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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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Game Title: Knights in the Nightmare
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer:Sting Entertainment
Summary: The player takes control of a wisp, who was set free by an unknown Valkyrie. The game takes the player through both the present and the past. Players go through the game events in present time, getting to know the events happening around them but they would not understand much of it. After battles, the wisp would generally recover his memories and through that, the players would slowly get a general idea of who the wisp and the Valkyrie are, and also why the events happening around them are occurring.
Graphics: The game makes use of 2D character sprites both during cut scenes and during battles. The character art gives players a medieval yet supernatural feel. It fits the game as the units the players can control are mainly knights, magicians or others along this line, while they are fighting against monsters such as werewolves, spirits and other such spiritual beings.
Music: The music allows the player to feel the transition between different environments such as from a eerie location into a battle scene. It allows the player to feel tense and thus allows the player to get more involved with the story. There's also some voice acting included and it's all pretty well done as you can hear the variations between the normal chars and when they are injured or in a hurry.
Story: The story is pretty much confusing at first till about halfway into the game when you start getting some faint idea about what the story really is about. This is one of the few games I played where you do not know anything about the character from the start, and there ain't many people who are able to tell you more about yourself. It's a different experience, and it seems pretty well planned out. However for players who play games mainly for the story, they may get bored quickly and put this game down as you'll have to put quite a few hours into this game before you understand most of the events and happenings.
Gameplay: Battles, like many other SRPGs, takes place on a grid board. This game utilizes 2D sprites on a 3D environment. However what defines it from other rpgs is that you can only use the stylus. The sylus would control the wisp, who would then influence the other units. Other SRPGs have individual hp guages for each character, however in this game, there is none. The only game over condition the player has is to run out of time.
Players are given a fixed number of turns in which they have to meet their victory conditions. Each turn, players are given a time bar, which would deplete as players use their units to attack or if the wisp gets hit by the enemies attack.
This is a pretty new and individual battle system and it could be hard to grasp at first. The game provides a fairly long optional tutorial which players can go through to get a hang of the game.
Conclusion: I would recomend this game to pretty much everyone who likes SRPG and those who are out looking for a new game experience. Basically this game require players to think on their feet and react quickly as they have to plan their moves while avoiding enemy fire. For myself personally, this is one of the more memorable games out of all the ones I've played recently firstly due to the unique gameplay system and secondly due to the art and music.