You’ll also be doing a lot of micro-management outside the battlefield. You have several characters to use, and most maps offer a few default characters that are automatically deployed. The problem is that you only get four items between them, so you’ll have to make sure everyone gets something they can use, and what’s more is you’ll have to ensure the item’s durability stat is still high enough that it won’t break mid-fight. Then you’ll have to figure out which various items belong to the characters each map introduces; find the item they care about and you’ll recruit them, otherwise you lose them at the end of the stage. This is really just the beginning; Knights in the Nightmare offers tons of things to keep track of both in and out of battle.

The presentation is excellent, with developer Sting’s usual excellent anime-style art and sprites working alongside a varied and solid soundtrack. Combined with a decent if somewhat oddly paced plot, you’ll find plenty to enjoy here. This is important, since RPGs generally have to deliver on all three of these fronts to make up for fairly basic gameplay; fortunately Knights in the Nightmare is genuinely fun as a game too.

My only real complaints with this title are that it’s needlessly complex (but not impossibly so, a run through the tutorial should get you going) and character development takes something of a lesser priority since there are so many characters available. But these flaws do nothing to stop Knights in the Nightmare from being an excellent, genre-bending game. It does some very creative things with the typical Tacitcal RPG formula, and it does them well. While I can easily see some younger players and those not used to complex games being overwhelmed, everyone else should give this one a try; you’ll be glad you did.