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Reviews » Ninety-Nine Nights
| Game Ratings |
| Graphics | 8 |
| Gameplay | 8 |
| Controls | 7 |
| Multiplayer | n/a |
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Sound | 8 |
| Overall | 7.4 |  Ninety-Nine Nights
Phantagram
by Darnnell Jeffers
Good Game but could we have a little more please?
When I first saw Ninety-Nine-Nights more commonly known to
as N3,
at the Tokyo Game Show last year, I was blown away by the dynamics of
the game. One could not help to notice the similarities to its cousin
Dynasty Warriors, but this game looked as if it took it a step further.
With its crisp graphics great sound and music and draw dropping depth
in into the battlefield. With fame its producer Testsuya
Mizuguchi from Q Entertainment creator of the huge PSP hit Lumines and
maybe soon to be Xbox hit Lumines Live and the great folks over at
Phnatagram Entertainment hit makers of the RTS Game Kingdom Under Fire
at the helm this title looked to
be very promising, but after a luke warm start in Japan does this title
have enough to make a splash in the other territories? Lets find out
why I say maybe.
Lets take a look at the graphical stand point from this game the cut
scenes in this game are rather enjoyable, there fresh and full of color
and life. In game play this holds true to be the same. May it be a lush
forest or at the bottom of a mountain gorge or a snow ridden castle
battlefield the game purely delivers on setting the tone for a what
should be a great war fought on many different planes. The character
models I felt lacked some life they in the presence. The enemy may not
have all looked the same but they where not far apart enough as being
different. As far as the field of depth in this game it was draw
dropping. There was one scene where laterally there was a river
separating the enemy and myself, and I could not see them for
there was a hill in the distance hiding them but by the time I reached
the river they came over running down the hill with a passion to
fight! This also stands very true with huge groups of enemies running
though fog coming in for the attack.
Game play wise, this is game which tells a story of a war being fought
from different sides. A war being fought between humans and goblins You
get to play as different characters from each race. Plus within each
race you play as different factions in the battles may that be the army
driven Temple Nights which is leaded by The Reluctant Blue Knight
Aspharr. Or the mercenaries who is leaded by a character you play as by
the name of Myifee. This allows you to see how the war affects
each character, it also helps you get in tune with who you are playing
as. Another part of this game that I really enjoyed was the leveling up
system that they created in this game. With each level you go up you
get more health strength, speed and among some small other things, but
the key in it was that you would get more combos added to your library.
Which really helps in the process of seeing or character progress
though the game. There were also drop items though out the game which
you could add to your character, which proved hard to get sometime due
to the fact if they would land on top of a slain enemy they were almost
impossible to get. During game play for every enemy fallen by your
blade a red orb will fly into you and fill a little bit of a meter.
Once this meter is all the way full and flashing you can pull off a big
combo which is known as a orb attack. Which when activated by pressing
the B button you can either hit the X or the Y buttons to pull
off fierce attacks while the meter is running down, now during this orb
attack for every enemy that falls to your blade you will get a blue orb
which fills a different meter once you have filled this one up you can
do a orb spark move where it is more of a for show type slaying. Where
this big triumphant combo happens with out hitting any buttons beside
the B button to activated it. The last thing is you have control
of troops now where this my be some remembrance of the RTS Kingdom
Under Fire it is not as in depth as it should have ought to been. Only
being able to hold position attack and defend, I did not feel much used
to them beside trying to keep them alive so that I would be able to get
a good rating at the end of a mission. It also made it as if I could
not control my archers they way I wanted to. Example could not leave
them on a hill to rain arrows toward the battle they were standing
right next to me in the fight.
Control wise I feel not much has to be said about some on this pulling
the combos you want could be difficult at times but none the less once
you get it down you will be hacking and slashing threw tons of foes.
Which make it with in itself great cause that pulls it away from being
a button mashing game. The Camera angle does take some getting use to
some times. I felt as if it played down the experience of really taking
the whole surrounding in.
Multiplayer wise. There was none. Which I felt as if there was some
this title would have shined a lot more. My opinion on-line co-op is a
must this day and age. People love creating a space on-line to play
with one another not versus each other all the time. So what happen to
it I don’t know but it would have been huge add on.
Difficulty wise. This game was not to hard not to soft. The hard part
was trying to make it to the end of the level with out dying, since
there are no save points in the game. At some points during the game it
felt as if there was life dropping in front of me every second
and it seems during boss fights you could not find a pinch of it. So
being balance when coming down to that I don’t believe so to much.
Sound wise was good but also bad. With not having the option to hear
the voice’s in its native Japanese tongue, you have to settle for some
sub par voice acting. Also during the in game, messages of what’s being
said between the characters on the screen you have to read
instead of it being said by voice. What this game is very good at is
having very epic music that moves you during the battles. The sounds of
the music where rich a fulfilling with every slash. Sounds overall with
attacks and orbs going into you where done very well also, but it
really was the in game music which saved this category from a low score.
In the end this is a very descent grab of a game if you are big into
Dynasty Warriors series, or maybe if you just want to hack and slash
thousands of enemy’s. Unfortunately due to the lack of save points and
multiplayer this game is very limited to the audience that it may
reach. Never the less I liked it very much a strongly recommend you
pick it up rent it and at least try it out to see if it is up your
alley.
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