Do you remember JRPG’s? They are the role-playing-games of
old. They were the majority of story
driven adventures featuring an unlikely hero taking on an evil megalomaniac. When I was younger, I couldn’t get enough of
JRPGs; there was something more tactile and immersive about them compared to their
more action oriented brethren. Games
like Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy, Pokémon, and Chrono Trigger are paradigms
of the Japanese role playing game. Since
the launch of the Xbox 360, there has been a sharp decline in JRPG’s; I’d like
to speculate that the reason behind this is that there is an ever-growing
market for first person shooters and the like.
The JRPG’s younger brother, Western RPGs (Skyrim, Fallout, and the like)
has all but replaced it. I can’t
remember the last JRPG on consoles that I played, and I actually wanted to
complete. I tried a few this year, Final
Fantasy 13, 13-2 (DO NOT BUY), and a few others. The problem is that they were more
frustrating than fun, more simple than strategic, and more plain than
intriguing. I lost hope. JRPGS have lost what made them memorable. Have W-RPGS filled the void in my heart?
Lo and behold 2013 comes around; we trump the Mayan prophecy.
For surviving we are bestowed upon; the treasure: Ni No Kuni the first JRPG of
2013. Oddly enough, NNK was already
released in Japan, and for whatever unlikely reason they decided to ship it
over to the rest of the world. It was developed by Level-5 (known for Dark
Cloud, Jeanne d’Arc, Professor Layton series, and others) and Studio Ghibili
(traditionally a film studio known for their My Neighbor Totoro, Princess
Mononoke, and Spirited Away). This is a
Japanese dream team; I adore SG’s films, and Level-5 is pretty solid. I haven’t heard of many animation studios
working with video game developers to make a game; it makes my balls tingle
with anticipation…Could Ni No Kuni be the JRPG that was prophesized by the
Mayans? The very game that will begin to
bring JRPGs back on top?
Story
Ni No Kuni revolves around a thirteen year old boy named
Oliver. Oliver lives in a small town
called Motorville with his mother. As
the town name suggests, cars are a pretty big deal here. Olly’s best friend is rather handy for his
age, and makes a little dragster for them to drive. Oliver takes it for a spin, and crashes into
the river. Oliver’s mother’s mom-senses tingle
and she finds her son drowning in the river.
She saves him, but she had a weak heart; the rescue takes it out of
her. Oliver’s mother dies in the
aftermath, and Oliver is incredibly heartbroken. Amidst the immense sobbing, Oliver’s tears
land on his little doll and a creature comes to life. The candle-hanging-from-nose small yellow
creature’s name is Drippy, and he informs Olly that he’s from a whole different,
parallel world called Ni No Kuni. As expected, Drippy enlightens us that Ni No
Kuni is in dire straits, and Olly can help. A sinister being named Shadar keeps
the people brokenhearted; the world is in turmoil. We also learn that in this
parallel world there is a wizard that is Olly’s mother’s parallel world copy
person (It’s like there’s two of one person that inhabit each world), and that
maybe she can help Olly get his mom back.
Olly sets out into this whole new world to get his mom back, stop the
shady Shadar, and make people happy.Gameplay
NNK’s gameplay is very unique. It is also very familiar. The
gameplay is one of the many things that make it fun and involving. It borrows from many different titles to
create a wholly different JRPG experience.
At its core, Ni No Kuni plays like a real-time Pokémon game. You get in
battles when you run into an enemy on the world map – no random battles. In battles, it feels somewhat like the
gameplay of Tales series; you are in an arena-like stage with free movement and
you can attack willy-nilly. At the
beginning of a battle, you control Oliver, and then you can pick between three
of your familiars (monsters) to fight with.
It is totally possible/win-able to play as your character for the battle
(I did this often towards the end-game). You have a wait-gauge (think Final
Fantasy’s ATB gauge) to use your attacks.
NNK borrows from Final Fantasy’s new battle system; when you use your
default attack you just watch ya 
Back to the Pokémon comparison; you capture little monsters
on your journey (no you don’t put them in balls). Familiars come in all different shapes and
sizes. Similar to Pokémon, familiars
have different elemental affinities: fire, wind, water, and so on. Unlike Pokémon, familiars also have celestial
affinities; it plays like rock, paper, and scissors; there’s sun, moon, star,
and planet. All have strengths and
weaknesses to each other except planet that are just lame-ass neutral. There are nearly 300 different familiars in
NNK. As you battle with your familiars
they grow stronger (so do your characters!), and learn skills and can even
evolve to stronger creatures. The thing that is different is when you evolve
a familiar the new form goes all the way back to level one, so there’s a
risk/reward when considering evolving. Every
familiar has three stages of evolution, and in the third evolution it gives you
the option to pick between two very different ones. All of this allows for you to keep a varied
team, and experimentation what works and stuff.
You keep your critters in a bestiary where you can feed them
little treats like ice cream, meat, and even scones! This sounds a little Tamagotchi-ish, but
feeding your monsters these little treats boosts their stats – it’s actually
worthwhile to feed ‘em. You can also
equip them with armor and weapons to further boost their stats. It’s cute to see a little monster don the
classic shield and sword!
Oliver and the rest of your crew do gain levels, but
unfortunately they do not evolve like their familiars. Oliver and co learn more skills and spells to
help in battle. The characters are
generally weaker than your familiars, so you don’t want to spend a lot of time
playing as them amidst a battle. This
changes when you reach near the end of the game when Oliver learns a lot of
incredibly powerful spells. I didn’t
really like that so much; it made me feel like all the time spent fighting as
my familiars felt wasted.
In terms of quests there’s not a whole lot of revolutionary
stuff going on here. You always have a
story quest to do, and you can go about that whenever you want. In the world map you can go just about
anywhere you want, and when you reach certain areas it takes you into a town or
a dungeon. A town allows you to buy new
gear, items, talk to peeps, and do quest-y things. Dungeons are very linear, but there are occasional
puzzles to spice it up. You have SO MANY
SIDEQUESTS. But it’s actually a good
thing. NNK implements a merit stamp system. When you complete side quests you earn
stamps, earning stamps fills up your stamp card, and filling up your stamp card
grants you prizes! I LOVE PRIZES. The
prizes are really lame at first, but the end-game you need the prizes. The prizes
are all passive benefits for your character; you earn the ability to jump to
even reduce the cost of using abilities.
Sidequests come in one of three completely different delicious
flavors. 
My favorite is bounty hunts; you go and kill a big bad
monster. IT’S LIKE MONSTERHUNTER!!!
TROLOLOLOL. Uh. Moving on…you can cure denizens of their broken
heartedness. This means you have to find
what their problem is; are they lacking motivation, shamelessly eating cake
endlessly, or are they just really grumpy?
You come across really happy people and ask them if you can borrow a
piece of heart. This is where the game
takes a dark turn. Our lovable, gentle
Oliver pulls a Dexter; sedates his happy prey and take their heart out.
TROLOLOLOLOLOL. I kid. You actually cast
a cool little spell that allows you to take some of the happy person’s
overflowing and save it in a container for later! You use the extra stuff (confidence, joy, or
whatever) on the depressed person. The
last type of side quest is just fucking odd jobs. These are like things a normal pre-teen would
be out doing for weirdos in their neighborhood from getting all the different ingredients
for some chef’s curry to killing monsters to make a bikini for a girl (THAT’S
ACTUALLY A THING.). So they’re tedious, but worthwhile. I think it’s totally possible to complete Ni
No Kuni without doing these side quests.
But if you do ‘em you’re mo’ better. Game feel
Ni No Kuni is the most polished semi-traditional JRPG I’ve
played since the games of SNES. Everything feels good from exploring on the
world map to jumping into a battle. NNK implements cel shaded graphics, and BOY
do they look purdy. When you enter the
first town, Ding Dong Dell, you get all sorts of feels. The music, the look, and the theme of the
town are great. OH! And you are treated to Studio Ghibili cut scenes. They really add to the game despite using a
cartoon instead of in-game graphics. The
music is sooooo good. It is completely
orchestrated, and they have a great battle theme. They do a great job of changing the tune when
things happen adding to the experience.
Once you’ve done a few hundred battles you get a good feel
for what you have to do, and I gotta admit it’s pretty easy. The only time when NNK is challenging is when
the game expects you to be a certain level.
This means the monsters will bend you over and fuck you. It sucks!
The end-game wanted me to be around level 70, but I was only around
50. I didn’t want to grind. The game for the most part doesn’t make you
grind to get through the main story quests, and it was weird when it suddenly
forced you to.
The story doesn’t really mature much as you continue playing
the game. If you’ve played Kingdom
Hearts you’ll have an understanding as to what I’m talking about. The game is very feel-good, and the bad guys
are forced to seem sympathetic (because they are brokenhearted so hard) after
you kill them and stuff. So at the end,
I felt like this game was catered for babies who are really into in-depth RPG’s.
I don’t even…
I really liked what Ghibili and Level-5 created here, yet there’s
nothing incredibly revolutionary here – especially for those who used to be a
big fan of JRPGs. Now if you compare
this game to JRPGs of this generation this is really the crème of the
crop. Ni No Kuni has ridiculous
production values, and it is really immersive.
I’d also like to think of NNK as the game that’s like what if Pokémon
was a real-time game. Ni No Kuni delivers
hope for JRPG’s for the future, and Japanese developers should take note. This is a good game.
End of the line: if you like Pokémon, JRPGs, or have a PS3 it’s
a must-have; otherwise, don’t worry about it.
