, stylized as ''N3II: Ninety-Nine Nights'', is a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

with

hack and slash Hack and slash, also known as hack and slay (H&S or HnS) or slash 'em up, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat with melee-based weapons (such as swords or blades). They may also feature projectile-based weapons as well (such a ...

game mechanics set in a

high fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot.Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Press, ...

game universe, where a demon army is rising with one million troops. It is a sequel to ''

Ninety-Nine Nights stylized as ''N3: Ninety-Nine Nights'', is a 2006 fantasy hack and slash video game developed for the Xbox 360 by an alliance between Q Entertainment and Phantagram; video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi served as producer for the game. The gam ...

'' and was published by

Konami , is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has ca ...

. The game was announced at the TGS 2008 conference - a demo for the game was released on the Xbox Live marketplace on May 27, 2010, and the game release between June and September in North America, Japan, and European regions.

Gameplay

Development

The game was unveiled at

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

's TGS 2008 press conference, for Xbox 360. Developed by

feelplus Feelplus Inc. (株式会社フィールプラス Kabushiki gaisha Fiirupurasu) was a Japanese video game developer and a subsidiary of AQ Interactive. The studio was conceived by Microsoft Game Studios specifically to aid Mistwalker in video game ...

, the game's art style is noticeably darker than its predecessor. At the Konami E3 (2010) press conference, the lead producer of the series, Tak Fujii noted that the sequel has been vastly improved technically, allowing hundreds of enemies to be present on screen in one shot. Some of the main changes the sequel introduces include an online co-op mode, leaderboards and brand new difficulty levels which make the game even harder. He also announced that the game has more than 1 million troops. After the press conference Tak Fujii was also interviewed by ''

G4TV G4 (also known as G4TV) was an American pay television and digital network owned by Comcast Spectacor that primarily focused on video games. The network was originally owned by G4 Media, a joint venture between the NBCUniversal Cable division ...

'' and ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''.

Reception

The game received "unfavorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. Both '' IGN'' and ''

'' criticized the gameplay and plot, as well as poor lip-syncing, noting an absence of challenge in core gameplay as well as frustrating

boss fights In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...

. In Japan, however, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of two eights and two sevens, while ''Famitsu X360'' gave it a score of two nines and two eights. Steve Butts of '' The Escapist'' gave the game two stars out of five, saying, "''Ninety-Nine Nights II'' has the fast combat, loads of enemies and fantasy setting that you expect from this genre, but it just misses the mark in terms of fun. The fighting is tedious and the enemies are either unchallenging peons or hulking monsters who can crush you the instant you make a mistake." David Wolinsky of '' The A.V. Club'' gave it a D, saying, "There's no getting around the monotonous mayhem, and ''N3II'' unfortunately assumes that players are as mindless as the limited fun it offers." Roger Hargreaves of '' Metro'' gave it two out of ten, calling it an "Impossibly tedious ''

Dynasty Warriors is a series of Japanese hack and slash action video games created by Omega Force and Koei (now is Koei Tecmo). The series is a spin-off of Koei's turn-based strategy ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' series, based upon the Chinese novel o ...

'' clone that offers up not one ounce of entertainment for enduring its soul-shatteringly dull world and combat."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ninety-Nine Nights Ii 2010 video games Crowd-combat fighting games Hack and slash games Konami games Feelplus games Q Entertainment games Video game sequels Xbox 360-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games Xbox 360 games Video games developed in Japan