The DS has been home to plenty of turn-based strategy games, including ports and remakes, like Hoshigami Remix or Disgaea DS, and more original fare, such as Luminous Arc and Drone Tactics. For better or worse, though, these games have pretty much stuck to the genre standards set by games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem, with very little innovation.

Enter Sting Entertainment, known in RPG circles for their uber-deep Dept. Heaven series. The first two installments, Riviera: The Promised Land and Yggdra Union became instant cult classics when they were first released on the GBA (and later ported to PSP). The series is loved by fans for its lush, vibrant anime art style and its incredibly complex gameplay systems. Now, after several years in development they’ve released the newest series installment, Knights in the Nightmare for the DS. It’s a wildly original game that takes the stagnant tactical RPG genre, mixes in a healthy dose of hardcore shooter gameplay (yes, really), and comes up with something unique and compelling.

Like the rest of the game, KitN’s story is anything but simple. An epic tale with a cast of hundreds, the plot centers around the wisp, a spirit lost wandering in an abandoned church. After a tragic battle at the ancient Castle Aventheim, the kingdom’s fallen knights still lie on the battlefield. The wisp has the ability to bring the soldiers back to life, and in doing so pieces together the mystery of exactly what happened, and just who and what the wisp really is. The game presents the story one small scene at a time, with a cinematic before each battle advancing the tale in the present, and one after combat showing what happened in the days leading up to the epic conflict. While it’s initially confusing, as you slowly get more pieces of the story and start to understand what’s going on you’ll get more and more drawn in.

 
The game features another outstanding translation by Atlus – every character has a distinct personality.

The actual gameplay is initially a little hard to wrap your head around. Using just the stylus, you’ll control the wisp as it flies around the battlefield. Like in most tactical games, the battlefield is presented as an isometric grid, with enemies wandering about and ally troops stationed at various points around the stage. All your troops begin a stage as spirits of fallen knights, but by hovering the wisp over their location, you can restore them to life long enough to attack your enemies. Each troop type has different attack types and ranges, and considering these factors becomes even more important because unlike most tactical games, your troops generally can’t move around the battlefield at will.

 
Since your troops are spirits, they appear as colored silhouettes
until you activate them, bringing them back to life temporarily.

So far, so good, right? Here’s where it gets tricky. See, enemies can’t deal damage to your troops directly. Instead, enemy attacks take the form of colored bullets flying around the screen, which you (as the wisp) must dodge. Getting hit by attacks doesn’t hurt the wisp, but it does drain the clock – the 60-second timer that governs when your turn ends. Although you can plan your actions for as long as you want, time runs while you’re commanding your troops to attack, and if the timer hits zero then your turn ends. If you haven’t won the fight before a set number of turns pass then it’s game over, and if you don’t pay attention to avoiding enemy bullets then your turns can pass very quickly. Deftly maneuvering the wisp around complex bullet patterns can be exhilarating and panic-inducing, like the best shmups, and this kind of frantic action makes combat much more engaging and demanding than in some of the slower-paced, more cerebral tactical games on the market.

Even achieving a battle’s victory conditions is more complex than in a standard turn-based strategy title. Instead of simply winning when you’ve dispatched the requisite number of foes, in KitN each defeated enemy fills in a slot on the grid-like Enemy Matrix with a “Kill” marker. Winning a battle means forming a line across the Enemy Matrix, whether it’s vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Enemies will keep coming until you achieve a line, so it’s in your best interests to carefully choose which enemies to go after based on where they fall on the chart.

 
The Enemy Matrix at the bottom of the screen can be larger or smaller
depending on the battle, and you only win when you’ve filled a line in any direction.

Just what I’ve described so far will be enough to make most gamers scratch their heads, but believe me when I say that this is the absolute basics of the games’ various systems and mechanics. For example, the troop equipment system: there are a ton of items and weapons that give your troops different attacks and abilities, but only four (of your choosing) can be used in any given battle. You can bring troops back to life permanently, allowing you to use them at will, but only by giving them a treasured personal item, which you can find by destroying objects in battle. You’ll have to learn the game’s Chaos/Law system – certain enemies, characters, and attacks are only effective in one state or the other. You can strengthen and combine your equipment and even your troops to improve them in a multitude of ways. By successfully completing touchscreen-based challenges, you can interrupt enemy attacks or change an enemy’s elemental weaknesses. To make much headway in the game you’ll have to understand all these systems and many more.

Make no bones about it, it can be incredibly daunting to try and learn all this when you start playing. Fortunately, the game has an extensive tutorial system that carefully explains all the different aspects of gameplay. By holding your hand for the first hour or so (then providing plenty of optional information and tips after that) the game eases players into the vast depth it has to offer. It’s even pretty easy, once you’ve got the basics down, to just jump into the game proper and learn through playing, figuring out the important mechanics as you go. It’s going to depend greatly on what kind of gamer you are and what you’re looking for from a game. Some, even genre veterans, will undoubtedly be discouraged and frustrated by the game’s complexities. For others, exploring the game’s depth is what makes it so appealing.

 
Even though the game’s depth can be intimidating,
its excellent tutorial system makes learning relatively easy.

Whatever your feelings on the gameplay, it’s hard to deny that this is a beautiful game. The game’s hand-painted backgrounds and intricate anime-style characters are the stuff pixelated dreams are made of. Its use of color makes its world feel haunting and foreboding, but its impressive lighting and special effects add splashes of color and brightness. Even the user interface is visually stunning and unique, though this sometimes makes it harder to decipher important information. The game’s audio also stands among the best on the system, with a gorgeous orchestral score that matches the visuals’ dark tone. As a bonus for collectors, the game comes packaged with a soundtrack CD, and the music’s good enough that you’ll be glad to have it.

Knights in the Nightmare is unlike anything you’ve ever played before, and its intricate gameplay definitely gives it a steep learning curve. It’s one of those rare titles that’s destined to be a niche legend, and like Disgaea, will doubtless become a benchmark of a gamer’s hardcore-ness. Many DS gamers — most, even — won’t be willing or interested in investing the time and attention necessary to come to understand it. For those that are, though, the game provides an experience that can’t be matched.

Gameplay: 8.9
By borrowing liberally from shooters like Ikaruga (along with a whole bunch of unique ideas), Sting has infused new life into the tactical RPG genre. It’ll take a serious commitment to learn all the game’s intricacies, but such devotion will be rewarded with a truly unique and engaging experience.

Graphics: 8.7
2D fans, rejoice: the pixel art on display here is unparalleled on the DS. Beautiful use of color and bright, flashy special effects make the game a feast for the eyes. Even when the cluttered interface makes it hard to follow, the game’s always nice to look at.

Sound: 8.6
The game’s haunting, melodic score truly justifies the included soundtrack CD. It’s dark, touching, and vibrant, and brings the complex story to life with emotion.

Difficulty: Hard
The game has just a slew of different options, menus, and gameplay mechanics that must be mastered before you can begin making progress through the game. Once you understand everything going on, then the game begins to crank up the challenge. Between the tactical demands of strategizing during combat and the twitch reflexes required for the game’s bullet-dodging aspects, KitN will definitely give your mind a work-out.

Concept: 9.2
All the various gameplay ideas at work here could have led to the game becoming a jumbled mess of conflicting mechanics, but Sting knows what they’re doing Instead, the various systems and concepts at work blend together to form one cohesive rule-set that’s incredibly deep and infinitely engaging.

Overall: 8.9
You’ll know the first time you play it whether this game is for you – you’ll either be immediately dissuaded by its complexity and depth, or you’ll fall in love with them. It might be the very definition of “niche title”, but for those who get it, Knights in the Nightmare provides a once-in-a-lifetime experience.