Knights in the Nightmare

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 Official Site

Knights in the Nightmare promotes an undeniable sense of admiration and frustration illustrating the divide that has directed the design philosophies of Western and Japanese RPGs. It is a title that is unapologetically Japanese, often to the brink of stereotypical, revealing why many gamers have believed that this game genre has fallen out of favor with the mainstream audience. But regardless of its unavoidable criticisms, its vision and execution reveals a developer unwilling to compromise a gaming experience that could only be published on a system as odd as the Nintendo DS.

Once again, this is one of “those games” that primarily utilize the touch screen as its sole control scheme. You control a Wisp that is the sole means of commanding party members and also in taking damage. But before I get into what can arguably be the game’s sole redeeming quality—this game mechanic—it is necessary to discuss how the game introduces such a mechanics. The answer: it doesn’t. When the game begins it does slowly introduce you to the controls nor does it encourage you to take the game tutorial. But taking the game tutorial is required to wrap your head around Knights in the Nightmare in any way. However, because the tutorial has its own separate menu screen and completing the tutorial takes about 30 minutes, a desire to do so is dampened. This time commitment to learning the fundamental strategies of the game in such a didactic way does not even include the menu tutorial, which is over double the length of the gameplay tutorial and teaches players how to use items, keys, and interact with objects.

The game’s foundation lays in its battle system, harking back to the rules set in Japanese RPG-tactics games from a decade ago. Players do not control a “party” per se but see an array of knights, archers, duelists, hermits, wizards, and priestesses join and leave the party at random. As you progress through the game, higher level party members join your party while lower level party members leave. As a result, there is no actual leveling up of characters but rather leveling up of weapons and equipment to assign to characters. Each class has its specific attack pattern and movement while different weapons can change the patterns of the class. Plus, players can change attack “phases” between Law and Chaos, which permits different kinds of weapons to be used or different attack patterns. The key to winning battles is knowing what variation of phase to use and the combination of weapons and attacks each phase allows.  There is no denying that there is a great deal of depth to the real-time tactics system in battle.

This all probably sounds extraordinarily complicated and Knights in the Nightmare never reaches a medium between providing depth and becoming overly complex. But players willing to learn the games nuances will no doubt have a lot to chew on and enjoy. I myself was taken aback by the design initially but eventually found myself compelled to press onward to the next battle and immerse myself more in the challenge. It wouldn’t be incongruous to say that the more effort you put into the game the more rewarding it will become as you progress.

Unfortunately, the narrative framing device does not assist the player in any way to become easily invested. The conceit of Knights in the Nightmare is that the Wisp that you control is the spirit of the Lion Heart King. In a nutshell, you are awakened into your kingdom, which has succumbed to corruption and an evil presence. What waits is a story of political intrigue, magic, and regret. The universe of Knights in the Nightmare is your typical medieval fantasy fair mixed with elements of Norse mythology as you are guided by a valkyrie in your journey and who also occasionally joins your party. Before each battle, a lengthy in-game cut-scene reveals elements of the plot and one also follows victory.  These latter scenes consist of a flash back to events that previously occurred on the battle grounds revealing the causes of the fall of the kingdom. It’s an interesting pseudo-non-linear framework, but because of the lengthy nature of these scenes, it literally took me nearly an hour complete just a pair of battles. Luckily, you can skip or fast-forward these cut scenes but only in exchange for sacrificing any sense of the narrative or its continuity.

Clearly, Knights in the Nightmare is a game with no easy point of entry for the player. It is brutal in both its narrative design and game design. Though unconventional, uncompromising, and at times unwieldy, it does give the player the benefit of the doubt that they will competently learn the game independently rather than holding his or her hand.  Games like this don’t come out often and though it may clearly be evident why, I cannot help but appreciate when such a brutally unapologetic one like this arrives in my lap. Call me a glutton for punishment but very rarely will you find a game that is as rewarding and at the same time as thankless as Knights in the Nightmare.

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