste of enemy types. I'm really struggling to get through this game, and I've barely scartched the surface.

It usually takes me a lot of hours to finally quit a game because I'm stubborn and hate wasting money. I just keep pushing myself further and further and it's just so aggrovating. I consider myself pretty good at platformers and when I make jumps and just fall right through ledges just to get out back at the start of an area, well no thanks.

I’ve seen this game being discussed quite a lot on this subreddit. And from what I gathered, people really like this game on here.

And yet, why does this game have mixed reviews on steam?

I’m definitely looking for a good metroidvania game at the moment, and was wondering if the mixed reviews are due to a bad mechanic of some sort.

I just got to this area, and holy shit this might be my least favorite area in any metroidvania I've ever played. I hate everything about it. Probably just going to follow a guide to get out asap. The rest of the game has been nearly perfect so far imo, but this just didn't land with me at all.

Just curious what others think of it, because I have a gut feeling this is the definition of a love/hate it area.

They’re both on sale so it’s time to pull the trigger. Please provide opinions on gameplay and length. I’m broke so I gotta stretch my dollars lol. Elderand was great but too short 😢

EDIT: so EL has better combat and AN has platforming. Based on that I’m leaning towards EL but what has better RPG elements???

About 4 hours in or so and I can understand why some aren't a fan. This game looks immense!

I love it even tho I'm a bit overwhelmed by the un-linear aspect.

What would be your tips and tricks for someone starting the game?

Edit : I just defeated the sword at the top of heaven and it was one the most insane graphic I've ever soon. This game is blowing my mind already!

I don't play a lot of MVs so I wanna make sure I'm getting the best for what i'm paying, but I just can't decide it, so I'm asking the experts, from what I've seen both games have the atmosphere I'm looking for, I do prefer DGA artstyle over AN but which game did you enjoy the most? I'm interested in good gameplay and exploration/level design, I do enjoy a good story but it's not a must for me

I gotta say..this one was difficult. For those wondering if this game is good, it is. Though I started on Noctis so I didn't have to do two runs, I prevailed. If you like challenges then definitely pick this one up. I see why a lot of people rank this one up high on the platforming as it can be Billy Butcher voice diabolical. And hell some of the bosses will require you to respec and gem swap. I loved that. Not just one build through the whole game. Late game bosses can be face tanked with the right setup but you'll figure that out. :)

Awesome game and my 78th plat, without auto-pop stacks. I know, rookie numbers, but I'm also going through my backlog and cleaning up. I shall hit 100 this year!

w00t. What's next? Was thinking about just grabbing Ultros but I haven't heard anything about bugs(good or bad) yet. The reviews seem decent though..

Edit: I did this on PS. Been made aware that the achievement list is different for PC, and much..much..harder.

Hello everyone
So, following people's advice on this sub, I bought Aeterna Noctis, and started playing on Hard (Noctis) difficulty.

Bosses were challenging but not too hard, platforming was pretty hard, but the game didn't feel unfair or punishing. While the platforming was hard, there were always a ton of checkpoints, so even if you died 100 times, you could respawn and try again in a matter of seconds until you mastered it.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. But approaching the midway point (I'm at around 40%), I felt a sudden jump in difficulty, and now the game is simply HARDCORE and too much to handle for me. I felt the game was fine until you gain the Teleport Arrow, basically. From that point on, platforming became a complete chore.

I'm currently completely stuck on Door Trial 5. There is a point where you're supposed to teleport through a wall of light, switch to your light arrow, aim down & fire to hit a light switch, dash to the left, switch to your teleport arrow again, and teleport through another wall of light. I've died countless times on that part. The arrow switching, I think, is really too slow and feels needlessly hard. We should have had 2 different keys for each arrow. It would be okay if there was a checkpoint, except the last one is at least 1 minute earlier, with some very tedious platforming in between where you have to dodge balls of light moving at lightning speed. For the first time, I lowered the difficulty to Aeterna. But even in Aeterna, that sequence doesn't change, and the checkpoint is still a whole minute of platforming earlier.

I'm honestly thinking of dropping the game. I know the answer to my post will probably be "git good" (which would be accurate), but I needed to vent a bit. Does the platforming get even harder (I guess it does ?). Are checkpoints less common in lategame ? I'm fine with being stuck on a given platforming section for 20 minutes, but not for 3 hours like I have on Door Trial 5.

Great game otherwise.