Very subjective. I'm a very visual person and things tend to get drowns pretty hard into the gigantic fx mess that fights can be (that's how you can miss a guard or a drg LB in the middle of an explosion of visual effects around the crystal, etc). I usually notice the silence, like a lot of effects directly affecting me, through sound, which filters everything way better than visuals. But I know some people are definitely not following sound cues.

I'll actually have to check out the nocturne animation, I've never seen it stand out, and certainly not that overhead icon.