Level-5 - 2013 - PS3
Ni No Kuni is a collaborate effort between video game studio “Level-5”, (probably best known for Dark Cloud or the Professor Layton games) and the Japanese animation company, Studio Ghibli. I had previously never seen any of the Studio Ghibli films (I've now seen 3! Spirited Away is so far my favorite) and I had never played any of level-5’s other games, but I saw this game got good reviews on release and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.
Gameplay wise, it’s pretty much what would happen if you took Pokemon from 2d to 3d and replaced the turn based battles with real-time combat. You capture and evolve your “familiars” and each of them has strengths and weaknesses vs. other types of familiars. Rock paper scissors stuff. Each of your familiars has a stamina gauge, so you’re forced to swap in and out familiars quite a bit during the course of battle.
Story-wise, it’s pretty much exactly like playing through a Studio Ghibli film. There’s a kid with sick parents on an adventure, dual worlds, personified animals, all your standard Studio Ghibli stuff. It’s got a very whimsical Harry Potter-ish magic and wizards thing going on which, as a non-Harry Potter fan, I wasn't sure if that was going to do anything for me but I ended up liking the story quite a bit.
And for a very whimsical, cartoonish, kid-friendly game, Ni No Kuni has some pretty wicked difficulty. There were bosses I had to redo 7 or 8 times before I finally beat them. If I had to knock this game, I’d have say it’s probably a bit too long. I was ready for this game to be over before it actually was, and the game drags a bit near the end. Also a lot of the side quests are exactly the same thing over and over again, which comes off as lazy. But other than that, this is a very solid game.
Summary:
Ni No Kuni is the best Japanese RPG I've played in quite a while. Check it out if you like JRPGs, Pokemon or the Studio Ghibli films.
Gameplay wise, it’s pretty much what would happen if you took Pokemon from 2d to 3d and replaced the turn based battles with real-time combat. You capture and evolve your “familiars” and each of them has strengths and weaknesses vs. other types of familiars. Rock paper scissors stuff. Each of your familiars has a stamina gauge, so you’re forced to swap in and out familiars quite a bit during the course of battle.
Story-wise, it’s pretty much exactly like playing through a Studio Ghibli film. There’s a kid with sick parents on an adventure, dual worlds, personified animals, all your standard Studio Ghibli stuff. It’s got a very whimsical Harry Potter-ish magic and wizards thing going on which, as a non-Harry Potter fan, I wasn't sure if that was going to do anything for me but I ended up liking the story quite a bit.
And for a very whimsical, cartoonish, kid-friendly game, Ni No Kuni has some pretty wicked difficulty. There were bosses I had to redo 7 or 8 times before I finally beat them. If I had to knock this game, I’d have say it’s probably a bit too long. I was ready for this game to be over before it actually was, and the game drags a bit near the end. Also a lot of the side quests are exactly the same thing over and over again, which comes off as lazy. But other than that, this is a very solid game.
Summary:
Ni No Kuni is the best Japanese RPG I've played in quite a while. Check it out if you like JRPGs, Pokemon or the Studio Ghibli films.
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