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Nights of Azure
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Graphics & Sound:
As a general rule, RPGs are my favorite games to play. I like to find a game with an intriguing story, one that you keep on playing simply because you want to find out what happens next. However, it also has to have decent gameplay or I will get bored of doing the same thing over and over. I am quite pleased that Nights of Azure satisfies both of those criteria.
As with most new games, the visuals are quite pretty, especially in the cut scenes. You will feel almost like you are watching an anime. During gameplay, my only complaint is the hair. It’s just not fluid. Arnice’s hair moves in a solid piece from her neck down. The part on her head looks like it was glued onto her skull. Otherwise, the characters flow pretty well. There are quite a few different Servans that you can summon, some of which are more detailed than others, but they’re all quite creative. They have a multitude of colors and styles, so I can guarantee you won’t get bored visually. The human characters all have just a bit of a steampunk vibe going on. Arnice and Lilysse both have several different outfits during the course of the game, some a LOT more revealing than others. Apparently when you are offering up blood, you aren’t allowed to wear very much.
The game is entirely in Japanese (or demon) with subtitles, but since they don’t really speak much while you’re fighting, you won’t get lost or miss anything as you should have time to read it all. I do love the music in Nights of Azure. In the hotel, you have a soundtrack that sounds pretty much like you would hear in any hotel. In the city, you get different music in the various areas, all of which fits the area quite well. There are also little touches, like the pinging of the toy soldier, that just add to the overall feel of the battles. |
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Gameplay:
In Nights of Azure, 800 years ago, the Ruler of the Night was sealed away by the first Saint. When she defeated him, his blue blood was scattered all over the land, turning everything it touched into a fiend who will come out at night looking to turn any human it finds into a fiend as well. Unfortunately, the first Saint could not kill the Nightlord. This means that over the years, more Saints have been required to re-seal him to keep the world from plunging into eternal darkness. An organization known as the Curia is in charge of the Saints and the knights who hunt down and destroy fiends. Now, it is time once more for the seal to be tended to. This time Lilysse, a young priestess, has been chosen by the Curia to be the next Saint. Her best friend, Arnice, is the knight who has been assigned to guard and protect her until the time comes.
Lilysse and Arnice have been friends since they were students together. They shared a dorm room and were best friends. Arnice is no ordinary human, as you will soon learn. She's half-demon, which gives her the ability to fight the fiends without fear of being converted. Lilysse is pretty special as well. She has very strong purification powers. Considering what they are going to be up against, it’s going to take all of their powers to see if they (and their friendship) will be able to survive and finally defeat the Nightlord. Luckily, they will have some help. Simon is the manager of the Ende Hotel, where the Curia put you up to stay. You will fully recover SP and HP at the hotel and you can also save and load there. Simon is also a shop keeper, so go see him for things to help you. Eventually you will meet Lloyd and Professor Alucard, both guests at the hotel too. Lloyd is a merchant so he will take over as your shop keeper. You can also have him send out traders to far lands looking for special items. Professor Alucard is a demon researcher. He’s a very interesting character.
Arnice also has some demonic help. She’s got Servans, fiends that have been purified and are now on the side of the humans. I love the Servans. It’s a bit weird to me to have my "support" more powerful than my character. It took a bit of time for me to learn that I needed to step back at times and let my Servans fight rather than trying to kill everything on my own. You start out with only two Servans, but you will get more quickly. You can summon more Servans when you find their fetish. The Servans are kept in a deck. You can have up to four Servans per deck. After you have enough skill points, you can unlock a second, third, and fourth deck, which means that you will be able to take more Servans into battle with you. You can only have four out at a time, but you can swap decks as needed. Just be aware that when you swap decks, any Servan out will be returned to the deck and you’ll have to summon them again to use them. Shockingly, there are also full-blooded demons on your side, like Christophorus (Chris). With her dual personality, she’s a treat to try and deal with at times.
Arnice can only purify fiends at night, since that’s when they come out. During the day, you will be able to accomplish tasks as well, which will raise your skill points. I’m not sure when Arnice is supposed to sleep, but basically you’ll spend your night combing the various areas of town to try and complete whatever quest will take you to the next goal. You don’t really control your day, other than selecting what to do and it’ll show you the results. |
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Difficulty:
There is no difficulty setting that you can change in Nights of Azure, but overall, I found the difficulty to be average. However, it simply averages out to average. There are things that make Nights of Azure easy and some that make it more difficult. As I mentioned before, your Servans are quite powerful, more so than Arnice on basic attacks. Managing your Servans properly will make your life a lot easier. You are most likely going to want several different skills in each set. Be aware that you can only use each Servan type in one deck. Just because you have four wolves doesn’t mean that you can put one in each deck. Your Servans can equip items, so make sure to equip the best item for that specific Servan. Also, as they level up, they will gain skills that affect the party. It’s a bit of a balancing act to get your decks perfect for your style of play. It is important to note that all the Servans in decks gain experience when you take them into the field, even if they don’t battle. It’s not much, but it can get your level 1 Servans up to 2 or even 3 before you have to use them in a real battle.
Each night that you go out to battle fiends, you have a 15 minute time limit (you can increase this with the right skill). In the beginning, it’s not hard to find where you’re going in that time limit, but as you progress, it takes a while to wander through the subway (or other areas) to find the correct exit (especially if you are directionally-challenged like me). You do have a map, but it is only of the current area. You’ll have to discover and remember where the exits lead to. The game does warn you when you get to a boss area and boss battles do not have a time limit. This should tell you that sometimes you might find the battle will be long, especially if you want to survive it. If you do happen to die, you will just be given the option to Restart or Return to Lobby. You really don’t lose anything, other than a lot of the stuff you collected that trip.
If you’re looking for more of a challenge than the battles, take the elevator down to the arena. Here you can take on a specific task and see if you can survive. Some of them are battling, but others require you to think and plan out how you can accomplish them. You can earn up to three stars for each challenge. So far I’ve found that two stars aren’t too hard to get, but getting that third can really take some work on some of the challenges. The better you do, the more stuff you will earn. |
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Game Mechanics:
Between controlling Arnice and directing the Servans, you will find that you use pretty much every button on the controller. Still, it didn’t feel hard to get used to simply because you don’t gain all the functionality at once. This gives you time to get used to the controls. (LS) will move you around and (RS) moves the camera. Overall, this works pretty well. When you are right on the edge of the screen, especially when you can’t go backwards, the camera angles look a bit funny, but you can mostly still see. I tried to stay away from getting stuck in the corner anyway. You can summon your Servans with (R1)+(Square)/ (X)/ (Circle)/ (Triangle). Every time you summon a Servan, it will use SP, but SP will rebuild slowly over time. Some of the summons will attack enemies for you, but you can also use summons to heal you. You can execute your Servan’s burst, which is a powerful attack or heal depending on the Servan, by once again pressing (R1)+ the button that corresponds to the Servan you want to burst.
(Square) and (Triangle) are normal attacks, and (X) is a special attack. Be aware that (X) uses SP. (L1) is guard, while (L1)+(O) is a quick dodge, which can be handy at times! (R3) locks onto a target. Once you unlock it, (L2) will let you transform into your demon half for a small period of time, which is pretty cool looking and much more powerful! While you are in your demon form, your Servant will also be more powerful. Arnice will acquire more weapons, including a ranged one, as the game progresses. You use the D-pad to switch between her weapons. (Options) will open your Menu and (Triangle) will also open the Menu when you are not in battle.
I must admit that I was a bit bored with the first area of Nights of Azure. I only had 2 Servans and I didn’t have transformation powers yet. Very quickly though, I got sucked into the story and I really wanted to know what would happen next. Plus, once I got more Servans, battles were more fun. Add in the demon transformations and weapon switching and the battles become a lot of fun. Now, I really can’t wait to finish the game and find out what happens at the very end. If you’re looking for a good RPG with a solid storyline, check out Nights of Azure. |
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-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl |
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