• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

How 99 Nights, A Game With Potential, Was Sabotaged At Every Turn, List

crunker99

Member
99 Nights, a game with a huge amount of potential, imho was ruined at every turn, and im so upset that they did it i wanted to vent, here is a list, feel free to reply or not


1. No Multiplayer Support.

This, in and of itself is a huge flaw, I mean come on, not even multiplayer local? How damn hard could it have been to code this in? This game begs for a Live co-op mode, but I'd have settled for a local multi. Such a shame.

2. No Checkpoints.

The levels, as you play through them, get longer and longer. Last nite I spent almost 2 hours on one map, and my hand hurt after. Of course though, if you get killed by the first enemy out of the gate without you hitting him once, or the last final boss and he has 1 tiny sliver of energy and he kills you with some cheap shot, the result is the same. You start over from SQUARE ONE. No item retention, no level retention, not even 1 half-way checkpoint. This is an utter nightmare considering some of the maps get super hard, which brings me to my next point.

3. Game Difficulty

Now, I know there will be many of you who disagree with this one, and that is fine. The game, taken alone, indeed is not that difficult. Im my opinion though, the game is geared more towards a Japanese style mode of play. Long sessions with no rest, and very few powerups.

4. Few Powerups & Health Boosts

The game gives you such a small amount of HP recovery items that you have to literally break off attack at times to go searching throughout the map for a treasure chest and then when you find one prey to god that it contains a red HP urn. Granted, the amount of accessories that drop is decent, and beileve me, you are going to need them.

5. Hard to see what exactly you are doing on-screen, heat of battle FPS lag
The game makes it extremely hard to see just what you are doing on-screen. In the heat of battle, when the FPS rate drops to about half, it is very VERY hard to distinguish yourself from the enemies at times, and it makes for some incorrect battle decisions being made. Now, I know this issue is something that is hard to combat, but at least without the FPS battle lag it would be tolerable.

6. You cannot choose another character's storyline without finishing the one you are working on first (unless you want to lose all progress).
Basically, if you get sick of fighting one map over and over again from character A, you cannot switch to character B for a break unless you want to give up all progress from character A. What were they thinking?


Im sure some of you will disgree on some points, if not all, but the bottom line is, they took what could have been a really fun mutliplayer hack em up slahser, and turned it into god knows what.


I am so disappointed, why did they do this? I'm upset to the point of being almost broken-hearted. Damn you Tetsuya Mizuguchi, your next game had better be a much greater title or Q is done in my eyes.

Anyway, what do you guys think? I know that the majority of you must agree with at least 1 of the above points. Also, before you start throwing the "then why did you buy it" line at me, I am a reviewer.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
Actually, you can do two storylines at once. Just make different saves for each character. Is the shitty unlocking bug in the USA version? Did they keep all the useless items that were in the game? EQUIP THIS AND GET -500000 ATK!! I DONT KNOW WHY YOU'D DO IT THOUGH!

It's funny though, when I got the game, after playing it for a couple of days, my reaction was the same as yours. It was such an abortion that I couldnt help but let the hate spew, even to this day this game brings back feelings of, well, being scammed almost.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I am so disappointed, why did they do this? I'm upset to the point of being almost broken-hearted. Damn you Tetsuya Mizuguchi, your next game had better be a much greater title or Q is done in my eyes.
It's not as if Q actually MADE the game, though, and their next game DOES rock (Every Extend Extra). :p
 

crunker99

Member
sp0rsk said:
Actually, you can do two storylines at once. Just make different saves for each character. Is the shitty unlocking bug in the USA version? Did they keep all the useless items that were in the game? EQUIP THIS AND GET -500000 ATK!! I DONT KNOW WHY YOU'D DO IT THOUGH!

i know sprok but having all 7 seprate saves is so dumb man, why cant i put it all on 1 saves? its not like u can combine later, iwant to complte the whole game not have 7 parts unlinkable, you konw how it is for us gamers :)

yes i have already like 4 items that do nothing but hurt me, im not sure if later on they turn good or something but all the DIRE * equipment is uselss.
 

duckroll

Member
dark10x said:
It's not as if Q actually MADE the game, though, and their next game DOES rock (Every Extend Extra). :p

Sure they did. In fact, they probably contributed more to N3 than to EEE, and you know it. :lol
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
duckroll said:
Sure they did. In fact, they probably contributed more to N3 than to EEE, and you know it. :lol
It's not as if they actually created either title, though. They simply "dressed" them up, so to speak. It actually paid off with EEE, however, as the game benefits greatly from those additions and becomes a lot more interesting than the original freeware as a result.

I don't believe Q is necessarily the group to blame for many of N3's shortcomings, however, as they weren't the ones designing those aspects.
 

crunker99

Member
dark10x said:
I don't believe Q is necessarily the group to blame for many of N3's shortcomings, however, as they weren't the ones designing those aspects.


well whoever is responsible, it really is a shame because the potential stares you in teh face at every single turn, its like twisting the knife every time you start a map
 
I think Dead Rising also puts this game in a bad light. I actually liked the N3 demo, but having been addicted to Dead Rising (level 38 now) it eliminates the novelty value of large numbers of enemies that differentiated N3. Dead Rising also highlights the poor hit detection and lack of feedback.
 
Was playing this with my friend last night, and we both commented how they could have saved a whole lot of frustration by just having a restart point halfway or something. It was a good time though, but with a few frustrations.
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
theREBELins said:
Was playing this with my friend last night, and we both commented how they could have saved a whole lot of frustration by just having a restart point halfway or something. It was a good time though, but with a few frustrations.
Exactly. One SINGLE save point in a level would have been enough. More would have been even better, but simply can't accept to go through that horrible forest level completely AGAIN and AGAIN because that ****ing boss can kill me by touching me 3 times when I have to randomly hit him 10 times that. ****!
 

Jonnyram

Member
Re: equipment
That was one of the saving graces of this game, I thought.
There is equipment that gives you HP recharge off all dropped items, I seem to recall. There is also equipment that increases item drop rate to stupid levels. Bad equipment must be collected, and when you equip all four pieces at once, the result is positive. In particular, there is one set that turns into a Goddess Hairpin or something, with insane stats.

As far as I recall, there are only two hard levels in the game. One is the forest stage (Inphyy, Aspharr) and the other is the secret stage. The forest stage is made a crapload easier if you have any equipment that boosts drop rate. The secret stage is only easy if you master one move, and it's possibly easier still if you get a piece of equipment that lets you keep doing special moves without using orb charge, hehe.

All the other complaints, I agree with though. Co-op would have rocked, and improving the collision detection on bosses would have been nice too. It's like they deliberately screwed it up, like Black, to make the game last longer.
 
Jonnyram said:
Bad equipment must be collected, and when you equip all four pieces at once, the result is positive. In particular, there is one set that turns into a Goddess Hairpin or something, with insane stats.

Ahhhh, was wondering what the deal was with the 'cursed' items.
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
Jonnyram said:
Re: equipment[snip]
I guess understanding the name of the items would have helped a lot then when I played the japanese version. This almost makes me want to unbury the asian version and try again at the forest level with Inphyy. Almost.
I'd like to play Dwingvatt's levels once.
 

crunker99

Member
Blimblim said:
I guess understanding the name of the items would have helped a lot then when I played the japanese version. This almost makes me want to unbury the asian version and try again at the forest level with Inphyy. Almost.
I'd like to play Dwingvatt's levels once.


oh my blim thats where i am now, the damn forest levle with inphyy

this is try #6 now

im getting so frustrated, any tips? i really dont have an hour to waste 4 more times
 

Jonnyram

Member
I checked some sites and what I came up with is:
If you equip all three "unlucky" pieces, or all three "cursed" pieces, then get a combo of 1300, you'll get the Goddess crown, which gives +50% crit. If you wear all three Goddess pieces, you will get the piece bonuses PLUS army HP up 100%, army def up 5%, player max HP +80 and enemy crit -50%.

There's four broken items too. I seem to remember just equipping these four together will get you the Goddess Statue, which gives you auto-HP regen and will raise your army if they die.

The equipment that increases item drop rate is the four-leaf clover, if you have that.

Some other points to note:
You can replay previous levels to raise your character as much as you want. Max level is 9.
If you keep trying the forest, and keep dying, the level will go down from 3 to 1 automatically. 1 is easier. 3 is the default. Just make sure you don't reset or anything. Die and then continue through the menu and try again.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
I suppose thats a nice effort, but...

A. Theres no reason to collect these items. The game ends so quickly it seems almost meaningless.
B. Other games in the genre still blow this game out of the water in terms of items. See: sengoku basara 2 (which johnnyram, you really should play)
 

crunker99

Member
sp0rsk said:
I suppose thats a nice effort, but...

A. Theres no reason to collect these items. The game ends so quickly it seems almost meaningless.
B. Other games in the genre still blow this game out of the water in terms of items. See: sengoku basara 2 (which johnnyram, you really should play)


B especially
and did i mention

NO MULTIPLAYER :(

such a crime, oh well back to the grind , i at least have to beat it woth half the characters b4 i can feel good about writing the review, thanks for the opinions my friends
 

Core407

Banned
crunker99 said:
99 Nights, a game with a huge amount of potential, imho was ruined at every turn, and im so upset that they did it i wanted to vent, here is a list, feel free to reply or not


1. No Multiplayer Support.

This, in and of itself is a huge flaw, I mean come on, not even multiplayer local? How damn hard could it have been to code this in? This game begs for a Live co-op mode, but I'd have settled for a local multi. Such a shame.

2. No Checkpoints.

The levels, as you play through them, get longer and longer. Last nite I spent almost 2 hours on one map, and my hand hurt after. Of course though, if you get killed by the first enemy out of the gate without you hitting him once, or the last final boss and he has 1 tiny sliver of energy and he kills you with some cheap shot, the result is the same. You start over from SQUARE ONE. No item retention, no level retention, not even 1 half-way checkpoint. This is an utter nightmare considering some of the maps get super hard, which brings me to my next point.

3. Game Difficulty

Now, I know there will be many of you who disagree with this one, and that is fine. The game, taken alone, indeed is not that difficult. Im my opinion though, the game is geared more towards a Japanese style mode of play. Long sessions with no rest, and very few powerups.

4. Few Powerups & Health Boosts

The game gives you such a small amount of HP recovery items that you have to literally break off attack at times to go searching throughout the map for a treasure chest and then when you find one prey to god that it contains a red HP urn. Granted, the amount of accessories that drop is decent, and beileve me, you are going to need them.

5. Hard to see what exactly you are doing on-screen, heat of battle FPS lag
The game makes it extremely hard to see just what you are doing on-screen. In the heat of battle, when the FPS rate drops to about half, it is very VERY hard to distinguish yourself from the enemies at times, and it makes for some incorrect battle decisions being made. Now, I know this issue is something that is hard to combat, but at least without the FPS battle lag it would be tolerable.

6. You cannot choose another character's storyline without finishing the one you are working on first (unless you want to lose all progress).
Basically, if you get sick of fighting one map over and over again from character A, you cannot switch to character B for a break unless you want to give up all progress from character A. What were they thinking?


Im sure some of you will disgree on some points, if not all, but the bottom line is, they took what could have been a really fun mutliplayer hack em up slahser, and turned it into god knows what.


I am so disappointed, why did they do this? I'm upset to the point of being almost broken-hearted. Damn you Tetsuya Mizuguchi, your next game had better be a much greater title or Q is done in my eyes.

Anyway, what do you guys think? I know that the majority of you must agree with at least 1 of the above points. Also, before you start throwing the "then why did you buy it" line at me, I am a reviewer.

1) How exactly would MP work in a game like this? There's so many enemies on screen, it would probably bog down your connection like crazy.

2) Game could have used check points, but it doesn't ruin the game. If you know how to combine charms and don't rush into battles without any help from your AI friends, you should do fine.

3) Game Difficulty is high when you're not changing charms and upgrading your weapon. You do realize that when you lvl up, you gain all your health back and occasionally a new layer of health.

4) Few Power Ups & Health Boosts? Maybe you should look for the luck charm that can increase drops up to 50%. Or how about the health charm that gives you 100+ HP?

5) Maybe in the full game there is slowdown, but there really wasn't any in the demo. (ignoring the towers you took down)

6) No comment - have yet to play the game.
 

Campster

Do you like my tight white sweater? STOP STARING
I think the game has more fundamental problems than a lack of multiplayer support and a crappy camera.
 

crunker99

Member
Core407 said:
6) No comment - have yet to play the game.


core, play the full game my friend b4 u base this all off a short demo which in no way represents the full game, trsut me on that
ask anyone in the thread they wil tell you

and multiplay could work jsut like any dynasty warriors game, split screen local minimum or not even slip screen, both on screen same time, gauntlet style, would work fine

besides if you said theres no slowdown whats the problem ? :)

get the full game the demo is made to do exaclty what it's done, make the game look better than it really is
 
But, but, but...

The music is good!



In all seriousness, I've been having a fun time with the game so far. Please don't label me a "lover of bad games." Play Magazine did give it a review score of 9/10!

Please don't label me a "lover of bad videogame magazines" either :p
 
few questions:

1. What mission number is that annoying Inphyy forest level?
2. Are item drops and chests random or fixed per level? Eg can I keep replaying an earlier mission until I find a wanted item?
3. Any boss fighting tips esp that forest level? Eg does blocking actually work?
4. Has the game changed at all from the Asia release (despite localisation)?
5. Are your armies ever actually usefull? archers/pikemen/infantry/heavy inf?
 

Jonnyram

Member
sp0rsk said:
A. Theres no reason to collect these items. The game ends so quickly it seems almost meaningless.
Beat the secret mission, then we can talk.

B. Other games in the genre still blow this game out of the water in terms of items. See: sengoku basara 2 (which johnnyram, you really should play)
If I'm gonna play a shitty game, I may as well play one with good graphics. I hate the genre basically, and I only bought this one to support Mizuguchi/Nakamura.
 

Core407

Banned
crunker99 said:
core, play the full game my friend b4 u base this all off a short demo which in no way represents the full game, trsut me on that
ask anyone in the thread they wil tell you

and multiplay could work jsut like any dynasty warriors game, split screen local minimum or not even slip screen, both on screen same time, gauntlet style, would work fine

besides if you said theres no slowdown whats the problem ? :)

get the full game the demo is made to do exaclty what it's done, make the game look better than it really is

Yeah, I got NNN queued in my Gamefly so I'll be able to pass judgement, but I really don't see how these problems aren't in the demo and in the full game.

Took me 40 minutes to beat the demo level and I've probably replayed it 5-6 times now - everytime winning without a problem.

Slow down and lag are two completely different things.

Again, I'm only basing my comments on what I've played and not arguing for the sake of it. :)
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
Jonnyram said:
Beat the secret mission, then we can talk.

If I'm gonna play a shitty game, I may as well play one with good graphics. I hate the genre basically, and I only bought this one to support Mizuguchi/Nakamura.

Harsh words there.

(And btw Sengoku Basara 2 looks quite a bit better than the contrasty garbagetown that is N3.)

I don't wanna have to turn this into a flame war johnny, but you should, you know, atleast play the other games.
 

Core407

Banned
duk said:
this game needed another 6 months of dev time

Nah, it needed a completely new dev studio. Phantagram isn't good enough to make a game with the Big M. A lot of problems I've encountered in the demo can be blamed on lazy development. (A.I. system, weak animations, shoddy hit detection)
 

crunker99

Member
Core407 said:
Again, I'm only basing my comments on what I've played and not arguing for the sake of it. :)


i know hehe thats why i responded in kind :) i know a flame when i see it , and urs wasnt it

yes, for sure rent this man b4 buy

Jonnyram said:
Beat the secret mission, then we can talk.

If I'm gonna play a shitty game, I may as well play one with good graphics. I hate the genre basically, and I only bought this one to support Mizuguchi/Nakamura.


i cant wait to get up to the secret mission oh man i will have NO hair left haha


also rammalammadingdong, the game doenst have the best gfx, but they did seem to be one of te things on the more positive side of the game, they did change from map to map, it wasnt that bad i didnt think
 

Mrbob

Member
Q, Phantagram, and MS were so eager to rip off Dynasty Warriors, I'm surprised they didn't rip off their save system.

In Dynasty Warriors games, you can save 3 times per map, at any time. It saves all your current map data too, and this is on a lowly PS2 memory card with limited storage. I would be ticked off if I were fighting for an hour and half, died, and lost everything. What a waste of time.
 

Orodreth

Member
Jonnyram said:
Re: equipment
That was one of the saving graces of this game, I thought.
There is equipment that gives you HP recharge off all dropped items, I seem to recall. There is also equipment that increases item drop rate to stupid levels. Bad equipment must be collected, and when you equip all four pieces at once, the result is positive. In particular, there is one set that turns into a Goddess Hairpin or something, with insane stats.
...

All the other complaints, I agree with though. Co-op would have rocked, and improving the collision detection on bosses would have been nice too. It's like they deliberately screwed it up, like Black, to make the game last longer.

Yep, i totally agree. I´ve been playing Inphy campaign, not reached forest yet.

You can use the clover items to increase the drop rate and other special items increase the % of red/blue potions that appear.

There are also other items to boost XP, avoid enemy damage or critic attacks and so on. And leveling grants you access to some great combos.

i´m also digging the story and characters, for now remind me of Warcraft 3. Of course its not great AAA level but i find it interesting for the genre. They should have put more effort in the presentation though.

The game screams potential, but doesnt deliver. Nevertheles i´m enjoying it.
 

Orodreth

Member
cleveridea said:
few questions:
3. Any boss fighting tips esp that forest level? Eg does blocking actually work?

Block does work, it may be usefull with bosses. Didnt use it much yet.

cleveridea said:
few questions:
5. Are your armies ever actually usefull? archers/pikemen/infantry/heavy inf?

The big pointing Arrows allow you to command the troops to attack specific groups of enemies with the dpad. You can also call them for protection or leave them at specific places.

As the characters are baddass and for now can take every enemy alone i tend to select archers for long range support. In the next levels you may need to choose more carefully the type of troops, dont know.
 

crunker99

Member
Orodreth said:
Block does work, it may be usefull with bosses. Didnt you it much yet.



The big pointing Arrows allow you to command the troops to attack specific groups of enemies with the dpad. You can also call them for protection or leave them at specific places.

As the characters are baddass and for now can take every enemy alone i tend to select archers for long range support. In the next levels you may need to choose more carefully the type of troops, dont know.

heh i find that most of the time my dudes are dead by the time i reach the end of the forrest

man here we go again, startying try #9 damn inphhy forrest
 

TheDuce22

Banned
The game isnt that hard. All these complaints about save systems recently are ****ing stupid. Why is it expected for games to hold your hand and drag you through checkpoint by checkpoint? I beat Imphys missions and half of her brothers without dieing. The bosses so far all have clear patterns and its pretty easy to avoid their attacks. You do have to switch up your combos depending on what type of enemy you are fighting. The most annoying thing I have encountered is the slowdown. As I suspected its not nearly as broken or as ****nig horrible as those LOTR games. Worth the 25 bucks I paid for it anyway.
 
crunker99 said:
2. No Checkpoints.

The levels, as you play through them, get longer and longer. Last nite I spent almost 2 hours on one map, and my hand hurt after. Of course though, if you get killed by the first enemy out of the gate without you hitting him once, or the last final boss and he has 1 tiny sliver of energy and he kills you with some cheap shot, the result is the same. You start over from SQUARE ONE. at me, I am a reviewer.


2 hour levels with no checkpoints? What the shit? And people were complaining about DMC3 not having checkpoints and its levels were no longer than 15 minutes.
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
C- Warrior said:
2 hour levels with no checkpoints? What the shit? And people were complaining about DMC3 not having checkpoints and its levels were no longer than 15 minutes.
Yeah, but no it's never more than 30 minutes without checkpoints, and it's already waaaay too much, especially since about 90% of that time is boring killing of grunts and praying for a health bonus (hopefully not behind an invisble wall)...
 

Sallokin

Member
I'll give it an A for effort, I dig the character design, but the only thing this game has done is make me want a true next gen Dynasty Warriors (with online play) more than ever.
 

crunker99

Member
Blimblim said:
Yeah, but no it's never more than 30 minutes without checkpoints, and it's already waaaay too much, especially since about 90% of that time is boring killing of grunts and praying for a health bonus (hopefully not behind an invisble wall)...

oh ya blim dont u love thoe invisable walls?

dude one time it took my like 1.5-2hours jsut cause
i went all ways possibnle
instead of direct route..
such a shame

TheDuce22 said:
Worth the 25 bucks I paid for it anyway.

i thikn that about sums it up
 

Orodreth

Member
i just experienced the first of these "being killed by last boss when is almost dead" moments against the goblin king :D. The boss casted some kind of magical attack that got me.

I was a bit low in health but there were still lots of allies around so it was more my fault for trying to finish him myself than reaching exhausted.

Regarding controls, one of the problems i´m having is with the jump movement that sometimes is not triggered. Does it happen to any of you also or may only be problem of my controller ?
 

crunker99

Member
Orodreth said:
i just experienced the first of these "being killed by last boss when is almost dead" moments against the goblin king :D.

Regarding controls, one of the problems i´m having is with the jump movement that sometimes is not triggered. Does it happen to any of you also or may only be problem of my controller ?


it hasnt happened to me realyl, but i woudlnt put it past the game
 
You're missing

The game is about hitting X.
"Hit X over and over", written on a big piece of paper, served as this game's design document. You're not even formulating any strategies as to WHEN to hit X and WHEN NOT to hit X. At all times, you should be hitting X. The only times you do not hit X is occasionally you might try hitting Y.

Whether or not your attacks hit things is left entirely up to random chance.
There is no way to tell whether your sword strikes will hit the boss characters or just pass harmlessly through them.
 

KAOS

Member
I agree with mostly everything being said here. What really pisses me off is that MS didn't even make an effort to improve the game for it's domestic release over here. Didn't they get feed back from it's Japanese release? The potential was there the characters are kick ass, the graphics are nice and the music is nice. The gameplay is typical hack and slash. The save system in this game is beyound moronic(F U MS U Lasy ass bitches)!

Why couldn't they just look at a game like Guardian heroes for inspiration. All they had to do was cut back on some of the characters on screen{in particular your own warriors}. Have a save anywhere feature. Provide co-op online and off and a 1 on 1 fighting option with both the main and supporting characters in the game. Damn!!!

Sometimes I wonder who playtest these games. Oh well the masochist in me will attempt to play through it... cause I still like the game.
 

crunker99

Member
i mean the sinple additon of a midway checkpoint on the maps
woul have made the game about 50x more accessible to US gamers

seriously im not exagegrtin

50x more at least, and mark my words, would have psuhed review scroes up all around by at least .5
 

rastex

Banned
crunker99 said:
50x more at least, and mark my words, would have psuhed review scroes up all around by at least .5
oooooh .5?? hahah that comment is so ridiculous. Have review scores really become this arbitrary?


Oh, and obligatory people who don't like the game just don't know how to play it!
 
Top Bottom