Ninety-Nine Nights Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 September, 2005

We saw it today, we play it tomorrow.

Phantagram CEO SangYoun Lee and I probably don't have a lot in common, but today I knew just how he felt. Having arrived in Tokyo yesterday thoroughly jetlagged and without the slightest understanding of either written or spoken Japanese, I've been quietly and respectfully fudging the simplest of conversations ever since.

Poor Mr. Lee, who flew in from Korea for Microsoft's pre-Tokyo Game Show conference in Shibuya, was announced with much gusto by Xbox Japan's Yoshihiro Maruyama - only to stand there and say absolutely nothing as a product manager explained to the crowd that he was playing Ninety-Nine Nights. Respectfully.

Ninety-Nine Nights, N3 to its friends, is of course the game that Phantagram has been making in collaboration with Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment. Today we saw Mr. Lee play it, taking control of a tightly armoured hourglass-curved heroine with a big sword, and wade through hundreds upon hundreds of troops.

'Ninety-Nine Nights' Screenshot 1

Looks nice eh? It didn't look this sharp at Microsoft's conference, but we're reserving judgement until it's in our faces.

This, of course, is fairly typical of early next-generation games; with little time and limited resources, devs are discovering that one of the easiest applications of the Xbox 360's brute strength is simply increasing the number of units on-screen. N3 does this - we knew this much before. What's worrying is that despite Mizuguchi's involvement - usually enough to guarantee a strong game, to say the least - it's surprisingly dull to watch somebody else play it.

Yes, there are lots of units, and yes, the CG cut-scenes look nice. But the in-game action is more reminiscent of Dynasty Warriors than the opening of Gladiator. Wading into the midst of armed troops, our heroine slashed, slashed, slashed and juggled enemies in the air, and with every swirl of her sword seemed to make bigger arcs and cause more damage. At which point enemies would tumble to the ground and remain there without disappearing - and the 'Kill Count' in the bottom right would shoot up and up.

'Ninety-Nine Nights' Screenshot 2

From the CG trailer. This is what we want.

It's like a fairly standard third-person hackandslash with more units and persistent corpses. The ground underfoot boasted none of the parallax mapping seen in games like Kameo, animations are regularly repeated (the juggle in particular is very old-school) and the air wasn't really thick with the mist of blood-spray; it was just misty, thanks to a depth-of-field effect that blurred proceedings after a certain distance. It makes more sense than a screen full of units in perfect focus, perhaps, but nested in this environment it had something of a negative impact.

As the demonstration continued, our lady gathered red souls to her, which filled up a gauge allowing her to unleash 'over-attacks'. These struck out with extreme force, scything through masses of enemies in a straight line, spouting waves of energy to send enemies crashing aside, and eventually unleashing a higher-level over-attack that fired needle-thin blue lines through the air in every direction, dispatching hundreds of enemies at once. But even this, though technically impressive, wasn't an absolute marvel to see. In the trailer we've seen - and indeed in CG footage shown after the in-game demonstration - these over-attacks pay homage to Sauron's demise at the start of the Lord of the Rings. In-game they're mighty, but much less extraordinary.

As are many of the effects. After witnessing first-hand the sheer volume of incidental detail Rare's packed into Xbox 360 title Kameo, it was rather jarring to watch the player clip straight through logs, and chop identikit wooden objects in half exactly the same way each time - and always on the third blow, after the previous two had failed to do any damage at all.

'Ninety-Nine Nights' Screenshot 3

This broke and the world endured 99 days of darkness. Jewellery: worth learning.

Of course it's too early to call it one way or another, and Mizuguchi's games always have a habit of feeling heaven-sent once they're gluing the controller to our hands. We can even see how certain things might feed into that - the repetition of juggle animations, for example, might be crucial to judgement of the timing. And there's clearly much more to it than these fumbling first steps; characters glimpsed in the cut-scenes appear to have different elemental powers; there's a wide-eyed young girl in a witch's hat and tall boots summon raindrops into the air and twists up some manner of typhoon, for example. So, while we'd urge caution for now, we're going to stick with Mr. Lee and let actions speak loudest. Join us again soon for hands-on impressions of the game from the floor of the Tokyo Game Show.

Ninety-Nine Nights is due out on Xbox 360 in January 2006. It's playable at the Tokyo Game Show this week.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (30) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gamesb*tch #1 7 years ago

    Please ask them to burn me off a copy when you play it can you?

    / checks temperature and expects infection of rabid fanb0yism

  • Blerk #2 7 years ago

    It certainly looks fantastically impressive, but the 'Dynasty Warriors' style of game doesn't do much for me. :-/

  • gamesb*tch #3 7 years ago

    Nah me neither... I'd play it at a mate's for 40 minutes though.

    One of those games I'd have to be really bothered to try again after a 'break for tea and biccies' :)

  • Teeth #4 7 years ago

    parallax mapping?

  • redd #5 7 years ago

    from gamespot.com:

    "it was the game's visuals that impressed us the most. The huge battlefield was made to look even bigger than it actually was by the fact that characters in the distance were out of focus, and some of the "over-attack" animations that became available when enough enemy souls had been collected were pretty spectacular. The most impressive, undoubtedly, was one that we saw performed toward the end of the demo, and which was described as one of the most powerful in the game. As our heroine jumped up into the air she remained there for a few seconds and was surrounded by blue beams of light that proceeded to target and kill every single enemy in the (very large) surrounding area. The light show was impressive, and seeing hundreds of enemies fall to the ground simultaneously (their bodies didn't look to be magically disappearing) made the whole thing feel incredibly satisfying"

    If you read the eurogamer report it looks like they're talking about a completely different game, maybe if it was comming out for the PSP and was a dinasty warriors 1 port it would get a good preview.

  • #6 7 years ago

    I dont care what EG say the game looks Great and will sell, so it matters little what some two-bit reporter who can't get a real job says.

  • Wobble #7 7 years ago

    yeah, having a job that sends you to TGS really sounds crap, I'd far rather slave away in a cubicle at a 'real job'

    /rolls eyes

  • Talha #8 7 years ago

    "I dont care what EG say the game looks Great and will sell, so it matters little what some two-bit reporter who can't get a real job says. "

    Yeah, right, you are CEO of World Bank, right? I would even leave THAT in order to be a games journalist. And by the way, why waste your precious time posting in this thread then, eh?

  • #9 7 years ago

    Talha your a sony FB so why are you even reading this article ? unless its just to troll.

  • bootsy_NL_30 #10 7 years ago

    hmmm I agree with this article completely (which is suprising given that most of the time the journalists sound like whinging poms)

    this game does look very very boring,otagi showed how far this genre can go , and even that got boring after a while (design however was amazing)

  • gamesb*tch #11 7 years ago

    Interesting
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/05 @ 13:22

  • #12 7 years ago

    This, of course, is fairly typical of early next-generation games; with little time and limited resources, devs are discovering that one of the easiest applications of the Xbox 360's brute strength is simply increasing the number of units on-screen. N3 does this - we knew this much before. What's worrying is that despite Mizuguchi's involvement - usually enough to guarantee a strong game, to say the least - it's surprisingly dull to watch somebody else play it.

    So it'll look nice, but the game'll be shit...

    Next!

  • Talha #13 7 years ago

    Tinkay-bell, just read the other comments about yourself. Should give you an idea. As for being a Sony FB, I think PS2 has the best library of games, so I am basing my assessments on that, simple. What's so fanboy-ish about that? And I don't think MS or XBox sucks either.

    As for reading this article, I can pretty damn well read anything I want to. You go insulting the very reporter whose article you are reading - since you don't agree with anything he will ever say, whats the point?

  • Dizzy #14 7 years ago

    > yeah, having a job that sends you to TGS really sounds crap, I'd far rather slave away in a cubicle at a 'real job'

    and make real money ;)

    Anyway.. guys this is a Dynasty Warriors type game. What do you expect. This series has sold craploads of stuff and apparently there are people who love this kind of gameplay. Yeah.. it is this type of game... you have to view it like that. If people are expecting brand new ideas on next gen consoles, you might be in for a surprise. Just like previous generations we will get a lot of games that play the same as old games but "do" more and we will get a few original new titles that could not be done with previous hardware. Take N3 like a DW clone and I am sure the fans of that genre will be very impressed.

    And stop this ridicilous obsession with GCI quality on next gen... it's not going to happen.. no not even on your precious PS3...

  • gamesb*tch #15 7 years ago

    "not even on your precious PS3"

    Mommy mommy he said Santa doesn't exist... boo hoo

    :)

  • Diabeu #16 7 years ago

    somehow lots of enemies and DW type of gameplay sounds like the sweetest mellody to me, I just fuckin' love it

  • PearOfAnguish #17 7 years ago

    "If you read the eurogamer report it looks like they're talking about a completely different game, maybe if it was comming out for the PSP and was a dinasty warriors 1 port it would get a good preview."

    Yes. Because Gamespot is so much more reliable.

  • Stickman #18 7 years ago

    Boo! Where's that divvy's comments gone? I want to read them! Tinkerbell, or whatever.

  • Talha #19 7 years ago

    Yeah, he seems to be gone along with his patronising, self obsessed comments - apparently was the CEO of World Bank or something. The world is a better place for it.

  • Salvia #20 7 years ago

    "If you read the eurogamer report it looks like they're talking about a completely different game, maybe if it was comming out for the PSP and was a dinasty warriors 1 port it would get a good preview."



    Who let all these idiots on to the site? Since E3 there's been a influx of numbskulls that seem to
    a. be Xbox fanboys

    and

    b. have no clue as to what they are talking about.


  • Dizzy #21 7 years ago

    >Who let all these idiots on to the site? Since E3 there's been a influx of numbskulls that seem to

    EG has to blame themselves with the "True next gen" "news" that apparently went all over the world. From hero to zero in just a few days.

  • Talha #22 7 years ago

    The 'True Next Gen' was a fair reaction to the kind of games shown for both platforms AT THE TIME. Who would deny that pre-rendered or not, it was SONY who offered a glimpse of the future at E3? I think EG, for once, acted like an excitable gamer instead of journalists, and sometimes you need to let your hair down a bit. Nothing wrong with that, only human!

  • Feanor #23 7 years ago

    Don't start this again. The only amazing real-time demos shown for the PS3 at E3 were Fight Night 2 and the Unreal Engine 3 and both of those are coming to the 360 as well. Calling the PS3 the "real" next gen based mainly on the Killzone movie was a real low point for Eurogamer.

  • oceanmotion #24 7 years ago

    Seen the gameplay video and to me it looks boring as hell.

  • Netfreak #25 7 years ago

    Eurogamer got bored watching it? I suppose if N3 dev showed them some CGI it would hype the hell out of Eurogamer, just like they did with the 'realtime' Killzone footage.

  • bivith #26 7 years ago

    "worrying" has become eurogamer's must overused word.

    every article about xbox360 has something "worrying" them.

  • bivith #27 7 years ago

    "Calling the PS3 the "real" next gen based mainly on the Killzone movie was a real low point for Eurogamer. "

    from which they have never recovered.

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #28 7 years ago

    *yawn* change the record, trollers!

  • tengu #29 7 years ago

    Class, sometimes they don't need a 'helping hand' getting whipped up :)

    Nice to see 'Tinkay_Bell' appears to be banned, can clear the old ignore list again :)

    As for the game, I don't see why people are getting so worked up about it. Stuff like this is ten a penny nowadays, flashy visuals or no. I could understand the foot stamping if something like PDZ or PGR3 was being criticised, but this is hardly likely to be a 'Killer app' title, is it? Are any of you even likely to buy it?

    It's just opinion, deal with it.

  • Ryuken #30 7 years ago

    Well, everyone is entitled to give his concerns, previews really should always highlight possible negative stuff too, something Gamespot isn't really known for. Then again, repetition in a hack & slash game is pretty obvious imo.

    Haven't been trying out Phantagram Xbox games but Kingdom Under Fire was terrible on the PC. Didn't they also bombed Total Annihilation 2?
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/05 @ 21:02

  • IronGiant #31 7 years ago

    Heavenly sword looks better ;)

  • morriss #32 6 years ago

    me wants