Overall 9.8 Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 9.5 Story 9.5 Depth 10 Difficulty 5.5
9.8
Ni No Kuni: Flawed Masterpiece supernerd117
Note: This review was pulled from my account on NintendoRadar. Can submit proof, if necessary.
I bought a PS3 for this game. Yes, I have officially become a PS-aholic. Or rather, I picked up so much I felt I “missed”. I tried to get my brother into it all...but I failed. He officially hates the controllers. And he refuses to play anything other than ModNation Racers on the PS3...and only on occasion. If only I could get him to play Ni No Kuni and get him to see! But I digress. Here’s my review:
Ni No Kuni is a masterwork. I have played no RPG nearly of its like, and the sheer quality of the game is underemphasized. Artistically, it is brilliant. The music is rousing and powerful. Its combat system is wonderful. Inventory management is streamlined and even fun. The story is emotional and moving. These things blend together into a masterpiece.
The game features Oliver, a young boy who loves to enjoy life. He loves his mother. He serves his friends. But he still does get into trouble. In the game’s first few moments, he makes a mistake, and his mother pays the price. While what happened to her was not his fault, he takes it hard. But soon fate has a hand to play in bringing him out of his stupor...and sending him to save an unfamiliar world.
And yet that world is familiar. The two worlds are tied together. If something happens somewhere in one world, it has repercussions in the other. And each person has a “soul mate”. That is, each person has another who shares similar characteristics in the opposite world...and if one dies, so, too, does the other.
Though it may seem hokey in a sense, that very plot point helps Oliver to be such a compelling character. In many RPGs, there are emo protagonists cut from a cloth, or bland heroes with a shoed-in backstory. In this one, we get a young boy, inexperienced but by no means foolish and weak. The game avoids the cliches that so often hamper these characters. Instead, Oliver is about as polite as they come, willing to fight but also willing to see beyond the character flaws of his enemies. He is certainly among the most compelling protagonists ever in an RPG. Here is proof that Studio Ghibli fanservice is among the best fanservices out there.
His companions are less compelling, but far and away some of the best secondary protagonists ever in an RPG. And not simply because their characters are great. Gameplaywise, they each serve vital functions. Mr. Drippy (later on, not a playable character), can heal the party when things are dicey. Esther can bring familiars (basic enemies) over to your side. Swaine “steals” items using his gun (yes, a gun in this game can seem odd). Marcassin is an Oliver clone. OK, I’m joking. But gameplaywise, he’s actually not quite as good. Perhaps better in the party late-game for battle…but not for trophy grinding. Well...he doesn’t join until late game. Minor spoiler there. I digress.
But perhaps the most stand-out “sidekicks” are the familiars. In a fashion similar to Pokemon, you can battle, recruit and train these Familiars. They level up, can be evolved, learn new moves, and have different types and type advantages. How they are trained stands out: You level up your familiars through direct battle (with full control over up to one at a time) and the damage they take? Well, that’s damage to you. If a familiar is knocked out, so are you. Thankfully, when available, you can call on up to 3 characters and their familiars (one at a time) to battle. If you get knocked out, simply proceed with another character still in battle.
And evolution is completely in your hands. You can level up your familiars as much as you want (up to a max level) and once they are “metomorphable”, you can evolve them anytime outside of battle, if you have the right item. These, fortunately, are fairly abundant, and if you stick to training a more specialized team (rather than grinding and grinding to get your various familiars’ levels up), then you will have all you need and more.
You even can choose between two forms in the second evolution. Each familiar has four forms: One basic, one first evolution, and a choice between two second evolutions. These usually are similar in some ways, but may be of a completely different type. This gives you more freedom when you’re training your team, so that you can yourself craft a balance that works for you.
And! You can feed your familiars to raise their stats. This food can be bought or obtained on the map and hiding places or from enemies. Each kind of familiar favors a specific kind of treat. And as your familiars’ “familiarity” levels up (to a max of five “hearts”), they may be able to use more moves, for example. In perhaps an odd choice, you have to largely favor a specific stat (using the familiar’s favorite kind of food) in order to get five hearts. A disappointment and restriction of growth choice, but understandable.
Now to weaknesses:
Grinding may be this game’s biggest weakness. While grinding may rarely be necessary (unless you don’t decide to pursue all the optional quests like me), it can be daunting. If you want to max out one familiar’s stats (and optional bonuses), you have to participate in hundreds of battles AND feed it hundreds of treats. The best of these treats cannot be purchased...they must be made or found. And gathering all the necessary ingredients...well, that’s a grind. You’ll have to search the map or battle many enemies that you perhaps far outlevel.
Another weakness is conflict of tone. While this is hardly a problem in the main story, you’ll find yourself going on optional “bounty hunts”, which amount to you hunting specifically generated enemies down in the overworld for, well, money and bonuses. Some of the best abilities in the game (or rather, enhancements) are not available until you participate in many of these. And you get a sentence or two about why you should hunt them down. No villages seemingly in danger, and you can proceed at your own pace. There is no seeming urgency to these hunts, in large conflict with the tone of the main plot.
EDIT: Hearing "We have no choice but to fight!" as a battle entrance response when grinding against enemies far below my level (and from whom I could flee at any time) is silly. Of course, no choice if I want that Platinum trophy. But I'm not outmatched, these enemies do little damage, and I don't know what these enemies have been doing (have they terrorized towns? Ransacked villages? They look cute). Another tonal oddity.
And the weapon descriptions can be iffy for a game of this tone. It’s supposed to be cheerful and upbeat despite all problems. Yet some of the descriptions speak about how they pierce flesh easily or are super dark, etc. etc. etc. Considering that The High Lord of the Fairies (AKA Mr. Drippy) says early on not to worry about attacking, that the creatures you fight are “sent off” instead of slain, is he pulling one over on Ollie-boy? No, probably not. So therein lies the problem.
Also a la Pokemon, there is a casino. Now, I won’t rag on this a lot. Especially not since in one game (Blackjack cough cough), the odds are highly in your favor if you know how to play (I guess they like giving out credit?). There’s even a cool minigame available only there (and one earlier section of the game, briefly).
Overall:
Ni No Kuni is a masterpiece hampered by a few odd design choices and tonal weirdness. But you will be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable RPG. My main reason to buy a PS3. And I’ve loved every minute of the 75+ hours I’ve spent with it, with many more to go. Flip, mun!
Rating: 9.8/10
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 5/5
Submitted: 12-27-17
Review Replies: 0
9.5
A Look at Ni No Kuni EvilAlu
Description - Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch, is a Role Playing Game for the PlayStation 3, released in January 2013, Published by Namco Bandai Games and Developed by Level-5. With art work and animation from Studio Ghibli.
Plot - Oliver a happy young boy from the town of Motorville, lives a happy day to day life. An aspiring engineer, Oliver wants nothing more than to build the perfect race car with his best friend Phil. After the unfortunate loss of his mother, Oliver meets Drippy "Lord High Lord of the Fairies". Drippy tells Oliver that there may be a way to save his mother in his world, and upon hearing this Oliver was eager to try anything to bring his mother back. Together with Mr Drippy Oliver sets out on his new journey to another world, full of magic and adventure to become a powerful wizard. But Oliver will soon find, that bringing his mother back wont be so easy, with the help of some new found friends, he faces off against vicious enemies and the evil power of the Dark Djinn Shadar.
Story - The story of Ni No Kuni circles around a young 13 year old boy named Oliver, a local resident of the small town of Motorville. After taking out the newly made race car he and his childhood friend Phil made, Oliver loses control and crashes in to the river. His Mother Alicia rushes to his aid, sadly doing so put to much strain on her heart, and she passed away. Overcome with sadness, Oliver shuts himself away in his room holding on tight to the doll his mother gave him. While shedding his tears, Oliver watches in amazement, as his doll comes to life from the touch of his tears. The doll turns out to be Drippy "Lord High Lord of the Fairies", he gives Oliver a special book, that grants Oliver the power of magic. With his new found power, Oliver opens a gateway to the magical world of Ni No Kuni, a world parallel to Oliver's. Together him and Mr Drippy will journey this amazing new land in an attempt to save his mother. As Oliver starts to explore this magical new world, he learns that an evil Dark Djinn named Shadar, is trying to destroy this wonderful land. Shadar casts evil magic, that steal away pieces of peoples hearts, or break them to the point of despair. In his travels, Oliver saves many victims of this terrible infliction, by sharing the emotions of people overflowing with emotions, and destroying any evil nightmares that may succumb people. As he continues through his journey, he meets new friends who share his desire to rid the world of the evil Shadar, and bring peace back to the land. The story as a whole if very thorough, it grabs hold of you emotionally, and creates a real connection between you and the characters. For any gamer who loves a good heart warming story full of magical exploits and thrilling adventure, this story wont fail to disappoint you. I reward the story a solid 9/10.
Gameplay - The gameplay in Ni No Kuni is very simplistic, but not to the point it bores you as the player. The controls are easy to work, and don't put to much stress on the player to move quickly in heated battles. You follow the same rout as in many Role Playing Games, by visiting new towns and cities, staying at plenty of new inns and managing your inventory, such as healing items all the way to weapons and amour. Motion in the game is smooth, and a joy to experience. Thou many locations inside of some towns aren't very big, this in no way impacts the adventure aspect, as even small places are packed full of places to explore. Add that to the bigger cities you come across, and all the places on the world map to seek out and explore, Ni No Kuni offers you a fantastic all round sense of adventure and exploration.
Combat - The combat in this game was extremely easy to master, after sitting thru some rather long unneeded explanations from Mr Drippy on how to use the battle system, you as the player will soon realize just how simple they are. A nice thing about the combat in Ni No Kuni, is the motion, you are free to run around the field within the boarders of the battle screen. This can aid you, and give you slight advantages over the enemy at times. Another feature this game offers in terms of combat, is the use of "Familiars" these quirky little creatures will aid you in battle, allowing you to switch up your battle style in a heartbeat, and open up a range of new moves to swat enemies you encounter. Thou this is a nice feature, your health and magic are connected to your Familiars. If your Familiar gets hurt so do you. This is important to keep in mind, so as not to fall in crucial battles. In most cases you shouldn't worry to much about this thou, as you can only use one Familiar at a time, and even then for a set amount of time before it gets tired and you need to switch places. Along your journey you will be able to gain more Familiars to add to your team, you can hold up to three for each character, and keep three in reserve. I personally found it best to keep the reserve slots free, for new monster captures. Besides from set battles you have no control over, you are completely free to avoid or battle enemies, but be warned, the enemies have an absurd amount of visual range, and will notice your party from miles away. If this happens they will charge at your team, but again this is no big issue, you can simply move to the side if you wish, as the enemy will run straight past you. Though the battle side of this game is very fun, it isn't really that much of a challenge, players should still enjoy the game, but if you want tough battles, this is not the game for you.
Graphics - There is only one word to me that can describe the graphics in this game, and that word is beautiful. And I would expect nothing else, as the art and animation came from the award winning Studio Ghibli, that have bought many emotionally gripping and adventure filled anime movies to your screens. The detail in this game was some of the best I have seen yet. From movement to facial expression, Ni No Kuni will leave you amazed and stopping more than once to admire the visually stunning layouts. There may be a few small things where the graphics are concerned, but if there are I certainly did not see them. Every part of this game, from world map to cities had me stopping to look at every little thing. The amount of detail was highly impressive. And for that reason I score this a maximum score of 10/10.
Sound - In my personal opinion, the sound could have been a lot better in places. The voice acting was good, but at times left you infuriated, as some characters voices were for lack of a better word annoying. A brilliant example of this is the voice acting for Mr Drippy, which for some reason has a Welsh accent. I found this to be more irritating than enjoyable, as understanding what he says half of the time is near impossible. And for people who are not Welsh, you would have a hard time grasping anything he says, even with the use of sub titles. For this reason I would suggest using the original Japanese language when playing this game. Yes you will have to read (unless you speak Japanese) but the sound is so much better this way. Despite some poor choices in accents, Ni No Kuni does offer a fantastic sound track. The music fits well for each location, and the main theme is very pretty, and ties in well with the feel of the game. I give the sound a score of 8/10.
Depth - Ni No Kuni offers so much to the player, you wont be disappointed for depth. With such a wide variation of places to explore, this game will leave you satisfied. There shouldn't be a moment that passes as you play you don't have somewhere new to find or explore. The main story when written out seems short as it is only 36 plus hours of game time, but believe me when I say it feels much longer when you are playing. If you throw in any extras to the main story it will bump your total play time to 49 hours plus, and for the perfectionist you will have a huge 93 hours of gameplay to look forward to. This game is no small feat for things to do, and should leave you happy from start to finish. I give the depth a score of 10/10.
Addictiveness - If like me you are likely to get pulled in to a good story, this game can be very addictive. Granted there are some side missions that can be extremely drawn out and tedious, which can be very boring. But that happens so little, it is hardly worth mentioning. As a whole the story and thrilling feel of adventure, will keep you firmly hooked to the game from start to finish. And that is why I drop a worthy score of 9/10.
Difficulty - I found Ni No Kuni to be very simple, though battles were fun they posed no serious challenge. And it left me wishing there was a harder mode to set it on, as the top mode it provided was nowhere near sufficient. If you are willing to put in the time to level up your characters, battles in this game wont be any trouble for you. If anything I would suggest not grinding so much in one place like I did, just so you will have that extra bit of a challenge to the fight. Because this game held no serious threats when it came to enemy battles, I score the difficulty a 6/10.
Over All - To sum up Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch, I would say if you enjoy a fantastic story with heart touching scenes, a beautiful display of graphics, that will leave you stopping to take it in, pretty music, that fits in just right making you feel a part of the game experience. And a very involved sense of adventure, then this is the perfect game for you. However if you are a gamer that looks for competitive battles to go with the story, you might be disappointed. Regardless I would strongly recommend to anyone to give this game a fair shot, It may have slight faults in some areas, but as a whole the game is solid, and deserves the attention. I reward this game an over all score of 9.5/10.
Graphics 10 Sound 8 Addictive 9 Story 9 Depth 10 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 4.8/5
Submitted: 04-01-13
Updated: 04-01-13
Review Replies: 6
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