Ninety Nine Nights

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on June 23, 2006

First Impressions: Kingdom Under Fire goes next gen.

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The alliterative Ninety-Nine Nights (N3) was originally released in Japan on April 20 with high hopes that it would be the first Уkiller appФ for the tepid Japanese Xbox 360 market. It received solid reviews and definitely caused a spike in console sales, which is good, but it was only a small spike, which is bad. But don't blame the game, blame the current lack of Japanese-centric titles for the 360.

But for those of us on this side of the Pacific who love our concave white boxes, we'll have to wait a few more weeks before we can get our hands on this insanely fun looking action game directed by Q Entertainment (developer of Lumines and Meteos) and developed by Phantagram, creator of the popular Kingdom Under Fire (KUF) action strategy series.

The story is completely unrelated to KUF but fans will feel right at home. N3 carries on the look and spirit of its predecessor but greatly increases the action (the game is about 80% action and only 20% strategy) and scale, with unbelievably massive battles that make KUF's 200-character clashes look like little back alley skirmishes in comparison. We're talking about hundreds upon hundreds of characters duking it out onscreen at the same time with little to no slowdowns. Whoa.

With the increased emphasis on action, the game looks similar to hack and slash titles like Dynasty Warriors. You will still be able to command groups of NPC soldiers; in fact, you will have up to two battalions accompanying you, made from a mix of army, archers and swordsmen. You can tell them to attack, defend or hold, but the strategy portions have been significantly dialed down to give gamers more of what they loved best about KUF Ц slicing and dicing their way through impossibly large waves of bad guys. This is a very good thing, especially if you hated KUF's clunky command and control system.

You will start the game as Inphyy, a sexy human female warrior. She will be accompanied by her brother Aspharr, who will not be playable at first but can be unlocked when you finish Inphyy's campaign. There are a total of seven playable heroes Ц including an enemy Goblin character Ц each with their own unique perspective on the central story thread. Inspired by famed director Akira Kurosawa's influential masterpiece Rashomon, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi's goal was to create an interactive movie focusing on each character's individual concept of justice and how the same events can be interpreted in many different ways.

Sounds like pretty heady stuff, doesn't it? But don't worry; in between the cinematic cutscenes of anguished warriors, you can ponder the philosophical thesis of the story while you're slicing up enemies like a Cuisinart. Unlike KUF, each hero in N3 will be an orc and goblin massacring powerhouse, capable of performing some absolutely insane attack combos. How insane? How does a 1000-hit combo that can wipe out hundreds of enemies in only a few seconds sound to you? And this is just from just your regular attacks; your special magical Orb attacks (which are powered up by filling a meter) are even more devastating and can kill over 500 enemies at once. Nasty!

Each character will start with a small number of combo attacks but can unlock a total of 40 as you level up. Each combo is bright, colorful, completely outrageous and a total blast to perform. And remember, there are hundreds of enemies all right there onscreen waiting for you to plow through them like a weed whacker, so if this can't slake your hack-and-slash mass murdering desires, I don't know what will.

In addition to leveling up your attacks, you can also upgrade your weapons and use special amulets to upgrade attributes like health, defense and so on.

Visually, the game is very impressive. If having such a crazy number of enemies and friendly allies simultaneously onscreen with virtually no slowdowns isn't impressive in and of itself, then the beautiful lighting effects, highly detailed heroes, colorful attacks, and huge maps filled with lush grassy fields, forests or snow will surely be pleasing to the eye.