NIGHTCASTER: DEFEAT THE DARKNESS - XBOX

by Microsoft

Product Details

• ASIN: B00005Q5CX
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches ; 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,236 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

NightCaster is a third-person role-playing game with a heavy emphasis on action. With amazing magical battles and endless monster generators, NightCaster plays like the love child of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Gauntlet.

The malevolent NightCaster has cloaked the world in never-ending night, and monsters stalk the land in increasing numbers. You play as the young boy Arran, who has been chosen by a mysterious orb to stop the encroaching evil. Arran spends the next several years learning magic, and when he returns to his home as a young man, he sees that evil has almost overtaken everything. Now he must use his hard-earned powers to fight back the evil, and put an end to the NightCaster!

In NightCaster, monsters are the name of the game--you fight hordes of them to gain new magical spells. There are four schools of magic: water, fire, light, and darkness. You can choose to specialize in one school, which will give you increased attack power in that school. Magic affects the various creatures differently, however, and you learn by trial and error which attacks are the most effective. Throughout the game, you unlock more powerful magic as you complete quests, and your character actually ages as the game progresses! By the end of the game, you are an old--and very powerful--wizard.

The coolest thing in NightCaster by far is Arran's magical staff. On its tip sits an orb that's the focus of your magical power. Those familiar with Navi and the Z-Targeting system from Zelda 64 will love this--with your right thumb pad, you can have the orb fly off the staff to scout (and illuminate) areas around you. Unlike with the Z-Targeting system, you can control where the sphere goes at all times. Indispensable in battle, the orb can be used as a target for your magical attacks.

This game's good, but it has some flaws. NightCaster gives you the ability to switch between first- and third-person views, but you automatically switch back to third-person when you enter a fight, rendering a first-player perspective useless. Also, while the game's talking tutorial is helpful, the voice sounds like TV psychic Miss Cleo. Initially I found it funny, but over time it had me banging my head against the wall. Lastly, the monster design is lacking--the monsters look like cute little potato bugs, or those snap-together plastic toys toddlers love. The truly scary thing about them is how cuddly evil can appear to be.

Bottom line: NightCaster is a fun third-person action-RPG romp, the perfect quick fix for hack 'n' slash cravings. --Bryan Karsh

Pros:

• One kickin' magical staff
• Character ages throughout game

Cons:

• Tutorial voice from hell

Product Description

Fast-action Spell Casting Combat With Deep Strategy In A World Of Mystery And Wonder! Battling Against Eternal Darkness You Are Arran A Young Wizard Embarking On A Quest Filled With Explosive Spell Combat And Adventure.armed With Your Magical Orb And Immense Spell Collection You Age From A Young Wizard Into An Older Powerful Sorcerer.defeat Your Enemies With A Revolutionary Control System: Direct Movement With One Analog Stick And Aim With The Other. Embrace Your Destiny; Restore Light To Your Homeland.game Specifications:1 Playermemory Unit

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars gauntlet style arcade RPG, January 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: NIGHTCASTER: DEFEAT THE DARKNESS - XBOX (Video Game)

Got an opportunity to extensively play this game. I have a mixed reaction to it. On one hand, while the graphics aren't state-of-the-art, the environments are rather extensive and detailed. Each level has a massive amount of terrain to explore. Took me 4 hours plus just to explore one level. There's a wide range of spells from four different element schools that are each useful in some way from fireballs to runes that cause damage when creatures passed. The spell effects are pretty impressive. On the other side, this game is a bit arcadish to me. Most of the monsters are generated through these miniature portals that will pop out creatures left and right. It's too easy to have 10+ creatures swarming in on you while you're running around in circles a good amount of the adventure. At points in the game, it's really frustrating to be constantly assaulted by an endless supply of creatures popping out from these portals. Adding to this frustration is the save game system that only allows you to save your game in designated spots. During parts of the game, the distance between save points is long. Often times, these portals will be guarded by a lot of creatures and portals. This leads to a lot of annoyance as it's very easy to be quickly overcome by a group of monsters. However, later on in the game things improve as you will be able to get a healing rune so you can sit back and chill while you're healed in a zone you've cleared of monsters. Still, I found myself frequently waiting 2-3 minutes each time to heal and I had to heal often. The game is rather linear and consists of moving up the map to advance. However, if you explore the area, you will find new spells and mana. Overall, a decent game. If you enjoy arcade-style fantasy game and fighting tons of monsters while running around in circles, you might find this game appealing. If you're like me and enjoy a more sophisticated adventure game with a detailed plot, puzzles and a less arcade-feel, you will probably be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy some Raid with the game!, April 4, 2002

By 

"vegamachine" (Broken Arrow, OK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NIGHTCASTER: DEFEAT THE DARKNESS - XBOX (Video Game)

Although I didn't see this in any other review, I found my game to be very buggy. I would get to the end of a level, then it would ask me if I wanted to proceed, I would say yes, then nothing, It would put me back to the end of the level. Also, at the end, fighting the NightCaster, it all of a sudden deceided that my own spells should hurt me and I would kill myself. It took about 8 times to finish due to bugs with the final battle. Also my friend finally had the store replace his copy due to lock-ups. Other than that I thought it was fun, not a diffucult game, graphics were pretty cool, Ice world and it's reflections, WOW! I found the controls easy. All around fun! Good deal, especially with the lowered price.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a good buy, but tough to play, February 1, 2002

By 

"jedi8164" (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NIGHTCASTER: DEFEAT THE DARKNESS - XBOX (Video Game)

This game has very good graphics and a great story line. The environment is 3D and very nice. I do believe that it would have been better as a first person shooter game like Halo. However, the game is still worth buying. You may find, as I did that the controls seem extremely hard. I almost gave up on the game because of the difficulty of the controls. Hang in there and eventually you will get used to them. The save points are also a little far apart, so you may find yourself having to replay parts time and time again. Even so, this game is a lot of fun to play and worth the money.