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

{Mike}

Banned
aku:jiki said:
You are a terrible reviewer if you didn't know your own limits and asked to skip this title. You clearly have no idea about how to play thisgame at all.

The shaman goblins are not hard (I say again -- strop trying to play the game by mashing every button you can think of, go after the shamans specifically and they're a cakewalk...this is what they call "strategy", you know?). Neither is Dwykfarrio (the goblin king). He isn't strong, you probably just didn't kill the shamans before attacking him. Also, he telegraphs his strong attacks. It is also possible to break enemies guards, especially if you have items that up your percentage of that. If you took the time to learn how to play, you would see all his attacks coming and wouldn't take a single hit from him.

But you didn't give a fair chance, suck at this game and obviously shouldn't have reviewed it.
Funny thing is, I did go for the goblin shamans first, and I tried to use strategy. Also, like I said, a fellow reviewer from another website had the same complaints as me and was also stuck at this level. I then tried Inphyy's brother missions, but got killed in the second mission where you have to eliminate units before the messengers arrive. As far as frozen game is concerned, it happened many times while I was trying to level up in earlier levels, just so I could kill the infamous Dwykfarrio. I had almost no problem to get to the boss, but got wiped out everytime. It's not like your allied units help at all either.

I'm not saying this game is for the hardcore. Dwykfarrio is just really hard, and even when I checked his pattern, he still killed me. My attacks only ate so little of his HP, even when I did the special attack in mid-air (red rays). I've got nothing about using strategy, but even when I did, I failed. It's not like I tried a hundred times, 99 nights proved way too frustrating before that. And I felt no reason to continue, if not to see another stage with thousands of ennemies thrown at you without a reason and with some of the lamest level design in recent gaming history. I did enjoy 99 nights the first 10 minutes, but rapidly got turned off not by its difficulty, but more because of the controls/level design/poor depth.
 

Orodreth

Member
sp0rsk said:
Nothing about this game is "hard" so to speak.

Its just that some units are totally overpowered IE magicians and boss characters. And its really really lame when the magicians start attacking you in a place where you cant see them.

The shammans attacks are also telegrhaped, like aku:jiki said.
You can see the purple aura on the ground where the attack will fall and avoid it.

sp0rsk said:
I'll buy this game was rushed out the door, I think the fact that after the first two or three (Can't remember exactly) characters the whole "select your army" mumbo jumbo gets totally thrown out the window is evidence of that.

With Tyurru you play one level alone and have to sort traps flying, for example. I dont understand why the game gets criticized for being boring and repetitive and when there are differences from one character to the other it also is explained as a flaw.
 

aku:jiki

Member
{Mike} said:
My attacks only ate so little of his HP, even when I did the special attack in mid-air (red rays).
That one isn't for doing massive damage, it's for hurting many enemies at once. Of course it isn't going to drain a boss' health just like that, since that isn't what it's for. Use, like I already said, juggling moves and he's a cakewalk. The later strikes in an AAYYYY combo will always deal decent damage against bosses.

{Mike} said:
another stage with thousands of ennemies thrown at you without a reason
Now you're just being retarded for the sake of hating. No reason? It's called a "war".

{Mike} said:
and with some of the lamest level design in recent gaming history.
What? It's a war game, not a platformer. What else were they supposed to do with it?

sp0rsk said:
Not knowing how to play the game is an insult id throw at someone for not liking VF or something, but come on, this game is just really really poorly designed. Damage balance, top heavy level design and frustrating hit detection arent "minor flaws" in a game like this.
It is a very flawed game, I don't see anybody debating that. However, we are saying that you guys are being unfairly harsh against it, before you even learned how to play the damn thing. That's not really cool.

I mean, so it's quite far from perfect and I'm sure Sengoku Basara 2 is as awesome as you claim...but all of us don't live in Tokyo and don't have the luxury of getting it on a whim because you said so. N3 will do nicely until SB2 comes out, because come on, even if it isn't the best game in the genre, saying it is an unplayable piece of shit that needs to die is pushing it just a little bit.
 
m0dus said:
So here's the real question:

Should I pick this one up? :lol

Well I just Gameflyed it and promptly returned it....

I really really wanted to enjoy this game for what it was, but even that was a real chore. There really is no depth to this game past the 20 minute or so mark. One of the things that I hoped would really draw me in - the multi-perspective story - was half baked with a mediocre dub.

The friendly AI is beyond useless as well as the levels being going on and on needlessly with no checkpoints to get a break from the monotony of it all....

I still enjoy the game's art design very much, as well it technical prowess of throwing so many character's on screen at one time. But having played Phatagrams Kingdom under fire series, this one just left me confused....

so sorry, no recommendation from me
 

Orodreth

Member
m0dus said:
So here's the real question:

Should I pick this one up? :lol

did you enjoy the demo ? if so then i would say yes.

You can also wait a bit as it seems is gonna bomb so the price will be lowered.
 
I rented it last week and got a lot out of it (did all characters and missions plus special but didn't have spare time to clean up all A's and Level 9 characters).

Quite enjoyable. As per usual, you won't see me complaining about many gameplay or difficulty issues because there weren't many for me. Indeed, I was inspired to make this note by seeing complaints of camera issues, "hard" shamans, inability to save mid-mission, etc.

The camera is great, full control to get a great overhead view, or instantly get a new angle on the hundreds of combatants (with the camera swinging around without a hitch) or see what is behind quickly, etc.

Enemies like the shamans are not a design problem. You see the spark, you stay on the move and hunt them down like the magical snipers they are. Higher enemies/bosses you learn the patterns and strike when they commit to a move that leaves them open, as usual.

And the save system is fine. The game is actually generally well-balanced and only after meeting Dwykfarrio the first time did I not make it to an after-battle save screen. Next time I knew how to handle him (and build up a better score along the way). It isn't like DW5E where you may choose a lower level character to lead and put him in a tough fight, making use of those 3 Normal diffculty saves at well-spaced intervals. In 99 Nights, the balance is built around the one character on the one level with predictable experience progression.

Other issues such as the support teams are indeed roughly implemented and inconsistently applied (you can even use them on some stages with other characters you aren't expecting to, if you experiment with calling near troops, such as with Klarann) and not always a great help. They aren't a positive, but they also don't break the game.

I liked most of what I saw in the game art-wise, from the luminescent beauty of Inphyy (kudos to the character designer) to the flowing and flashy attack animations, specific higher combos of which are actually very useful. Favorites to play as were Myifee, slow but devastating with crazy awesome Orb attack and a simple and agreeable motivation (mostly noble but also driven by the presence of the hot babe...:lol). And Tyurru was a lot of fun, this absurdly cute porcelain doll come to life summoning awesome tidal waves of destruction, which even racks up hits as the wave flows around corners of caverns far away.

I wouldn't have been unhappy if I bought it at Outpost when it was $40. But now after an $8 rental (my first 360 rental, reflecting the uncertainty and yet interest) and most everything done in it, will wait until later and cheaper to balance the cost out to add it to the library.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I was clearing a bunch of stuff off of my HDD yesterday and found I had downloaded the demo for N3. I must have qued it up right before some epic session of Oblivion since I didn't remember downloading it.

So, I tried it.

It was pretty boring. Nothing really new to add, but since this was my first experience in the "lots of dudes on screen" genre, a few thoughts:

There's no sense of fear. I just kept diving into throngs of enemies pressing B and sent them flying. That first wave was kind of intimidating, but about 85 B presses later, all was well. I don't get the appeal of fighting enemies this way. It was the least impactful action I've played in a long time.

The voice acting and synch were laughable. Really, really bad. Oblivion had better facial animations.

I didn't realize you could knock those towers down until I did it by accident. That's because the game does not give you any indication that you've hit them; the sword just sails through, not even a sound effect until it suddenly falls over.

Hmmm. Not much else to say. I cleared out about a dozen packs of clone dudes and then quit. I deleted the demo from my HDD. It was boring, and seemed sloppy as well.
 

Orodreth

Member
GhaleonEB said:
There's no sense of fear. I just kept diving into throngs of enemies pressing B and sent them flying. That first wave was kind of intimidating, but about 85 B presses later, all was well. I don't get the appeal of fighting enemies this way. It was the least impactful action I've played in a long time.

Once you get hit by a giant frog boss and loose half your health bar in the middle of a map and after 20 minutes kicking minions butt, i can assure you that you´ll feel the fear or pain :D

The demo is underwhelming and doesnt do the game justice but if you already find it boring its difficult to recomend it.

You will not like the game if you dont enjoy wiping all that thousands of enemies while getting high combos. Pressing just B again and again IS boring but its easy and pays off to learn the different combos. Some of them are awesome and mixing them is the key to get really high combos and defeat the different enemies and bosses.

The orb attacks/sparks are fantastic also and the characters are different enough to promote replayability and get the different points of view of the history.
 

Orodreth

Member
Ash Sparrow said:
But didn't it do like 80,000 copies in august.

Yeah, but i did answer at the end of august, way before NPD arrived, and everyone, reviews included, proclaimed doomd & gloom for N3.
 
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