One of the best games I’ve played lately is Final Fantasy VII. Yes it looks very, very old and the production values seem hilariously low quality compared with modern games but still I play it. And enjoyed it. Genuinely classic JRPG’s are few and far between since for some reason somebody decided they needed modernizing. Ni No Kuni breaks this trend and in many ways returns us to the golden age of JRPG’s. Rejoice!

Learning Curve

Ni no Kuni starts off by introducing the basics of the game through the initial part of the story. They are introduced well and soon you feel confident about performing most of the tasks required of you with little or no prompt from the game.

Following the usual JRPG standards new actions are periodically introduced, usually in the form of spells, and from then on you’re on your own to figure out how and when to use them. Ni No Kuni usually makes it very clear what it is you need to do which can at times make it a little too easy. Even if you do struggle you can always check your journal or talk to a companion.

The complexities of the battle system are introduced quite early on in the game. The real strategy from the battles is deciding which familiars you fight with in your squad.

Gotta’ Catch ‘em All

Ni No’s familiars are varied and many. Each has the usual stats like attack, defence, magic attack and so on along with elemental resistances or weaknesses. Initially the task of learning which familiars you want (or need) and what forms they evolve into along with the tricks they learn and how good their stats are is quite daunting.

But, the further you get into the game the more you realise you have started referring to them by their names and know, at least roughly, what they do. Despite the cute cuddly nature of your team you start to realise they’re looking pretty good!

Beyond the fluffiness of Ni No Kuni’s cutesy familiars a world of pure stat driven RPG gameplay becomes apparent. Some familiars don’t even level up with the same XP but instead swap their slow level gain for large stat increases. There’s loads to choose from and loads you can do to make your familiar unique.

Feeding a familiar treats increases different stats by a small amount and also boosts the creatures familiarity. Levelling up familiarity increases the amount of tricks the familiar can perform at one time and allows for more stat boosts. Grinding for levels and trying to get the best out of your familiars is satisfying, time consuming and rewarding.

Battles

Truth be told the battles play out as quite simple affairs. Most standard fights see you pressing attack, waiting for your chosen familiar to attack and, when you can, pressing it again. There are a lot of spells and tricks to choose from but using them regularly will see you running out of MP very quickly.

Certain familiars can also defend, taking very little damage for the time the defend command lasts. I found this next to useless in any fight except boss fights, and even then it was tricky to use. The battle interface is just too clunky and awkward to figure out how to effectively get to the defend command quick enough. If your in the middle of attacking the 1 or 2 second window for blocking is soon past. If you are using a familiar without defend there is usually no way you can swap fast enough.

I found that the defend system was really just a perk rather than part of the core battle system. As you progress a way to get your team mates to defend becomes available and with literally one button press they’ll defend; leaving you stuck cycling through your menu and futilely cancelling attack orders.

This is about the only time the AI is consistent and reliable, largely because you have some control. The rest of the time they will use the three familiars you have given them and, in theory, choose the correct one for the situation. But they don’t. Often I looked across to see the AI using a familiar that made absolutely no sense at all. Sometimes they even use the only familiar they had that had a weakness to the current enemies’ strengths.

They also use abilities relentlessly until they run out of MP. Which takes about 2 minutes if left to their own devices. When working through a dungeon area the only way to stop the AI using up all their MP in the first 2 or 3 fights (I’m not exaggerating) is to use your “tactics” to stop them using abilities. It’s not a problem provided you remember to take the shackles off when something big and scary tries to ruin your day.

The “tactics” system is basically a very simple version of the gambit system from FFXII. I was really excited when I first saw it as I was a huge fan of the gambit system from XII. Unfortunately it is nowhere near deep enough to offer any real customization and allow you to rest easy knowing that you have set up the AI to do what is necessary.

Manual control of your party members will stop whatever action they are in the middle of at that point and recall the familiar they were using. This doesn’t often work as a real solution but if you stop your rash AI buddies from using all their MP in nanoseconds at least you can still switch to them when you need a spell they have.

Travel & Optional Tasks

From quite early on the world map is available and inevitably your means of transportation get more advanced as time goes on. Ni No Kuni is massive. After a good hour or so progressing the plot more optional tasks will become available some of which see you travelling back to previously visited realms and some being more local errands.

There are a vast amount of optional objectives to complete and to enjoy Ni No Kuni properly they must be done. Most of them are fetch quests or finding rare items but they are entertaining and rewarding. On top of that there are bounties to accomplish and even an arena-style area to find.

Once you complete a bounty or side quest you will receive the usual money and items as a reward but in Ni No Kuni there is one more twist. You also receive a varying number of stamps to put on a collector card. Once you have ten stamps you get a point that you can spend on some real rewards such as increased movement speed on the world map.

The later rewards are really good, there are plenty to acquire and it gives you a good reason to whittle away even more of your valuable free time completing side quests.

The Journal & The Wizards Companion

Rather strangely for a JRPG there is the option to have an objective marker on. This is not to say you can set side missions and quest and find all the secrets with ease (thankfully!) but it does show you where the main mission is. You can turn this option off in the options but it’s on by default.

So many times as I have dipped into JRPG’s and wished for a journal or diary. Just someway to find out where I am in the plot and where the hell I need to go next. The journal in Ni No would be enough on its own but its a rare luxury to get stuck into some lovely side missions for hours on end and then dive straight back into plot progression.

Probably my favourite feature in Ni No Kuni is the wizards companion. As far as gameplay is concerned, it essentially functions as an encyclopaedia. You can find out almost any information about anything in Ni No Kuni, from familiar locations to rare item drops and even alchemy recipes to craft items with.

Even if you don’t actually have the recipe to craft the item with, you can research what items are needed and where to find them in the Wizards Companion and craft to your hearts content. I love that you can manually look up information in an ancient text and then go off into the world armed with the information and apply it practically – and that it actually works.

Visuals

The art style is incredible throughout Ni No Kuni. The cel-shading looks incredible and really makes you feel like you are in an interactive Ghibli production.

However, The Wizards Companion has a much darker art style. The sketches and diagrams in the Wizards Companion wouldn’t look out of place in Tolkien’s world and go almost entirely against the style of the game, but it works. And they both look great.

The full cut-scenes essentially look like clips from a Ghilbi anime film. They look stunning and it’s awesome to see a fully-fledged anime cut-scene in a video game. The artistic side of Ni No Kuni is second to none and you can really see the work of studio Ghibli gloriously shining through.

Audio

Even from the PS3’s XMB Ni No Kuni’s fanfares cannot be suppressed or ignored. Each in game area has a very definite style and the music changes suitably to further immerse you into Ni No’s magical world. Joe Hisaishi’s superb soundtrack never abandons you and never gets boring. For those of you interested in music like this consider the OST, it’s one of the best!

Aside from the soundtrack; spells, tricks and attacks all sound crisp and clear. The menus sound bright and even the English voice track is excellent. In fact the translation throughout Ni No Kuni is fantastic but the English voice acting is a particularly pleasant surprise. The colloquialisms and localized dialogue are brilliantly translated into English and performed admirably by Ni No Kuni’s cast.

Conclusion

Overall Ni No Kuni is an incredibly pretty and in-depth game that reminds us all that the golden age of JRPG’s was golden for a reason! Unfortunately poor AI lets down what could have been a fantastic battle system but otherwise Ni No Kuni succeeds on almost every front.

A huge amount of longevity, unparalleled by other genres, and rewards rather than disappointment for invested time lead to a very satisfying experience. The studio Ghibli input is plain to see and I certainly would love to see them and Level-5 at work on other games in the future.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an absolute must for any JRPG fan and a very welcome addition to PS3 exclusives.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is available now only on PS3.