Ninety-Nine Nights

"The first game of this type I've tried - I'm impressed"

I've never played this type of game before, I tend to go for a more traditional RPG like the Final Fantasy series. After reading a few reviews of the game, I decided to give it a try, and I have to say I haven't been let down.

Graphics

The graphics in this game are really quite impressive. The characters you control are really lifelike, and look almost identical in detail to how they appear in the cinematic sequences. They manage to cram literally hundreds of NPCs on to the screen at any time. In addition to this, the backdrops are quite stunning, and lifelike. In certain quests, there are stalls and boxes that smash to pieces as the carnage flies into them. Another nice touch I thought was that as you wield you weapon, a certain colour 'blur' is left behind, which helps you keep track of where your character is.

Storyline

Probably the weakest part of this game in my opinion. It lacks any real depth, and although the bones of it are essentially quite good, it gives the impression of a lack of real effort being put into it. You see the (relatively short) storyline through the eyes of 7 different characters, and you get the perspective of each one as you unlock each character. One problem I found is that as you play, the storyline unfolds in the form of a text box at the bottom of the screen. However, if you stop to read this, you will be hacked to pieces by your enemies.

Sound

The sound is pretty good, but nothing special. All the basic hack and slash sounds are in there, with a few battle cries too. You do get the scary music effect though that means that something horrible and nasty is on the way, which is a nice touch.

Gameplay

This is where the game comes into its own for me. You basically control a character and the objective more often than not is to hack as many enemies to pieces as is physically possible. To aid you in this, you will often have 'guard units', which are basic infantry, or archers, etc. They tend to be quite weak, and you end up having to protect them rather than the other way round. You can give them commands to attack, defend or stay put, but I didn't find much use for this. As you level up by laying waste to all your enemies, you will learn some stunning combos, which are really fun to experiment with. Because there are hundreds of enemies surrounding you, you can put together combos of well over 1000 hits. You can get by by mashing the X and Y buttons, but calculated combos will work better for each situation. As you kill enemies you "Orb Meter" fills up, rather like a limit break from FFVII and you can unleash a really powerful move that will kill almost every enemy in sight. The variety in the characters also means that when you do the same mission with a different character, it is a new challenge. You have the typical all rounder, the fast and weak person, the powerful and slow guy, the sorceress, amongst others. There are also dozens of items to collect by locating chests, or completing missions with a good ranking. You level your character up, but only to a maximum of level 9, which is enough.

Replayability

I have gone back and replayed numerous missions on this game, both to find items that you missed first time around, to obtain a better ranking, to level up my character further, or just for the fun of it. I can honestly say that this game is more fun each time you play it, as you unlock new weapons, items and combos.

Summary

A really good game that has provided me with hours of fun and will continue to do so. There is something about sending dozens of enemies flying with a few swings of a sword that will keep you coming back time and time again.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/06