"A Much Needed, Undeniably Charming JRPG"
Video Review
Ni No Kuni is a much needed, undeniably charming JRPG, that uses classic mechanics but implements those mechanics in such a way that they feel refreshing. The game is developed by Japanese based company "Level 5" possibly most known for their overwhelmingly popular Professor Layton series for the DS/3DS. It is well known by the gaming community that the once ever popular JRPG is a slowly dying genre. Somehow though, as soon as one thinks there is no hope left for the genre a truly remarkable gem will surface and rejuvenate the genre a bit. It's in these moments that we can see a tiny speckle of the genres former glory. It is not known if JRPG's will ever be as popular as they once were, but I for one think it's feasible one day. If you hadn't caught on yet that gem metaphor I was using earlier comes in the form of Ni No Kuni this time around. While the game still lacks perfection it's a definite step in the right direction for the genre as a whole, a step that I hope eventually can turn into a run.
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| Oliver getting his first familiar |
Presentation/Story
I have never before now seen a game that successfully looks so identical to an anime. While the animated cut-scenes are exceptional I found myself most impressed when I was actually in control of my character, staring in awe at the beautiful world alive inside my TV. The best word to describe this game is charming both in character and visualiztion. While some people may say they don't want a game that's charming, believe me you do.
The game implements its charm likewise into arguably the most important part of a JRPG its story and characters. While the story isn't exactly the most intricately woven plot I've seen it serves its purpose. It claws at your inner child, and before long you'll stop caring that it's childish and you'll be hooked. In short without revealing spoilers the plot goes as follows, a boy from Motorville by the name of Oliver must accompany a fairy to the alternate reality on a journey to save his mothers soul mate from the evil Dark Djinn. Should he prove successful on this quest his mum should be fully restored to him in the real world. In case you're confused when I say soul mate I'm not referring to ones true love. In this game the term soul mate is actually referring to ones alternate self in the aforementioned other dimension. Think of a soul mate as a sort of doppelganger. In the real world Oliver's mother is simply that a mother, but in the alternate reality she is a very powerful sage defeated by the Dark Djinn.
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| Oliver and his Mum |
Character, that's one thing that this game is bursting with. The towns are bustling with life and NPC's in need of help just waiting for a hero to step up and accept their side quests. These side quests are pretty typical mostly dealing with fetching assignments. Each town in the game features an inn and a variety of shops to purchase weapons, accessories, and items to aide you in your journey.
Most of the characters in this game are quirky and at times funny to listen or read about through the dialogue. That's one thing about this game that isn't very consistent. There are two different types of perceiving the dialogue. First of which, also the best is the fully voiced over animated cut-scenes that are used to unravel the story. Secondly is the in-game face to face conversations that are shown with text boxes. This part of the dialogue is where the inconsistencies are noticed. At times these text boxes will be voiced over and at other times you will be forced to read them. This occurrence seems random because there will be voice-overs for a segment of a conversation and then they will stop all of a sudden. It's almost like they were either too lazy or cheap on the English version to just voice-over the whole thing. This voice/text inconsistency is not uncommon for JRPGs but it still causes for a bit of annoyance for the player. It brings you out of the experience I'd rather it be all voiced text or all just plain text.
Perhaps the most unique part about this whole game is one particular idea added into the story, and that is broken-hearts. The previously mentioned baddie known as the Dark Djinn has a nasty habit of breaking important NPC's hearts. There are different pieces to the heart that can break off, one example would be a person missing the piece of their heart responsible for restraint. There is one such character in the game who suffers from a lack of restraint and because of it, is unable to control her desire to stuff her face. As a result she is extremely fat, and is unable to do anything but eat. Oliver is able to restore a persons heart by taking a bit of another persons heart who has an abundance of what you need. So, in the case of the extremely fat character lacking restraint, you would need to find someone with an abundance of restraint.
Even more interesting is the use of out of combat spells. Along Oliver's journey people will gift him with spells that can be used to perform a variety of tasks. The coolest of these is when the story requires Oliver to make a gateway back to the real world to track down a person's soul mate. The whole idea that helping someone or learning something about them in one world directly affects and applies to that person's soul mate in the alternate world is really interesting. This really adds another dimension to the story and helps make it refreshing.
Gameplay/Structue
This game has been referred to as a mixture of Tales and Pokemon, and in all honesty this is absolutely true. The similarities are most noticeable in the gameplay and the structure of the game. Story Progression in this game is unsurprisingly linear, but the game itself is completely open-world. It doesn't matter whether you choose to explore the world, capture new familiars (we'll get to that later), complete side quests, or simply bum rush the main story. Actually I would highly recommend taking time in between story mission to explore other aspects of the game as this will help beef your characters up for the next story segment. That's one area of this game that quickly becomes obvious, the difficulty. You are given the option to switch between easy and normal difficulty on the fly via the settings menu. The difficulty spikes in-betweeen story missions at times feels a little inconsistent. With certain areas being a breeze and other areas being a royal pain. At times grinding can become an absolute necessity, which is true with most JRPG's. Luckily, since this game focuses on using familiars (creatures) as your main battling source grinding can be quite entertaining.
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| Battling |
Familiars are the creatures you will be using to battle. Coincidentally these familiars you use to battle are also the very same creatures you will be battling. This is where the game steals some serious Pokemon aspects. In the game you are able to capture creatures you are battling. Capturing the creatures is simple enough, once the creature is KO'd there is a chance that it will adore you. This can be seen by pink hearts emanating off of the creature. When this happens Ester (your female companion), can capture the creature by serenading it with her harp. There is a limited time window in which one can capture the creature before the option is no longer available. The time window is quite long though, so there's no real rush. After the creature is captured you can either choose to assign it to any of the 3 main characters or store it away in the familiar retreat for future use.
Every familiar, after reaching a certain level is able to go through "metamorphisis" (evolve essentially) into a more stronger version. There are two evolutions a creature can go through with the final evolution actually letting you choose two different versions of the familiar. Evolution's allow for the creature to learn more skills to perform in battle, along with giving them a noticable cosmetic and power boost. The player also has the choice to never evolve their familiars should they not want to.
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| Esther |
The Tales inspired portion of this game comes mainly from the battle system. It keeps the core structure of the Tales battle system and then adds on to it. The battle system is technically real time, but still makes the player select what move it wants the character to perform. While the system itself is quite complex, seeing as technically you have the ability to switch between 3 human characters who are each controlling 3 different familiars. Usually though I'd find myself focusing on just using one of the humans and letting the other two do what they like. Each human character has some moves that they can perform in the form of spells, songs, and skills. The majority of the time you're battling though you'll probably be swapping between your strongest familiars to deal out the damage. While the battle system is quite in-depth, I never really found myself utilizing it to its full extent except during boss battles. Mainly because when I wasn't in a boss fight I was fighting normal creatures trying to grind up my characters. During these insignificant battles I found myself getting into the habit of mashing "X", waiting for the battle to be over so I could collect my XP. The only battles I truly was engaged in were the boss battles and this was most likely because they had the ability to deal massive amounts of damage to me. So, in fear of dying I was forced to work out weaknesses and actually strategize my attack, along with quickly trying to defend certain attacks. It was during these battles that I found myself having the most fun. One notable issue I ran into was being very frustrated with how worthless my AI companions seemed to be. This wasn't a constant occurrence, but majority of the game I seriously felt as if I was doing 90% of the damage to the enemies. It also seemed as if my companions would die off a lot even when they were well equipped. To top it off I usually was still able to defeat the foe without them, which just added to my believing they were indeed worthless.
Longevity/Audio
The voice acting, while not being great is more than acceptable considering how large this game is, plus it is better than a lot of JRPG's I've heard. The music is where this game truly shines, I absolutely loved the different scores in this game. There a lot of times where I hear the background music in games, but I don't really listen to it. With Ni No Kuni that wasn't the case I found myself enjoying it quite a bit.
As an RPG this game is expected to be long with ton's of content. Personally I don't think it disappoints with a 30+ hour campaign, tons of sidequests, items to collect, and a vast amount of Familiars to capture and level up. Honestly the game is as long as you want to make it but I imagine most everyone who plays it will get 50 or so hours of entertainment before calling it quits. Also as a bonus the game continues after completing the story, so don't worry about trying to do everything else before finishing the story.
Conclusion
Ni No Kuni is a beautiful and creative piece of work. The story is both very unique and adorable. Perhaps the game takes a little bit too much from other established franchises, but for the most part it manages to stay original, mainly thanks to the story and characters. The battle system is complex and varied yet somehow, most people will still find themselves simply mashing one button on the less engaging battles. Friendly AI may be an annoyance, but its not enough to deny that this is a refreshing JRPG. Ni No Kuni manages to revitalize the JRPG franchise while still utilizing the core aspects of the genre. It is an obvious purchase for any fan of JRPG's who also happens to be a Playstation 3 owner.
Pro's
+Unique, Refreshing Story
+Adorable Characters
+Great Artstyle
+Traveling between worlds...Clever
Con's
-Poor Friendly AI
-Combat can become more of a routine/chore
-A bit of a copy-cat of other established franchises
-Inconsistent dialogue
Rating
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