Nightcaster - Xbox

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Viewed: 3D Third-person, over the shoulder Genre:
Adventure: Role Playing
Media: DVD Arcade origin:No
Developer: VR1 Soft. Co.: Microsoft
Publishers: Microsoft (GB/US)
Released: 31 May 2002 (GB)
2002 (US)
Ratings: 11+, ESRB Teen 13+ (T)
Accessories: Xbox Memory Unit

Summary

The first of its kind for Microsoft Xbox, Nightcaster is an action-packed role-playing game that doesn’t require a gargantuan attention span to play.

Your name is Arran, and you have been chosen by the Forces of Light as the saviour who must defeat the evil forces that have banished your world into eternal darkness and restore peace and light to everyone.

Corny, yes, but it only serves as a foundation for this spell-based combat game. It is technically a role-playing game with a big plot, lots of spells, and a familiar progression and experience engine, but it doesn’t rely on paragraph after paragraph of text to drive itself forward.

In a similar vein to Capcom’s Maximo, you must force your way through hordes of fictional but nonetheless frightening creatures to reach the next stage of the game. But instead of relying on a stainless steel sword, you must combat your enemies using magic. Using both of the Xbox’s analogue sticks in the same way you can capture ghosts in Luigi’s Mansion, you are able to both move around and aim your magic simultaneously to get maximum control out of Nightcaster.

You can manage up to 45 spells in one of four magic classes: light, dark, fire and water. You must use magic wisely, as throwing a fireball towards a nearby dragon, for example, wouldn’t do you any favours whatsoever. However, a quick flash of light aimed towards a resident ghost will work wonders.

With the absence of endless random encounters, an intuitive control system, and non-excessive character development, Nightcaster is one of the role-playing genre’s more accessible games. And it’s only available for Microsoft Xbox.

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