#nnk ds game

[honeyhueym]

I got bored so here’s more

[downtroddendeity]

@turnkeyassurance saw your tags and figured I'd take the opportunity to pause my descent into madness to give my more sober opinions on the Ni no Kuni franchise, lol. (Warning: I am a humongous JRPG nerd)

The NNK games are really odd ducks, quality-wise. You can call either one a good game or a bad game and call either one better than the other, and any combination of those opinions can be something I think is entirely justified. Both of them have things they do remarkably well and also serious, profound, deal-breaking flaws, and the really weird thing is that there's almost no overlap between those two lists for the two games. What clicks and doesn't about both of them is going to be deeply individual.

What Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch does, with resounding success, is Vibes. It sets out at every single step with the goal of being a playable Ghibli movie, and it sticks to that principle. It's all about beautiful, cel-shaded whimsy. It's a game for people who want to feel like they're wandering through the meadows in the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle. There are lots of puns, and you can befriend all the random encounter monsters and feed them ice cream.

But that's also its Achilles' heel: because it's dedicated entirely to imitation, it has trouble bringing things to the table that are really its own. It has the visual and narrative aesthetics of Hayao Miyazaki's films, but it doesn't have the raw emotion at the heart of them. And as a game, its mechanics combine the clunkiest features of menu-based combat and action RPGs, and while everything about the Pokemon-esque mechanics seems designed to encourage players to collect and experiment with them, the balancing turns attempting to do that into a miserable grindy nightmare.

The other problem is that it... isn't actually the first Ni no Kuni game. Wrath of the White Witch is, in fact, a remake of the Nintendo DS game Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn, which was never released outside Japan. The reason for this is pretty easy to explain, because DDD had another gimmick besides its aesthetics: it came with a real-life physical copy of the wizard spellbook, and the player had to look things up in it and draw sigils on the DS touchscreen to cast spells. So, we've got a high-effort remake that had to completely cut the central mechanic... and which also expanded the plot so that the original main villain was no longer the primary antagonist. This results in a game with what is very clearly a final dungeon and very clearly a final boss and very clearly a resolution to the story, which suddenly has a completely different plot dropped on it like a fucking anvil that it expects you to be just as invested in even though it hasn't had anything like the same level of buildup.

And ironically, this is almost the exact opposite of the biggest problem with Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, a.k.a. the one with my new blorbo, the President of the United Union of Eagleland. 2 is an effort to try to cement an identity for the series that can be its own, rather than requiring them to depend indefinitely on borrowed Miyazaki nostalgia. It just has the teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy problem that at some point in development it had a budget shortfall so bad that you can finish the game without ever realizing that there is a continent-sized crashed interdimensional spaceship on the world map.

This game has had a machete taken to it. Don't get me wrong, I genuinely respect the work they did to make what they could with what they had, but you can see the signs of massive scope cuts to literally every aspect of the game. The back half of the game has almost exclusively recycled enemy and environment assets; voice acting has been trimmed down to canned voice clips; the catboy protagonist's ears and tail are barely animated; one minigame was so inadequately playtested that a level 16 mission is massively harder than level 50 ones; and while whatever restructuring they had to do to the main plot still left the final version with a more solid and coherent central arc than WWW in my opinion, it also left a lot of truly gaping plot holes, like oh, I don't know, why the President of the United States got turned into a 19-year-old.

Literally, they just. Entirely forgot to explain that. Half the DLC is just the writers scrambling to fix stuff like that and add a bunch of character development that should have been in the base game.

However, despite all this, I personally enjoyed NNK2 more than NNK1 unironically, not just for Rolandposting reasons. Compared to the first one, it plays much more smoothly as a straight action RPG, and while it can't provide the same knock-your-socks-off aesthetic cohesion, to me it seemed a lot more heartfelt- that is, like a game that was made because people had a story they wanted to tell.

But, well, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the non-unironic reasons, because the story they really, genuinely wanted to tell was about a magical catboy growing up and learning to become a leader, and somehow, miraculously, they really thought that was the story I was here for too when they opened the game with the President of the United States being isekaied by Nuke-kun.

Sorry, guys, I have a crippling addiction to dramatic irony and my day job is tech work in local politics, you could not have more laser-targeted this at making me specifically laugh my ass off if you tried.

[astralynx]

sorry if i find out someone likes nnk and you're not on my list of people i already know I suddenly become very annoying about the fact the ds game exists and You Should Play It.

[sweetpea-sprite]

Hello! I've recently been replaying NNK WOTWW for the first time in years, and I've been reading your posts, and I've noticed a lot of mentions of DOTDD (that's the acronym right? The original Dark Dijnn version of the game.) And the differences between WOTWW and I've only seen DS copies and was wondering if you knew of any other way to play it on any other consoles (Switch, Ps3/4, PC) or any ports of the game? Sorry if this was long and rambley, it's so cool to see other fans of this game! :] Your posts about it are incredible! Thank you for your time and have a good day! :DDD

unfortunately there are no official ports of the game :( it was a japanese ds exclusive

howEVER a) there is a fan translation and b) you can emulate it to play it on pc! if you've never emulated before i wrote a short guide on how to do it using desmume here when i first played it. if you need any help with it please let me know and i'll help in any way i can!!

and THANK YOU SO MUCH don't worry about being long and rambly god knows i do that all the time

[awyeahitsninokunitime]

So one question I have regarding Xanadu is like. What happened? Not in the literal sense, but regarding the "why". I don't remember much about the story at this point, but if I remember correctly, Xanadu didn't really do anything to incur Shadar's wrath other than exist. But also, it was a whole magic city full of wizards with a wizard queen who is also a sage, so why did it take this long for Shadar to get to them with his whole "No magic" deal? He dealt with the other sages and kingdom's quickly enough, so why wait until 5 years ago for Xanadu? It might have been a difference in power, but also Shadar wiped out two entire countries with seemingly no issue and the "break everyone's hearts" thing was probably a viable plan from the very beginning of his dark lord of evil career. So again, why wait? I'd love more lore knowledge from yall on NNK tumblr who are still alive on this (particularly from the DS game which i have yet to play fhdjfhkshfjfkfk :(((( ) and also the potential full story of what went down with Xanadu. If there's nothing solid in canon, then I'll cook up some hashtag game theories maybe, I'm about to become really fucking busy so I might not have time for thought out shit though

[incorrect-ninokuni]

Nnk devs are cowards for not letting you pet the creatures on hermit shell island

wotww devs are cowards for not letting you pet your familiars at All. you can pet + play + brush them in the ds game creature cage </3

[synthiosys]

Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi (Nintendo DS, 2010)

[kaikaykoa]

Spell learning is a bit funky with each game.

In Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn (nnk ds), you have the whole Wizard’s Companion in tact but there are seals covering almost all of them, why? I haven’t figured out yet.

In Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, you lost a whole bunch of pages, but miraculously, people have copies and you find some yourself where you magic it back into your Companion

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a big doozy,

you learn it from people when they point at you,

Bracken says “listen,” but she just dramatically pointed at you

and the function of the Wizard’s Companion kinda downgraded to boosting your spells and it’s sad. You can’t be bothered to cast the runes for stuff like “insight,” like, I wanna do it on Evan’s cape just to see Nella again or Leander’s uniform to see why it’s isn’t so not-Hydropolitan or Bracken’s leg or tani’s cape or the stick if it really was from Oliver or

[moonraccoon-exe]

I'm glad to hear you're doing okay! c: The volcano is fun, making lots of firey friends (there's a creature taming aspect to the game, which is great!). And! You can name them once you make friends with them (going to name one Ignis, hahaha). Oooo, I'm excited to hear they have a movie in the works, I am definitely marking it down on my 'Movies to See' list! I know they have Ni No Kuni II available on Steam, here's hoping they release Ni No Kuni on a platform you can play!

IRIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ❤❤❤❤❤❤

ASLKJFGADLKGJALDGKAJDGLKAJDGLKADJGLKADJGLAKDJGADLKJGLAKDJGLKDAGJADLKGJALDKGJADLKGJDALGKJ

ZOMG

FLOUR

HEWWO

I’M SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO REPLY, THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY BUSY ZOMG IT’S RIDICULOUS AAHHH BUT I’M HERE FINALLY GETTING TO ANSWER TO YOU AND FEELING HEKKITY FLIPPITY DAMN HAPPY AND EXCITED TO BE DOING THAT BECAUSE IT U IT U IT UUUUUUUUUU

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

FLOUR HELLO AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FEEL SO HAPPY AND FULL OF ENERGY ANSWERING TO YOU ZOMG I’M SO EXCITED THANK YOU FOR WAITING AND FOR BEING THE LOVELY U THAT YOU ALWAYS ARE I WUV U MUCH HUGZ HAVE SHNUGGELZ AKSLJDFLKJGDA

THERE’S CREATURE TAMING ASPECT IN NI NO KUNI!?!?!?!? OH NO THAT’S SO CUTE THAT’S SO ADORABLE THAT’S LITERALLY THE BEST THING YOU COULD HAVE A GAME HAVE YOU CAN MAKE CREATURE BUDDIES OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY HEAEAOSKJDG KADLJGAD

You know WHAT, I’m seriously considering getting a PS3. Not just Ni No Kuni, but FFXIII make me want it, AND DAMMIT EVERYTHING ABOUT NNK SOUNDS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! I’m SO HAPPY to know you’re making lots of firey friends THEY MUST BE ADORBS, and that the volcano is fun!!! I guess you’ve made it past it by this time? If not, that’s fine too! The game is supposed to be enjoyed so you take your time! Still, how has it been going? FUN AS ALWAYS I ASSUME :D

HEK. Y E A H TO NAMING ONE OF THEM IGNIS, IT’S JUST NECESSARY AND NATURAL, IGGY THE ADORABLE FIREY BUDDY COMING ALONG WTIH YOU OHNOMYHEARTISSOFULL I C R Y AKSLDJFDGLKJDLKJA LDKFJGDA AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GODS BLESS IGGY UR TAMED BUDDY IS HE CUTE? ;A;

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, YES, I heard about the movie!! I was a bit puzzled when I first watched the trailer because it was like ?? these are either new characters for the movie or characters I never saw (because I only saw like 3 parts of a gameplay, not to the end), and it was like awman I thought it would be like a movie following the game’s story ;A; BUT IT OKIE, if I want the game’s story we have the game, so whatever new story the movie offers will be GREAT!!! 

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh, sadly no Steam either ;A; THAT’S WHY I’M CONSIDERING SO MUCH GETTING A PS3, I just fear it won’t be that much of a good purchase because it ALWAYS happens to me that when I get a console, they release a new one better that can read it LMAO. Like, for example, when I finally got my DSi, they release the 3DS which can read DS anyway and I WAS LIKE HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

And of course I got my own PS4 last year and NOW they’re half-hinting us to PS5. HA HA :’) 

So I fear I save up, buy my PS3, they release PS5 and come with a miraculous announcement of “IT CAN READ EVERY PS GAME E V E R RELEASED” and here I am sitting with my second-hand ps3 crYING. XD

But Imma think about it!! GOSH, there’s just so many games to find and play akjlsdfakjgdda, what I’d give for a miraculous console that read every game of every company WOULDN’T THAT BE NEAT? And also time to play them LMAO ;w;

BUT ANYWAYS IRIDAE, THAT’S IT FROM ME FOR NOW, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN YOU WONDERFUL FELLA??? Thank you for waiting until I replied, I know it took me a while!! ;A;

I HOPE YOU’RE DOING FANTASTIC, AND THAT YOU’RE HAVING A MOST WONDERFUL, MARVELOUS DAY, FLOUR!!!!!!! LOTSA RACCOONIE HUGS AND MAGIC FOR YOOOOUUUUUUUUU!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

[astralynx]

Literally why did nnk ds’ final boss imply Oliver may become evil one day and then the game just ends with no elaboration. What the fuck man. You don’t understand it literally hurts my heart to think about

[sweetpea-sprite]

dora has already metamorphosed <3 i love grinding in late game areas with an xp charm on

[sweetpea-sprite]

boutta go on a tangent about the ds game boys

there are things the ds game did way better than wotww and vice versa. if they had combined some of the things they did good in both games i do think it would have been wonderful

this got really long! holy shit! more under the cut

for example: everything after oliver gets the soulsnare to defeating shadar is better in wotww (storywise). they got the pacing down and it’s so good. in the ds game you kind of get a lot of information thrown at you at once - and it’s all done in a giant exposition monologue from shadar to vileheart, because when you open the soulsnare, oliver experiences one of vileheart’s memories. shadar tells vileheart and the audience not only that alicia and allie are the same person, but also that he and oliver are soulmates. oliver then has a not-so-minor breakdown until his friends talk him down and then they go STRAIGHT to shadar. it’s all VERY fast and there’s hardly any build-up.

compare this to wotww: oliver is actually there in nevermore and instead of vileheart’s memory, it’s alicia’s memory he’s experiencing. it’s more personal, more emotionally impacting, because oliver is experiencing alicia time travelling instead of shadar just telling him. i assume oliver finds/figures out that he and shadar are soulmates while in the soulsnare as well, but wotww doesn’t tell us this until right before we fight shadar, so we don’t even have time to wrap our heads around it before killing him and oliver in the process. the pacing is FAR better and while oliver’s breakdown in the ds game still hits hard the pea cutscene after defeating vileheart for the first time? dude i genuinely almost cry every time. plus oliver actually getting knocked into a coma after picking up the soulsnare adds to the emotional build-up, and then he comes back with a new spell (a spell that isn’t even in the ds game, by the way) and it’s all so dramatic and wonderful. then ofc you go to nevermore and only then is when we learn oliver and shadar are soulmates, instead of what it is in the ds game, where it’s a couple lines of dialogue that’s buried in with not being able to save alicia. it’s done so well and i love it a lot

so all that stuff is wonderfully done in wotww. however BEFORE oliver gets the soulsnare? i would say is done far better in the ds game.

in wotww, while getting the clarion, pip steals the holy wood, you fight phil’s nightmare, and he gives it back. pip is then not relevant for the rest of the game. you make the clarion, esther plays it at the miasma marshes, the fog clears, you go through, fight vileheart, get the soulsnare. oliver and friends do not meet vileheart or even know where the soulsnare is until they actually fight him. this makes getting the soulsnare seem... way too easy than it should be

in the ds game, pip does NOT steal the holy wood. you make the clarion without a hitch. you get to the miasma marshes, and esther takes out the clarion to play it when both vileheart and pip appear. pip explains he is one of shadar’s servants, and is in fact in charge of vileheart. vileheart shows the soulsnare and everyone’s like holy shit that’s it that’s the soulsnare! and then vileheart TAKES ESTHER AND SWAINE’S SOULS and runs off at pip’s command. oliver and drippy realise they can’t get through the miasma to follow him (as esther never finished playing the clarion) and instead follow pip, who stole the clarion when esther fell. THEN they go and fight phil’s nightmare, after which pip has a change of heart and leads them through the marshes and to vileheart, where oliver fights him without esther or swaine and manages to get the soulsnare. you have to REALLY fight for the soulsnare in the ds game, instead of what happens in wotww. you fight so hard for it and in the end you can’t even save alicia. you save esther and swaine, of course, but the goal you’ve been working towards? it’s impossible. and while that last part is in wotww, it’s just far more climactic in the ds game, because again, the build-up to actually getting the soulsnare is WAY longer and better. it’s wonderful.

if you combined the before-soulsnare of the ds game with the after-soulsnare of wotww? it would be so good. i’m not sure how esther and swaine getting soul snatched would work with wotww’s battle style, considering that in the ds game they’re just optional party members you can switch in and out at will so them leaving the party isn’t as detrimental as it would be in wotww, where they are constant party members that are very important, but all the other stuff? make it so pip steals the clarion when you get to the miasma marshes. vileheart shows oliver the soulsnare and leaves and ollie tries to go after him but is stopped by his friends because the miasma hasn’t cleared, so they go after pip. everything after that is like the ds game, but esther and swaine are there. there’s more of an urgency to get the soulsnare, because now oliver has seen it and it’s suddenly a feasible goal, instead of it being seemingly so out of reach. now the goal is get pip on our side so he can either give us back the clarion or lead us through the marshes, so we can finally get the soulsnare. it’s suddenly so close. you go through the marshes, fight vileheart, and get the soulsnare, and it switches to wotww - oliver falls into a coma and experiences alicia’s memory, learns she is his mom, etc. you combine the best parts of the soulsnare arc from both games and it would pace SO well

basically: the ds game does things different to wotww and i just think it’d be neat if some aspects from both games were combined

[sweetpea-sprite]

drippy ily

[sweetpea-sprite]

HOUGH i am not going through nevermore today. that’s tomorrow’s deal

[sweetpea-sprite]

Y EAAH

[sweetpea-sprite]

so we’re going to kublai’s hideout in order to get mornstar (yes mornstar not the map of the stones because mornstar WASN’T IN TOMBSTONE TRAIL) and in order to get there we apparently have to pass through the very creatively named town of