Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Genre: JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Ni No Kuni is a JRPG with an aesthetic that is very reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli animated film. Well, it should – after all, Studio Ghibli itself helped to design the game, with their art style and strong storytelling permeating through the entire thing, with this game following the tale of a young boy who gets pulled into a strange and magical adventure that has him traveling back and forth between worlds.

Ni No Kuni was originally released for the PlayStation 3, and this release is a port of that version (as opposed to the remastered version the PlayStation 4 recently got). Still, for a straight port of a generation-old game, it’s pretty good, as this game was impressive back when it was first released, and has aged very well. I have heard others complaining about problems with this port, but I have encountered nothing like that – the game runs without a hitch as far as I can tell.

The presentation here is absolutely top-notch. Having such an experienced and skilled art house designing the characters and assisting with the story has led to a game with a wildly imaginative world and a delightful and memorable cast of characters, a visual look and style that’s filled with gorgeous detail, and a soundtrack by famed composer Joe Hisaishi that is simply phenomenal. And while the game’s age pokes its head up in places – there are occasionally some blurry textures, some jagged edges, low-poly characters, and a bit of pop-in… overall, all of these are minor flaws that do little to dull the otherwise delightful presentation this game has.

As for the gameplay itself, Ni No Kuni presents a number of unique gameplay systems that attempt to shake up the genre, although I’m sorry to say they don’t always succeed. The combat, in particular, I simply hate. Ni No Kuni’s combat mixes up turn-based and real-time combat with a system that has players selecting moves from menus while simultaneously moving characters in real-time that just does not mesh well, and is particularly frustrating.

What’s more, its familiars system, which has players summoning little monster allies to fight for them, seems half-baked. This is largely because these allies share the players’ health and magic, and summoning them is short-lived, meaning that players wanting to use them either need to end the battle quickly or repeatedly swap between them. What’s more, using items and healing magic means waiting for the familiar’s current attack to end, swapping out to the protagonist, selecting the appropriate choice from a menu, and then waiting for an animation to finish… all while enemies are attacking you. Suffice it to say, I died multiple times while trying to heal myself.

It’s a shame the combat in Ni No Kuni is so bad, because everything else here is so very, very good. This is a world I want to explore, want to see more of, want to take in, get to know its people and experience it in all its splendor… but every damn time combat starts, I just want it to be done with.

tl;dr – Ni No Kuni is a port of the PlayStation 3 JRPG designed in part by Studio Ghibli, and the magic associated with their films absolutely shines through every facet of this game’s presentation, from its great story and memorable characters to its gorgeous visual presentation (which has mostly aged pretty well) and its beautiful soundtrack. it’s just a shame that the combat is so damn awful. However, if you can put up with the frustrating combat, everything else about this game is absolutely worth experiencing.

Grade: B+

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