Review: knights in the Nightmare

Complex, bizarre or just plain weird; these are some ways someone may describe Atlus’ new action/Strategy game for the Nintendo DS, Knights in the Nightmare.
There is no doubt that Atlus USA has a reputation for bringing Japanese oddities of gaming to the English speaking world. The latest of which is Knights in the Nightmare (or KitN – pronounced Kitten), developed by Sting, a company known by their cult-like followers for combining gameplay elements from different genre to make some truly unique Role-playing games. Past efforts from Sting include Riviera: the Promised Land and Yggdra Union, both released on the Game Boy Advance and were later ported to the PSP.
KitN is a genre mash-up that combines a strategy RPG with a bullet hell arcade game. The easiest way to think of it is like Final Fantasy Tactics meets geometry Wars. You play as “the wisp” the soul of an undead king seeking revenge for his usurped kingdom. As the Wisp you have the power to recruit units in the form of your fallen comrades. The Wisp can temporarily raise the dead and send them into battle. Each level will have you controlling a small squad of 2-4 units on average against a group of monsters or one big boss monster to take down.
The gameplay itself is what sets KitN apart from just about every other strategy game ever made. In the game you have no HP, no life bar, you cannot die. Your individual units take no damage and cannot be hit. Instead you have to watch your “time”. Since you are controlling your units they are more like tools than actual characters. However they each have a vitality gage. Each action drains them of vitality, once it runs out they fade away forever. Likewise, you have a time game that drains with each action and once that runs out it ends the phase of battle. Each mission has a set number of phases you have to beat the enemy within. If you run out of phases it is game over.
There is another way to lose time and that is being hit by “bullets”. Each enemy type has a number of projectiles they will hurl at the Wisp. You move in real time around the battlefield with the stylus, trying to avoid time sucking bullets and multitasking by activating your knights to unleash their special attacks to wipe out enemy monsters.
As for your Knights, there are six unit types that range from Ninja-like hermits to the horse-mounted Lancers. Each mission gives you all the knights you need, usually, and they will fade away after combat unless you use a particular item on them. Each unit responds to a particular item, if you have it in your inventory (the game will highlight it if you do) and use it on them they will be added to your roster permanently. When using these knights in combat you are allowed to bring a handful of weapons into combat. When you have a weapon that corresponds to the unit type on the field you simply drag and drop it on the knight and they will start to charge their special attack. Once it’s charged you simply let go when an enemy makes the mistake of entering your attack range for a flashy attack animation.
It can be hectic and fun, but by the last quarter of the game it really starts to wear thin. All the enemy encounters start to feel the same only broken up by the occasional boss fight.
There is way more to the gameplay with the ability to transoul weaker units to strengthen more useful ones, hundreds of weapons to keep track of, upgrade and fuse together and more than 100 individual knights in the game, but to go in depth with it all would be too much to list in one review.
Visually KitN is nice looking with some well done sprite work and 3D effects but it won’t blow you away. It does, however, have some great character designs and style that maintains the tone and mood of the game which stays fairly grim throughout the game.
The music is also great complimented by the 40-song soundtrack that Atlus packed in with the game. There is a great variety of battle themes to keep it from getting too repetitive. The voice work on the other hand is awful. Units will cry out little catch phrases with every attack and it completely overshadows the games great music. Sadly there is no way to turn the voiceovers off either. Strangely enough there is no voice work during the story though.
As for the story itself, it is enough to get you going, but ultimately with 100+ characters it is hard to feel connected to any of them. Since the heroes get very little development at all the villains end up making up most of the established cast and you even may find yourself sympathising with some of them more-so than the wisp and it’s plight.
KitN is a highly original game that is fun for a while but wears thin near the end. The game is worth a play though and those who really dig the style may want to try replaying on the higher difficulty levels you unlock by beating the game on Normal mode. Ultimately it is not a great game, nor a bad game, just a flawed gem.