The sword, attached. [Knights in the Nightmare]

Released for the DS in 2009 and ported to the PSP in 2010, Knights in the Nightmare is a unique and challenging RPG/bullet hell hybrid game released by Sting. Among other things, the game features a vast cast of characters (none of which are generic; even one-time NPCs factor into the story in some manner), an intricate-though-complicated story told in a fairly random order via memories recalled by the main character. Speaking of the main character...well, that's overall probably best left to discover through actually playing.

I guess the gameplay's probably easier shown than explained, so I went and recorded the second boss fight (which is conveniently spoiler-free):



Anyway, yeah, fun game. Should play it if you haven't. Should discuss how awesome it is if you have. If you're planning on getting it: my main tip would be to invest in at least one of the Sanctity element Priestesses and Duelists, they will make your life so much easier against bosses.

Side note, for those that own Yggdra Union, having the game in the GBA slot (or on your memory stick for the PSP version) allows you to recruit Pamela in a random scene, and unlocks a unique Yggdra Route for the PSP version.

I got this a couple years ago, and while pretty, it's so confusing. I think I played at most 10 maps before my head fried.

This game is so.....frustrating....
The gameplay is pretty complicated and its difficult to keep track of everything.
The fact that you use the touch screen to control some tiny wispy invisible ball-thingy on the top screen to select and doge attacks makes it pretty OMFG what do i use next,i gotta dodge this but then i cant attack oh s*** i'm gonna die D:

But...how far did you get Suguri?I sorta quit after i found out that there are random items used to recruit people found in each stage...

Yggdra Union's way easier, but its more rewarding to finish a stage full of blinding bullets and screen scratching than just using buttons to play.

tl;dr
This game is frustrating, but fun nonetheless

Breaker-Z wrote:

But...how far did you get Suguri?

Beat the game on normal, halfway through running on Hard, planning to record every stage on Nightmare.

One of the reasons Turkeysaur bought a DS.

Couldn't finish hard mode due being immersed in EO games and that marking the end of road for DS gaming, probably would do a fresh start because of several stupid transouls...when EOIV makes me buy a 3DS and after finishing EOIII.

Turkeysaur wrote:

probably would do a fresh start because of several stupid transouls...

Unless you mean you did something like transouling away both Erica and Hilgard or both Lyzz and Meryl, I wouldn't worry about it too much, considering you can rerecruit characters on consecutive playthroughs. A few stat drops from poor transoul choices probably aren't going to hurt you.

Suguri wrote:

Turkeysaur wrote:

probably would do a fresh start because of several stupid transouls...

Unless you mean you did something like transouling away both Erica and Hilgard or both Lyzz and Meryl, I wouldn't worry about it too much, considering you can rerecruit characters on consecutive playthroughs. A few stat drops from poor transoul choices probably aren't going to hurt you.

Sacrificed route exclusive characters (and missed around 3), I think one among those was certain dark element warrior ;_;

So on my first playthrough I pretty much exclusively used Priestess/Duelist, which was all I really needed on Normal difficulty. Playing through Hard, I've come to love the status classes (Hermit/Archer) beyond description.

I know a few people are playing this now, so I'll drop a few relevant tips:

・Hermits' Law Ice attack inflicts Freeze, which completely incapacitates monsters until the next time they're hit and converts their type to Ice. Doing this you can freeze the difficult monsters at the start of a turn and finish them off at your leisure with the Chaos Fire skill as a followup (bonus points if you're using Natalie, as she has access to fire Hi-Skills to help ensure a kill)

・Hermits' Law Neutral skill inflicts Wound, which doubles the damage of the next hit as well as changing element to Neutral. Following it up with a lightning attack means a 4x damage multiplier - incidentally, Lightning is Hermit's strongest Law element. I'm pretty sure this is the fastest way to kill any non-boss; if something somehow survives they'll be inflicted with shock and free to pick off with ease.

・Archers can even stun most bosses with their Law attack. I actually showcased that a bit in the video in the OP I think, but it's a useful point worth stressing. Both archer skills also lock targets in place during the casting animation, which in itself is amazingly useful for setting up combos.

I have just gotten Pamela, what should I do with her. She seems to have a lot of CI but I prefer using Priestess holy skills, and she caps at lvl 99. Does she do anything special or should I just transoul her?

Forgot what her race is, but nobody transouls into her at a good rate, so she's hard to build well. Meanwhile her lv99 cap means you can transoul her to someone else and instantly increase their cap to 99. She's definitely meant to be a throwaway character for transouling purposes.

Her race is unique though I think, so I don't really know if it would be good to transoul her. How exactly does race affect trounsouling?

Chaos skills for Priestesses are grams right? Are they useful anywhere, for example at boss fights? If so I might as well stick with Pamela.

snakegourd wrote:

Her race is unique though I think, so I don't really know if it would be good to transoul her. How exactly does race affect trounsouling?

Chaos skills for Priestesses are grams right? Are they useful anywhere, for example at boss fights? If so I might as well stick with Pamela.

There was a chart somewhere but I lost it. Basically certain races give better bonuses to some races and worse bonuses to other, but it isn't necessarily a back-and-forth thing. Best example of this is Pamela; every race gives her terrible bonuses, but she gives every other race amazing bonuses.

Priestess grams are kind of weak compared to Wizard grams. Namely, the Lightning Wizard gram (Vanishing Lore/Invisible Lore) is the strongest skill in the game. They *can* be useful for boss fights, but bosses that don't have a fixed movement pattern may just end up not stepping on it ever, and they do disappear after a certain amount of time, so it's pretty situational. Not to say Priestess grams are bad though, their law attack is just stronger and typically more useful.

I don't think any boss has a fixed movement pattern and you can't place grams right on enemies. Which makes grams almost useless.

Do grams only hit one time or do they hit multiple times? Maria with Ancardia can cast 3 grams at once I think but she loses the ability to move I think? Should I use that instead of angelic thunder then?

snakegourd wrote:

I don't think any boss has a fixed movement pattern and you can't place grams right on enemies. Which makes grams almost useless.

Do grams only hit one time or do they hit multiple times? Maria with Ancardia can cast 3 grams at once I think but she loses the ability to move I think? Should I use that instead of angelic thunder then?

Some do, not many. Only one I can think of off the top of my head is Alier. You could use them to pin monsters in place for followup skills too, I wouldn't call them useless so much as situational.

Depends on the element as for how many times they hit. I actually had no idea Maria traded movement for grams since I missed Ancardia my first run and haven't finished Mellia's route yet, but I'd opt for Angelic Thunder since it's technically the strongest attack and hits fullscreen too (should have clarified; I meant vanishing lore is the strongest non-EX skill)

I don't want to transoul anyone ;_;

Alier has two "phases" , when she rides her dragon and when you shoot her off it. Do they both have fixed movement? I never really payed attention to that, too busy dodging that ricocheting fireball.

Angelic Thunder shaves off 3 vit of Maria/Mellias VIT and she only has 7.77 . I guess you could work with that if you get that 2x electric elemental effect, but would that work against Zolgonark on nightmare? He has well over 200k hp on the first form I think?
Oh and she does retain her mobility with ancardia, only she moves like a lance knight instead of a duelist in chaos mode and can cast 3 grams in law mode. Even when using 3 grams at once grams are still kind of incovenient to use though.

What skill increases the hit counter by the greatest amount?
Might as well use the exponential damage effect instead of 2x elemental for bosses.

snakegourd wrote:

Alier has two "phases" , when she rides her dragon and when you shoot her off it. Do they both have fixed movement? I never really payed attention to that, too busy dodging that ricocheting fireball.

Angelic Thunder shaves off 3 vit of Maria/Mellias VIT and she only has 7.77 . I guess you could work with that if you get that 2x electric elemental effect, but would that work against Zolgonark on nightmare? He has well over 200k hp on the first form I think?
Oh and she does retain her mobility with ancardia, only she moves like a lance knight instead of a duelist in chaos mode and can cast 3 grams in law mode. Even when using 3 grams at once grams are still kind of incovenient to use though.

What skill increases the hit counter by the greatest amount?
Might as well use the exponential damage effect instead of 2x elemental for bosses.

When she's on the dragon she makes laps around the map. I don't remember if it's a fixed direction but it's a specific path. Once she's off the dragon she wanders around on whatever elevation she's at; this may or may not be a fixed path but as she'll be limited in where she can move it's very easy to hit her with grams.

2x Angelic Thunder should be fine for that fight. It'll hit all three heads, and you can stack on Starfall, Holy Grail, etc. You can use a third one to finish off the soul if need be, it isn't a game over if you run out of vit on the winning blow.

Off the top of my head, Ashen Ray (Priestess fire/law) and the sanctity/ice Law attacks for Duelists hit a lot of times (12~17 I think?) Can't think of much else, I usually look at the damage of skills more than hit count.