Knights in the Nightmare

[elroid]

Im not sure i should start the new game+ with normal difficulty or not, since i finished the first round in easy mode, but im looking forward to fight Maria...

[Sety]

Just noticed that they remixed Yggdra's theme for the tutorial, although I didn't get to hear it in game its on the OST.

[krisslanza]

I have a direct game rip of her new remixed theme. I thought I said they remixed her theme <o<

[Sety]

I didn't see it, besides I was listening to it off my OST. >_> (Which has really nice artwork mind you)

Speaking of which theres a really nice 7 and a half minute Depth Heaven Episode medley. They arranged a whole bunch of themes from Riviera, Yggdra Union and KitN into one massive song.

[krisslanza]

How does it sound on the OST? <.<
The direct rip isn't even a minute long.

[Sety]

The OST version is 1:29, they changed the name of the song so its now called "A Certain Country's Princess Tactic Instruction". Soundwise its more or less the same as DS but abit higher quality than you'd be able to rip it straight from the DS. Theres only one arranged track in the OST and thats the 7 minute Depth Heaven Fantasia medley I mentioned.

The OST itself is two discs long, first disc is 59 tracks long but at least 15-20 tracks can't really be considered songs since they're more just few second long tunes. Second disc however is nothing but 39 non-stop tracks worth of battle themes. Also just looking at the names of some of these songs its obvious theres alernate endings in Knights in the Nightmare too, my guess there is at least three of them.

[Niu]

Yes, there is three endings.
One for red route and two for blue route. Beat the red route already, is working on blue route right now.
But then, the whole game can really be summed up in a single sentence: Marrieta is a dumbass.
And it seems what becomes of Marrieta are all different in each ending. Really has to get all three of them to see which one is cannon.

[serenade_beta]

Finished...
Thoughts:

First, compared to the previous games, it feels like the strong point of this game is the gameplay (for the unique system), not the story/characters, which is the opposite of Riviera, who had a great story/characters, but the battles were rather easy.
First, there doesn't feel like much character development. A few characters get their turn, but it's usually flying here and there, and besides a select few characters, most Knights have little individuality (besides for the ones that stand out more, like the -dearimasu girl). The various Knights only get development over the few lines they say while leveling up, recruiting, and special Transouls.
Second, the way it is done, going from past to present in no specific order, actually makes it more bothersome to piece all of the story... Of course, the story is still interesting and makes you want to see what's next. But there's not much emotional involvement... Plus, the atmosphere is many times darker than the previous two games... Death, death, death, death...
Next... is there is no extra. (-_-) All I got was unlocking the blue mode(?)... No CGs in this game or anything either (Guess they worked too hard on creating the Knight designs). Music room none...

I can't really comment on difficulty, since I played Easy mode...
Though thanks to that, I didn't have to go through the painful process of killing my units in Transoul.

The length was quite good. Not very long, but 47 stages was far more than I expected.

Voice acting... was no good, frankly. Then again, they used like 4 voice actors... Another thing that Knights in the Nightmare lost to Riviera in.
I wish the font was more readable at times... Sometimes, the "shi" hiragana look like lines (|)...

One very good part of this game is, as expected, the art. Unit portraits, boss pics, etc. Too bad none of them were as tasty as the Vampire from Riviera, fufufu...
Soundtrack, without a doubt, was great.

Overall, it was a good game, but I enjoyed Riviera and Yggdra Union more...

Spoiler for some various thoughts about the plot:

The most emotionally involved I got with this game was the whole Pisce incident... It's just too sad... She didn't do ANYTHING wrong, but ends up getting turned into a harpy and later gets killed by you...

Her boss title is... fitting...
Too sad...

Second most emotionally involved moment was Capehornus. Thrown away by the Tiamut, he tries to get revenge, but ends up being betrayed by Yellma and Hades (not the real name, but this is easier to remember), and he loses his own granddaughter. Of course, he dies...
Auu...

Also felt sad when Leonel, Aqueline, and Sakito died, but they were more or less "don't care" characters along with the rest of the Knights.
Gancia (the Black Knight) was pretty tragic... And that Aligieri (sp?) who gave up her wings and horns only to meet that end...

Nordische... Didn't realize who he was for a while... Then again, I forgot to give him the item when I fought him (the wolf).


The wisp's identity... I thought it was going to be a mystery, but it was obvious by the first stage...

Spoiler for connections to Riviera/Yggdra Union:

The only ones I could find were:

-Pamela (didn't find her, but I got an item to give to her... Where was she?)
-Marietta... In this game, she is a Guardian Angel (just like Yggdra Union) who descends to Earth, but seeking more power so that she can help the gods, she makes a contract with Hades, splitting into Maria and Mellisa, becoming a fallen angel.

I guess if the story has to fit into the other two games, it would be between Yggdra Union and Riviera. Which, besides the appearance being different, would make sense, since this game would explain how she became a fallen angel/Accursed in Riviera. Of course, that means she survived Yggdra's attack on her... Even though she looked pretty dead when she was finished in Yggdra Union.

There is also a Heaven's Gate, but it never appeared in the red route...
Blue route, then?

Random thoughts:

Kekekeke, Annalotte and Beatrice at full level. Fraubellica too.
Missed recruiting Anette and Hildegardea...
I was surprised to see the MAX level thing...

Overall, I think I love the Knight unit the most. They don't annoy me with the limited directions to face, they move, and they have the power too.

Originally Posted by Niu

Yes, there is three endings.
One for red route and two for blue route. Beat the red route already, is working on blue route right now.
But then, the whole game can really be summed up in a single sentence: Marrieta is a dumbass.
And it seems what becomes of Marrieta are all different in each ending. Really has to get all three of them to see which one is cannon.

So the "red" route is the one with the red title screen and Maria, while the blue route is the one you unlock after beating the game once and has you playing with the other?

The game can't be summed up by Marietta... The origin of all of the chaos lies elsewhere... Marietta really was stupid, but it's clear that none of this would have happened if it wasn't for the Cardinal...

As for which is cannon, I have a good feeling it's not the red route...

[krisslanza]

I know on LCN that the "blue" route is a lot harder I believe. And is where the game branches off into multiple endings. I think they said something about you being able to use Maria as well?

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by krisslanza

I know on LCN that the "blue" route is a lot harder I believe. And is where the game branches off into multiple endings. I think they said something about you being able to use Maria as well?

The blue route is harder (for instance, the first stage has two enemies now instead of one), but I overall don't feel the "lot" part... Maybe at a later level...

Also, one other change in the blue route is that the knights that appear are different. Characters are replaced for others, so you can get new ones. In other words, the ones you never got can't be gotten......
...Anette... Hildegardea...
Though Flore was just so adorable! Kyaa~
Really give the artist thumbs-up for being able to come up with all of the designs... Wish there were some CG though...

You can use Maria in the red version. A "different" version can be used in the blue, it seems.

[Niu]

To tserenade_beta: I am not sure the Underlord here is Hades. Hades should still be missing at that point.

As for Marrieta,

Spoiler:

it looks like Yggdra Union's ending A is cannon here.
But we can not be sure is the Arch Angel in Riviera is really Marrieta, as Arch Angel lost the halo as a sign of Fallen, but we still see Melissa having one and she died in the end, and Maria certainly can't be the Arch Angel in Riviera as she even lost her wings. But then, we still have other endings on blue route, so we can wait and see.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Niu

To tserenade_beta: I am not sure the Underlord here is Hades. Hades should still be missing at that point.

Hmm... I thought he (we are talking about that Gonzorack or whatever it was called that I can't remember, right?) was, or at least had the possibility, because his class was "Hades". Also, for some reason, he reminds me of the Hades from Riviera...

Originally Posted by Niu

As for Marrieta,

Spoiler:

it looks like Yggdra Union's ending A is cannon here.
But we can not be sure is the Arch Angel in Riviera is really Marrieta, as Arch Angel lost the halo as a sign of Fallen, but we still see Melissa having one and she died in the end, and Maria certainly can't be the Arch Angel in Riviera as she even lost her wings. But then, we still have other endings on blue route, so we can wait and see.

Spoiler:

Ending A is which end again?

Yes... Perhaps I'm trying to connect the three too much... Because it is the only obvious similarity between the three games.

There definitely are complicated points...
-Yggdra Unions's Marietta is, with no doubt, similar in appearance to Arch Angel of Yggdra Union.
-Archangel has no halo, but if I remember correctly, when you defeat Marietta in Yggdra Union, she drops the halo. Which would make sense here, but the Marietta/Melissa had a halo (I think... It didn't really look like a typical halo though... If it isn't a halo, then no problem here).
Which would require Marietta to have lost her halo (from dropping it), gain it (er... God gave her one? Nah...), and lose it again (from becoming an Accursed).
(Yggdra Union --> Knights in the Knightmare --> Riviera)

As for the dying part, I think if Marietta never really dies in the first three games or she can revive, it would make sense... Perhaps.

But, yeah, we still have the blue route.
And we are missing the 3rd game...

[krisslanza]

Ending A of YU is where Yggdra places the Gran Centurio in the Great Temple and recieves the Scepter of Wisdom (Marietta's Staff). Ending B is if Brongaa is revived by Gulcasa's suicide and ending C is Ragnarok. B and C might be switched, I can't remember which is which.

[Niu]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Hmm... I thought he (we are talking about that Gonzorack or whatever it was called that I can't remember, right?) was, or at least had the possibility, because his class was "Hades". Also, for some reason, he reminds me of the Hades from Riviera...

Spoiler:

Ending A is which end again?

Yes... Perhaps I'm trying to connect the three too much... Because it is the only obvious similarity between the three games.

There definitely are complicated points...
-Yggdra Unions's Marietta is, with no doubt, similar in appearance to Arch Angel of Yggdra Union.
-Archangel has no halo, but if I remember correctly, when you defeat Marietta in Yggdra Union, she drops the halo. Which would make sense here, but the Marietta/Melissa had a halo (I think... It didn't really look like a typical halo though... If it isn't a halo, then no problem here).
Which would require Marietta to have lost her halo (from dropping it), gain it (er... God gave her one? Nah...), and lose it again (from becoming an Accursed).
(Yggdra Union --> Knights in the Knightmare --> Riviera)

As for the dying part, I think if Marietta never really dies in the first three games or she can revive, it would make sense... Perhaps.

But, yeah, we still have the blue route.
And we are missing the 3rd game...

Spoiler:

Why I say Ending A would be cannon. Which would explain that Marrieta still has the halo and have no possible chance of dying. And the gods certainly can't just revive her, remember they all died back in Ragnarok as mentioned in the beginning of Riveria?
We also have other probolems like how did Marrieta got into Riviera? As the ending clearly tells us that she got tucked in the ep.3 world with no ways out. It is really too early to call on whether the Arch Angel in the Riviera is the same person as Marrieta.

As for Hades, it is not a class, but a name. The Hades we meet in Riviera is literally named Hades. Underlord is the class that both Hades and Gonzorack has.

[serenade_beta]

He...Hector?! Y-O-U A-G-A-I-N

Anyways... Got the wonderfully bad end for the blue route...

Spoiler for info on it:

First of all, the blue route has:
-Harder, of course. Higher HP, etc.
-Instead of playing with Maria (Marietta), you get to play with Meria (Melissa). In return, you fight Marietta throughout the game instead of Melissa.
Yes, as many would expect, the class for Marietta is Archangel. Too bad unlike her previous two appearances, she doesn't have wings on her body (but she's still naked)
-New knights


Now then, story-wise...

-Pisce still meets the same fate...
-After defeating Zolgonak (Class: Hades), Marietta appears, and you get to choose to go with one of them.
I chose Meria... killed Marietta in a VERY difficult fight, and got a bad end... Where Meria absorbs Zolgonak's remains (like in the Red route), and the world (all three) proceeds to fall into ruins... Yay...
This taught me one lesson... Meria/Mellisa is rotten to the core, don't trust her. Believe in everyone's favorite naked angel!
-Oh, and another thing, in the Blue route, Archangel manages to find her scepter/staff. The name of the staff is EXACTLY the same as the one you can win from her in Riviera, by the way.

-Hector... doesn't really do much. He sits around and watches the events go on. Though he does give remarks on how he thinks about the gods and the god realm soldiers who are so loyal to them (the gods). Of course, the remarks shows contempt.
He also tries to close the Heaven's Gate, shutting out even the Guardian Angel Marietta, saying that the losses would be worse if intruders were let it. Poor Marietta, doomed to get suffer in every game...

Both Hector and the God Realm Soldiers don't look much different from their original character designs... Probably because they never show their eyes or face.

-The Grim Angel shown in the PV video is called "Primea"... You don't seem to fight her. She just stands in the same room as Hector. I assume she's one of Hector's many experimental angels.
Cute though. Mah...


...I was going to get both ends, but I can't believe I got the Bad one first... Don't feel satisfying, after working sooo hard to kill Marietta, who was blasting attacks back and forth like crazy...

Where is Pamela... I never find her...

[krisslanza]

Well to be fair Meria IS...

Spoiler:

An Astrate. That makes her one of Nessiah's summoned soldiers... I forgot if they were his person soldiers or like from Hell or something.

Also...

Spoiler:

You forgot to point out Primea has Skadi. Hector seems to have used it multiples time in his attempt to make artificial Diviners... But by this point are the Gods dead yet?

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by krisslanza

Well to be fair Meria IS...

Spoiler:

An Astrate. That makes her one of Nessiah's summoned soldiers... I forgot if they were his person soldiers or like from Hell or something.

Also...

Spoiler:

You forgot to point out Primea has Skadi. Hector seems to have used it multiples time in his attempt to make artificial Diviners... But by this point are the Gods dead yet?

Right, I forgot about that. Slipped out of my head...
Also forgot, but Hard difficulty is also unlocked after Normal... *shivers* Don't want...

Spoiler:

I think it was spelled Astarte

Well, she is an Astarete, the same class as Nessiah's summons, but in this case, I doubt she's Nessiah's soldier, since he dies in Yggdra Union (so we hope...).
Meria is just another side of Marietta that was split apart after contracting with Zolgonak. I assume Astarte is simply just a title, like Maria being a Valkyrie.

Spoiler:

Really? There was no mention at all about Skadi...

As for the Gods... From the way Hector was talking, they weren't. Unless to him, Magi=God, then they could be.
If Yggdra, from the tutorial, is canon and the information from the PV is canon, the good end (A) is canon here... As for Riviera... I'll think about that later, as well as Archangel... After I get the good end...

[Niu]

I see three endings now. There are totally four end, more than I thought

Spoiler:

The true end is the good end for red route (where you get a really flashy ending that shows all your best soldiers). Where Maria gets back her Holy Staff Ancaljia and destroys Melissa. Then she change back to her original form as Marrieta and return to to Asgard heading for the Island of the Bell of Repentance to ask for her punishment for screwing things up. While the king returned to his body and have a love love reunion with Alkirie (Ah, at last she meets a good end, after suffering so much through out the game).

The bad end for red route is where Maria didn't retrieve her Ancaljia and choose not to return to Asgard t punish herself.

The bad end for Blue Route is where you either: choose to go with Meria in the end, or had Meria/Melissa destroy the Holy Wand before hand. She beats up Marrieta in that end and proceeds on destroying the world.

I haven't get the Blue route good end yet. I assume this one would be the one you confront the the "Master" and his little cat I assume? Neither the above three endings explained who he is, so I guess this last one well do.

Holy Staff Ancaljia apparently is a key that controls the Heaven's Gate, opening the path between Asgard and the earthly realm. If Meria/Melissa destroyed it in the Blue Route, Hector would detact that Heave's Gate is losing balance due to the loss of the Staff and too much energy from the earthly realm is swarming into Asgard.

And to those who wonder, no, Ancaljia is not the Staff of Wisdom, their design is completly different. Compare the staff Yggdra received with the staff in Maria's full body art after she retrieves it.

And back to the topic on whether Marrieta is the Arch Angle in Riveira.... from the 3 endings I see so far. I now highly suspect they are the same person. The personality gap is tooo huge. In all the endings I see, Marrieta felt she DESERVES punishment and try to punish herself whenever she can. While the Arch Angel in Riviera felt the gods faulted her.
And one thing come to me, didn't all the accursed were sealed wayyyyy back in Ragnarok and only got released by the start of Riviera? If that is true it wouldn't make sense that Marrieta is in this game, she should be in the seal.

[Sety]

Huh, I suspected there was actually four endings since there was one more song in the OST that seemed like one. But I was only absolutely sure of three of them.

By the way does anyone know what the flag is for which route you follow? My playthrough is on normal mode for the record, I plan to tackle hard eventually. It shouldn't be too tough since I've come fresh off crushing some even more difficult games recently too bad about the lack of free time though ._.

[Niu]

Modes don't change the story.
The flag is determined on whether you have found Ancaljia on stage 23.5
To enter stage 23.5, you have to break the floor on the lower right hand corner on stage 23, twice, and a stair would appear. The floor is an invisible target BTW.

Finding it on red route gives you the true end, finding it on blue route gives you the bad end.