Ninety-Nine Nights
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| Developer(s) | Q Entertainment, Phantagram |
| Publisher(s) | Microsoft Game Studios |
| Designer(s) | Sang Youn Lee |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360 |
| Release date(s) | JP April 20, 2006 KR May 4, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Hack and slash, Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) CERO: Ages 15 and up (C) PEGI: 12+ |
| Media | DVD |
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights, (Korean:나인티-나인 나이츠, Japanese: ナインティ ナイン ナイツ), or simply Ninety-Nine Nights, is a fantasy hack and slash video game developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by an alliance between Q Entertainment and Phantagram. Phantagram is a South Korean based developer noted for creating the Kingdom Under Fire series. Q Entertainment is a Japanese developer best known for its Lumines and Meteos series. Video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi served as producer for the game. The game features hundreds of enemies onscreen at any given time, and borrows heavily from other video games of the genre, most notably from the Dynasty Warriors and Kingdom Under Fire series'. The follow-up, Ninety-Nine Nights II, was officially unveiled at Microsoft's TGS 2008 press conference.[1]
The game was released in Japan on April 20, 2006, in North America on August 15, 2006 and in Europe on August 25, 2006.
A demo of Ninety-Nine Nights was released on a DVD-ROM as a pre-order bonus in Japan, and on July 28, 2006, one was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo is free and available in all regions.
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[edit] Story
In the struggle between light and dark, a new order is created after a mysterious power stone is destroyed. These two forces are destined to fight each other since the beginning of time, each one intending to retake control of everything. Will the side of light be the winner, or will the world once again undergo 99 nights of darkness?
The world of Ninety-Nine Nights has not always been an endless battlefield. There was a time when peace existed between all of the races. When a magical orb was shattered, light and dark entered the world, and a demon was born, this resulting in 99 nights of perpetual darkness. The Demon Lord led his army to take arms, but he was defeated on the one-hundredth day of battle by the Keeper of the Orb. The slain demon was named the King of Ninety Nine Nights after the months of darkness that their world endured. Peace was present, though ephemeral. Soon after, the Keeper of the Orb was murdered and the sacred orb was split in half. The humans took possession of the light shard, leaving the goblins with the dark shard.
In the divisive war, humans and goblins fought for what seemed like an endless amount of time. Tides turned in favor of the humans when the elves sided with them. But while the goblins retreated back into the forbidden forest of the lost, the Goblin King was making his own ally, the Lord of Darkness.
[edit] Game characteristics
[edit] Graphics
Ninety-Nine Nights met with near universal acclaim for its graphics when released, despite being developed by a Korean company. The tone and quality of this game had made drastic changes from other similar games, and graphically was one of the "better" games of its time. The graphical style is for the most part distinctly Western, while set in a fantasy universe.
Orcs, goblins and trolls are straight out of Tolkien, while the architecture in human areas is medieval, typically of the romanesque style. Plot-related characters follow the Dungeons and Dragons mold - males are typically well musculatured, and fond of fur or heavy armour, females are buxom and often scantily dressed. However, the main characters show some characteristics of an East Asian video game - similar to that of role playing games - large 'baby-like' eyes on one character and the standard teenage leads.
The ubiquitous snow, tropical forest and rocky desert scenarios make their respective appearances in the different levels, amongst others.
Individual soldiers each have their own unique appearance, randomly garbed in a "mix and match" fashion from the available pieces of armor and other items of clothing.
[edit] Gameplay
This game is of the crowd combat sub-genre, in which players battle hundreds of foes simultaneously. Combo moves are performed by using various combinations of the two main attack buttons, while the jump and dash buttons can initiate other actions or specialty attacks. Individual enemies are generally quite weak, typically being unable to perform any combos or block with any effectiveness.
There are seven different characters with different play styles, although only one character, Inphyy, is unlocked at the beginning. Successfully completing each character's story will unlock one or two new characters, until they have all been revealed.
After completing levels in Ninety-Nine Nights, a player's performance is scored, with both a letter grade and 'points' being awarded, depending on how well the player did. Points can be spent to unlock extras, such as concept art and character bios.
The title has limited role-playing elements, with characters gaining levels and being able to select which weapons and accessories to equip. These performance-enhancing items can be found in the different stages or are awarded for excellent performance, providing benefits such as increased attack power. As the characters gain levels they learn additional attack combinations, but there is no opportunity for skill customization.
Another key component of the title is the "Orb Attack" / "Orb Spark" element. Killing enemies yields red orbs that are stored up until the "Orb Attack" bar is full. Once the bar is full, a player may press B to enter "Orb Attack" mode, where the character can use powerful attacks to slay groups of enemies. Enemies killed while in this mode drop blue, not red, orbs. Once a player has stored up enough blue orbs (which usually requires several "Orb Attacks"), he or she can unleash a super-devastating, screen-clearing "Orb Spark" attack. Killing enemies yields the occasional equipment drop, which you can equip and time during a map as long as you are not retaliating from an attack, in midair, or in the middle of an attack.
The orb collection mechanic is not unlike that found in Onimusha: Warlords except that it is automatic. The orb attacks are comparable to "Musou attacks" in the Dynasty Warriors series, in that the player is invulnerable whilst making them, although in Ninety-Nine Nights, such attacks are significantly more powerful.
Each character has their own unique attacks, weapons and orb attacks, as well having their own questline (of around four stages on average).
[edit] Game engine
Although comparisons to the Dynasty Warriors series are commonplace, the game engine shares many characteristics with a less well known Koei game, Kessen II. In this title, armies face off across a battle field of a few miles square, with soldiers organised into well-ordered rectangular blocks that move in formation until they encounter an enemy unit at which point they break ranks and a chaotic melee ensues. Like Kessen II, standard soldiers are restricted to a single swipe with a sword in a rather mechanical fashion. The engine also uses the technique of rendering distant soldiers as two dimensional sprites to save graphics processing power.
In-game cutscenes are rendered using the in-game character models and show off the high level of detail the developers have chosen to use.
[edit] Game mechanics
The gameplay differs somewhat from previous games in this genre as enemy soldiers put up virtually no resistance. Players will routinely mow down thousands of such troops per level using various attack combinations. The Orb attacks effectively act as "nuke buttons", destroying vast formations of enemy soldiers, with only boss characters and some formation leaders unaffected.
Each level takes the form of a series of smaller battles which are often interspersed with cutscenes. Although there are usually several objectives during a level, progress through levels and the game is mostly linear.
In a stark contrast to the cannon fodder foes, the boss characters are typically quite challenging and can inflict massive amounts of damage in a short period of time.
[edit] Playable characters
- Inphyy is a fiery seventeen year old Temple Knight, out to seek revenge for her father's death. She wields a large sword. Her fighting style is quick and powerful.
- Aspharr is Inphyy's stepbrother, fighting with a lance or long handled spear like weapon, his attacks are slower than Imphyy's but have greater range.
- Myifee is a strong male character that fights with a double-bladed sword. This weapon also has the ability to extend on a chain greatly increasing its attack range. The element of fire accompanies his orb attacks. His power makes up for his lack of speed. His unique orb spark causes meteor like objects to rain down.
- Tyurru is a young girl and also an accomplished sorceress. Her orb attacks include Water Geysers and Water Splash, both of which wash the enemy away.
- Klarrann is the very first character in the introductory cinematic. By profession, he is a priest, and shows noble character. His attacks are slow, utilizing a very large totem or club.
- Dwingvatt is a goblin, out to kill the young female in crimson armor(Inphyy)who killed his older brother. He uses two short bladed weapons to unleash extremely fast wind attacks. In the game plot, he is initially portrayed as being on the "dark" side of the forces.
- Vigk Vagk is the last unlocked character. He is a troll, though he is not portrayed as being evil in this game. In fact, his true character appears to be simple and kindly. His slowness is made up for by his vast size.
[edit] Reception
Ninety-Nine Nights received mixed reviews from various media outlets. On the review aggregator Game Rankings, the game had an average score of 63% based on 81 reviews.[2] On Metacritic, the game had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 66 reviews — indicating mixed or average reviews.[3]
IGN and GameSpot gave it relatively poor review scores of 5.6 out of 10 and a 5.9 out of 10, respectively. On the other hand, Play Magazine awarded it a score of 90% in its review, while the Official Xbox Magazine gave it a 7.5 out of 10.[1] However, the Japanese magazine Famitsu gave it an impressive score of 37/40 (10/9/9/9).[4]
[edit] Rating
Ninety-Nine Nights is rated "12+" on the PEGI system, and although it contains combat violence, there is no blood, disembowelment or overly violent "finishing moves" often seen in other fighting games. However, at the end of Dwingvatt's final level "Pholya Flatlands" we see the White Goblin pull one of his swords out of Inphyy's back, having stabbed her.
However, some of the plot concepts might seem of debatable suitability for a 12 year old, including the murder of civilians and young children. In addition, in Myifee's story, his female friend Epharr who is on a path of revenge to kill Leuu the Orc Chieftain, at the end of the story is revealed (by allusion if indirectly stated) to have been raped by orcs after they captured her as a slave.
Under the ESRB system the game is rated "Mature".
Additionally, the game displayed the count of eliminated enemies as "kills" instead of K.O in Dynasty Warriors.
[edit] Sequel
A sequel, Ninety-Nine Nights II was announced at Microsoft's TGS 2008 press conference.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ "Microsoft's TGS 2008 Press Conference". Joystiq. Retrieved on 2008-10-09.
- ^ "Ninety-Nine Nights Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ "Ninety-Nine Nights (xbox360: 2006): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-03-21.
- ^ "Famitsu Loves Ninety Nine Nights.". XboxCircle (March 29, 2006).
- ^ "Microsoft's TGS 2008 Press Conference". Joystiq. Retrieved on 2008-10-09.
