Ninety-Nine Nights

"A great game that could have been epic"

Introduction

Ninety Nine Nights, or N3, is a hack and slash adventure game that follows in a vein similar to games like Samurai warriors. At the start of the game, the player chooses a character, a level, and then fights his or her way through that level in a fairly easy to follow formula. It's nothing terribly new or innovative as far as hack-and-slash adventures go, but that doesn't matter as the game makes up for any loss in originality with a stunning presentation and a simply fun gameplay style.

Gameplay - The game isn't terribly different from many other games on the market in terms of control. You have two basic attacks that can be comboed together to form new attacks as well as your basic jump and guard buttons. A fourth button controls a special power known as the "Orb attack". It seems all so cut and basic... Until you actually sit down and play it.

Yes, there are only two attack buttons. But that was all that was needed in the first place to create a huge and deep movelist. Sure, it isn't as deep as something like various fighting games, but this isn't a fighter game. It's a hack and slash game. It only needs two buttons in the first place. Yes the game COULD be beaten by just spamming the basic X attack, but it's also possible to win a fighting game spamming nothing but low kicks as well.

Unlike a large amount of other hack-and-slash games I've played, it pays off greatly to learn how to do the various combos and use them frequently throughout each level. Besides, many of the combo attacks are just so pretty to look at and to watch that you will WANT to preform them! It's always rewarding to watch as Inphyy, the main female lead, sweeps up a small battalion of enemy soldiers into the air in a dervish cyclone of speed and proceed to slash the living daylights out of the group of foes before smashing back down to earth in a single wide sword sweep.

In addition, the very way the game plays and is presented is someone reminiscent of the old arcade-style gameplay. A lot of sword-games could have benefited from this style and, honestly, it makes the game feel very epic.

I only have two problems with the gameplay. Firstly, sometimes items drop in locations considered 'out of bounds'. Normally this is not a problem as it's both rare and usually the item isn't worth much, but it gets annoying if a good item drops just out of bounds by a tad and can't be picked up.

Secondly, if your character dies at any point in the mission, you are forced to start over from the very beginning. I consider this only minor, however, because it's fairly difficult to die if you are playing at least somewhat decently. You might die a few times on the first level, or on the final boss (correction: You WILL die a few times until you figure out the trick), but over all, you will be safe as long as you don't play stupidly.

Summery: Fairly solid and simple gameplay accented by stunning (and useful) combos make up for a few minor issues. 9/10

Story - I will be honest. This is the games weak-point, but it's not exactly it's fault. The game follows the stories of several characters over the course of a war. You will likely play people on both sides at least once as well. However, the game designers decided to allow what really happens appear to change based on who you play. To put this in perspective, imagine a Mario game that allows you to play as both Mario and a Goomba. If you play as Mario, Mario saves the day and the princess is saved. If you play the Goomba, however, you can work to defeat Mario and subjugate the Mushroom kingdom. That's pretty much the big problem with this games story. Since you can play as both sides, the outcome changes a lot based on which side you choose to play on and/or which character you chose. It's nice to know that my characters on both sides can see their stories through to the desired conclusion, but makes it difficult to know what actually happened in each encounter and who really won the fights between characters.

Aside from that, the story is fairly decent for a hack-and-slash. I would honestly call it good, but not very complex. Don't pick this game up assuming that you will get a great story, but it's story isn't why you are playing this game in the first place.

Overall: Confusing since it allows both sides to have winning scenario's and leaves who actually won conflicts up to the players mind. Otherwise it's decent. Won't make heads turn, but won't make people gag. 6/10

Graphics/Sound - Graphically, this game is amazingly epic. That is the only way I can put it. It's true that the game is far from as passivlystunning as various other games, in which every bit of the world is well-detailed. But does that seriously matter when you are watching your character smash through armies of foes in a manner and using moves that are epic enough to be simply jaw-dropping? The graphics in this game are clearly focusing on the action and moves instead of the terrain, and it shows. But it also works rather well and makes for a simply jaw-dropping experience of awe as your mage girl summons up a tidal wave that smashes through a literal army of foes in one move.

Sadly, sound is a mixed bucket. Which the musical score is fairly decent overall, you will not likely end up humming any of the in-game music. The voice-acting, while not horrible, definitely has it's goofs and problems. In one scene, for example, one of the characters meets up with an exhausted female lead after a long chase through a enemy-infested forest. I won't spoil what happens, but what should have been an emotional scene is turned into a suggestive one due to the large amount of panting (from exhaustion). It's not ruined, but it comes damned close.

In addition, a large amount of lines within the levels themselves are not voiced. Seeing as how quite a few of them contain battle-field information, it would have been helpful to be able to hear it.

Overall: If it was Graphics alone, this game would be a clear 9/10, but sadly audio must be considered as well. Overall, I would say its between a 6 or 7. 7 Just because of the move epicness.

Play Time/Replayability - The game, sadly is fairly short overall and easy to beat. Most of the characters story-lines can be played through and beaten in about 1-3 hours. Multiply that by 7, and it's between 7-21 hours of gameplay overall to beat it entirely. The game does grade each level you play through, so it is desirable to try and play through each level once again to try and make it to S rank, but there is little additional incentive. However, as stated before, most of the characters have just that much epicness about them to make it worthwhile to play through again, if only as an excuse to play as that character some more.

Overall: 8/10 It's short and easily beaten, but between grading, decent level design, and great moves, it's desirable to play through it again and again just to treat ones senses and have an excuse.

Final Recommendation: This is a tricky game to recommend. Hack-and-slash games are simply NOT for everyone. Some people like more to their story, or will be firmly entrenched in other games. Some will dislike the basic simplicity of the style of gameplay and some will find the die once and restart from the beginning too unmerciful. Don't be fooled however as it's a great game overall. I would defiantly NOT passing this title over. However, if someone wanted to rent or buy, I would be at a loss. I personally chose to buy this game and did not regret it one bit.

The Score: With a 6, 7, 8, and 9 it's average score is actually a 7.5. I personally agree with that rating, but we need to rate in whole numbers on Gamefaqs. As a result, I needed to choose between 7 and 8. I decided that the epicness of this game made it more deserving of the 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/09

Game Release: Ninety-Nine Nights (US, 08/15/06)