Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

[Sora_ 48]

 

 

Initial Thoughts:

I really enjoy the movies and animations produced by Studio Ghibli. Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom has art that is incredibly similar to the art rendered and produced for movies by Ghibli.

This immediately drew me into the world, as it reminded me of the fantastical worlds built up around the movies like Spirited Away and Nausicaa. The immediate story was not too unique, nor was it too cliche. It started out just like an isekai anime series would with a character making it to another world somehow.

The voice acting was well done, in my opinion. The story itself started out with many questions unanswered, which in my opinion, is a great way to start a game, because it gives the player something to work for; something to uncover/discover.

The controls felt smooth and correct on a controller, but moving around in the open world felt a bit sluggish. However, moving around in a dungeon or a city felt great.

 

Game Play and Story:

The story of Ni no Kuni II isn’t what I would call incredibly unique or realistic. However, it is still a pretty great story that held me closely to it as I played the game. The story is filled with themes of segregation, political struggle, innocence emerging victorious over darkness, technology and its advancements, and the bonds shared between friends. There were a few plot twists nearing the end of the game; some of them being predictable and some seemingly coming from out of nowhere.

The game play felt really smooth while fighting enemies and bosses. It looked and felt GOOD. There wasn’t really much technicality to it, but there were a few things that you could do to get better at the fighting aspect of the game such as timing rolls and jumps, charging skills, utilizing strong and light attacks to generate mana or focus on damage, and knowing when to go all out and when to focus on evasion.

Another aspect of the game is the city building part that is started a good ways into the game. It felt like a typical city building game packed into the actual game. Except that the city building had a very real and very important effect on outside aspects such as over world interactions, buffs during battle, boosts for characters, researching and improving abilities and others. It was well balanced and nothing felt too out of reach with enough time.

Skirmishes are fights on a larger scale that take place in the over world. These fights were unique and had more strategy put into them compared to the smaller scale battles where you controlled a single character and have two supporting characters. This mode felt really well done. The only thing I can really say against this game mode is that sometimes your allies would get stuck on a wall and you would have to either go back or risk moving forward and hoping they respawn in time for them to fight oncoming enemy units.

As for the game’s balance, there’s a little less good to be said about it than the story and actual game play. The balance of Ni no Kuni II could be better. In one part of the main story, I felt as if I was severely under leveled having just beaten the last boss with around 7 to 8 levels over it, but finding myself fighting enemies that were 8 to 9 levels above me. Skirmishes, while they really aren’t that necessary to grind out, can be nigh impossible to beat if done out of order. And the order at which you need to do them is a bit awkward because some of the lower level skirmishes appear later into the story while higher leveled (at least relatively) skirmishes appear quite often in the beginning. In addition to this, some quests are incredibly difficult to accomplish at the point that you would find them. For example, one quest near the BEGINNING of the game asks for an END GAME item that you can only get after achieving a Level 10 Bakery in your town that you may or may not have even UNLOCKED yet.

Other than the spacing of certain quests, there’s the typical JRPG item grinding aspect and over world item finding. However, this aspect can almost entirely be skipped through the city building. Because, in your city, you are able to build facilities that can automatically find items for you while you are out doing other things. This makes a lot of quests much less of a headache to complete.

Now, I also must comment on other aspects in Ni no Kuni II. Each city has a VASTLY unique set of characters, scenes, and themes surrounding the cultures unique to them. That being said, Ni no Kuni II’s ability to shape worlds and breathe life and compelling characteristics into them is fantastic.

The character development is also remarkable in Ni no Kuni II. The growth of Evan, ousted Prince of Ding Dong Dell, becomes apparent (through however many cliche speeches and events, though) by the end of the game. Roland, the arguable main character of the game, is seen to adjust to his new life in this faraway world.

There is free DLC for this game that includes a whole bunch of new quests, gear, and a short bit more of story (including newer, harder bosses). I, personally, am looking forward to more DLC for this game, even though it took a while for this current batch to release.

 

Pros:  

+Enjoyable story and fantastic art style

+Many game modes and a constant sense of improvement

+End game isn’t a droning grind for a single material in the over world

+Free DLC

+Great mechanics and fluidity

+Roland the best 

+Easy to pick up

+Lots of content

 

Cons:  

-Quests are sometimes BS

-Time investment for city building

-JRPG level grinding is somewhat optional most of the time

-lofty.jpeg  (Just kidding, Lofty is great)

-Cliches can get in the way of what reality would be

 

TL;DR

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a great game. It’s got a fantastic direction reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s works. The story is not incredibly unique, but it will still hold your attention and interest. It’s about a 50 hour game if you ignore side quests and all the JRPG jazz. The controls and mechanics feel nice and aren’t that hard to master or learn. There’s a lot you can do outside of roaming around and fighting. This game is a solid 9.2 / 10.