Ninety-Nine Nights: 57%

Just went through about twenty hours of playing Ninety Nine Nights, beat the game with all characters and even finished the secret level. N3 is a game with Dynasty Warriors like gameplay brought to the next generation systems, however only the graphics make the leap forward, the gameplay is stuck back in the last gen era.

I’ll start with the least of all the areas and that is gameplay. Ninety Nine Nights takes the same formula that Dynasty Warriors has beaten to death and throws a 400 hit combo on it, beating it to death further. Sure N3 is more fantasy orientated and is able to toss in goblins, dragons, elves and trolls, fantastic combos and magic, but when it all comes down to the end, you’re just slaying the same looking enemies and generals over and over again. Playing through a level, you’ll be told where to go and what your objective is and it is your job to kill everything in the way. There is one escort mission and a few missions where you protect something but most of the time killing anything that doesn’t look like you is what wins the day. Each level you beat is rated depending on certain criteria such as; kills, combos time and special moves and you’re given a rank that not only nets you points to unlock pictures and galleries but the higher ratings also give you useful items to use in your other quests. The inclusion of multiple character and intertwining story lines is a nice touch but the storylines aren’t that fleshed out. From the way the game plays out, you’d have to assume that Imphyy’s storyline is one of the few that are actually true and all the others are false just because of the twists and turns in them would make the main character’s storyline impossible. So some characters stories are more like an alternate reality rather than a true ending.

The way the main characters are designed is easily the best portion of the game. The characters are original looking and move smoothly also the CGI looks pretty good. Too bad the same care didn’t go into designing the creatures you’ll fight so often in the game. Hordes of the same looking goblins and soldiers will flood the screen. It’s also at these points when you throw in a little magic, when the frames drop and the game chugs along. It’s nice to have clearer views of the environment and more enemies on the screen at once, but they do pay the price when it comes to frame rate.
Seeing as most of the characters you’ll be playing as wouldn’t be able to order a drink in the U.S., I guess it’s fitting that their voices sound high pitched, whiney and annoying, generally speaking. The older character voices are good but the younger voices are done in the typical, hammy fashion. The dialogue, while not being on the same level as Symphony of the Night overdramatic, it is still pretty painful at points. Luckily the music actually makes up for it by cheering along the battles and framing the cut scenes quite well. It seems every category in the game besides gameplay has its ups and downs.

While not a terrible game by any means, Ninety Nine Nights does itself an injustice by playing everything much too safe. Nothing in this game says next gen except for the graphics, and that barely accomplishes that task.

Review by Smerlus

Nometet.com says: 57%