Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3)

wilstreak · 2010-06-25T02:13:06+00:00

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (US/EUR) / äºŒãƒŽå›½ æ¼†é»’ã�®é”å°Žå£« (JPN) [exclusive on PS3] Animation by Studio Ghibli ; Presented by Level-5 ; Sound Direction by Joe Hisaishi JP Release Date: 2011-11-17 US Release Date: 2013-1-22 EUR Release Date: 2013-2-1 Spoiler: A combination project between Level-5 and Studio ghibli. Looks interesting and beautiful Oh yeah, this one is PS3 version, I don't give a damn for NDS version REVIEW PSM, the Official Playstation Magazine UK: 9,1 out of 10 (like he said, the boss battle is hard) RPG Land: Legendary out of 10 (the most detailed review) Game Master: 95 out of 100 (the first review of English version) Playstation Lifestyle: 10 out of 10 (This is his first review who scored perfect ten) IGN: 9.4 out of 10 (Ni No Kuni is the best JRPG I’ve played in years, and a must-play for an RPG fan with a PS3.) GodisaGeek: 10 out of 10 (Ni No Kuni is a superb traditionally-styled role player) Spoiler: Spoiler: Ni no Kuni FAQ/Preview: Everything You Need to Know Ni no Kuni will come out this January in North America and Europe. I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t know much about the game, though, so here’s a helpful FAQ. If you have a question of your own, feel free to ask in the comments. Q: Is this game easy? A: Overall, no. It has easy parts and hard parts. Most of the first 15 hours will be very easy for seasoned gamers who have played RPGs for 20 years, yes. But after a while, you’ll find that there are some very big challenges in Ni no Kuni†˜s boss fights and even random encounters. If you move at a normal pace through the story, the difficulty will be hover around a moderate level. The thing is, however, that Ni no Kuni†˜s battle system is really fun once you get a variety of characters and abilities (as do your opponents), and there is a hell of a lot to do between all the quests and monster hunting, so a lot of people might find themselves unintentionally “grinding.” I hesitate to use that term, though, because the battle system being fun makes it not a “grind” by definition. “Grinding” more applies to battles that you fight because you seriously can’t advance to the next story section without getting slaughtered — you don’t want to fight them, but feel you must. If you’re overleveled or if you’re anywhere before the second or third town? Yes, it’s pretty easy. Once you’ve got multiple party members? Oh hell no, stuff gets real. Your first battles on the water (after you get the ship) will demonstrate a quick step up in difficulty. Q: How do you get into battle? Random encounters? A: In dungeons and on the overworld map, the player can see all enemies (unless they’re hiding in the forest). If they’re strong enough to be confident against you, they’ll charge once they’re within draw distance. Sometimes, however, weak enemies will spot Oliver and run away. It’s a subtle hint from the game that, hey, you’re almost too strong for this area, wink wink, nudge nudge. Q: Is this game too kiddy? A: That depends on you. If you’re an adult who is confident in your maturity level, then no, it isn’t too kiddy. If you have insecurities about your own maturity level, then maybe it is too kiddy for you (or the other way around). There is a strong difference between mature content and mature themes, and there is a big difference between something being childlike and being childish. The inclusion of handguns, the F word, and breasts does not make a game “mature.” This is a fallacy created by the ESRB rating system which brands a game containing such things as “Mature.” The lack of logic in that naming can be found underneath the giant M, where the label says “17+,” meaning 17-year-olds can buy these games. We all know that 17-year-olds are the least mature creatures on the face of the planet. Ni no Kuni stars a young boy in colorful world populated by cute monsters, so it will inevitably be mislabeled as a “kids’ game” by some. There’s a difference between content being appropriate for the whole family and content being specifically targeted at children, though, and Ni no Kuni is a game truly enjoyable adults in the same way that Studio Ghibli’s best movies are truly mystifying to all age groups. In fact, Famitsu’s review said (and I agree) that the difficulty of this game might be a little too high for the kids that might be drawn in by the art style. Q: I’ve heard the battle system is like Final Fantasy XII? Is that true? A: No, though I can see where people get that idea. Both have battles furiously raging on while the characters can move freely, so it does look visually similar. In Final Fantasy XII, moving around had very little effect on your chances of getting hit, whereas in Ni no Kuni, a character can run laps around the battlefield while an opponent is unable to land a hit. Of course, sooner or later, you’ll have to actually do something from a menu, but the point is, temporary survival can come from use of distance, which was an extreme rarity in FFXII. I remember running from enemies only to be getting “hit” in the back as I did so. Final Fantasy XII†˜s Gambit system allowed players to be specific about what they wanted characters to do at what times, while Ni no Kuni only offers a very vague set of A.I. management settings. More importantly, the flow of battle is entirely different. Final Fantasy XII had its characters with their license boards and such, but Ni no Kuni has humans who control monsters. It’s tough to explain every single difference, but let’s simplify it to this: playing Ni no Kuni doesn’t feel anything like playing Final Fantasy XII. Where playing Bejeweled gives you an advantage in understanding Puzzle Quest, playing FFXII will not make you understand Ni no Kuni any better. Q: Is the monster catching like Pokémon? A: Only in the sense that you catch monsters. If catching monsters makes things inherently like Pokémon, then I guess so, but the mechanics of catching the monsters and process of raising said monsters are handled very differently in Ni no Kuni. For more on Pokémon comparisons, see the section below the rest of the questions. Q: How is EXP handled? A: EXP given at the end of the fight is received by all human characters (starting with one, but reaching three about one-third of the way through the story main story) and all monsters that they have. Since each human can bring three monsters into battle, this means up to nine monsters can get EXP for each fight. The points are given straight up in a static amount (not divided), to all participants, regardless of their status or HP at the end of the fight. This might sound too generous to the uninitiated, but trust me, with how many monsters you’ll be wanting to improve, you’ll be glad this system is in place. Q: How does crafting work? A: What one might call “vanilla.” You put items in your alchemy pot and see what happens. If the chosen items can’t be combined, then you don’t lose your stuff. After you get the alchemy pot, you can also get a recipe book from a nearby quest, but it’ll take most people some time to be able to fulfill that quest. This book won’t be complete, however, and you’ll need to get other ones from NPCs in future towns. What I don’t like about it is that you can’t double the quantities to make double the items unless you have the recipe, and getting that recipe is often difficult and/or time-consuming. If you want three juicy sandwiches — made with one bread and one soft beef — then you have to add the ingredients over and over and over, manually, for every single one you craft, until you get the recipe. I know what you’re thinking: “Doesn’t it save the recipe after you successfully craft something?” The answer is no, it doesn’t. This really should have been solved with a simple algorithm. Q: Are battles turn-based, action style, or real-time menu based? A: Some portion of all of those. When deciding to attack, escape, defend, or use another type of skill, time marches on and combatants will be punching each other in the face. When controlling a human in battle (instead of a monster) and selecting which of their spells or items to use, time stops. Other than those intervals, things move in a very fast-paced version of menu-based real time combat. Q: So up to nine monsters plus three humans in battle at the same time? Heath, how is that not easy? A: Each human carries up to three monsters to stand in for them during battle; they can fight for themselves or send out a monster, but the humans and monsters share HP. The human’s HP is used for all of the monsters they carry into battle. So when Oliver sends out his magic knight, and the magic knight takes a kick in the groin, damage is calculated based on the magic knight’s defense and equipment, but the HP deduction comes from Oliver. If he’s got a monster out there with weak magic defense and the enemy uses a magic attack, look out Oliver, because here comes the pain — regardless of Oliver’s own magic defense stat. You might technically have 12 combatants at your disposal, but like baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out in Ni no Kuni. Resurrection items are pretty expensive, and using them will take a lot of time, during which your surviving character will be the target of attacks, so bringing people back to their feet is hardly ever a gimme. Q: What about escaping from battle and Game Over? A: If you try to escape and fail, your whole party stands still and can’t select any commands for a few seconds, during which the enemies will do their best to make you pay. I haven’t been keeping track officially, but I feel like I have about a 50-50 chance of escaping when I try it. When a game over happens (and it will happen to you), you’ll get the option of going back to the title screen or resuming from the approximate point where you died, with all of your EXP and items intact. The latter will cost 10% of your money, though. Q: About how long is the game? A: The main story will take most people 40, then more depending on how much treasure hunting, monster catching, leveling, world map exploration, and questing that you do. If you want to do everything and find everything, you’re probably looking at somewhere North of 90 hours

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Satsugai

11 years ago

Picked it up yesterday, but won't be touching it for a while since I have other games that need to be finished and very little time to play.

Ito-kun

11 years ago

This game and Demon Souls is probably the only reason I am getting a PS3 :3

Hentanize rebaS

11 years ago

The game's release has been pushed to a week later over here :(.

Tsujoi Social Media Manager

11 years ago

Got my griffy familiar code today, yay.

Hentanize rebaS

11 years ago

The game is getting mad reviews from everyone.

Lowest being 7/10 by Game Informer.

aichoaniki

11 years ago

I got this game the day it came out, but I had to wait until last Friday to start it. I've been waiting for it for ages. It really feels as if you're playing a Studio Ghibli film, and the charm inherent in those films oozes out of this game. The game is obviously in 3D, but a lot of effort is made to make the game look 2D. Even the animations themselves on the characters don't look perfect like many 3D games and films do as they're made to resemble hand animations. At times you're able to sit back and be hard pressed to tell anything is 3D.

The battle system starts off really, really simple but it quickly becomes a very effective system where you'll find yourself having to precisely time moves even on regular enemies. That's probably the most surprising aspect of the game for me because I was expecting something like Dragon Quest's system where you spend most of your time pressing a button to just attack. Gives the game a bit of a challenge. You'll end up using certain familiars to tackle certain situations, so it feels kind of like Final Fantasy X in that manner where you could switch out party members at will to suit whatever you're fighting against.

Only dig I guess I find against the game is that you're not able to jump around on things and climb things. Not really any reason why it couldn't have supported that stuff. You can jump, but it's a mostly useless action. The times where you jump over things or on top of things are usually scripted actions. Makes the character feel kind of static when you're moving through locations sometimes.

The dub of the game is fantastic, too -- especially Drippy. I was expecting to play the game entirely with Japanese voices, but the English dub has far more enthusiasm to it. Tidy!

niell

11 years ago

Loving this game so much. It may have cartoony visuals, but don't let it fool ya, the boss fights are some of the most intense ever. Really reminiscent of DQVIII, which was my all time favorite PS2 game.

Hentanize rebaS

11 years ago

Buying game tomorrow. I know what I will be doing this weekend!

niell

11 years ago

God flippin dammit, made it all the way to the final form of the final boss and then died. Now gotta redo all the way

arcane_prophecy777

11 years ago

*No spoilers Please*

This is a real good game takes me back to the vintage rpg days of secret of mana and earthbound. I've been taking my time I was just introduced to my third playable character.

I've been on a role Xenoblade, Last Story, now Ni No Kuni lyfe is good

niell

11 years ago

arcane_prophecy777 wrote...

I've been on a role Xenoblade, Last Story, now Ni No Kuni lyfe is good

Off topic: I keep seeing this recently, and it seems like the reviews are good. Is it really about a Wii game?

Hentanize rebaS

11 years ago

They actually translated the entirety of the magic book. I can't even imagine the work that was put just in that lol.

And yea, started the game just now.

UsagiHime

11 years ago

I THINK I'm almost done. theres so much to this game I could be wrong. Running around doing some good deeds for merit stamps before I fight Shadar.

This game has consumed all of my time.............

artcellrox The Grey Knight :y

11 years ago

niell wrote...

arcane_prophecy777 wrote...

I've been on a role Xenoblade, Last Story, now Ni No Kuni lyfe is good

Off topic: I keep seeing this recently, and it seems like the reviews are good. Is it really about a Wii game?

Yes it is, from the mind that brought you the critically acclaimed Xenogears for the PS1, and Xenosaga episode 1 for the PS2.

Ammy

11 years ago

niell wrote...

arcane_prophecy777 wrote...

I've been on a role Xenoblade, Last Story, now Ni No Kuni lyfe is good

Off topic: I keep seeing this recently, and it seems like the reviews are good. Is it really about a Wii game?

It's amazing. Go play it.

Satsugai

11 years ago

Must finish New Vegas and then finish Ni No Kuni!!!!

EpicPfail

11 years ago

Can anyone give me an idea of how many hours of gameplay this game offers? I'm really wanting to get it but $60 is a pretty steep tag and I almost never buy games full price.

Satsugai

11 years ago

Last time I touched it, I'm roughly 7 hours in, but I think I hardly advanced in the story since I'm doing a couple of side quests.

Hentanize rebaS

11 years ago

Yea, 10 hours in, still don't have the 3rd character. Gotta say, I enjoy exploring the Wizard's Companion.

Cyndas

11 years ago

EpicPfail wrote...

Can anyone give me an idea of how many hours of gameplay this game offers? I'm really wanting to get it but $60 is a pretty steep tag and I almost never buy games full price.

I haven't watched all his VG footage outside of UMvC3, but there's a streamer by the name of Jason Axelrod(Jaxelrod), from 8 on the Break, he has 18 episodes, I HAVE NOT WATCHED ALL OF THEM, of Ni No Kuni all extremely long.

http://youtu.be/v8_wiTsfH4c?t=2h31m12s - This is his final episode but looking at this(2:31:12 Exactly), he logged 77 hours, and 23 minutes time.

I'm sure it's either quite long, or quite addicting if he has that much time logged. Either way, I'm buying this as soon as I can.

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