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drscribbles-blog · 7 years ago

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Review: Ni No Kuni II

First of all, welcome anyone who stumbles upon my page. This is the very first time I’ve ever started a blog or even made a review for pretty much anything. I decided to make my first review about Ni No Kuni II pretty much just by chance. I work at GameStop and we are allowed to borrow pre-owned games. I kept hearing good things from my coworkers about this game and finally decided to give it a shot. It immediately blew me away.

First thing I noticed when I started up the game was the music. Pretty classic JRPG style of orchestral, high energy music. Throughout my almost 5 hours of game time so far, I have been in love with the soundtrack. That should come as no surprise however, since the composer for said soundtrack is Joe hisaishi. The very same person who makes music for Studio Ghibli films. The music isn’t the only thing that has a connection to Studio Ghibli either.

The previous title, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, had an official connection with Studio Ghibli in that Level-5 and Studio Ghibli actually partnered up to produce the game. This time around, Studio Ghibli did not help as a whole due to the studio going in a different direction and Miyazaki coming in and out of retirement. Joe Hisaishi came back to create the soundtrack for the sequel. Yoshiyuki Momose, a former animator and character designer for Ghibli, also came aboard. So while the game lacks the official seal of the studio, it still has very strong connections with it.

Speaking of character designs… when I started up a new game and met the first two protagonists (Evan and Roland) was when I was first hit with a wave of nostalgia and memories of Ghibli films such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, and Whisper of the Heart. Evan looks like he could be Howl’s little brother if you added cat ears and a tail and Roland has the same kind of modern look to him like the ghibli films that tell stories when they take place in our world. Which makes sense if you look at the brief 20ish second backstory Level-5 gives you at the beginning for Roland.

Turns out that Roland is a President in his world (that would be our world) who seemed to be heading to a very important meeting or event in a big city. On the way one of his bodyguards noticed a large missile flying overhead towards the same city they were heading to (my guess is New York City just by the bridge and the tall buildings). The missile explodes over the city and it looked to be an atomic bomb the way it exploded. Somehow that exploded propelled Roland into a different world and he just so happens to pop up in the royal chambers of king Evan.

King Evan rules over the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell (I get a nice chuckle every time this place is mentioned in the game). His father, the previous king, recently died for reasons I won’t get into. Evan sees Roland appear there in his chambers and immediately assumes Roland is threat and tries to have him arrested but nobody comes to his aid. I don’t wish to spoil too much of the opening so I’m just going to leave it at the two had to work together to leave the castle.

Outside of the story and artwork of the game. The fighting mechanic is pretty enjoyable. The map itself is open world. It reminds me a lot of World of Final Fantasy in that when you’re travelling the map your characters are adorable chibi versions of themselves. The creatures show up roaming around as well and they can chase you down. If you make contact with them, it starts a battle sequence. You gain control of your regular characters and start battle. The combat, in my opinion is very fluid. It isn’t your typical rpg combat with turn-based fighting. You actually run around and use attack commands. Each weapon can have its own special ability that you unlock and when the “Zing gage” for the weapon you use hits 100% your abilities are they most powerful.

I enjoy almost every aspect of this game. The music is fantastic. The artwork is gorgeous and lovable. The characters are well thought-out. The combat is really good. The chibi characters on the extremely detailed world map is sure to harm your heart and bring a smile to your face every time. The game knows how to draw you in very well. There are only one or two complaints I have with the game.

A lot of the dialogue, keeping in mind it is a JRPG, is text based. The characters themselves will say one or two words or make a noise like a typical jrpg but for the most part it is text-based. The cut-scenes or important scenes are different, they will have full voice acting but other than that it’s mostly text. I don’t really mind having to read all the time, I just like having actual voices more-so than not. The only other thing I can think of that I wish I had was the ability to sprint. I play my RPGs with a lot of running around and finding all of the items before I continue with the mission. That is a lot of running around and by the time I am done in one area, I am typically on the wrong end of the area and have to trek all the way to mission arrow again. For that reason, I like games with at least even limited sprint options. Like the Witcher has the stamina bar that depletes as he sprints. It is a minor complaint that I often have with these kinds of games. Like Final Fantasy X, I ran around a LOT in that game and I always felt Tidus ran too slow.

To close this review, I would personally give this game a 9/10 rating and I highly recommend anyone who reads this to check it out when they get the chance. I will try to be making more reviews in the future and hopefully they will be better composed and enjoyable. Thank you to all who did find this and if you would like to keep up with me I’d appreciate if you followed me here or on my twitter @scribbles_dr .

#ni no kuni 2 #game review #gaming #jrpg #ps4

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