Ninety-Nine Nights

"Ninety-Nine Nights"

A word of warning to those interested in Ninety-Nine Nights. The game is pure hack-and-slash. If you frowned at the last sentence, I'd suggest clicking the back button and going on your merry way. There's nothing I can say in this review, good or bad, that is going to change the fact that almost all of this game is spent fighting wave after wave of enemy.

Now that we've got that behind us, let us talk about Ninety-Nine Nights. N3 is a game that does a lot of things right, but, more often then not, held back by certain things done wrong. It's a game that has flashes of greatness, where the potential of this game really and truly shines, but too soon sinks into just average hacking and slashing elements.

Graphics
The graphics in Ninety-Nine Nights are very well done. The cutscenes, though short, do look great. The battlefields themselves take place on multiple terrains, all of which have nice polish to them. Also, the sheer number of enemies on the screen is enormous. There are some slowdown issues because of this, however they are much less common then previous hack and slash games. The slowdowns don't take away from the game, and are usually acceptable considering the amount of detail in countless armies of goblins that may be on your screen at any given time. The only real issue I have with the graphics is the amount of invisible walls within the game. It's slightly discomforting to know, that even in next gen, we are still running into these invisible walls.

Sound
Pretty good. The intro song and the menu navigation song are great. Since it's a game that features large scale battles, most of the in-game music (if there is even any at all) is quickly drowned at by the clinging and clashing of swords and the screams of goblin pain. The sound effects themselves sound very real, but overall kind of get repetitive. Usually you'll probably have all of this blocked out by the third campaign anyways, leaving only the sounds of the mashing of the controller's X and Y buttons.

Story
This is where the game starts to get a little questionable. The story in N3 is good, but ultimately it fails because it doesn't go deep enough into the fantasy world. Most of the time, before battles, the entire plot of the battle is summed up in a short two or so sentences before the fight begins. This is a shame. The characters in the game are very likeable and believable. Aside from Imphyy, most of the voice acting is well done. I wanted to really be drawn into the world of Ninety-Nine Nights, but it barely skims the surface of storytelling. As you progress through the game, each separate playable characters campaign is supposed to give more and more of the total story, but all this does is really bring about a bunch of loose ideas that never emerge into one solid plot. If there ever is a sequel, I hope the developers go back to this world, which you can see has a great potential for story, and just go deeper into the characters, places, and events. A little more would really make this go a long way.

Gameplay
If N3 does anything correctly it's that it is fun. Killing the enemies is an enjoyable experience. There is variety in the attacks of the playable characters (all seven of them) and their movements are both graceful and fluid. Though the game doesn't offer the sheer number of characters you can find in a game like Dynasty Warriors, the individual differences of the characters does make up for the smaller roster. The game itself is a button masher, but through different combinations of x and y button presses you can begin to see the variety in each character's attacks. The major thing that hurts the gameplay is the lack of a checkpoint system. Some of the levels in N3 are fairly long, many of these levels also feature multiple boss fights. It's very frustrating to lose to the levels final boss and then have to replay the entire level. Sure, checkpoints would make the game easier, but I would much rather have them available and not use them(by beating the level without dying) then not having them at all.

Final Thoughts
Though N3 isn't a perfect game, that doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable one. The hack and slash style of game stops being fun when the hacking and slashing becomes boring. Luckily, this doesn't happen to quickly with N3, and when it does another unique character's campaign opens up. For a game that comes out in mid-August, I couldn't possibly think of a better way for a fantasy lover to spend his last days of summer. As a first entry into this series I think Ninety-Nine Nights is passable, but if there is a sequel, it needs to address these problems quickly and be a great game, or else just become another average hack n' slash.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/06