99 Spirits

99 spirits is a good little independent and original game. History takes place in feudal Japan. Hanabusa hunts evil spirits possessing everyday objects, the Tsukumogamis, first out of revenge and then to serve a larger drawing when they come to threaten the entire capital. But torn between duty and personal feelings, things are not simple for her. The game is not obvious to describe because rather original. Roughly, it comes down to three elements: the dialogues that lead the story and the game, the movements on grid planes, and the fights. The dialogues are well translated, complete, funny, and accompany the story well, interesting itself. Many characters, a lot of dialogues, the scenario is well-expanded. The moves are done on plans of 9 squares out of 15, the character advances box by case (not diagonally). The plan inputs and outputs are visible, such as enemies and objects to pick up, other bonuses are hidden. In short, it is very basic on this side. Every move increases our hunger, we will have to eat to decrease it. And finally what will consume the most time of play and be the most repetitive, the fights. Out of events, the enemies (Tsukumogamis) appear on the plane in the form of a purple cloud (usually 2 per plane) and move like us, box by case, but less quickly and can move diagonally. They chase us inside the plan and therefore always go to us. If the character encounters the cloud, a fight starts. First step: identify the spirit, the possessed object. Attacking the cloud won't do any damage, it will simply load a gem that we use to unveil clues about the object or letters composing its name. Second step: when you think you know what the object is, you have to defend yourself to load a second gem that will serve us, if you write the name of the object, to chase the cloud and to show the object to which we can finally do damage by attacking it. I also recall that the spirits possess objects from the everyday life of feudal Japan, so we will fight pots, katanas, socks, temple doors and other brushes, and that all these names will have to be found in English. But note that the game contains an index (also accessible during the fight, during the use of the second gem) with the names of the spirits, names that will have to be unlocked via pages as we advance in history. Only bosses may not appear in the list, but not necessarily. Later in history, we will unlock 3 other gems: one to capture the spirits and the other two to use their two abilities after they have unlocked them. So this is how the fights will unfold, it may become repetitive, like any RPG fight in fact, except that there the method comes out of the traditional path encounter/attack/victory. Especially as the lifespan is rather consistent, with 16 good hours of play to complete the story if you take your time. Beside all this and subjectively, the drawings are very beautiful and colorful. Level music, I loved it, quite in the mood. I add for those interested that the purchase of the game also gives a Japanese copy of the name Tsukumogami. We do not choose the language in the game, our library receives 2 times the game, an English (99 spirits) and a Japanese (Tsukumogami). On the other hand, you can choose English or Japanese dubbing in the game, regardless of the version, but it comes down to a few words during the fights. In conclusion, despite an evident repeatability, 99 spirits is a good original game by its combat system and interesting and well-conducted history, taking place in a folk-medieval Japan. I recommend it to you with good heart, and I encourage you to try it through its demo if the concept interests you. Did you like this evaluation? Find others by joining our editorial group: we prefer them cold.