I just recently picked up Knights in the Nightmare, and felt I should give you a bit of my impressions. I figured you guys should know how it plays, as there is quite a bit of confusion regarding the gameplay. I'll also give you my opinion on the artbook and music CD, for those who care. Here are my thoughts (as of now).

The Game

The most confusing aspect of the game has to be the battle system. You control a wisp (it acts as a curser). You have a time guage that decreases as you give orders and if your wisp is hit with one of the enemies' projectiles. You also have MP which is used for item skills, and is regained from gems the enemies drop when hit (you move the wisp over them to regain MP). Gems will get more scarce as the fog lifts, and this is rectified by switching phases (Law and Chaos). There is a lot to keep track of, and you have to stay on your toes if you want to make the best of your turns. Fortunately, everything comes second nature once you get the hang of it.

There is a leveling option on the main menu (so you can fight and gain exp without losing vitality. Awesome). It really helps,especially if you like a unit and do not want to make them lose vitality (if they reach 0, they die). You can go back to any level you've beaten before, and it also lets you get new items. It is a great option, seriously.

The game also has a tutorial mode, for those who think they need more clarification. The tutorials themselves are very informative, and even demonstrate some of the more confusing aspects. I suggest everyone starts off in this mode, as skipping it may cause people to get lost in the complex battle system.

The music is fantastic, and each track fits in with the overall atmosphere. There are quite a bit of tracks (more on this later), and no song sounds too alike (I don't want to make this too long, so that's all I'll say for now).

The sprites are really well made, and animations are pretty fluid so far. The special effects also look really good. One of the best looking DS games to date IMO.

There's much more, but this is just a basic impressions. You can expect to hear more in my review, but I must say that the game is really good so far.

The Artbook

In all honesty, this is probably one of the best preorder artbooks I've ever seen. The book is about 8 x 11 in size, and is about as thick as an game case. There is a lot of information about the characters, some of their history, and the process of their creation. There are plenty of great sketches, and I'm really digging the style.

The Music CD

The CD has 39 tracks, and most are 1-2 minutes long. The songs themselves are great, with plenty of variety. There are quite a few battle tracks on the CD, and the rest are various other themes. I'm really loving it so far, and I gotta give Atlus props for fitting so many songs on the disc.

Overall, the entire package is easily worth the money spent (so far, at least). I'll be sure to get to a review soon. Until then, you'll just have to stick with my impressions, I suppose. Anything you guys would like to ask(regarding mechanics or the bonus stuff)? Also, I've got a spare artbook. Anyone interested?