This first play will combine both games as they share similar things in common, no idea how many people have even played either game but least theres a thread to discuss them, although i get the funny feeling it's going to be rather lonely in here but i'll post my thoughts on these amazing pair of rpgs. Not many reviews online about either of the games just the same recycled info.
This will be a very long post so those averse to reading may want to bugger off about now
Been playing the PS3 version over xmas & 42 hours in it's still as addictive as ever, a sign of a good rpg is one where you have to grind but it's so much fun that you don't even realise your grinding hehe.
In the PS3 version theres a lot more extra bit's of the story that were not present in the DS version they weave in perfectly explaining the events that took place, for the most part upto battling the dark mage Jabou most of the story stays the same between both versions. Think of it as an extended HD version with added new content like a whole new battling system amongst other things, however the DS version contains many elements that the PS3 version doesn't have, so to get the full experience it really is worth playing both games they are the best rpgs i have played in a very long time.
For those not familiar with the story of Ni no kuni it's a game split between two worlds, they are parallel worlds where the people who live in them are connected, so if something happens to somebody in one world it will affect their double in the other. Im not quite at the end of the full story yet but so far in the PS3 version there have been some pretty awesome twists, one which even with my basic Japanese reading skills had me on the edge of my seat as i never saw it coming at all & explains a lot about Olivers family. The game revolves around Oliver a regular boy who lives in the town of Hot Roito, him & his best friend Mark build a car from a kit that Mark has & they both sneak out at night to give it it's first secret test drive which kind of goes wrong & Oliver ends up flung into the canal. Luckily Olivers mum finds him just in time & rescues him from the water before he drowns, however she collapses shortly after & dies in hospital.
Back at home Oliver is grieving & holds the stuffed toy that his mum had made him when he was little to keep him company while she was away working, she told him that she made it for him & whenever he holds it they will always be together no matter where she is, as his tears fall on the toy it transforms into a living creature that introduces itself as Shizuku, a tear fairy that comes from a different world to Olivers. Shizuku is rather chuffed that the curse is lifted & he is alive again & proceeds to find the copy of the magic master that was hidden in the fireplace of olivers house, with this book he can return to his own world. He explains to Oliver that there maybe a way to bring his mum back if they travel to Shizuku's world, so this is how Oliver ends up in Ni no kuni, known as the second kingdom. Oliver's world is Ichi no kuni known as the first kingdom.
The spell book you have is important to the game, it's an encyclopedia of Ni no kuni it contains a wealth of information, from all the spells you can learn to maps & info on the lands you will travel across theres recipes & item lists in there too. In the DS version it came with a physical perfect replica of the same very book thats in the game & i do mean perfect, the amount of detail put into the thing was amazing. However in the PS3 version the book is in digital format but you can use it just the same, you can zoom right in & it's easily readable as the scans are very high quality. First printings of the PS3 game had physical version of the spellbook given away as a bonus but im guessing it's the same as the one given away in the DS version. In it's digital PS3 form you can search by section so finding the right page is quick and painless to do, however this time around some of the pages are sealed & you will only be able to view them when they unlock as you play the game. I have noticed that the puzzles in the PS3 version rely less on the book, in the DS game they were integrated pretty solidly right throughout the book. You no longer draw the spells in the PS3 version you just select the spell from a list, some of the DLC may use more of the book but i have yet to see.
As you explore Ni no kuni you will find people that Jabou has attacked, he has stolen a piece of their heart & they are now sort of empty vessles that are alive but no longer feel. These people are called Nukegarabito, you can help these people by finding a person with an overabundance of the missing feeling, when you find such a person the Tore bottle that the ancient tree gave you will glow & a green dot will appear on your mini map. Using the heart piece spell it will take a bit of their feelings & store it in your bottle, now just go back to the person you wish to cure & use the heart cure spell & select the required piece, their heart will be whole again. Just a note of the amount of detail Level 5 put in, when you talk to a Nukegarabito their expressions are sad & distant, if you watch their eyes when you cure them the expression very subtly changes as their face becomes alive again it is such a tiny detail & yet it gives a feeling of satisfaction in curing them. There are many quests to do while adventuring, theres the main storyline quests but theres also a lot of side quests too.
The quests are numbered & you have a list of outstanding quests in your menu so you will always know whats left to do, the main story quests are marked on the map with a yellow star which will always guide you to the next location you need to be at, some people might not like this but i find it pretty handy as i know that i can explore the rest while avoiding the area with the star till im ready to progress, nothing worse than accidentally bumping into a boss & having to redo a big chunk of game as you die as you were not prepared. Apart from the main story quests you will also see blue dots on your mini map, these mark people that have a request, these can vary from finding someone to getting a certain item or imagine or something else. Theres also free DLC quests which have just started appearing in the last few weeks, if you connect online you can get an extra bit of DLC every week via the imagine manhole thats in most towns, it's usually a quest & an item of some kind or a recipe. Completing quests gives you stamps for your stamp rally card, for each card you complete it gives you one eiyuu point to spend at the quest shop. Harder quests give more points on completion, the points can buy you abilities like increased walking speed on the world map or better items dropping from defeated enemies. In the quest shop you can also take up monster hunting quests, these are monsters that are pretty strong that you have to hunt down, sort of like a mini boss. Completing these quests gives you some pretty cool equipment & lots of cash & stamps.
As mentioned earlier the battle system is now totally new, before in the DS version it was more like dragon quest where you battle on a grid type system & the enemies appear on the top screen, on the PS3 version the battles are more like the tales of series of games where you can move around in a 3D area. You can either battle using Oliver or you can use your imagine, imagines are a physical manifestation of your heart that will fight for you. You select commands from a scroll wheel & then you have to wait for the timer to end before you can select another command, you can freely move about when not attacking & you can cancel an attack at the press of a button so you can move out the way of a incoming attack. As you play more party members will join you & you can choose who to battle with, for the members of your party that your not directly controlling they will fight automatically & you can change the AI battle rules accordingly so theres plenty of flexibility. You can also instantly switch to a cpu controlled character as & when you please, you can have 3 imagines with you at any time & it's advisable to rotate as you battle as they have a energy bar that runs down as you put them into play once the time is up they become weak so you need to either call it back or select another till it's bar regenerates. Also you & your imagine share the same magic & health bar so if it dies so do you. It's a really good battle system it took a bit of getting used to but now it's great, if you also time your attacks just right you can stagger enemies and bosses & you get something called a chance time where it will be sat there stunned ready to get a severe whupping. As you fight a boss Shizuku will offer hints & if your doing rather crap he will sometimes jump in & use his ability called tear wall to protect you. Once Maru joins your party you will be sometimes able to recruit new imagines, if while battling one it has hearts above it's head, & if your fast enough before it runs off you can use Marus singing ability to recruit it. If you have no room in your party at the time it can be stored in the imagine manhole for retrieval later. Once Gyro joins your party you will have the ability to steal too so you can get the rarer ingredient drops from imagines. Theres also something called the shift system where at the press of a button you can send your party members into either attack or protect mode, when fighting a boss this system is very important as when a boss unleashes an attack you get a brief warning of the incoming attack if you switch to the protect shift in time it saves you recieving massive damage. Sometimes as you attack blue & green soul orbs will fly out of the enemy or boss your fighting, these can be picked up to refill your health & magic a tiny bit which certainly does help. On rare occasions a yellow soul orb will fly out if you pick that up your character will do a massive attack which has it's own mini cutscene, sort of like an overdrive attack. The battles are elemental based like pokemon, so knowing which elements to use is key to winning battles as some enemies are resistant to certain stuff. Easiest way of finding out is if when you attack the damage numbers are orange then they are weak against your attack, if they are blue then they have a resistance to it & if they are in white it's neutral. When you first get to a new area any enemies that spot you will rush towards you to battle, but as you get stronger they will run away from you. There are no random battles in this game you can choose to avoid fighting if you want.
You can level up your imagines & feed them items to increase their stats, you can buy sweets & cakes to feed them from the various shops or once you get the alchemy pot you can make your own. You will be given recipes by various people as you talk to them or you can try & mix stuff at random to create new items. You are not punished by experimenting as if the item creation wasn't sucessful you will just get your items back. You can also use the recipe lists in your magic master to make new items which are not just limited to food you can also make weapons & acessories too. A nice touch is everything in the game has it's own little pic, no lists of just words for your items & weapons they are all lovingly drawn in the menu. You can also evolve your imagine if it's at the right level, feeding it a sun star moon or saturn orb will let you choose the next evolution step & to get the final form you need the stronger orbs which you will get the recipes for later on in the game. You can also feed them jewels which will let them learn spells that they wouldn't normally have. Ingredients for alchemy are usually either bought from shops or found on the world map, they appear as sparkling areas on the map. You also get them from defeating imagines but the rarer ingredients need to be stolen as they wont drop during normal battle. Also using your treasure search spell will temp make any hidden chests on the world map visible, some rare ingredients are hidden in those too.
The graphics are pretty amazing from the world map to the dungeon maps to the battle scenes all the scenery is created with incredible detail. All the grass moves, trees sway, water glistens, lava slowly moves in the background it is a beautiful game to look at, you feel compelled to play just to see what beautiful area comes up next, once you get the boat you can explore the islands by sea & once you get Kuro you can take to the air too offering even more freedom. Voice acting & music is also very high quality too, the voices are well matched & pull you right into the story, just a shame i can't understand Shizuku that well, lol bloody Osaka ben accent.
Well thats it for now, i'll post more stuff & more about the extras & differences in each of the 2 versions later. Now people can at least know a bit more about the game, as all i see online mostly is "OMG LEVEL 5 & STUDIO GHIBLI" and thats all that seems to get mentioned. Yes it's a by the numbers rpg that combines elements from dragon quest, final fantasy & pokemon but it's made with such love & charm that i haven't enjoyed myself so much on a rpg like this in many years everything pieces together so wonderfully.
Hopefully on it's english release people will join me in playing this
This will be a very long post so those averse to reading may want to bugger off about now
Been playing the PS3 version over xmas & 42 hours in it's still as addictive as ever, a sign of a good rpg is one where you have to grind but it's so much fun that you don't even realise your grinding hehe.
In the PS3 version theres a lot more extra bit's of the story that were not present in the DS version they weave in perfectly explaining the events that took place, for the most part upto battling the dark mage Jabou most of the story stays the same between both versions. Think of it as an extended HD version with added new content like a whole new battling system amongst other things, however the DS version contains many elements that the PS3 version doesn't have, so to get the full experience it really is worth playing both games they are the best rpgs i have played in a very long time.
For those not familiar with the story of Ni no kuni it's a game split between two worlds, they are parallel worlds where the people who live in them are connected, so if something happens to somebody in one world it will affect their double in the other. Im not quite at the end of the full story yet but so far in the PS3 version there have been some pretty awesome twists, one which even with my basic Japanese reading skills had me on the edge of my seat as i never saw it coming at all & explains a lot about Olivers family. The game revolves around Oliver a regular boy who lives in the town of Hot Roito, him & his best friend Mark build a car from a kit that Mark has & they both sneak out at night to give it it's first secret test drive which kind of goes wrong & Oliver ends up flung into the canal. Luckily Olivers mum finds him just in time & rescues him from the water before he drowns, however she collapses shortly after & dies in hospital.
Back at home Oliver is grieving & holds the stuffed toy that his mum had made him when he was little to keep him company while she was away working, she told him that she made it for him & whenever he holds it they will always be together no matter where she is, as his tears fall on the toy it transforms into a living creature that introduces itself as Shizuku, a tear fairy that comes from a different world to Olivers. Shizuku is rather chuffed that the curse is lifted & he is alive again & proceeds to find the copy of the magic master that was hidden in the fireplace of olivers house, with this book he can return to his own world. He explains to Oliver that there maybe a way to bring his mum back if they travel to Shizuku's world, so this is how Oliver ends up in Ni no kuni, known as the second kingdom. Oliver's world is Ichi no kuni known as the first kingdom.
The spell book you have is important to the game, it's an encyclopedia of Ni no kuni it contains a wealth of information, from all the spells you can learn to maps & info on the lands you will travel across theres recipes & item lists in there too. In the DS version it came with a physical perfect replica of the same very book thats in the game & i do mean perfect, the amount of detail put into the thing was amazing. However in the PS3 version the book is in digital format but you can use it just the same, you can zoom right in & it's easily readable as the scans are very high quality. First printings of the PS3 game had physical version of the spellbook given away as a bonus but im guessing it's the same as the one given away in the DS version. In it's digital PS3 form you can search by section so finding the right page is quick and painless to do, however this time around some of the pages are sealed & you will only be able to view them when they unlock as you play the game. I have noticed that the puzzles in the PS3 version rely less on the book, in the DS game they were integrated pretty solidly right throughout the book. You no longer draw the spells in the PS3 version you just select the spell from a list, some of the DLC may use more of the book but i have yet to see.
As you explore Ni no kuni you will find people that Jabou has attacked, he has stolen a piece of their heart & they are now sort of empty vessles that are alive but no longer feel. These people are called Nukegarabito, you can help these people by finding a person with an overabundance of the missing feeling, when you find such a person the Tore bottle that the ancient tree gave you will glow & a green dot will appear on your mini map. Using the heart piece spell it will take a bit of their feelings & store it in your bottle, now just go back to the person you wish to cure & use the heart cure spell & select the required piece, their heart will be whole again. Just a note of the amount of detail Level 5 put in, when you talk to a Nukegarabito their expressions are sad & distant, if you watch their eyes when you cure them the expression very subtly changes as their face becomes alive again it is such a tiny detail & yet it gives a feeling of satisfaction in curing them. There are many quests to do while adventuring, theres the main storyline quests but theres also a lot of side quests too.
The quests are numbered & you have a list of outstanding quests in your menu so you will always know whats left to do, the main story quests are marked on the map with a yellow star which will always guide you to the next location you need to be at, some people might not like this but i find it pretty handy as i know that i can explore the rest while avoiding the area with the star till im ready to progress, nothing worse than accidentally bumping into a boss & having to redo a big chunk of game as you die as you were not prepared. Apart from the main story quests you will also see blue dots on your mini map, these mark people that have a request, these can vary from finding someone to getting a certain item or imagine or something else. Theres also free DLC quests which have just started appearing in the last few weeks, if you connect online you can get an extra bit of DLC every week via the imagine manhole thats in most towns, it's usually a quest & an item of some kind or a recipe. Completing quests gives you stamps for your stamp rally card, for each card you complete it gives you one eiyuu point to spend at the quest shop. Harder quests give more points on completion, the points can buy you abilities like increased walking speed on the world map or better items dropping from defeated enemies. In the quest shop you can also take up monster hunting quests, these are monsters that are pretty strong that you have to hunt down, sort of like a mini boss. Completing these quests gives you some pretty cool equipment & lots of cash & stamps.
As mentioned earlier the battle system is now totally new, before in the DS version it was more like dragon quest where you battle on a grid type system & the enemies appear on the top screen, on the PS3 version the battles are more like the tales of series of games where you can move around in a 3D area. You can either battle using Oliver or you can use your imagine, imagines are a physical manifestation of your heart that will fight for you. You select commands from a scroll wheel & then you have to wait for the timer to end before you can select another command, you can freely move about when not attacking & you can cancel an attack at the press of a button so you can move out the way of a incoming attack. As you play more party members will join you & you can choose who to battle with, for the members of your party that your not directly controlling they will fight automatically & you can change the AI battle rules accordingly so theres plenty of flexibility. You can also instantly switch to a cpu controlled character as & when you please, you can have 3 imagines with you at any time & it's advisable to rotate as you battle as they have a energy bar that runs down as you put them into play once the time is up they become weak so you need to either call it back or select another till it's bar regenerates. Also you & your imagine share the same magic & health bar so if it dies so do you. It's a really good battle system it took a bit of getting used to but now it's great, if you also time your attacks just right you can stagger enemies and bosses & you get something called a chance time where it will be sat there stunned ready to get a severe whupping. As you fight a boss Shizuku will offer hints & if your doing rather crap he will sometimes jump in & use his ability called tear wall to protect you. Once Maru joins your party you will be sometimes able to recruit new imagines, if while battling one it has hearts above it's head, & if your fast enough before it runs off you can use Marus singing ability to recruit it. If you have no room in your party at the time it can be stored in the imagine manhole for retrieval later. Once Gyro joins your party you will have the ability to steal too so you can get the rarer ingredient drops from imagines. Theres also something called the shift system where at the press of a button you can send your party members into either attack or protect mode, when fighting a boss this system is very important as when a boss unleashes an attack you get a brief warning of the incoming attack if you switch to the protect shift in time it saves you recieving massive damage. Sometimes as you attack blue & green soul orbs will fly out of the enemy or boss your fighting, these can be picked up to refill your health & magic a tiny bit which certainly does help. On rare occasions a yellow soul orb will fly out if you pick that up your character will do a massive attack which has it's own mini cutscene, sort of like an overdrive attack. The battles are elemental based like pokemon, so knowing which elements to use is key to winning battles as some enemies are resistant to certain stuff. Easiest way of finding out is if when you attack the damage numbers are orange then they are weak against your attack, if they are blue then they have a resistance to it & if they are in white it's neutral. When you first get to a new area any enemies that spot you will rush towards you to battle, but as you get stronger they will run away from you. There are no random battles in this game you can choose to avoid fighting if you want.
You can level up your imagines & feed them items to increase their stats, you can buy sweets & cakes to feed them from the various shops or once you get the alchemy pot you can make your own. You will be given recipes by various people as you talk to them or you can try & mix stuff at random to create new items. You are not punished by experimenting as if the item creation wasn't sucessful you will just get your items back. You can also use the recipe lists in your magic master to make new items which are not just limited to food you can also make weapons & acessories too. A nice touch is everything in the game has it's own little pic, no lists of just words for your items & weapons they are all lovingly drawn in the menu. You can also evolve your imagine if it's at the right level, feeding it a sun star moon or saturn orb will let you choose the next evolution step & to get the final form you need the stronger orbs which you will get the recipes for later on in the game. You can also feed them jewels which will let them learn spells that they wouldn't normally have. Ingredients for alchemy are usually either bought from shops or found on the world map, they appear as sparkling areas on the map. You also get them from defeating imagines but the rarer ingredients need to be stolen as they wont drop during normal battle. Also using your treasure search spell will temp make any hidden chests on the world map visible, some rare ingredients are hidden in those too.
The graphics are pretty amazing from the world map to the dungeon maps to the battle scenes all the scenery is created with incredible detail. All the grass moves, trees sway, water glistens, lava slowly moves in the background it is a beautiful game to look at, you feel compelled to play just to see what beautiful area comes up next, once you get the boat you can explore the islands by sea & once you get Kuro you can take to the air too offering even more freedom. Voice acting & music is also very high quality too, the voices are well matched & pull you right into the story, just a shame i can't understand Shizuku that well, lol bloody Osaka ben accent.
Well thats it for now, i'll post more stuff & more about the extras & differences in each of the 2 versions later. Now people can at least know a bit more about the game, as all i see online mostly is "OMG LEVEL 5 & STUDIO GHIBLI" and thats all that seems to get mentioned. Yes it's a by the numbers rpg that combines elements from dragon quest, final fantasy & pokemon but it's made with such love & charm that i haven't enjoyed myself so much on a rpg like this in many years everything pieces together so wonderfully.
Hopefully on it's english release people will join me in playing this
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