So hold on to your shoes, and join the queues with your chosen... kazoos?
Reviews are currently standing at 87 on metacritic from 40 opinionated assholes who think they know shit about shit. But what do they know, eh? What makes them so damn special??
*Ahem*
Umm, let's see what publication's review to pick and shamelessly shill today then... something tainted with heavy liberal bias perhaps? Something gushy? Ambiguous? Seedy and cynical? [small]Oh no, RPS and Eurogamer have yet to post theirs...you glacial twats have utterly failed me in my time of need yet again![/small]
*Ahem*
...
Anyway, let's be fair about this selection for No Knee Koni 2;
Anyone planning on trying this? Thoughts on the first Ni Ku Nuni if experienced? Is it a niche thing? Have personally missed the original completely due to assuming it was some form of degenerate weebery, instead of Studio Ghibli: The Game...being just mere charming weebery. So am curious at least.
Reviews are currently standing at 87 on metacritic from 40 opinionated assholes who think they know shit about shit. But what do they know, eh? What makes them so damn special??
*Ahem*
Umm, let's see what publication's review to pick and shamelessly shill today then... something tainted with heavy liberal bias perhaps? Something gushy? Ambiguous? Seedy and cynical? [small]
*Ahem*
...
Anyway, let's be fair about this selection for No Knee Koni 2;
Japanese role-playing games tend to be pretty specialist, with anime-style graphics and rather old-fashioned, often turn-based gameplay. But Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, whose gorgeous visual style was created in collaboration with feted animation pioneers Studio Ghibli, is more inviting than most. It possesses the irresistibly charming vibe of Nintendo's Zelda games, combined with modern, open-world gameplay that?s reminiscent of Witcher 3.
Ni no Kuni II begins in Ding Dong Dell, a cute fantasy kingdom occupied by cat-human Grymalkins, though before long the action takes us elsewhere. You play Evan, a cat-boy-king whose ascension to the throne is imminent following the death of his father. But dastardly mice execute a coup. Evan manages to escape.
Evan begins to amass a band of followers, but there?s a problem: while he may be a king, he has no kingdom. After a few restrictive, linear hours of scene-setting, the establishment of the new kingdom of Evermore marks the point at which the world unfurls and Ni no Kuni II becomes something special. Its various elements all suddenly click into place, feeding off each other in a highly satisfying way.
Ni no Kuni II features plenty of JRPG staples, such as frequent battles with monsters you encounter out in the world, puzzles and set pieces, and a party of characters to manage. Although only three can battle at any given time, you soon gain a band of fighters with different specialisations, and the further into the game you get, the more attention you must pay to getting the mix just right: the boss battles, in particular, are a pleasing challenge.
But Ni no Kuni II adds an awful lot more to the usual role-playing-game mix. There?s a Civilisation-style kingdom-building element that lets you develop more sophisticated spells and gear, and nurture Evan?s burgeoning army. You can then command this army in skirmishes that unfold in a top-down, tactical view. There are classic maze-like dungeons to delve, stuffed with desirable awards. Cute touches include a Facebook-style interface that provides hints about hidden loot and highlights potential new citizens for Evermore.
Ni no Kuni II?s excellent battle system is way easier to understand than that of pretty much any existing JRPG (including Final Fantasy XV), yet still possesses onion-like layers of depth and nuance. Your light, heavy, ranged and magic attacks are bolstered by cute-looking little creatures called Higgledies, who support you in battle either by launching powerful attacks or supporting your party with health buffs.
Ni no Kuni II takes a brave storytelling approach in that it recounts events from a child?s-eye perspective. But it nonetheless succeeds in exploring deeper themes of political machination and technological hubris. At one point, you pitch up in Broadleaf, a city state comprised of a single Silicon Valley-style tech company run by an evil version of the Simpsons Artie Ziff (himself a comedy Bill Gates). Everyone you meet overflows with character, and even when the storyline and characterisation flirts with silliness and exaggeration, it remains compelling. Evan may seem hopelessly wide-eyed and naive, but Ni no Kuni II?s overarching theme of innocence triumphing over creeping evil is heartwarming.
The game employs technological trickery to make a 3D world look like the most vibrant of 2D cartoons. Its gorgeously lush visuals are quite simply among the best ever seen in a game, offering an object lesson in how stylisation has the power to trump photorealism even in the 4K age. Some players will lack the time or patience to put in the effort that any heavyweight role-playing game demands ? this is a 50-hour adventure at least ? but it puts forward an irresistible case for your attention. As video games are once again weathering ignorance-fuelled attacks that paint them as universally gun-centric, violent and nihilistic, Ni no Kuni is a timely counterpoint.
sauce
Ni no Kuni II begins in Ding Dong Dell, a cute fantasy kingdom occupied by cat-human Grymalkins, though before long the action takes us elsewhere. You play Evan, a cat-boy-king whose ascension to the throne is imminent following the death of his father. But dastardly mice execute a coup. Evan manages to escape.
Evan begins to amass a band of followers, but there?s a problem: while he may be a king, he has no kingdom. After a few restrictive, linear hours of scene-setting, the establishment of the new kingdom of Evermore marks the point at which the world unfurls and Ni no Kuni II becomes something special. Its various elements all suddenly click into place, feeding off each other in a highly satisfying way.
Ni no Kuni II features plenty of JRPG staples, such as frequent battles with monsters you encounter out in the world, puzzles and set pieces, and a party of characters to manage. Although only three can battle at any given time, you soon gain a band of fighters with different specialisations, and the further into the game you get, the more attention you must pay to getting the mix just right: the boss battles, in particular, are a pleasing challenge.
But Ni no Kuni II adds an awful lot more to the usual role-playing-game mix. There?s a Civilisation-style kingdom-building element that lets you develop more sophisticated spells and gear, and nurture Evan?s burgeoning army. You can then command this army in skirmishes that unfold in a top-down, tactical view. There are classic maze-like dungeons to delve, stuffed with desirable awards. Cute touches include a Facebook-style interface that provides hints about hidden loot and highlights potential new citizens for Evermore.
Ni no Kuni II?s excellent battle system is way easier to understand than that of pretty much any existing JRPG (including Final Fantasy XV), yet still possesses onion-like layers of depth and nuance. Your light, heavy, ranged and magic attacks are bolstered by cute-looking little creatures called Higgledies, who support you in battle either by launching powerful attacks or supporting your party with health buffs.
Ni no Kuni II takes a brave storytelling approach in that it recounts events from a child?s-eye perspective. But it nonetheless succeeds in exploring deeper themes of political machination and technological hubris. At one point, you pitch up in Broadleaf, a city state comprised of a single Silicon Valley-style tech company run by an evil version of the Simpsons Artie Ziff (himself a comedy Bill Gates). Everyone you meet overflows with character, and even when the storyline and characterisation flirts with silliness and exaggeration, it remains compelling. Evan may seem hopelessly wide-eyed and naive, but Ni no Kuni II?s overarching theme of innocence triumphing over creeping evil is heartwarming.
The game employs technological trickery to make a 3D world look like the most vibrant of 2D cartoons. Its gorgeously lush visuals are quite simply among the best ever seen in a game, offering an object lesson in how stylisation has the power to trump photorealism even in the 4K age. Some players will lack the time or patience to put in the effort that any heavyweight role-playing game demands ? this is a 50-hour adventure at least ? but it puts forward an irresistible case for your attention. As video games are once again weathering ignorance-fuelled attacks that paint them as universally gun-centric, violent and nihilistic, Ni no Kuni is a timely counterpoint.
sauce
The original Ni No Kuni admittedly sold itself on one idea: that it was basically a Studio Ghibli production turned into a video game. Studio Ghibli is a legendary Japanese animation studio responsible for such movies as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki?s Delivery Service, Spirited Away and many, many other beloved animated movies that are considered modern classics. The gameplay was a tad rough, but there was an undeniable charm to the characters and story along with the stellar animation from Studio Ghibli that made for a pretty compelling experience.
For the follow-up, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, not only is Studio Ghibli no longer involved, but aside from taking place in the same Kingdom of Ding Dong Dell and having someone from our world transported to this one, nearly every aspect of Ni No Kuni II is vastly different from its predecessor. It throws many different modes of play into the mix, completely changing the combat and other systems to the point where no one who was a fan of the original would find anything familiar. And for the most part, I don?t think it?s an improvement.
As I mentioned, one of the key selling points of the original game, Studio Ghibli?s involvement, is not a feature of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. Despite that, there is a clear attempt to make at least some aspects have that Studio Ghibli look. Characters and monsters specifically look like someone tried to emulate that trademark style, but fall just a bit short. They still look nice and animate fairly well, but it?s not just quite at that same level. Kingdoms all have a pretty distinct personality, like a gambling town the actually bases their religion on a roll of the dice, or one that is completely based on advanced technology.
The only real downgrade in graphical quality comes in the form of the field map. Normally this isn?t something even worth mentioning in most games, positively or negatively. But the field map in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is so bad it?s an eyesore. Everything just looks like a bad PlayStation One game with awful colors. An old-school look can be charming, but this just looks like they had almost no budget to make the field map to begin with.
One more odd thing about the overall presentation of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is the oddly sparse voice acting. Granted, I?ve been playing RPGs since the 8-bit days; I don?t need voice acting to enjoy an RPG. But it is pretty standard to have a fair amount of voice acting in JRPGs these days, especially during any cutscene. Ni No Kuni II doesn?t have much compared to any modern JRPG, with only a few cutscenes throughout the course of the game having it. It just feels like a lesser experience compared to the first game, which had plenty and felt very cinematic.
The biggest and most drastic change is to the combat. In the first game, you didn?t do much fighting as your characters. You recruited monsters in a somewhat Pokemon-esque fashion and had them do the large majority of the fighting for you, as you commanded them to do attacks, spells etc. For Ni No Kuni II, you directly control your character of choice, and the action is much faster, more akin to something like the Tales of series. This isn?t necessarily a bad change per say, but if you enjoyed the previous game?s combat, this is downright jarring. In addition, you can?t give your other party members general tactics (i.e. focus on defense or healing or go all out) or command them to do something and their basic AI is suspect at best. Like many games that choose to use this type of combat, you spend as much time fighting the camera as you do enemies, and there were several times the camera just got stuck and I couldn?t even see what was going on.
The other big aspect of combat is who follows your characters into battle; Higgledies and Lofty. Higgledies are weird little spirits who are never really explained all that well as to why they exist or what their purpose is, but the important thing is you can have up to four groups helping you in battle. They won?t do your work for you, but they can heal, block attacks, poison enemies, etc. There is a randomness to it that can make how useful you personally find them vary (basically you have to wait for a group of Higgledies to signal they are ready to do a thing, then you have to run over to them and tell them to do the thing), but in some moments it can absolutely be a lifesaver.
Lofty is the standard weird-looking sidekick thingy you see in a large majority of JRPGs. These can be very hit and miss. Personally, I just found him annoying as a character. In battle, he is somewhat useful, tossing out orbs that heal on occasion, but not doing much else without investing a lot of time and money (which I?ll get more into a little later). Ultimately the combat just feels like a dull hack and slash without much strategy to it.
However, fighting your usual RPG monsters is just one of several types of gameplay present in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. ?Skirmish Mode? is a sort of light RTS mode where you take several sets of troops into a battlefield with a Rock-paper-scissors mechanic. I will admit right up front that I?m not a huge fan of RTS games to begin with, so I just was glad I could muddle my way through the few required skirmishes without a ton of trouble. I really didn?t like that while you often had to take on tons of squads, you were limited to four. Additionally, any Skirmish battles that required me to escort someone/something were nearly impossible due to said someone/something constantly running out in front of me into danger.
The arguably most significant, and potentially most entertaining element to Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is the ?Kingdom Mode? where you build your own new kingdom from scratch. Much like the classic RPG series Suikoden, there are people all over this world looking to start a new life or have a fresh chance or just do something else with their life, and you can recruit them to your kingdom. Some can be generals for your Skirmish battles, but most are there to occupy the various facilities you build. These facilities can produce weapons, items, and equipment, but also give you various bonuses in battle. This is a genuinely fun mode and you can spend hours researching things, making and leveling up facilities and gathering residents.
The problem with Kingdom Mode comes in how it can horribly hinder your gameplay progression. Everything in Kingdom mode is on a timer. Your Kingdom has its own currency that builds up over time. You can make your coffers bigger to hold more at once, but no matter what, it takes time to build up money. It also takes time to research something. This can be faster depending on the personnel you have researching, but it still takes time. And sure, you can do other things while stuff is being researched and your kingdom is gathering money, but sometimes you just want to advance the story.
I was literally on the last chapter, ready to make what I thought was the final push to the boss, then the game, which previously treated Kingdom Mode as a fun optional thing I can mess with as little or as much as I want, tells me I need to raise my weapon shop level. And to do that, I need to raise my Kingdom level. To do that, I suddenly need to spend hours not just raising money and waiting for research to be done, but also recruiting a ton of citizens just so I can finish that last little bit of the game. This is inexcusably bad not just in terms of pacing but also feels like desperate padding since without this the game would?ve taken maybe 30 hours to beat, which for an RPG is admittedly not long.
Change isn?t in itself a bad thing, especially when it comes to video game sequels. A lot of my favorite RPGs are sequels that change things up so drastically they bear little resemblance to the previous game. The potential was there for Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom to be a big improvement over its already solid predecessor, but instead of focusing on one new thing and doing that well, it doesn?t keep anything that worked and gives us several modes that could?ve been great but all have major issues. It?s not a bad game, but certainly not on par with the original and does little well enough to make it stand out in a pretty big sea of PS4 RPGs.
spicy sauce
For the follow-up, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, not only is Studio Ghibli no longer involved, but aside from taking place in the same Kingdom of Ding Dong Dell and having someone from our world transported to this one, nearly every aspect of Ni No Kuni II is vastly different from its predecessor. It throws many different modes of play into the mix, completely changing the combat and other systems to the point where no one who was a fan of the original would find anything familiar. And for the most part, I don?t think it?s an improvement.
As I mentioned, one of the key selling points of the original game, Studio Ghibli?s involvement, is not a feature of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. Despite that, there is a clear attempt to make at least some aspects have that Studio Ghibli look. Characters and monsters specifically look like someone tried to emulate that trademark style, but fall just a bit short. They still look nice and animate fairly well, but it?s not just quite at that same level. Kingdoms all have a pretty distinct personality, like a gambling town the actually bases their religion on a roll of the dice, or one that is completely based on advanced technology.
The only real downgrade in graphical quality comes in the form of the field map. Normally this isn?t something even worth mentioning in most games, positively or negatively. But the field map in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is so bad it?s an eyesore. Everything just looks like a bad PlayStation One game with awful colors. An old-school look can be charming, but this just looks like they had almost no budget to make the field map to begin with.
One more odd thing about the overall presentation of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is the oddly sparse voice acting. Granted, I?ve been playing RPGs since the 8-bit days; I don?t need voice acting to enjoy an RPG. But it is pretty standard to have a fair amount of voice acting in JRPGs these days, especially during any cutscene. Ni No Kuni II doesn?t have much compared to any modern JRPG, with only a few cutscenes throughout the course of the game having it. It just feels like a lesser experience compared to the first game, which had plenty and felt very cinematic.
The biggest and most drastic change is to the combat. In the first game, you didn?t do much fighting as your characters. You recruited monsters in a somewhat Pokemon-esque fashion and had them do the large majority of the fighting for you, as you commanded them to do attacks, spells etc. For Ni No Kuni II, you directly control your character of choice, and the action is much faster, more akin to something like the Tales of series. This isn?t necessarily a bad change per say, but if you enjoyed the previous game?s combat, this is downright jarring. In addition, you can?t give your other party members general tactics (i.e. focus on defense or healing or go all out) or command them to do something and their basic AI is suspect at best. Like many games that choose to use this type of combat, you spend as much time fighting the camera as you do enemies, and there were several times the camera just got stuck and I couldn?t even see what was going on.
The other big aspect of combat is who follows your characters into battle; Higgledies and Lofty. Higgledies are weird little spirits who are never really explained all that well as to why they exist or what their purpose is, but the important thing is you can have up to four groups helping you in battle. They won?t do your work for you, but they can heal, block attacks, poison enemies, etc. There is a randomness to it that can make how useful you personally find them vary (basically you have to wait for a group of Higgledies to signal they are ready to do a thing, then you have to run over to them and tell them to do the thing), but in some moments it can absolutely be a lifesaver.
Lofty is the standard weird-looking sidekick thingy you see in a large majority of JRPGs. These can be very hit and miss. Personally, I just found him annoying as a character. In battle, he is somewhat useful, tossing out orbs that heal on occasion, but not doing much else without investing a lot of time and money (which I?ll get more into a little later). Ultimately the combat just feels like a dull hack and slash without much strategy to it.
However, fighting your usual RPG monsters is just one of several types of gameplay present in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. ?Skirmish Mode? is a sort of light RTS mode where you take several sets of troops into a battlefield with a Rock-paper-scissors mechanic. I will admit right up front that I?m not a huge fan of RTS games to begin with, so I just was glad I could muddle my way through the few required skirmishes without a ton of trouble. I really didn?t like that while you often had to take on tons of squads, you were limited to four. Additionally, any Skirmish battles that required me to escort someone/something were nearly impossible due to said someone/something constantly running out in front of me into danger.
The arguably most significant, and potentially most entertaining element to Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is the ?Kingdom Mode? where you build your own new kingdom from scratch. Much like the classic RPG series Suikoden, there are people all over this world looking to start a new life or have a fresh chance or just do something else with their life, and you can recruit them to your kingdom. Some can be generals for your Skirmish battles, but most are there to occupy the various facilities you build. These facilities can produce weapons, items, and equipment, but also give you various bonuses in battle. This is a genuinely fun mode and you can spend hours researching things, making and leveling up facilities and gathering residents.
The problem with Kingdom Mode comes in how it can horribly hinder your gameplay progression. Everything in Kingdom mode is on a timer. Your Kingdom has its own currency that builds up over time. You can make your coffers bigger to hold more at once, but no matter what, it takes time to build up money. It also takes time to research something. This can be faster depending on the personnel you have researching, but it still takes time. And sure, you can do other things while stuff is being researched and your kingdom is gathering money, but sometimes you just want to advance the story.
I was literally on the last chapter, ready to make what I thought was the final push to the boss, then the game, which previously treated Kingdom Mode as a fun optional thing I can mess with as little or as much as I want, tells me I need to raise my weapon shop level. And to do that, I need to raise my Kingdom level. To do that, I suddenly need to spend hours not just raising money and waiting for research to be done, but also recruiting a ton of citizens just so I can finish that last little bit of the game. This is inexcusably bad not just in terms of pacing but also feels like desperate padding since without this the game would?ve taken maybe 30 hours to beat, which for an RPG is admittedly not long.
Change isn?t in itself a bad thing, especially when it comes to video game sequels. A lot of my favorite RPGs are sequels that change things up so drastically they bear little resemblance to the previous game. The potential was there for Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom to be a big improvement over its already solid predecessor, but instead of focusing on one new thing and doing that well, it doesn?t keep anything that worked and gives us several modes that could?ve been great but all have major issues. It?s not a bad game, but certainly not on par with the original and does little well enough to make it stand out in a pretty big sea of PS4 RPGs.
spicy sauce
Ni No Kuni did not mess around. Near the very start of its narrative, the plucky young Oliver has just witnessed the death of his mother after suffering a near death experience himself. While some of you may equate the Level-5 and Ghibli project with cute monsters and Pokemon aspects, the secret, subtle, and constant hurt of Oliver stuck with me.
I didn't have that same emotional reaction with Ni no Kuni II, but given that it's somewhat of a collective of what Level-5 has learned so far in their storied career, it works well enough as a follow-up.
Without any sort of teasing or dilly-dallying, Revenant Kingdom begins. Suddenly a presidential figure in a limousine is rocked by a missile attack on a major city, and a second later he wakes up in a magical kingdom under siege by mice.
Right away Level-5 seeks to create a dichotomy between two rulers -- one learned and mature president from "our" world, and another boy prince with an anime cat twist. Roland, the former, is charismatic and likable enough to carry his scenes straight away, but Evan, the latter, is a bit grating, and not in a "he's supposed to grow up eventually" sort of way (the English vocal performance of Evan doesn't help).
You can tell that Revenant Kingdom is going to be a different sort of coming of age tale, one that isn't as impactful. I really miss the boyhood framing of White Witch, as the brief time we spend with Oliver in the previous iteration tells us everything we need to know without lingering, and Evan kind of just appears, in position of power, with immediate council to help him along.
Roland also brings his sidearm with him, creating a whole new tone right away as players are put in the driver's seat of a capable avatar. Shooting a rat in the face with a handgun has a whole new feel to it but the magic of seeing Oliver cope with his family issues was something that was rarely, if ever replicated in the modern era of gaming. The White Witch and her ilk also had an imposing presence and creep factor that the usurping mice can't replicate. That's not to say that Revenant Kingdom is devoid of emotion. Later when characters like an evil Steve Jobs are introduced, things get more interesting and there's plenty of opportunities for tears to be shed.
The whole game is more centered around immediacy, which works against it at points. Combat now has a more straight-up hack and slash tint, including a real-time dodge and block, heavy and normal attack differential, and abilities to trigger. You'll also have to manage "weapon zing," which fills up when striking foes and works independently from mana management, boosting skills when triggered after you have a full 100% zing meter. To help govern this you'll equip three weapons, all of which have their own zing, with the option to use automatic, semi-automatic, or manual weapon swapping.
All of those little things aren't going to come up often though, as you don't really need to grind to make it through the main campaign (post-game still has its moments). Because of the action combat spamming an area-of-effect power (which most characters get immediately) is enough to take care of most trash fights. Party members also are tougher to manage, as they can be a bit stubborn at times (particularly when different levels of elevation are involved).
There's a mild amount of customization to be had, mostly with gear and affinity swapping, but again, it's not really needed for the bulk of the game. Higgledies , the Kodamas of Revenant Kingdom, take over for monster party members, which offer basic powers like healing periodically on the battleground. It's streamlined, but I'm okay with not doing the whole Pokemon thing over again.
It's a milder complaint, but equipment can be messy and convoluted, mostly due to the whole "three items per character" thing, which, depending on your party makeup, can get even messier with overlapping optimal gear. I'm sure some folks are going to be thrilled with the more action-centric system (I was, in theory), but the instances in which tactical nuance can flourish are few and far between. The first few bosses, lack weight and devastation. There are special inter-dimensional beasts that are few and far between that actually do add some danger into the mix, but still aren't formidable enough when it comes down to to it.
Perhaps the reason why Revanant Kingdom feels so spread thin is that it tries to do so much in an effort to back up the narrative of Evan's reclamation myth, perhaps best realized through its kindom building aspect. Immediately bringing back some fond Dark Cloud memories (hey, that was also created by Level-5!), your kingdom, Evermore, collects resources in real-time, which are used to buy services, upgrades, and buildings.
It's a fun little meta-game that rarely ever gates off the campaign, provides respite, and ties a meaningful sense of progression to sidequests as many happy errand taskmasters will join your kingdom as working citizens. Revenant Kingdom is a rich world full of life, and connecting with NPCs, even by way of small errands, then living with them in perpetuity is emotional enough of a connection for me.
Then there's the whole business of world map fighting -- and I'm not talking about walking into a skirmish while exploring. It's a full-on real-time strategy-esque affair, with different types of rock/paper/scissor style troops, skirmish-specific abilities, and its own level-up system. All of that is independent from going on major quests, and depending on your perspective these gaidens either create more busywork that slow critical path progress or serve as worldbuilding.
It's taxing, thinking about all of the different facets coming together in Revenant Kingdom, and whether or not they succeed. Even while breezing through some boss battles I was doing it with a smile on my face, and having to wait 20 minutes to earn the currency for a shipyard (so that I could upgrade my vessel and continue on with the story) was offset by finishing a few errands and scoring some new crucial members of my kingdom's workforce. I know it's rote, it feels rote, but I never felt like I needed to take a break or shut off the game.
One thing no one needs to worry about is the amount of care that went into re-creating the magic of the first game. The score is fantastic and moving, and the visuals are incredible as are the character designs. Ghibli as an entity might not be working on this sequel directly, but a few members of their team did help bring it to life. With the exception of Evan, the English performances are fine, but since you can swap to Japanese on the main menu from minute one this isn't even something worth thinking about longer than it takes to tick a menu box.
Level-5 is more than capable of dumping out healthy portions of its secret sauce on top of its games, but the combat of Ni no Kuni II and its attempt to do so many different things can hold it back. From the first hour I was mesmerized and captivated, willing to see its tale through until the end. While it does fall into some genre trappings and doesn't feel quite as epic in scale compared to the first, Level-5 has the uncanny ability to keep the memory and magic of the JRPG alive.
Mild and fruity sauce
I didn't have that same emotional reaction with Ni no Kuni II, but given that it's somewhat of a collective of what Level-5 has learned so far in their storied career, it works well enough as a follow-up.
Without any sort of teasing or dilly-dallying, Revenant Kingdom begins. Suddenly a presidential figure in a limousine is rocked by a missile attack on a major city, and a second later he wakes up in a magical kingdom under siege by mice.
Right away Level-5 seeks to create a dichotomy between two rulers -- one learned and mature president from "our" world, and another boy prince with an anime cat twist. Roland, the former, is charismatic and likable enough to carry his scenes straight away, but Evan, the latter, is a bit grating, and not in a "he's supposed to grow up eventually" sort of way (the English vocal performance of Evan doesn't help).
You can tell that Revenant Kingdom is going to be a different sort of coming of age tale, one that isn't as impactful. I really miss the boyhood framing of White Witch, as the brief time we spend with Oliver in the previous iteration tells us everything we need to know without lingering, and Evan kind of just appears, in position of power, with immediate council to help him along.
Roland also brings his sidearm with him, creating a whole new tone right away as players are put in the driver's seat of a capable avatar. Shooting a rat in the face with a handgun has a whole new feel to it but the magic of seeing Oliver cope with his family issues was something that was rarely, if ever replicated in the modern era of gaming. The White Witch and her ilk also had an imposing presence and creep factor that the usurping mice can't replicate. That's not to say that Revenant Kingdom is devoid of emotion. Later when characters like an evil Steve Jobs are introduced, things get more interesting and there's plenty of opportunities for tears to be shed.
The whole game is more centered around immediacy, which works against it at points. Combat now has a more straight-up hack and slash tint, including a real-time dodge and block, heavy and normal attack differential, and abilities to trigger. You'll also have to manage "weapon zing," which fills up when striking foes and works independently from mana management, boosting skills when triggered after you have a full 100% zing meter. To help govern this you'll equip three weapons, all of which have their own zing, with the option to use automatic, semi-automatic, or manual weapon swapping.
All of those little things aren't going to come up often though, as you don't really need to grind to make it through the main campaign (post-game still has its moments). Because of the action combat spamming an area-of-effect power (which most characters get immediately) is enough to take care of most trash fights. Party members also are tougher to manage, as they can be a bit stubborn at times (particularly when different levels of elevation are involved).
There's a mild amount of customization to be had, mostly with gear and affinity swapping, but again, it's not really needed for the bulk of the game. Higgledies , the Kodamas of Revenant Kingdom, take over for monster party members, which offer basic powers like healing periodically on the battleground. It's streamlined, but I'm okay with not doing the whole Pokemon thing over again.
It's a milder complaint, but equipment can be messy and convoluted, mostly due to the whole "three items per character" thing, which, depending on your party makeup, can get even messier with overlapping optimal gear. I'm sure some folks are going to be thrilled with the more action-centric system (I was, in theory), but the instances in which tactical nuance can flourish are few and far between. The first few bosses, lack weight and devastation. There are special inter-dimensional beasts that are few and far between that actually do add some danger into the mix, but still aren't formidable enough when it comes down to to it.
Perhaps the reason why Revanant Kingdom feels so spread thin is that it tries to do so much in an effort to back up the narrative of Evan's reclamation myth, perhaps best realized through its kindom building aspect. Immediately bringing back some fond Dark Cloud memories (hey, that was also created by Level-5!), your kingdom, Evermore, collects resources in real-time, which are used to buy services, upgrades, and buildings.
It's a fun little meta-game that rarely ever gates off the campaign, provides respite, and ties a meaningful sense of progression to sidequests as many happy errand taskmasters will join your kingdom as working citizens. Revenant Kingdom is a rich world full of life, and connecting with NPCs, even by way of small errands, then living with them in perpetuity is emotional enough of a connection for me.
Then there's the whole business of world map fighting -- and I'm not talking about walking into a skirmish while exploring. It's a full-on real-time strategy-esque affair, with different types of rock/paper/scissor style troops, skirmish-specific abilities, and its own level-up system. All of that is independent from going on major quests, and depending on your perspective these gaidens either create more busywork that slow critical path progress or serve as worldbuilding.
It's taxing, thinking about all of the different facets coming together in Revenant Kingdom, and whether or not they succeed. Even while breezing through some boss battles I was doing it with a smile on my face, and having to wait 20 minutes to earn the currency for a shipyard (so that I could upgrade my vessel and continue on with the story) was offset by finishing a few errands and scoring some new crucial members of my kingdom's workforce. I know it's rote, it feels rote, but I never felt like I needed to take a break or shut off the game.
One thing no one needs to worry about is the amount of care that went into re-creating the magic of the first game. The score is fantastic and moving, and the visuals are incredible as are the character designs. Ghibli as an entity might not be working on this sequel directly, but a few members of their team did help bring it to life. With the exception of Evan, the English performances are fine, but since you can swap to Japanese on the main menu from minute one this isn't even something worth thinking about longer than it takes to tick a menu box.
Level-5 is more than capable of dumping out healthy portions of its secret sauce on top of its games, but the combat of Ni no Kuni II and its attempt to do so many different things can hold it back. From the first hour I was mesmerized and captivated, willing to see its tale through until the end. While it does fall into some genre trappings and doesn't feel quite as epic in scale compared to the first, Level-5 has the uncanny ability to keep the memory and magic of the JRPG alive.
Mild and fruity sauce
Anyone planning on trying this? Thoughts on the first Ni Ku Nuni if experienced? Is it a niche thing? Have personally missed the original completely due to assuming it was some form of degenerate weebery, instead of Studio Ghibli: The Game...being just mere charming weebery. So am curious at least.
