Sting’s newest title in the Dept. Heaven series, Knights in the Nightmare (ナイツ・イン・ザ・ナイトメア) is about an ancient castle Avenheim (アーヴェンヘイム) which is built on an island in Saint Celestina lake. This castle is home to a great king who united the peoples of the world some ages ago. Suddenly a mysterious force summoned a demon named Zolgonac (ゾルゴナーク) from the realm of the dead inside the castle walls. The king’s knights tried to defeat Zolgonac, but in the process the demon releases darkness, or Nightmare, upon the world. This Nightmare transforms all the knights of the king into wandering spirits who roam the castle.

Far to the east in a silent forest, a wisp is awoken by a mysterious girl named Mary inside of a decaying church. The wisp has no memory of the events that brought the earth to it’s current state. For the sake of learning what truly happened inside Avenheim the wisp and Mary, make their way to the ancient castle. The wisp soon realizes that he has the ability to temporarily revive the spirits of the knights who wander the castle grounds.

Quite a unique story, but Sting’s forté is creating unique battle systems. In Knights in the Nightmare, the main character, or the wisp fights with allies, but his allies are wandering spirits that he effectively controls. This is reminiscent of NIS’s Phantom Brave, in which the main character Marona summoned spirits into inanimate objects to fight for her.As with Phantom Brave, these captured souls are not permanent. They have a limited amount of VIT (vitality), which is breathed into them by Wisp. Battles expel VIT, and if a captured soul’s VIT is reduced to nothing, they dissipate. So what’s the point right? Well luckily through the Tran-Soul system you can transfer VT from unit to unit between battles. Doing so forces the soul which is donating it’s VIT to dissipate.

Information on this title is still sparse, as more becomes available I will update. In the meantime, if you haven’t already, you should take a look at the other titles in Sting’s Dept. Heaven series:

Episode 1–Riviera the Promised Land GBA and PSP
Episode 2–Yggdra Union
*NOTE* Knights in the Nightmare is episode 4 in the series, but episode 3 has not yet been revealed.

Knights in the Nightmare is scheduled to be released on July 17, 2008 in Japan. The game’s official website can be found here. Since both the other Dept. Heaven titles were brought over, it’s almost guaranteed that we well get a localization of the next installment.

Related Entries:
Knights in the Nightmare Opening Movie
Knights in the Nightmare Video Emerges
Knights in the Nightmare: First Step Download

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I recently made a post concerning the rarity of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, which has become available on Play-Asia. Some people were happy to hear the game was easier to find, and they didn’t need to spend close to $70 on eBay for it. Other people began asking me about Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (Part 1). Apparently the second installment is infinitely easier to find in stores, and the first is nearly impossible. I decided to do some digging for the sake of my loyal readers (haha).

Who would have guessed, but it appears that Gamestop (as of April 22, 2008) has used copies available for $39.99 here. These copies are in stock and available to be shipped in 24 hours. I have checked Amazon.com, eBay, and Play-Asia among others. All of them are either overpriced or out of stock. I recommend acting fast if you want the game.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 at Gamestop ($39.99) here.
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 at Amazon ($39.99) here.
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne at Play-Asia ($44.90) here.

A story synopsis and explanation of gameplay elements can be found at the game’s official website.

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Job class: Orc (猪人族)
Evility: Wild Union (野生の団結)
Evility Effect: One adjacent ally receives a 20% Attack boost
Prerequisite: Kill one
Magichange weapon: Axe (click here for an explanation on Magichange)
Move: 4
Jump: 20
Counter: 2
Throw: N/A
Receive: 5 (click here for an explanation of throw/receive)

Stats

Evilities

I translated all of this info from a Japanese Disgaea wiki, which is very informative. The Orc is always one of the most surprising characters in my opinion. In my Disgaea 2 file my Orc single handedly took out the captain of the Z Pirates after the rest of my party was killed. From then on we were thick as thieves.

As if the Orc really needed to be more dangerous, he has been given several lethal new additions. First and foremost is his Dark Mastery skill. The guys at NIS must really love the Orc, because I daresay this is the best Evility I have come across. Since no one would even equip their Orc with a magical monster weapon, just by having your Orc equipped with a weapon he will gain the stat bonus. The 20% boost brings the Orc’s attack aptitude to a staggering 165%.

In addition to the insane attack is the ability to inflict the forget status effect. This prevents the inflicted enemy from performing special attacks–an Orc’s true weakness. His low Resistance stat means that a few hits from a decent magic user could be disastrous. The Orc’s elemental weakness is Ice, so watch out for Blue Magicians and Blue Witches! Check back for more info as I am always on the lookout for news on Disgaea 3.

Related Entries:
All other Kotowari posts relating to Makai Senki Disgaea 3 can be found here.

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New Persona 4 information is coming out this week in Famitsu magazine. Some story, character, and dungeon mysteries are getting cleared up a bit. Please note I had to try to make some connections myself, so some info may not be 100% accurate:

This bizarre looking Persona is actually Kuma’s, and it’s called Kintokidouji (キントキドウジ). As I had suspected, Kuma (through his Persona’s abilities) is able to sense the presence and movement of shadows. There has been proof that he does engage in battles as well, so I don’t think he will be unplayable like Fuuka from Persona 3.

More story information has surfaced concerning the main characters’ reasoning for entering Mayonaka television. A senpai (upper classman) of theirs at Yasogami High School by the name of Konishi vanishes, and is later discovered to be a victim of the bizarre murders that have been occurring in town.

Suddenly the main characters’ friend Amagi Yukiko (天城雪子) vanishes as well. They (especially Satonaka Chie) worry that she will meet the same gruesome fate as their senpai. Their plan is to watch Mayonaka television to attempt to rescue their missing friend. As the video showed, the three enter the mysterious television world where they  acquire their Persona abilities.

Deeper into the television world, they stumble across a production studio (left-most image):

The floor of the studio is covered with chalk-outlines of bodies. It is my belief that this “production studio” is the hub from which the characters will proceed to the various dungeons they must ascend/descend.

Unlike Persona 3, there is not one dungeon, but several. They seem to form based on the latest victim, or would-be-victim of the bizarre murders. The middle image for instance is of a dungeon entitled Princess Yukiko’s Castle. This dungeon appears after the party witnesses a bizarre clone of the missing Yukiko on TV:

Depending on the outcome of the dungeon, I would guess that the party can rescue individuals from meeting their grisly end. This dungeon pattern sounds much more interesting and involved than that of Persona 3. I will be sure to keep you updated as more information becomes available.

Related Articles:
All other Kotowari entries on Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 can be found here.

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Job class: Magician (魔法使い-female) NA = Witch
Evility: Magic Conservation (魔力節制)
Evility Effect: The cost for Magic spells is reduced by 50%.
Prerequisite: Available from the start
Suggested weapons: Staff
Move: 3
Jump: 15
Counter: 0
Throw: 3

Stats*

*Bolded stats are the only stats that differ between the Witch and Magician jobclasses.

Evilities

Job class: Magician (魔法使い-male)
Evility: Magic Eruption (魔力節制)
Evility Effect: The cost for Magic spells is increased by 50%, but the skills power is increased by 30%.
Prerequisite: Available from the start
Suggested weapons: Staff
Move: 3
Jump: 15
Counter: 0
Throw: 3

Stats*

*Bolded stats are the only stats that differ between the Witch and Magician jobclasses.

Evilities

I translated all of this info from a Japanese Disgaea wiki, which is very informative. The Magician and Witch jobclasses have a pretty straightforward purpose–attack elemental weaknesses from afar to deal massive damage. In Disgaea 3, every class has set elemental weaknesses; it is not randomly generated like in the previous versions. This makes exploiting these weaknesses easier, since now there will be a pattern. A map of 9 Armorknights standing in a square will all have the same weakness, so one strong spell of that element will wipe them all out, instead of leaving a few with different weaknesses. How convenient!

Normally the two genders of each jobclass are pretty evenly divided so that either one will serve you well on the battlefield. In my opinion the Magician far surpasses the Witch. The Magician’s base Evility which ups his SP usage while increasing damage will only be a hindrance in the early stages of the game. Later in the game it will make a much greater difference when combined with Magic Charge, which further increases the Magician’s Intelligence stat. This means that the Magician will be hitting a lot harder, where the Witch can only increase her magic range.

For their rank 4 Evilities, both classes get a stat boost based on their base intelligence stat. The Magician’s Speed increases while the Witch’s Hit increases. Magic damage has absolutely nothing to do with either of these stats, but Speed will be much more helpful in Mage combat than Hit. Speed basically will increases the chance of dodging attacks while Hit will increase the chance of getting a critical, but I believe this is only with physical attacks, which you shouldn’t even be using with these characters.

The very least I can say about the Witch is that she will be helpful in the games early stages when her SP is not very high. Check back for more info as I am always on the lookout for news on Disgaea 3.

Related Entries:
All other Kotowari posts relating to Makai Senki Disgaea 3 can be found here.

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