Ark Noir

This is a pretty poor rogue-like. ... It's not great.

空いた時間に軽くプレイするのに最適なゲーム ADVの側面もあるけどシナリオ自体はあってないようなもの ただ船内にて囚われていた動物たち（一部遺伝子改造されてると思われるものも）が解き放たれ脱出を妨害するという設定や船を爆破した犯人を脱出までの間に解き明かすかそれとも出来るだけ多くの人と共に脱出に専念するかというプレイの選択が出来たりとゲーム部分はボリュームは少ないながらも面白く雰囲気も好きなのでおすすめします

Ark Noir is an text-based, resource management game.At first glance, the game did not interest me enough to purchase. But i am glad i did. The gameplay is very basic. Just keep clicking forward to move through the ship,battling monsters, and interacting with other passengers. The game sports 3 different playable characters, each with different starting stats.The combat in noir is very simple .Click on the weapon or item of choice during your turn to use it, very simple. The strategy for battles is also very simple to grasp. Say the monster has 5 defense, and you attack with a 16 damage weapon,then you will deal 11 damage. Unless of course the weapon has piercing, then you will ignore the armor. The good and bad of noir is the heavy RNG. Each time you start a new run, the monsters, npcs, items, and saferooms will randomize. Noir is a game, where you will tend to get a bit farther each time you play, until finally you unlock enough good perks, to make the early levels a breeze. Each run feels a bit different from the last, and adds a lot of replay value. The downside is the RNG can doom, runs no matter how well you play. Overall for 10 bucks i like this game, though if you hate linear games and text, then you will not like Noir, as all you really do is click the forward arrow and read text, battle or make a decision when prompted.

It's not fun.

People who complain about difficulty actually just have a skill issue, play a bit, unlock some skills and you will get to floor 3 every time with mostly no issues

A combination of genres of games in one. Nice presentation, decent story. Does a lot well despite being a very short and repeatable experience. It is frustrating when you are starting and gets easier once you unlock slots to equip perks. Ran well without bugs or crashes on modern hardware. In terms of value, fair value around five dollars and excellent would be around two dollars.

While this is technically a game about walking in a straight line until things happen to you, it is immersive, atmospheric, cleverly designed, and has a bumpin' soundtrack. It's not flawless, but the limitations in the design (i.e. DEF being a static wall that ATK has to get over) actually translate to a cool kind of "I think this is game balance?", and the innovations (the Fortune system that lets you acquire loot) are great even if they're not 100% realized. Ark Noir is a dungeon-crawler on a single rail, and combats, looting opportunities, and npc encounters happen along that rail. This is hella streamlined design, and it works because everything that happens feels very choice based. There's a lot of random elements (such as what you find in a box, which enemy jumps out at you, which party member talks to you to progress their plot) but the randomness is controlled by a regenerating pool of Fortune points that you recover at a certain rate every ten steps. You can spend fortune to draw more items from a box, to escape combat, to read your opponent's next attack, and to get through certain encounters with npcs. You *can't* spend Fortune in as many ways as I'd like you to be able to (for example, you can't use it to enhance your attacks in combat), and Fortune builds are very reliant on getting items, but your inventory system is fairly novel and compliments this approach. Every item you find in Ark Noir has a limited number of uses, but as long as you have it in your inventory you get a passive bonus from it. Your inventory has a limited number of slots, so there's a constant dynamic tension between using all your gear, keeping it for the passives, and rotating it out for items with more charges on them. Again, it's not a perfect system, and I've only been able to have halfway decent runs with the low-Fortune character, where I crank their DEF as high as it'll go at character creation and even then I get flattened by late-game attacks. The other characters get flattened by FIRST boss attacks, and even an inventory overflowing with good items doesn't do much to control this. To give you an idea of how gnarly the "flat ATK - flat DEF = DMG" formula is, I can build a character with ease that takes, at most, 1 damage from all enemies on the first floor. That same character, with the support of monomaniacal defense-growth and HP-growth choices every time they level up, still took 50% of their life from a single attack by the floor 4 boss. At the same time, if you're not RUTHLESSLY prioritizing building your own ATK, by floor 2 your attacks stop having any real effect on enemies. Guns especially become useless real quick, and it's a shame because the addition of a "spend Fortune to add damage" mechanic would course-correct this pretty hard. There IS some counter-play around the ATK - DEF damage wall, and you can use items to stun or ignore DEF on enemies, buuuut they can use those attacks too, and they've honestly got more combo potential than you do. I've had a monster effectively stunlock me, and I've had monsters evade all damage + buff ATK on one action and then do an attack past DEF on the next, delivering what was basically an unavoidable charged one-shot. Again, this is jank AF, but you can kind of find ways to play around it so long as you use the one character who is built aggressively for combat. Fortunately, Ark Noir does reward you for tolerating its combat with a pretty engrossing branching character-focused narrative. The characters and setting are way more immersive than I was really prepared for in a translated game from the Japanese indie scene, and a lot of what you see in the story changes based on your perspective character. Each of the three choices has a unique way of seeing the world, and they each have different interactions with particular NPCs. It's cool as hell to see a lower class / middle class / upper class character each see and experience the world very differently, and the linearity of the game allowed for a lot of design-effort to get chunked into working on the characters instead. It shows, and I felt an interest in every NPC I met. Overall, this is one of those games that I have no qualms about recommending at full price. If you really can't stand the indie scene, or if you need a high level of control over your character's build, maybe give this one a miss, but otherwise it's an experience I wholeheartedly endorse.

I tentatively recommend this game as a hidden gem that is worth playing through at least once. To finish it in any reasonable timespan I would recommend both an autoclicker, to skip through the excessive clicking you need to do to get through each of the hundred steps of every floor, every time, and some form of cheat for infinite health when you have already done your best and want to see how the game ends proper. The music is nice, the story is interesting, this game is not an unpleasant experiment that I would love to see a more expanded version of someday.

This game is very niche and underrated compared to other games in it's genre; however I completely recommend this game to those who want an corridor-crawler experience with "HEAVY" RNG dependent game-play. While I can't recommend this game for the $10 asking price, it does go on sale a lot and is worth the 50-75% off price tag for this game. While I did get my money worth from this game, I think this game requires a bit more love. This game is translated from Japanese to English as many guides point out and the translation quality is rather good, though pretty direct sometimes. And I got this game around the time it was mostly neutral reviews (more negative than positive) as well so it sucks to see many people not liking this game. However, this game is "BRUTAL" if you are not use to the game-play of older RPG's due to the game sometimes causing a game-over situation which can be completely out of your hands. I recommend """NOT PLAYING ALBERT""" for your first few runs, due to him being a neutral middle-ground between high "luck" (Fortune) or high health. The game will require you to play several times to figure out the mystery aboard the ship, and will require both getting an S rank with all the characters AND an F rank to unlock everything. I just wish there was more content to add to the game, or even a remake of which could improve the systems provided in the game. For myself, I managed to find the assets used in the project and the music inside and they are some pretty good tunes in this game. I really like Stage 3's theme the most. I completely recommend this if you have some leftover cash laying around and want a brain-musher to do something. Please give this game more love.

[h2]Sum Up[/h2] [h1]In depth analysis further down.[/h1] [table] [tr] [th]🟩 Pros[/th] [th]🟥 Cons[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Clean and atmospheric visual style, simple but very effective, with a strong visual novel feel while fully functioning as a roguelite.[/td] [td]Extremely punishing early game without initial perks, which can discourage new players.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Excellent performance and stability, zero bugs, zero frame drops, everything works smoothly.[/td] [td]Some characters feel unintuitive at first and require system knowledge to truly shine.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Strategic and challenging gameplay that rewards learning, restraint and decision making.[/td] [td]RNG can be frustrating, especially when weapons do not appear early in a run.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Multiple endings, achievements and side quests that strongly encourage replayability.[/td] [td]Frustration is part of the experience, and losses can feel harsh early on.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Meaningful perk system that changes how the entire run is played.[/td] [td]The game explains little by design, making the learning curve steep.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h2]In Depth[/h2] [h1]Presentation and Atmosphere[/h1] Ark Noir immediately stands out through its presentation. Visually, it feels clean, readable and atmospheric. At first glance, it looks like a visual novel or something built in an engine such as RenPy, but it is actually made in Unity and performs extremely well. The interface is minimal and functional, the art direction is consistent, and everything serves clarity. There are no technical problems, no bugs and no performance issues. The game feels polished and carefully put together. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3632271533 [h1]Gameplay Structure and Core Loop[/h1] Ark Noir is a true roguelite. There is no backtracking, no safety net and every decision permanently pushes the run forward. You move from encounter to encounter aboard the ship, managing HP, FR and inventory space. Each encounter can lead to combat, escape, interaction or story events. Many of these moments feel like visual novel choices, where you decide whether to help, flee, fight or ignore other passengers. You can rescue other passengers, engage in side quests, abandon them or choose violence. These decisions shape the run and influence the outcome without forcing a single correct path. The game is intentionally difficult, especially at the start. Playing without initial perks is brutal, and it took me around six hours to finish the game for the first time, only after unlocking some perks and understanding how the systems truly work. [h1]Systems, Resource Management and Learning[/h1] One of the most important things to understand in Ark Noir is how its systems actually work, especially containers and inventory. At first, I thought containers could only be searched once. Learning that they can be searched multiple times completely changes early game decision making. It allows you to push your luck, invest FR in the hope of finding weapons, tools or healing items, and decide how much risk you are willing to take. This system is especially impactful early on, although its importance decreases around the transition from floor two to three, where enemies scale and mistakes become more costly. Inventory management is also crucial. There is no free discard system. If your backpack is full, you are forced to make uncomfortable decisions. This turns inventory space into a strategic resource rather than a simple limitation. [h1]Perks, Builds and Progression[/h1] Ark Noir features a perk system that acts both as initial builds and long term modifiers that shape the entire run. Playing without perks is extremely challenging, but once perks are unlocked, the game opens up significantly. Characters feel more balanced, and different playstyles become viable instead of feeling forced. Perks do not just add stats, they actively change how you approach encounters, resource usage and risk management. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3632247561 [h1]Combat, XP and When Fighting Stops Being Necessary[/h1] Combat gives XP, but fighting every encounter is neither mandatory nor always optimal. Once offensive and defensive stats are upgraded to their effective maximum, further progression no longer comes from combat power. At that point, upgrades are limited to restoring HP or FR. This creates an important shift in strategy. With full combat stats, sufficient FR regeneration and full HP, many encounters can simply be ignored, escaped or bypassed. Combat becomes a tool, not an obligation. Understanding when to stop forcing fights and when survival becomes the priority is key to mastering Ark Noir. The game rewards restraint just as much as aggression. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3632247730 [h1]Characters and Balance[/h1] Character balance in Ark Noir is subtle and not immediately obvious. Bruno feels extremely strong in the early game, starting with a real weapon that allows him to force combat and gain consistent XP. With the right equipment, he becomes very resilient in mid game. Albert appears balanced on paper, but in practice felt inconsistent for me. Despite decent stats, his reliance on early decisions and weapon availability made his early game less reliable. Caroline, despite being the weakest in direct combat, ended up being my favorite character. She requires a completely different mindset, avoiding fights, escaping intelligently and managing events and resources carefully. She was the character I finished the game with, even if it resulted in a bad ending. After unlocking perks, all characters feel viable, but before that, the learning curve is unforgiving. [h1]Story and Narrative[/h1] The story in Ark Noir is subtle and atmospheric. It avoids heavy exposition and instead relies on short text segments, environmental storytelling and events. The narrative is tightly integrated with gameplay. Rising danger, limited time and moral choices are not just told, they are felt through mechanics. Multiple endings add weight to replayability, and even bad endings feel meaningful. The game respects the player by trusting them to piece the story together across multiple runs. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] Ark Noir is a challenging, strategic and very polished roguelite. It is extremely fun, sometimes frustrating, and intentionally unforgiving. The game does not hold your hand, but it rewards patience, learning and careful decision making. Once its systems are understood, Ark Noir becomes deeply satisfying, offering strong replayability, meaningful progression and a surprisingly engaging narrative. For players who enjoy strategic thinking, difficult choices and learning through failure, Ark Noir is absolutely worth the time.