TECH

Game Review: Ninety Nine Nights 2

September 10, 2011

Story
Just to bring you all up to par: Ninety Nine Nights takes place in a land made up of the many races from man to elves to goblins and other odd species. The story goes that the gods created orbs of light and dark, and the different races came from these orbs, as a means of creating balance.

In Ninety Nine Nights 2, the orb of darkness has been destroyed by a mysterious “Lord of the Night”. At first the races of the light rejoice, but their joys are short lived as they realize the need for balance of light and dark, and are then set upon by The Lord of the Night’s forces so that he can take their orb as well.

An uneasy alliance between races of light and dark is born as both sides now battle to protect the light orb, while endeavoring to find a way to salvage the dark orb.

All the usual types of characters are present: the brooding, sword wielding badass, the elegant and charming princess, the lovable brute who secretly has a heart of gold, it’s textbook fantasy characterizations that won’t be unfamiliar to anyone who’s played a Final Fantasy game in the last 10 years.

Graphics
One of the very first noticeable changes is the graphics. The visual appeal of the game is greatly improved as far as realism goes, but it just feels different. The atmosphere is much darker and gloomy, as is appropriate for the story, but the first Ninety Nine Nights was bright and vibrant and, oddly enough, mostly taking place during the day, while the atmosphere of Ninety Nine Nights 2 is grimly dark. This is a sequel that looks like a completely different game, the characters are far different than the ones we had in the first title, while the world is much grittier and feels genuinely more deadly.

These changes aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it very clear that this is a sequel that has been made by a different company than the first and they have brought their own touch to the series.

Another huge difference now is the amount of blood in this game. N3 felt much like its cousin, Dynasty Warriors, as there was huge amounts of hack and slash action but little to none of the gore; bad guys were simply knocked out or battered away, while in Ninety Nine Nights to, they die, and you know it.The game sometimes feels a little too gruesome, yes it’s a battlefield of swords and spears, but it gets a little over the top at times; I can’t really blame Konami for this move, as they have years of experience knowing that the North American audience tends to be more bloodthirsty, er, sorry, “hardcore”, but it’s a very noticeable change from the original title that was geared more towards an Asian audience.

Sound
Again this is clearly a Konami game, as there were times that the score reminded me of Castlevania and Metal Gear scores; by no means is this a bad thing, and if anything it’s a bit of fan service to provide familiarity to North American fans who may be experiencing this franchise for the first time.

The voice acting isn’t anything that will win any awards, but it gets the job done. The actors sound like the characters they’re meant to be while the battlefield banter from troops is passable.

The atmospheric sounds are also up to snuff. Swords clanging, forces shouting their war cries, it’s all there so it does feel like the player is immersed is a deadly battleground.

Gameplay
Anyone familiar with a Dynasty Warriors or God of War game will feel right at home in this huge slash ’em up. The frame rate stays impressively high so the gamer won’t feel anchored down when the screen becomes full of baddies to battle with.

As opposed to other games in this genre, the levels are long, like, really long. There are many missions that take from half an hour to over an hour to complete, and it can feel like a real endurance test at times; it does lead to a lot of frustration however if you get 45 minutes into a level and then are defeated, only to start again at the beginning because sometimes checkpoints don’t go off.

The control of this game is hard to accurately describe. The hack and slash action elements are wonderful and handle smooth as they come, but when platforming elements pop up the action slows down to a crawl. The jumping mechanic is just a bit off, and the camera can be a real hassle when you need to make pixel-perfect leaps and you’re already fighting with a temperamental jumping system. Thankfully the amount of platforming sections is very limited, but the ones that are thrown at you really just grind the game to a halt.

Each character also has their own unique abilities that access different areas of the levels; this feels unnecessary and just tacked on for an added gimmick. I’ve read that the core usefulness of this feature is during online play so that characters can access certain upgrades and objects they normally wouldn’t have been able to procure, but it still feels tacked on for me.

Finally, this game is hard. It’s not brutally sadistically hard, but it ramps up pretty quick and casual gamers will begin to experience difficulties just a few missions in. This is good because you don’t want your games to be cake walks, but for this current generation of titles, Ninety Nine Nights 2 has a pretty considerable difficulty compared to its peers; I hate saying it but I suggest starting on easy mode until you’ve levelled your characters up a bit before tackling the harder difficulties.

Final Thoughts
This game won’t be a contender or game of the year, but it is fun; and being made by, Konami I kind of hope this is a peek into what the future of Castlevania might be like.

The game boasts a handful of characters to play as and the need to upgrade as much as you can on top of an acceptable number of campaigns and missions. It brings a good challenge to the table with pleasing visuals and acceptable sound. Gameplay isn’t perfect, but for about 90% of the game it feels right; all this topped with a good story leaves this as an overall satisfying gaming experience.

It will be easy to overlook Ninety Nine Nights 2 as it has been launched in the shadows of titles like Red Dead Revolver and Transformers: War for Cybertron, but if you’re a 360 owner looking for some intense hack and slash, button mashing action, pick this title up and you may just find you to have become a fan of this under-recognized franchise.

 

written by Lee Clifford

Back in 2006, XBox 360 owners were treated to a huge hack and slash adventure game titled Ninety Nine Night (or N3 to the cool kids).

A game that liberally took from the recipe of the popular Dynasty/Samurai Warriors Series, N3 had the player taking on humongous hordes of enemies in an epic fantasy battlefield. The game experienced moderate success and had secured a very loyal following that waited eagerly for the much anticipated sequel.

Now here we are in 2010 and Ninety Nine Nights 2 (I refuse to call it N3 2, it sounds like a postal code) has finally come into the waiting hands of its fans.

So, how does it fare?

Konami, makers of such huge franchises as Castlevania and the Metal Gear series, has given their newly acquired fantasy adventure franchise a very big facelift since obtaining it, a facelift that’s impossible not to notice….

written by Lee Clifford

Back in 2006, XBox 360 owners were treated to a huge hack and slash adventure game titled Ninety Nine Night (or N3 to the cool kids).

A game that liberally took from the recipe of the popular Dynasty/Samurai Warriors Series, N3 had the player taking on humongous hordes of enemies in an epic fantasy battlefield. The game experienced moderate success and had secured a very loyal following that waited eagerly for the much anticipated sequel.

Now here we are in 2010 and Ninety Nine Nights 2 (I refuse to call it N3 2, it sounds like a postal code) has finally come into the waiting hands of its fans.

So, how does it fare?

Konami, makers of such huge franchises as Castlevania and the Metal Gear series, has given their newly acquired fantasy adventure franchise a very big facelift since obtaining it, a facelift that’s impossible not to notice….

written by Lee Clifford

Back in 2006, XBox 360 owners were treated to a huge hack and slash adventure game titled Ninety Nine Night (or N3 to the cool kids).

A game that liberally took from the recipe of the popular Dynasty/Samurai Warriors Series, N3 had the player taking on humongous hordes of enemies in an epic fantasy battlefield. The game experienced moderate success and had secured a very loyal following that waited eagerly for the much anticipated sequel.

Now here we are in 2010 and Ninety Nine Nights 2 (I refuse to call it N3 2, it sounds like a postal code) has finally come into the waiting hands of its fans.

So, how does it fare?

Konami, makers of such huge franchises as Castlevania and the Metal Gear series, has given their newly acquired fantasy adventure franchise a very big facelift since obtaining it, a facelift that’s impossible not to notice….

written by Lee Clifford

Back in 2006, XBox 360 owners were treated to a huge hack and slash adventure game titled Ninety Nine Night (or N3 to the cool kids).

A game that liberally took from the recipe of the popular Dynasty/Samurai Warriors Series, N3 had the player taking on humongous hordes of enemies in an epic fantasy battlefield. The game experienced moderate success and had secured a very loyal following that waited eagerly for the much anticipated sequel.

Now here we are in 2010 and Ninety Nine Nights 2 (I refuse to call it N3 2, it sounds like a postal code) has finally come into the waiting hands of its fans.

So, how does it fare?

Konami, makers of such huge franchises as Castlevania and the Metal Gear series, has given their newly acquired fantasy adventure franchise a very big facelift since obtaining it, a facelift that’s impossible not to notice….

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