NEWS - Thursday, September 15, 2005
TGS: Ninety Nine Nights
Today at the Microsoft press conference Sang Youn Lee of Phantagram presented the first in-game footage of Ninety Nine Nights. He took control of a woman in shining armor who has been highlighted in the available screen shots. She charged across a battlefield, taking down hundreds of troops in a style similar to Dynasty Warriors. The build we witnessed showed the main character performing multiple attacks that built up into more powerful strikes. Red and blue orbs were collected along with weapons that could be made more powerful through a number of stages. During the course of battle the character leveled up and scoured the battlefield for floating chests of goodies. The combo system routinely took the character high into the air where she was able to reign damage on the troops below. There were multiple dash attacks, projectiles and a single magic spell that killed hundreds of troops at once. These ultimate attacks are visually spectacular and were later highlighted in a brand new CG trailer. The playable section of the presentation ended with a boss battle against a huge troll with a health meter. For a decent idea of what the character design looks like check out Phantagram's current Xbox title Kingdom Under Fire. The footage looked incredibly similar to the trailer which shows throngs of characters being lifted in the air by waves of energy. The characters were detailed with shiny armor and an amazing amount of activity on the screen. It was running at a smooth frame rate and included an accentuated blur effect for objects in the background giving the game a good depth of field. The display included information like: 500 kills, 430 hit combos and a mini-map residing on the top corner of the screen. These statistics give you an idea of just how many kills were taking place in the short time span of the demo. The characters include trolls, goblins, elves, and some unidentified evil beings. After the in-game footage a new trailer showed a montage featuring the main characters. An evil elf-type creature shown taking a deadly blow from a female knight. We also witnessed an elf who controlled globules of water, a barbarian that shattered the earth, a fire demon, two human knights, and a wizard. It appears as though each of the characters is tied to an element which also determines their ultimate attack. Check back tomorrow for hands-on impressions of Ninety Nine Nights because Microsoft has already told us it will be playable on the show floor.Source: http://xbox360.ign.com
