Knights in the Nightmare Nintendo Channel demo impressions

We may have to wait until June 2, 2009 to actually purchase and play Atlus’ Knights in the Nightmare, but thanks to the Wii and the Nintendo Channel, we can already breeze through the tutorial and learn how to play. Knights in the Nightmare has just appeared as a DS demo download on the Nintendo Channel, and will remain there until May 17, 2009. You might want to get out your DS and briefly set up camp beside your Wii when you get home!

For those of you who don’t have the luxury of accessing the DS Download Service, Gamertell’s here to help. Yesterday, after finding out from the Atlus Faithful newsletter that the demo was waiting to be played, I hurried home to try it out.

First, a bit of background on Knights in the Nightmare. It’s a strategic RPG from Sting, who also created Riviera: The Promised Land, Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone and the Dokapon games. Knights in the Nightmare can seem confusing if you take it at face value. The player is a Wisp, guided by a Valkyrie named Maria, who can control knights who have fallen in battle by possessing them. At the same time, enemies are trying to attack the Wisp, so you have to quickly dodge and move around on the touch screen, hurrying to knights so you can possess them and defeat the enemies. The ultimate goal is to escape a historic castle called Aventheim, and discover what happened in the past to shape what is going to happen in the future.

Like the Avalon Code demo, the Knights in the Nightmare demo basically chops the tutorial out of the main games and makes it available as a sample for eagerly anticipating masses. A smart move, since trying to decipher screenshots from the game without a detailed explanation could be quite difficult.

The first thing that you see is the Play Menu. The only function enabled for the demo is the Play the Tutorial option. However, it is interesting to note that below the standard Start the Game and Continue options, there is also a Leveling option. I was pleased to see this, as there are many strategic RPGs where I’d like to level grind, perhaps to make things easier, but am denied due to the nature of the game and flow of the story.

Selecting the tutorial brings up another menu, one called First Steps. It goes over Basic Attacks, Dodging Attacks, Defeating Enemies, Acquiring Gems, Changing Phases, Attack Range and Phase Skills. I chose Basic Attacks, because, well, it’s the first one. I was then taken to a screen discussing Spectral Warfare and making attacks. The Valkyrie Maria, identified only as Armored Maiden, was on the bottom screen along with bullet points discussing progress. First, I learned that moving the stylus on the touch screen controls the Wisp on the screen above.

Maria, excuse me, Armored Maiden then shows how you move the Wisp to make knights perform actions. First, a brief demonstration movie on the top screen shows how to make the Wisp control the knight. It goes pretty quickly, and doesn’t seem to explain how to get the knight to attack. I then was able to Activate the knight by moving the Wisp on top of him. The next bullet point was then revealed, “Charge up and release!” To get a knight to attack, you move the Wisp on top of him or her. Then, you hold down and drag in the direction of the enemy you want attacked. Once the tile below the enemy turns blue, showing it is in range, you can then lift the stylus off the screen and the knight will attack.

The next tutorial topic was Dodging Attacks. First, I learned that enemies will be firing bullets at the Wisp. If a bullet hits, it takes away from the amount of time you have to complete that battle. Once again, Maria showed a brief demonstration movie, this time of what not to do. After that, I was able to once again control the Wisp. I was tasked with maneuvering the Wisp around the enemy bullets while possessing the knight on screen and having him attack the enemies. While the demonstration video made it seem difficult, it wasn’t really as challenging as I thought, once I was able to take control. I then learned that the time that enemies depleted wasn’t used to determine the length of the battle, but to charge my knights’ attacks.

After that I moved on to Defeating Enemies. It turns out that you defeat enemies in Knights in the Nightmare using items, not attacks. You equip items before battle, then drag them onto knights during battle to make them use it against enemies. Once again, there was a movie showing me how. Basically, before you move onto a knight to activate him and unleash a normal attack, you stop by the upper right corner of the screen, move the Wisp over an item, then move back to the knight and attack like normal. Very easy, and not at all complicated once you know what you’re supposed to do. There are item requirements, certain jobs can only use certain items, the knight has to be at a certain level, etc, but overall it doesn’t seem too bad.

It turns out, as Acquire Gems teaches us, that you need MP to use items that make characters unleash the Skill Attacks that kill enemies. It’s simple to do, fortunately. After a normal attack, shiny gems will drop off enemies. Just move the Wisp to collect them, and you’ll replenish MP.

The Change Phases lesson lets us know that the fog we see on the upper screen is there for a reason. It turns out that the amount of fog on screen effects how many gems will fly off enemies when they are attacked. More fog, more gems. Skill attacks make fog disappear though. To make more fog appear, send the Wisp over to the L or C and circle over it counter-clockwise. It will then shift from Law to Chaos, or vice versa, resulting in more fog. I had a little trouble triggering that, so perhaps practice making itty, bitty circles.

The next lesson, Attack Range, discusses how the phase changes impact knights range of attack. (Honestly, I don’t think a whole tutorial topic was needed for this, but whatever.) Depending on whether it is a Law or Chaos phase, the attack range of knights will be different.

The final lesson is Phase Skills, and like Attack Range, it’s a pretty short lesson. Basically the items used to unleash Skill Attacks and defeat enemies are only available in certain phases, so you have to change phases to use them properly.

Once you’ve finish the Phase Skills lesson, the tutorial is done. You see a little splash image advertising the game, and then are returned to the main menu. Personally, I wish that an actual battle had been included as well, so you could have tested the skills you learned in the tutorial. As it is, it leaves you wanting more.

Knights in the Nightmare will cost $34.99 when it comes out this June. Thankfully, it’s part of the Atlus spoils program, so launch copies of the game, come with a soundtrack. However, those who take the extra step and preorder the game, get the soundtrack and an art book. If you enjoyed the demo, it may be a good idea to place an order on Amazon or stop by your local GameStop.

Site [Knights in the Nightmare]