The blue sky spread out above us and puffy clouds floated by as the cheers and groans of the battlefield filled my ears. The lance in my hand moved freely before me killing tens of goblins and orcs as I went. Hordes of evil creatures crowded around us meaning to slay us all. But my lance cleared paths through them for my allies to follow to safer ground.



This is the world of 99 nights. A rich and beautiful spectacle of incredible graphics and music. Where one warrior can and must make a difference on the battlefield and that warrior is you. This is not a strategy game and the little control you are given over your fellow soldiers is really useless in most cases. It is far better to simply choose units wisely such as Heavy Infantry and Archers for most maps. Heavy Infantry because they are good against most foes and Archers because they can weaken or distract the bosses of each mission.



On these immense battlefields you will be fighting hordes of enemies and with each wave you may have a chance to pick up powerups and/or upgrades to your weapons and armor. These are essential to making it through most battles so look for them and use them strategically.



Even with these powerups however, you will have to play through 99 nights many times to finish it. In order to make it through most missions you must replay earlier ones to grow the level of your character. This is done by saving each character in a separate slot and saving at the end of each mission and then going back on the mission select map and replaying them. Usually to get a higher score or rank. This process will level you up so you can withstand the difficulty of each mission which can be severe. You start each mission in relative ease and this can quickly lead you to believe that you are invincible But as you progress the mission gets harder and harder and by the boss fight at the end of the mission you could be pretty badly beaten up and many times there are no health or powerups around by that point in the game. So you must be of descent level to withstand all this and you will still probably have to go searching around the map for health and power ups to keep you from dying. You will also need to hit the BACK button to open up the status screen and trick out your character with all the items you find on battlefields. This can be done at any time throughout the mission. It does help, but sometimes it changes some of the bosses and makes them harder. Well, you can't have everything but this certainly adds yet another element to the game.


The problem with this, is of course that this game will take you quite a while to get through, I'm not completely finished and haven't completely gotten all the achievements and I'm at around 20 hours of gameplay. Also you are not able to save anywhere else except at the close of a mission there are no waypoints in the game. All of this is really what keeps 99 Nights from being a top AAA title. The game is very fun and I certainly enjoyed every moment I spent with it but the constant frustration of getting 2/3 of the way done with a mission and then having to restart the whole 30 minute affair because I died either by accident or because I ran out of health is crazy.



You are able to unlock various characters as you go through 99 Nights, you start out with Inphyy a cool looking female warrior with wings on her back. Playing through her campaign you unlock other characters and by doing so it opens it up to unlock 5 more characters. Here is how it breaks down:



Aspharr Clear Fort Wyandeek with Inphyy. Dwingvatt Clear all of Aspharr and Myifee's missions. Klarrann Clear all of Dwingvatt's missions. Myifee Clear the Pholya Flatlands with Inphyy. Tyurru Clear all of Dwingvatt's missions. Vigk Vagk Clear all of Tyurru and Klarrann's missions.



Finally there is a Library section where you can unlock different art tiles and concept sketches. These can be unlocked using points you earn throughout the game.



This game is very cool, the beauty of graphics and majesty of the music really brings you into these huge battles and really work well. The problem with the game really involves design flaws in the save system and the mission difficulty. I give this game a solid 8/10 and a recommendation to rent the game first and see if it's acquired taste is the kind of thing you are into it.

My Score: 8/10

THEIR SCORE

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