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Ninety-Nine Nights Review
Chris Leyton
22/08/2006
Tap, tap, tap... Phantagram and Q Entertainment's collaboration soon grows dull and repetitive...
Phantagram's previous efforts in the shape of Phantom Crash and more recently the Kingdom Under Fire series probably slipped under most gamers radars - a shame given the unique qualities exhibited in such titles. Undeterred the Korean based publisher and developer has embraced the next-generation, with a creative collaboration with Q Entertainment's highly respected Tetsuya Mizuguchi on Ninety-Nine Nights; but can the man behind REZ, Lumines and SEGA Rally help to lift Phantagram's profile in the West?
Following the Kingdom Under Fire series, Ninety-Nine Nights is an action/strategy title, but one which ditches the heavier tactical options in place of an increased emphasis on the action elements. The result brings it closer in-line with the likes of KOEI's Dynasty Warriors series, where the emphasis is on extreme combos instead of strategic planning. The decision seems a questionable one; Kingdom Under Fire successfully merged action and strategy to create an enthralling blend, but unfortunately sales of the titles never matched Phantagram's ambitions. It seems the team have taken a step back to create a more accessible title, but in the process Ninety-Nine Nights has become susceptible to the genre's biggest issue, namely the sheer repetition associated with pressing the same two buttons in slightly different configurations, over and over again.
With a single-player campaign following the epic conflict between the forces of light and dark, Ninety-Nine Nights depicts the war between the once-peaceful humans and goblins. Similarly to the Kingdom Under Fire series, Ninety-Nine Nights splits the single-player campaign into seven different chapters, each presenting the story from various characters on each side of the war. Each mission is graded based upon various objectives, with the points collected used to unlock artwork and other features.
Using the power of the Xbox 360 Phantagram and Q Entertainment have at least managed to push the bar in terms of the number of opponents you'll come across. Filling the screen with literally hundreds of characters, Ninety-Nine Nights is an action-packed performance with a kill-count that literally reaches the thousands. It's instantly gratifying with a variety of simplistic combos, that slowly develop and increase in skill and magnitude based upon the character's level. Killing an enemy troop rewards the player with a red orbs which when collected unleashes a powerful state for a limited time. During this period, killing opponents will release blue orbs which when collected in sufficient quantities open up the character's most powerful special moves. It's a simple system, but there is some enjoyment to be had from the exaggerated nature of the action and the need to put combos into the thousands.
Unfortunately after a short time with the game its faults soon become apparent. The game's camera is a constant annoyance and requires consistent control to keep it focussed on the main character and the accompanying action; too often you'll wrestle for its control as it insists on showing the view from the wrong end of a goblins arse! The opportunity to switch between a close cam and one further away is welcome, but is largely a redundant feature because the latter option still doesn't present enough of the battlefield in view.
Despite the removal of the heavy tactical options on offer in their previous efforts, Ninety-Nine Nights does contain some elements, though the result is so mediocre that you're often left questioning why they even bothered. Two flanking units can be selected from a choice of Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Pikemen and Archers; a reasonable selection, but one made negligible when you're actually on the battlefield. The illusion of two massive armies in conflict is completely dispelled once you realise your troops actually aren't doing much at all; the point is further highlighted when you're desperately hunting for the last enemy before advancing - an all too often occurrence, not helped by the difficulty in distinguishing between characters - only to realise he's huddled in the middle of a group of your soldiers who aren't doing anything about it. Occasionally they'll thrust a sword in the general direction of an enemy unit; however, you're ultimately left asking why they're even there and often just leave them to meet their doom in order to progress through the level quicker.
With the focus so heavily slanted towards extreme action, it's somewhat confusing to find many stages throughout the game bereft of any battles. Often the mission will involve backtracking across areas you've previously covered, or moving between A and B with the gaps in between nothing but sparse landscape. The result is the gameplay equivalent of watching the paint dry. Lacking anything else of substance away from the actual action, whoever decided that holding onto up on the analogue stick for sustained sequences would result in captivating gameplay seems to be very much mistaken. It's not even that it helps to build a sense of tension before the actual bouts, unlike a good survival/horror; it's a game that you're desperate to rush through as opposed to savouring the experience, therefore the tempo of the game should have been maintained at a vigorous pace throughout.
With over 30 different missions split between the seven different characters, there's a sufficient amount of content on offer in Ninety-Nine Nights. The biggest problem, however, is the lack of variety between these and the mission objectives on offer. As a result only the most devoted of action nuts will likely follow the game through to its complete conclusion, whilst the likely outcome is that this game will be consigned to the shelf a short time after reaching the end of a couple of the characters. Without a multiplayer mode of any sorts the mid and long-term appeal of Ninety-Nine Nights is severely restricted.
One area that Ninety-Nine Nights does manage to impress is the high quality of the presentation throughout. Real-time cut-scenes demonstrate the quality of the visuals superbly, whilst onto the battlefield character models feature a good level of details despite the sheer numbers being displayed on-screen. An abundance of visual effects such as depth of field and saturating sun rays filtering through trees, helps to create an accomplished overall style, though Ninety-Nine Nights does have one or two issues. Much like Dynasty Warriors titles the landscape is often sparse and barren, largely an uninviting place to explore and merely a backdrop for the action occurring. Of slightly more concern is the slowdown that pops up throughout the game, especially when unleashing the more powerful techniques amongst large crowds of opponents.
A rousing orchestral score provides a fitting backdrop for the game and comes courtesy of the Turkish composer Pinar Toprak. Unfortunately the general assortment of sound effects soon becomes a tangled mess without definition, whilst the voice-overs are often a source of amusement for all of the wrong reasons. Given the involvement of Tetsuya Mizuguchi it's a little disappointing to find the music firmly static, and we would have hoped to have seen the score become more dramatic as the action reaches a crescendo.
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