Nocturne: When Mystical Foxes Taught Me to Lose with Style

Renaud Fleusus
Dec 9, 2025
6 min read

It's past eleven at night, the table is littered with wooden tokens scattered like fallen leaves, and Christophe just snatched the last phoenix feather from under my nose with a smirking grin I won't forgive for at least two more games. Nocturne has been camping out in my game collection for two months now, and this scene repeats itself unfailingly: carefully laid plans that crumble, victories snatched through sheer audacity, and that strange feeling of wanting to immediately go again even though I just got obliterated. Maybe that's the magic.

An Enchanted Forest Crafted by the Best Puzzle Masters in Gaming

Let me set the scene. Nocturne was born in the workshop of David Iezzi and the Flatout Games collective, those American wizards who already sent us Cascadia — Spiel des Jahres 2022, if you please — along with the excellent Calico and Verdant. Distributed in France by Lucky Duck Games since November 2025, the game follows in the lineage of creations that seem simple as pie when you open the box, then reveal unsuspected depths as games unfold.

The universe transports us into a nocturnal forest where we embody druid foxes, capes flowing and spells at our paw tips, out collecting enchanted objects: luminescent mushrooms, phoenix feathers, mysterious creature skulls, strange eggs with pearlescent gleams, and rare herbs with magical properties. The illustration is signed by Beth Sobel, an artist whose name alone makes beautiful game enthusiasts shiver — she's the one who gave color to Wingspan and the entire Flatout family. Her work on Nocturne reaches new heights: each tile seems bathed in opalescent moonlight, the mushrooms radiate turquoise and violet hues, the feathers shimmer with gold. You don't really play Nocturne, you stroll through it.

The Beating Heart of the Game: Auctions Like Nothing You've Seen Before

Where Nocturne breaks from the beaten path is in its spatial bidding system that left me perplexed at first before winning me over completely. Forget classic auctions where you mindlessly overbid on a lot. Here, the forest materializes as a grid of tiles — four by four with two players, five by five with four — and each player has a series of numbered tokens representing the power of their spells.

The first player must place their weakest token on a coveted tile. Their opponent can then place a higher-value token on an adjacent tile — and that's where everything gets complicated. Because once your token is placed, your next spell must necessarily land next to it. You thus draw snakes of spells through the forest, magical chains that sometimes trap you in a dead-end corner. I've experienced moments of pure jubilation pulling off a perfect "corner spell," grabbing two tiles at once while my opponents battled elsewhere. I've also known the humiliation of finding myself stuck in a corner, unable to place my last token, watching helplessly as Thomas rakes in the loot.

Two Twilights for One Night: The Masterfully Orchestrated Rhythm

The game splits into two distinct rounds, Twilight then Moonlight, each with its own objectives. This diptych structure brings a welcome breath: you learn from your mistakes in the first round to adjust your strategy in the second. Players who haven't used all their spell tokens during Twilight receive more powerful "Dark Spells" for the sequel — an elegant catch-up mechanic that rewards patience and restraint.

The Forest Spirits Board — those adorable little magical mice hiding in their burrow — offers a second chance to the unlucky. Your losing tokens can be deposited there to recover bonus tiles at the end of the round. It's a safety net that transforms each local defeat into a strategic opportunity. During a memorable three-player game, my partner had systematically lost her bids for twenty minutes, patiently accumulating her tokens with the sprites, before snatching at the last moment the three tiles that completed her mushroom collection for thirteen points in one go. The board flipped in a second.

Finding the Right Crowd: The Experience Across Configurations

I've tested Nocturne in every possible configuration, from solo to four players, and my verdict is clear: it's between three and four players that the magic fully operates. At two, the game remains pleasant but more calculating, almost chess-like — each tile you don't take will necessarily go to your opponent. The play space feels vast, conflicts less frequent. It's a more zen experience, almost meditative, but it lacks that palpable tension of larger gatherings.

At four players, Nocturne becomes controlled joyful chaos. Bids escalate, tacit alliances form and break, dirty tricks multiply. You can no longer predict everything, you must deal with the unexpected. It's in this configuration that the multiple scoring system makes full sense: set collection, creating magical "concoctions" by combining ingredients from your tiles, round objectives to complete before others. Victory paths multiply, and no two games are alike.

Solo mode deserves special mention. With its twenty-four dedicated cards, it offers a respectable cerebral challenge against artificial intelligence that simulates a stubborn opponent. It's not just a "story" mode added to check a marketing box — it's a real puzzle that kept me occupied for several solitary evenings with a cup of tea.

What Shines and What Grinds in the Mechanics

Let's talk frankly about the flaws, because no game is perfect and you deserve to know what you're getting into. End-game scoring can turn into an accounting headache. Between collection points for each type of tile — which all work differently — concoction cards to validate, round objectives, penalties for cursed chests, and mirror stone bonuses, the first game invariably ends with ten minutes of laborious calculations. You get used to it, but it's not the most elegant aspect of the design.

The theme, as pretty as it is, remains plastered onto the mechanics. I never really felt like a druid fox expert in phosphorescent mushrooms. We manipulate tokens, optimize points, block our opponents — immersion comes more from the illustrations than from the narrative. It's the favorite sin of the entire Flatout family: cerebral games dressed in enchanted nature, where the theme serves as décor rather than engine.

Finally, adjacency rules can frustrate newcomers. Finding yourself stuck in a corner with no possibility to play is infuriating. You must accept that Nocturne rewards anticipation and punishes clumsy improvisation.

Materials That Invite Contemplation

I've saved the best for last: production quality is impeccable. The wooden spell tokens have a pleasant feel, the tiles are thick and readable, the druid cards present foxes with distinct personalities with even a reverse side offering special abilities to vary the pleasures. The score pad facilitates calculations, the Forest Spirits board integrates harmoniously with the whole. At around 35 to 40 euros, the quality-price ratio is excellent.

The box also contains a simplified variant for family games and additional challenges for seasoned players. This attention paid to accessibility as well as replayability testifies to careful design down to the smallest detail.

Comparisons for the Undecided

If you loved Cascadia or Calico, Nocturne will speak to you immediately — it's a first cousin with more bite. Where its predecessors offered a rather solitary experience of personal puzzle building, Nocturne injects direct interaction, sometimes fierce. You no longer just take what suits you, you actively prevent others from getting what they covet.

For fans of Sushi Go!, the progressive scoring system of certain tiles will evoke familiar memories, but with a spatial dimension absent from the little card game. And for those seeking an accessible bidding game without the brutality of Stockpile or the complexity of Ra, Nocturne constitutes an ideal gateway into this often intimidating mechanism.

The Verdict of a Conquered Fox

Nocturne surprised me. Behind its appearance as a cute family game hides a system of formidable elegance, where each decision counts and where tension mounts crescendo until the final tally. It's not a game that shouts or puts on a show — it's a game that whispers, that settles gently into your gaming habits, and that ends up becoming a classic you bring out with pleasure.

Its few rough edges — the bushy scoring, the decorative theme, the blocking situations — don't tarnish the overall pleasure. It's a title that rewards perseverance, that reveals its subtleties game after game, and that offers that incomparable satisfaction of pulling off a perfect tactical move.

Technical Sheet

Final Rating: 8/10

A clever and gorgeous spatial bidding game, ideal for competitive puzzle enthusiasts seeking more interaction than in Cascadia. The learning curve and complex scoring will perhaps put off the most rushed, but others will find here a companion for game nights for many years to come.