Ninety Nine Nights
Posted September 7, 2006
Developed as a joint effort by Phantagram and Q Entertainment, an English version of Ninety Nine Nights has been brought to North America by Microsoft. The game is very similar to the previously released Dynasty Warriors 5, but differs with its inclusion of an actual storyline. At the outset, the story centers a young girl, named Inphyy, whose father is killed by a pack of goblins. She vows revenge and starts a quest to rid the land of such evil. As the game progresses, other characters, that Inphyy interacts with, become unlocked and playable at the start menu. It's a simple presentation to understand as well as the mission structure it outlines. Unfortunately, the story isn't as compelling as it could be which may lead to gaming boredom for some. 
Gameplay:
As briefly mentioned, the level structure is broken down by character rather than area. The linear design allows for story elements to unfold and provides a rigid formula to beating the game. After Inphyy's quests are finished, there are several other characters to play through. Some of these characters accompany Inphyy on her quest to destroy the Goblin King, while others are on the opposite side of the fence. In many cases, you will be replaying the same levels with a different point of view. Sadly, the repetition becomes a bit too monotonous and ruins the pace of the game somewhat.
Heading into battle, your main character will be able to lead two groups of troops into battle controlled by clicking the left or right bumpers. There are four types of soldiers to choose from: Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Pikeman, and Archers. As far as I can tell, these fighters are nothing but distractions. While it's pretty darn impressive seeing battles unfold with your massive legions of troops, they do very little to kill the enemy. Much of the problem has to do with the game AI. Archers seem to concentrate on a couple enemies rather than the entire group. Infantry will group around single trolls while you are forced to take out the vast majority. In many cases, I've left my troops back at the start of the level, as their impending deaths will bring down my rating for the level.
The leveling system is not very descriptive, but still works in function. Players level after defeating a certain number of enemies which can occur during any mission. Also, players can use items they pick up during battle for an extra percentage boost to speed, defense, or offense. Charms, orbs, and armor litter the battlefield after defeating a group of soldiers. Additionally, weapons are locked away in breakable chests found in hidden corners of the map. These weapons usually have a level limit assigned and cannot be used until the particular character reaches said level.
The control system is woefully inadequate in terms of expansiveness. While the functionality is certainly adequate, the fighting system relies on two buttons, X and Y. Putting together combos with these two buttons is almost pointless, as just repeatedly mashing one or the other can accomplish the same task. The cursory attempt at creating this hopeless combo system provided an extremely tiresome experience. Gamers who enjoy the varied control schemes of titles like Devil May Cry will shudder at the thought of Ninety Nine Nights.
The most problematic and frustrating aspect of Ninety Nine Nights is the lack of a useful save system. Sadly, game progress can only be saved upon the completion of a level. While some levels are only 10 minutes long, death by a tough boss at the end of a 30 minute level borders on controller smashing insanity. Phantagram should have included save points at each one of the cutscenes as a bare minimum. Unfortunately, the detrimental nature of the save system halts increased play time rather than promoting replay value.
Going hand in hand with the save system, Phantagram also left out a user controlled method of setting the difficulty. The game actually uses a difficulty system that judges your competency with a controller. If you are blowing through the levels without taking much damage, the game will raise the difficulty on the following level. Adversely, repeated deaths will lower the level of difficulty dramatically. It's an intriguing method at adapting to the user's skill, but offers nothing to the user who prefers to judge their skill separately.
The achievements are broken into a minimal 10 tasks for a total for 1000 gamerscore points. The tasks are all awarded for single player achievements as there is no multiplayer mode within the game. The points for Nights are heavily based toward time involved. While the main story tasks will only take up about 10 to 15 hours, the final two achievements for 400 points take considerable longer. One task requires an A ranking on all missions and the other is based around leveling each of the ten characters to their maximum strength. Sadly, the repetition involved removes much of the entertainment from racking up the points. With these achievements, Phantagram almost forces replay value upon the gamer rather than promoting it.
Graphics:
Ninety Nine Nights suffers from a variety of graphical issues, most noticeably a lacking framerate when the screen is covered with enemies. The framerate drops to an abysmal speed when taking on an onslaught of evildoers. It's attempting to pull off Dead Rising or Kameo character quantities, but fails to use the Xbox 360 hardware effectively. Perhaps a reduction of the visual effects would have preserved the speed of the game.
Beyond framerate, the character textures are a bit on the blurry side and the animations are not varied. Attacking animations appear identical to each other and enemy animations are incredibly repetitive. Only the bosses and a couple of the tougher packs of enemies have varying attacks. While the landscapes benefit from quantity, the muddy textures do little to impress the eye. On the plus side, the lighting effects are colorful and certainly not overused. Overall, Ninety Nine Nights reminds me of a high quality Xbox game rather than something visually worthy of the 360.
Audio:
Heading into the game with Dynasty Warriors expectations, I was shocked to find the voice actors of the main characters had a modicum of talent. While the clip editing leaves much to be desired, the voices are actually believable and far beyond the horrific, corny voices of DW5. That being said, Nights could have used a larger amount of voice clips within the game. Several cutscenes are without voices and suffer from the awkward silences. The sound effects are nothing memorable and get extremely repetitive when slashing the umpteenth troll/ogre/goblins/etc. The little creatures have their specific sound effects as well, but suffer from the same issues.
The musical score is definitely the resounding feature in the auditory department. The soundtrack is laden with melodic tunes that delight the ears and heighten the suspense of the main storyline. The orchestral pieces are littered throughout the cutscenes and occasionally within the actual gameplay. It's almost out of place to hear such a wonderful score mixed with the other mediocre qualities of the audio.
Conclusion:
Ninety Nine Nights isn't a pleasure to play, but it's certainly not the worst game available for the Xbox 360. The humdrum nature of the story, the many faulty aspects of the gameplay, and the visual issues are the main detractors from the game. Even to hack and slash lovers, I can't recommend this title for purchase at any price. But it might be worth renting if you are in desperate need of new content. Beyond that, I say leave this shallow title on the rack at your local game store.
Gameplay:
As briefly mentioned, the level structure is broken down by character rather than area. The linear design allows for story elements to unfold and provides a rigid formula to beating the game. After Inphyy's quests are finished, there are several other characters to play through. Some of these characters accompany Inphyy on her quest to destroy the Goblin King, while others are on the opposite side of the fence. In many cases, you will be replaying the same levels with a different point of view. Sadly, the repetition becomes a bit too monotonous and ruins the pace of the game somewhat.
Heading into battle, your main character will be able to lead two groups of troops into battle controlled by clicking the left or right bumpers. There are four types of soldiers to choose from: Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Pikeman, and Archers. As far as I can tell, these fighters are nothing but distractions. While it's pretty darn impressive seeing battles unfold with your massive legions of troops, they do very little to kill the enemy. Much of the problem has to do with the game AI. Archers seem to concentrate on a couple enemies rather than the entire group. Infantry will group around single trolls while you are forced to take out the vast majority. In many cases, I've left my troops back at the start of the level, as their impending deaths will bring down my rating for the level.
The leveling system is not very descriptive, but still works in function. Players level after defeating a certain number of enemies which can occur during any mission. Also, players can use items they pick up during battle for an extra percentage boost to speed, defense, or offense. Charms, orbs, and armor litter the battlefield after defeating a group of soldiers. Additionally, weapons are locked away in breakable chests found in hidden corners of the map. These weapons usually have a level limit assigned and cannot be used until the particular character reaches said level.
The control system is woefully inadequate in terms of expansiveness. While the functionality is certainly adequate, the fighting system relies on two buttons, X and Y. Putting together combos with these two buttons is almost pointless, as just repeatedly mashing one or the other can accomplish the same task. The cursory attempt at creating this hopeless combo system provided an extremely tiresome experience. Gamers who enjoy the varied control schemes of titles like Devil May Cry will shudder at the thought of Ninety Nine Nights.
The most problematic and frustrating aspect of Ninety Nine Nights is the lack of a useful save system. Sadly, game progress can only be saved upon the completion of a level. While some levels are only 10 minutes long, death by a tough boss at the end of a 30 minute level borders on controller smashing insanity. Phantagram should have included save points at each one of the cutscenes as a bare minimum. Unfortunately, the detrimental nature of the save system halts increased play time rather than promoting replay value.
Going hand in hand with the save system, Phantagram also left out a user controlled method of setting the difficulty. The game actually uses a difficulty system that judges your competency with a controller. If you are blowing through the levels without taking much damage, the game will raise the difficulty on the following level. Adversely, repeated deaths will lower the level of difficulty dramatically. It's an intriguing method at adapting to the user's skill, but offers nothing to the user who prefers to judge their skill separately.
The achievements are broken into a minimal 10 tasks for a total for 1000 gamerscore points. The tasks are all awarded for single player achievements as there is no multiplayer mode within the game. The points for Nights are heavily based toward time involved. While the main story tasks will only take up about 10 to 15 hours, the final two achievements for 400 points take considerable longer. One task requires an A ranking on all missions and the other is based around leveling each of the ten characters to their maximum strength. Sadly, the repetition involved removes much of the entertainment from racking up the points. With these achievements, Phantagram almost forces replay value upon the gamer rather than promoting it.
Graphics:
Ninety Nine Nights suffers from a variety of graphical issues, most noticeably a lacking framerate when the screen is covered with enemies. The framerate drops to an abysmal speed when taking on an onslaught of evildoers. It's attempting to pull off Dead Rising or Kameo character quantities, but fails to use the Xbox 360 hardware effectively. Perhaps a reduction of the visual effects would have preserved the speed of the game.
Beyond framerate, the character textures are a bit on the blurry side and the animations are not varied. Attacking animations appear identical to each other and enemy animations are incredibly repetitive. Only the bosses and a couple of the tougher packs of enemies have varying attacks. While the landscapes benefit from quantity, the muddy textures do little to impress the eye. On the plus side, the lighting effects are colorful and certainly not overused. Overall, Ninety Nine Nights reminds me of a high quality Xbox game rather than something visually worthy of the 360.
Audio:
Heading into the game with Dynasty Warriors expectations, I was shocked to find the voice actors of the main characters had a modicum of talent. While the clip editing leaves much to be desired, the voices are actually believable and far beyond the horrific, corny voices of DW5. That being said, Nights could have used a larger amount of voice clips within the game. Several cutscenes are without voices and suffer from the awkward silences. The sound effects are nothing memorable and get extremely repetitive when slashing the umpteenth troll/ogre/goblins/etc. The little creatures have their specific sound effects as well, but suffer from the same issues.
The musical score is definitely the resounding feature in the auditory department. The soundtrack is laden with melodic tunes that delight the ears and heighten the suspense of the main storyline. The orchestral pieces are littered throughout the cutscenes and occasionally within the actual gameplay. It's almost out of place to hear such a wonderful score mixed with the other mediocre qualities of the audio.
Conclusion:
Ninety Nine Nights isn't a pleasure to play, but it's certainly not the worst game available for the Xbox 360. The humdrum nature of the story, the many faulty aspects of the gameplay, and the visual issues are the main detractors from the game. Even to hack and slash lovers, I can't recommend this title for purchase at any price. But it might be worth renting if you are in desperate need of new content. Beyond that, I say leave this shallow title on the rack at your local game store.