Knights in the Nightmare (ナイツ・イン・ザ・ナイトメア, Naitsu in za Naitomea) is a strategy-shooter role-playing game hybrid from Sting Entertainment, and the fourth episode in the Dept.
Sting released a special edition version of Knights in the Nightmare, called the Knights in the Nightmare DHE Series Special Pack (ナイツ・イン・ザ・ナイトメア （D・H・Eシリーズ スペシャルパック）, Naitsu in za Naitomea (DHE Shirīzu Supesharu Pakku)); it includes a copy of Yggdra Union: We'll Never Fight Alone for the Game Boy Advance.
This screen gives several options to allow the player to look up the stats and info of the playable Knights, Equipment, and special items available.
The experience points gathered from the previous battles is accumulated into this screen and then given to the player to choose where to distribute, not to the Knights themselves as in most role-playing games.
Resembling something like Ikaruga's black and white switch, the two phases can be changed to greatly affect the play of the battle, ranging from damage location to the Equipment used.
The "Wisp," which resembles a small ball of light, is controlled via the touchscreen and moves around the field to give orders to allied units.
Equipment, such as swords, axes, and magical wands, can be used to generate Skill Attacks which can kill enemies and destroy objects on the field.
Despite having a timer, "time" is only deducted for charging attacks and when the player's wisp takes "damage" from on-screen bullets.
Permadeath exists as characters have a "Vitality" stat which decreases when they use skills, and the same applies to the Equipment, but is referred in-game as "Durability".
The Before Crisis flashbacks explain that the disaster at Aventheim was caused by Capehorn, who summoned the demon Zolgonark in order to gain the power to get revenge on both the Knight Kingdom who oppressed his people and the Tiamat.
At the same time, Zolgonark sought to escape Capehorn's control in order to conquer the world of Aventheim and make it a part of the Underworld.
By promising to give Marietta the power she desired, he tricked her into removing Capehorn's barriers, and then stole Ancardia and split her soul in two, claiming one half as his servant.
Screenshots, artwork and music clips for Knights were revealed over two years prior to the game's release on the blog of JaJa, one of the developers.
Heaven titles, and Yoshinori Iwanaga, having done the monster designs for the initial release of Riviera also return for Knights' illustrations.