My love for JRPG’s began with Final Fantasy VII with an experience that to this day has still not been topped and seldom gotten close to having with any other JRPG since and that includes other Final Fantasy titles. It has been a very long wait for me but finally I have found one that honest rivals that first experience with FFVII, something I had hoped it would provide for me after missing out on the first game and have been watching this very closely for months and it easily achieved all my expectations and more and I have another early contender for game of the year. Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is an absolute instant classic and joy to play.

I am probably going to be gushing a whole bunch through this review simply because Ni no Kuni 2 is as close to flawless a game that I have played in many a year, over forty hours and it never suffered a bug or glitch, crashing or elements of frustration that break the experience. This is one of the most highly polished games you can play right now on PlayStation 4 and it is refreshing to see that so much attention clearly went into making this game ready for release after a delay that has only helped the final version. I smiled my way through from the moment I hit start and it never left my face and only grew the further into the game I went and it opened up new things to enjoy. It is clear to me that even without having played the first game, that the way people were raving about it has transferred into this follow up game.

This is certainly a follow up as it has a new story with new characters and set hundreds of years after the events of the first game. It opens with a surprising opening cut-scene showing an elderly President of the USA in a limo travelling towards a city when a missile flies over head and hits the city. We then see the wreckage of the car and the President suddenly disappearing before he reappears but has somehow become a far younger man who is then discovered by a young boy who introduces himself as Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, the young king of Ding Dong Dell who startled by Roland’s presence heads off to summon his guards. However before Roland can work out how he has been transported here and now younger, he suspects that something is not quite right and soon comes to the aid of this young boy when the guards turn on him. Evan is the heir to the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell and the advisor to his father has now turned on him and began a coup to dethrone the uncrowned king forcing Roland to step in and help Evan try to escape the castle. Soon they are joined by Arnella, body guard and mentor to Evan to reveals that it was the advisor, Mausinger who had slowly poisoned his father and plotted to steal the throne before Evan could form his Kingsbond with the guardian Kingmaker of Ding Dong Dell. Managing to escape, Evan makes the promise to form his own kingdom which will be a place for all to live in peace and Roland pledges his loyalty to both protect Evan but to aid in the creation of his new kingdom.

The first thing that struck me was just how beautiful the visuals for this game are with the same Studio Ghilbli animation as the first game and it is just glorious to be in its world. Character design, locations and those of the many varied monsters and creatures you encounter in this world all leap out of the screen and it honestly feels as though you are part of a Studio Ghilbli animated film. It is bright and colourful and just a lovely world to be in throughout the story as you move from location to location and kingdom to kingdom, each with their own unique visual style and design. Perfectly complimented by the musical soundtrack which features some tremendous scores by Joe Hisaishi and it is just so easy to fall in love with this right from the start even before the excellent gameplay has worked its magic on you.

That magical gameplay is really what for me transported me right back to the wonder and amazement of playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time, and Ni no Kuni 2 just ticks every single box of what makes a JRPG a truly iconic game style to enjoy. Not only does it succeed in hitting all the hit spots of traditional JRPG games but it also manages to refresh many aspects for a new and modern audience. Starting with the combat which before release I was a little nervous about as I am so familiar and rather a fan of turn based combat but my concerns were quickly put to rest once the fighting begins. A party system is used which is comprised of three characters with more becoming available as you meet and complete main story quests. The player is free to take control of a party member at any time by simply switching between them to utilise their own strengths as each may use different weapons and skill attacks. The combat styles is very hack and slash and to my delightful surprise, is actually more than just a basic mashing the attack button as combos can be formed between weapon and skill attacks and is very satisfying.

Of course the most fun aspect to combat comes in the form of the Higgledies, super cute little creatures which aid you in combat and can either serve as support by offering healing opportunities or attack by using elemental attacks. They simply join in the fighting and when grouped together enough can offer a special action triggered by the player to use their special ability. New Higgledies can be discovered and added to your party and later, during the Kingdom management mini game which I will come to a bit later on, can be grown. Having not played the original I was not sure how this aspect would work with a worry that they would overwhelm the fighting but instead the support is very handy, especially during boss fights or big monster battles. Not to mention just how ridiculously cute they are as well and I am still scouring the internet to find a Higgledy plushie!

Inventory management is also just perfectly handled here and whilst other games can suffer from very complicated systems and grinding to find new weapons or armour, here almost every encounter will reward the player with new weapons or items to equip to the party and the inventory clearly shows what the quality of weapons, armour and accessories to help decide what should be equipped to the right party member. This system is clean and gives a fast quick aid to party management which helps sort out new stronger items from the lower value ones. I also appreciate how each character, regardless if you are actively using them in the party or not, will also level up as the main party does meaning you can change your party members at any time and thanks to the inventory system, everyone can be equipped with the best items for them in seconds.

Now all the above comes in very handy for this game has so much content to play through outside of the main campaign that at first you can feel an almost overload of side missions and additional things to do. But the beauty with how the game handles this is truly sublime as it sections the main campaign into story chapters with main goals to be completed in order to progress the story but each chapter also provides an absolute freedom to go off and complete the various side missions made available by just exploring new locations or revisiting previous ones as the main campaign unfolds. The game never forces you to stick to the main campaign or to drag you back if you are like me, happy to just go off on a tangent and spend time in the world doing side quests. Just as with the inventory management, quest management has also been simplified so you always know where the main story quest is and also listing all the side quests available at any one time. You will also meet the task keeper, someone who will offer more side quests to you such as gathering a certain amount of items and will reward with task points which can then be traded with him for items you may not find in normal shops but required to complete side quests. The elegant nature in which this completely plays into simply enjoying the game and playing it makes it a great addition as I found that the majority of tasks he offers you will naturally be ready to be completed because you have already obtained enough of whatever is required. He will also reward you by scouting out new people to recruit to your kingdom to strengthen it and aid in boosting production of a store or research center.

This tidily brings me to the additional mini activities that become available that also fit so nicely into everything else this game has to offer players. First will be the Kingdom management game which will have the player work to grow and build up Evan’s new Kingdom of Evermore throughout the game. Buy opening shops and research centers; you can build up a kingdom that truly feels like a living breathing community of people as you make farms, gardens, ship yards, armour and weapon shops. As the kingdom grows and advances new facilities can be created and thanks to the side quests and Task Master Missions, you will soon start recruiting new people that will offer more opportunities for growth. I found this a fun and brilliant distraction that only served to aid me as I could buy supplies cheaper and improve my weapons and armour through those stores and even develop magic that will help in other side activities like the Skirmish battles or to open new side quests. At the forty hour mark I had still to complete the game and still had an abundance of side quests to complete if I wanted to or just working to improve the kingdom further and the game invites you to do all this or just focus on the main campaign quests. That is a freedom I really appreciate in a good JRPG and Ni no Kuni 2 delivers this in spades for players.

I love the story the game tells as Evan grows as a potential king in his mission to unite all the kingdoms together to form a peaceful world for every race and though this happy ever after almost Disney film aspiration could feel rather cringe at moments, it also has enough darkness and reality checking elements to make this a deep and enjoyable story to enjoy. The highlight has to be in the localisation of all the characters with so many of the UK home nations represented by main characters who are English and Scottish, Irish and Welsh and how the game tells the story to the player showcases this so fluidly. Cut-scenes will often have the characters fully speaking their dialogue but some will be text based and the accent of the character comes to life every time with their own contextual subtitle text. For example Evan’s own Kingmaker Lofty is clearly Welsh with Niall the forest ruler being Scottish. Their text has enough localisation that just reading their words puts the accent in my mind effortlessly and impact fully. The attention to detail in every aspect of this game is staggering at times, and brings me back to just how polished the final version that released was making the two release delays it had completely justified and welcomed.

I struggled to find anything to really criticize with this game as I said above, I am yet to discover or encounter anything that stops the game being fun. If I was to think of any particular niggles it would only be the side quests that you can get early on but require a much higher level in order to complete or reach a location till later in the game meaning your side quest list will be constantly full of quests you are unable to do just yet. I did feel the game does have Evan required to do a lot of basic fetch and return quests which as a King kind of makes so sense and even Lofty at some points reacts to the request in a more truthful manner then Evan should. Seriously there is very little to complain about there and if like me you appreciate JRPGs at their best, this is perhaps the finest example of it in recent years.

I came to love so much about Ni No Kuni 2 that I can honestly place it alongside my benchmark title of Final Fantasy VII in terms of the very best of this genre in gaming. If you have never played a JRPG before, this would be the title I recommend to jump into with and even if just for the sheer ration of price to content and satisfaction, this is a game that has over sixty hours of game to play through without having all side quests completed and the items of DLC that will arrive post launch with the season pass.

Within minutes of starting this game I was smiling and I never stopped till the end, I had the most complete and refreshing experience with this game that I could happily play it all over again and no doubt will be my go to JRPG for years to come.

In previous reviews I have mentioned my PlayStation bucket list, a list of games that either I missed out on by skipping the PS3 console or just regretted never getting around to play. In the last two years I have been able to catch up with titles such as the whole Uncharted series, God of War III thanks to its remaster, Journey and was able to finally enjoy The Last Guardian. Thanks to Sony and PlayStation, that bucket list is growing ever shorter thanks to remasters and re-releases and finally now, one of the top items has been crossed off. Shadow of the Colossus was more than I expected it to be with many highs but sadly also some lows.

The first 15 minutes of this game was an experience in itself that showcases everything that makes this game incredible. First the visuals hit you, and this is perhaps one of the best looking games on PlayStation 4, even without the power of the PS4 Pro this game is simply stunning to look at. Next the musical score hits you and it is beautiful and enhances the visuals perfectly and all of this is in the opening cut-scene that sees a young man riding a horse carrying something wrapped in a blanket, making their way to a structure. No words are spoken, but it is clear the young man is on a quest and this is shown all before the player has even reached the main menu. It really is a sublime method to bring players into this experience for that is what this game really became for me, an experience that was completely worth the wait.

The young man heads to a temple and places what he was carrying on an alter before revealing it to be the body of a young woman. His goal is to ask the gods of the temple to restore her to life but a task is asked of him before his wish is fulfilled, to seek out and destroy 16 Colossi creatures and only by doing that will her life be restored. He is given a magical sword that when in sunlight, can act as a compass to point the direction of where the target colossi are located. It is a simple story on the surface but what surprised me was the emotional connection I would develop for the colossi and overwhelming guilt.

It is quite something when you go after and take on the Colossi in the game, each one is unique in appearance and how you have to go about taking them down. The ride to each location reveals an incredibly created world that showcases some breathtaking environments for each residing Colossi creature which only becomes more amazing when you finally discover and meet each one and the wow factor goes up to a new level. These towering creatures are ridiculously enormous with some taking the likeness of an animal or just a giant humanoid. Each one of the sixteen Colossi you are tasked with taking down are simply staggering when you first see them, the scale in size compared to our hero at first is very overwhelming and you will be forgiven for taking a few minutes just to absorb the challenge that lies before you.

It is that challenge that brought for me, the biggest sensation of guilt I have probably felt whilst playing a video game, well at least for twelve of the 16 Colossi. For each one you must work out how to make your way onto them and to seek out their weak points in order to drive your sword into them enough times to kill them. To achieve this takes strategy and patience as devising a way to get onto the colossi is the first objective, and the design of each will make this a struggle to begin with as each will require a different strategy. Once you have then battle to find the weak spots will test you as the Colossi will fight against your presence by trying to throw you off.  The tricky part is that our young hero called Wander has a severe physical limitation which makes staying on a Colossi once an encounter has begun rather problematic. Grip strength is pretty much the biggest enemy in the game, and on more then one occasion annoyed the hell out of me. The climbing system requires you to jump and then to grab on to surfaces. A dial in the corner of the screen will slowly reduce the moment you grab on to something, which when trying to spider-man your way over the fur of a Colossi to reach a weak point only to have it spend two minutes shaking you about to the point you have to let go just to rebuild the meter and start over again.

The guilt really comes in when you start to do damage to them, because the animation of having to raise the sword high above you and vibration of the controller when you stab it into them is not a pleasant one. That and the fact that the majority of the Colossi only put up a fight or become aggressive once you begin to approach them. They are literally just happy where they are and doing no harm to anything or anyone until you pick a fight with them. Some are just so beautiful that the overwhelming guilt of removing them from the world really started to add up for me and it was a rather unpleasant feeling to do so. Not to mention that once you have slain the mighty creature, a cut-scene plays showing something that resembles a shadowy cloud leaves the Colossi escapes it before seemingly penetrates Wander causing him to fall to his knees and then unconscious only to wake up back in the temple before being told the next Colossi to go after.

Epic is pretty much the best way of describing just how amazing the good parts of this game are when they come together so effortlessly. Sadly though, this is a remaster that also has a few old generation issues that kind of get in the way and spoil things just a little bit starting with the camera. This is a game that knows it is beautiful and the camera has a tendency of wanting to go full on cinematic experience to show the player how stunning the visuals are. This will often mean that when travelling by horse, the camera will decide to pan out so you can have a beauty shot to appreciate however it will do this even if you are trying to use the sword to locate the next Colossi resulting in a fight to control the camera which is frustrating. Then you have the horse itself which much like Trico in The Last Guardian can be a nightmare of an AI character to control when riding often refusing to either gallop or catching scenery making it stop.

Perhaps the biggest frustration for me with this game came the few Colossi that required interaction with the environment in order to create an opportunity to get on to them and at times the AI of the Colossi would infuriatingly refuse to do or go where I needed to lead them making what should be a ten minute encounter become almost thirty minutes with the majority of that time trying to make it move to a certain spot. Whilst yes it does add to the encounter and challenge, there are moments that this problem broke the experience for me and took me straight out of the game. The issues the game has just stop Shadow of the Colossus being a truly legendary game for me, but it is certainly one of my favourite games from the PlayStation bucket list I have come to enjoy.

Overall this remaster is beautifully crafted and bringing Shadow of the Colossus to a new generation of players and console is another success for the platform. It would have been nice if more effort had been made to fix the annoying issues that feel very last generation as instead of just being a niggle they are overly frustrating and distracting from all the great work that has been down in this game. I have avoided talking about the story, which for a game with minimal spoken word to explain what is happening until the very end, is something that has to be experienced and this game deserves to be in your collection and definitely deserves its iconic status as a PlayStation classic. I came away after finishing it in awe of what was achieved originally and for the quality of this rebuild of it for PlayStation 4 and Pro, but the annoying elements of the camera, gripping system and Colossi AI set pieces tarnish an otherwise well polished title.

There is nothing quite like Shadow of the Colossus and there probably wont be again, it stands out as a true classic that much like The Last Guardian sadly undoes some of it with old generation problems that have not translated well into current generation of gaming. But this is a must have in your collection title and it continues the PlayStation success story of bringing back its own exclusive big hitters from the past for a new generation of players.

Even the most die hard Assassin’s Creed fans could be forgiven for missing out on this particular entry in the series as its release was perhaps the biggest victim of the mess that was Assassin’s Creed Unity on release back in 2014. To begin with Assassin’s Creed Rogue was meant to have released by itself before the release of Unity except at the time, the decision was made to bring Unity’s release forward to the same day as Rogue meaning many fans had to make the choice of playing what was the very final Assassin’s Creed game on old generation consoles or go for the shiny new generation console version of Unity for PS4 and Xbox One. Now Ubisoft has brought new life and a fresh chance for fans to experience what for me was a defining moment for the series as Rogue has been remastered and released once more.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is the final chapter of the Colonial trilogy and in terms of the story narrative, slots in between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III. Events in Rogue both set up the events in ACIII but also lead directly into the start of Unity, which was how the original release plan was supposed to allow players to experience to connect both Rogue and Unity. It not only rounded off that trilogy but it also marked the final appearance as an Abstergo Entertainment employee which the modern day story had been focused on in Black Flag thanks to the Templars retrieving the body of Desmond Miles at the end of AC III, and using his genetic memory to allow Abstergo Entertainment staff to relive genetic memories from Desmond’s organic material, now known as simply Sample 17.

The player takes the role of a gender neutral and nameless Abstergo Entertainment employee, who whilst exploring the lifetime of Shay Cormac, accidentally sets off a virus in the Abstergo servers, forcing a lock down of the system. The only way to clear the virus is for the player to finish living through the life of Shay Cormac however it quickly becomes clear that the mysterious Juhati Otso Berg, has a personal interest in the life of Shay Cormac and is equally encouraging to complete revisit his life for this own ends. Shay Cormac is an Assassin recruit still in training when we first meet him, we meet his mentors who are teaching him skills with Achilles Davenport as the Master Assassin of their group, the man who will reluctantly in his old age train Connor to be an Assassin in AC III.

I really came to appreciate Shay Cormac as a character, and it was an interesting switch after playing AC III and Black Flag to step into the traditional role of an Assassin and how at that time in Colonial America, Achilles was in charge of a successful and fully capable Brotherhood group. But it was his defiance that really stood out for me as Shay has a tendency to be insubordinate to some of his mentors and often questioning their activities and roles as Assassin’s such as doing missions that helped the French whilst ignoring those treated as slaves. His understanding of the Assassin’s Creed is one of questioning its relevance with the ideology of defending humanity’s right to free will in sharp contrast to having to follow the orders of his mentors. Whilst he is not a reluctant Assassin, he does question his orders which make him a very unique character for this series.

This remaster is much like the Ezio Collection in that it has been given a full HD makeover but it retains all the niggles and bugs that the original game had such as the well known movement and free running glitches that could make you suddenly jump off an angle when trying to climb or jump between buildings. There are also the same animations which are lifted directly from Black Flag and only have Edward Kenway removed and replaced by Shay Cormac so that they both walk, fight and strut in the same way.

After putting over 100 hours into Assassin’s Creed Origins by this time, going back to the very old generation style of combat and movement in Rogue did take a little while to get used to. The combat uses the same counter based system since Assassin’s Creed II making the combat very easy and more about reacting to perform a counter than actually having a fight which does feel strange now after Origins more modern combat style but it was actually nice to step back once more into the old style of AC gameplay, much as it was replaying the Ezio Remastered Collection. A lot of the gameplay mechanics are a continuation of what you would have played in Black Flag with some differences such as Shay discovering an air rifle which replaced the blow dart from Black Flag and later in the game obtaining a primitive grenade launcher attachment for it.

Naval battles also return as one of Shay’s strengths is his ability to captain a ship at sea and early in the game he claims his own ship he names The Morrigan. After the tropical setting of Black Flag, Rogue returns to the rather cold setting of the North Atlantic so the seas have ice sheets to sail through and ice bergs to avoid. This also means that should Shay go for a dip, he risks being hurt by the cold temperatures. Naval combat is the same but for Rogue many of the upgrades in Black Flag that took a while to obtain and given fairly early on and finding materials to upgrade The Morrigan is also fairly quick. I always enjoyed the ship fighting in the Colonial trilogy and with the ‘Skull and Bones’ naval battle game spin off coming out soon, it was great to replay what started it all off. I had actually forgotten the little tweak that had been made in Rogue that can see enemy ships actually board the Morrigan in combat forcing you to fight off the enemy crew. There are other little enhancements in Rogue based on Black Flag but nothing too unfamiliar if you had played it before.

The world will see Shay go from sailing around the North Atlantic and visiting locations and looking for collectibles to activity around New York city, and often the story sequences will take Shay very quickly from one to the other especially when meeting new characters in a certain location but to only then have that new character require Shay to sail them to another one. Exploration in Rogue is pretty much down to the player as many of the locations are not visited as a result of the story but left to the player to just sail around visiting them as their leisure. It is a huge world and there are plenty of collectibles and treasure maps to follow to encourage such exploration but the story itself is fairly contained. It is also by far the shorted main release story in the series at just six sequences and can be completed relatively quickly in just a couple of sessions if you ignore everything else.

The real strength of Rogue for me as a fan of the series and a big reason why I enjoyed it on its original release is the story of Shay Cormac after an event happens that puts him at odds with the blindness of Achilles to see what he is doing is wrong. In the search of Pieces of Eden, the Assassin’s are at risk of doing far more damage than any Templar plot and Shay sets out to prevent Achilles and his former mentors from continuing their search. This puts him on the path of becoming a Templar after their intentions fall in line with his and for the first time in the series, players are given a good insight into the Templar belief system which takes the Black and White plot of Assassin’s being good and Templars being the bad guys and makes it all a little more of a grey area. Throughout this story and the series since, there are times when the Assassin’s go too far and the Templars idea of peace through control does not appear to be all that bad. Through Shay the player gets to see that the creed of both parties can at times align as much as they become direct obstacles to each other which is just so interesting for me. Not to mention how the modern day side wraps up the trilogy very nicely before leading into how it would change in future games starting with Unity.

I would fully recommend Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered to fans of the series who really appreciate the story as much as the gameplay, especially if they missed this entry on original release. It does not really offer anything that new to what you would find in Black Flag but there is enough here for fans of the original Assassin’s Creed titles or last generation to enjoy but it is the story of Shay Cormac that makes this a must pay game for the series. To be fair this is just a far prettier game to play now and all the gameplay including the bugs and issues the original had are still very much present which is a shame, especially with some of the movement problems which are as frustrating now as they were back in 2014. This looks as pretty as the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Black Flag and it does justify its release on the fact that a good number of fans may never played this first time round thanks to the messy storm that was Unity.

Shay Cormac is for me, one of the most important characters in the series and has the same effect on the series that say the Arbiter had in HALO 2 in terms of showing the story from the point of view of ‘the bad guys’ and here the blurred lines of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys with the Assassins and Templar sides is a fascinating thing to experience as a fan of this series. Though short, the story is rich in what it delivers both as Shay in the past and in the modern day with so much lore to be found in the repairable computers and tablets to be found in the modern day side.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered is well worth picking up even if it is just for the story and to revisit the Colonial trilogy one last time, a trilogy that I believe many never gave the full chance too back then but is worth a visit now.