Ni No Kuni(PS3)

[jmood88]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

I think that this is the only ps3 exclusive that I'm really excited about.

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

English trailer. Release pushed to Q1 2013.

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[Jasong7777]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

That looks awesome. That's the closest you're going to get to playing an anime.

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Eurogamer Preview

As a living, breathing cartoon, the game is a startling visual accomplishment. Oliver's cape billows around him as he runs among two-dimensional characters that come to life within the 3D world as you turn to look at them. Only in the cut-scenes that punctuate the action does the game fall back into the limited animation style so familiar to anime fans - the wide-eyed characters gasping in astonishment as the world transforms around them. It's an effective juxtaposition that startles and delights, and you're constantly reminded of the heritage that's been brought to the game through the developer's association with the animation studio.

Studio Ghibli's involvement clearly runs deep, and the decree issued against making eye contact in the Palace of the Porcine Prince reminds me immediately of the bridge scene from Spirited Away where a spell can be broken with a single breath. It's eerie, mesmerising, dreamscape fantasy and it comes as no surprise to learn that the animations, characters and environments are all straight from Ghibli, while Level-5 set to work on the mechanics of the game.

That sense of familiarity is there in the menu-driven combat system, radial menus stacked upon characters, stacked upon pet combat options - a deep system with the options to drill down deeper into your combat pets, set up individual fighting tactics and manage spell-casting. As you juggle with your wide-ranging abilities, the camera whips and whirls between characters and bosses: a dynamic and cinematic combat mode that confuses at first but soon settles into the rhythm of a cartoon at play with itself.

If the micro-management feels too overpowering or detracts from the cinematic flow of the game, then a tactics system allows you to apply pre-set instructions to both your companions and your colleagues during combat: 'Keep us Healthy', 'Do What You Like', 'Provide Backup' and 'Don't Do Anything' are just a handful of the tactical options available.

"We can't go into specifics right now, but it's possible there will be additional creatures for the international version as well as potential DLC," explains Hino when asked about any aesthetic changes planned for the Westernised version, in addition to localising the game's million-plus lines of dialogue into English.

"That said, we are planning for other enhancements for the overseas version - we are in the midst of planning this out both internally and with Namco so we can't announce specifics. We are planning something additional."

Ni no Kuni is as strong an argument as any that the Japanese development scene has more to offer the West than recent debate might have you believe. Level-5 has found personality in their game and ingenuity in their relationship with Studio Ghibli - and that relationship is helping to shake off some of the habitual crutches of the genre, while maintaining its grand tradition of escapist adventure.

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Release set for January 22, 2013

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[bcruise]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Man, that seems so far away.

[bcruise]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

First North American gameplay I've seen:

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Get More: GameTrailers.com, Ni no Kuni: White Witch - E3 2012: Big Wide World Gameplay (Cam), PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

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Get More: GameTrailers.com, Ni no Kuni: White Witch - E3 2012: Forest Exploration Gameplay (Cam), PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

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Get More: GameTrailers.com, Ni no Kuni: White Witch - E3 2012: Porco Grosso Boss Gameplay (Cam), PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Steelcase being offered for pre-ordering at Gamestop:

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

15 minute demo:

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[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

RPG Land: Import Review

Longtime JRPG fans will be be delighted to explore a “real” world map — the kind that has gradually become an endangered species over the last two generations. Ni no Kuni‘s take on the old staple is grand, three-dimensional, and lush, with every kind of landscape imaginable, and a perfect scale. Mountains tower over the party, and forests shield characters and monsters from view, while roads and rivers snake across the landscape. If you don’t want to explore it for its beauty, the world comes with plenty of trimmings, from buried treasure, to hidden villages, to areas to catch advanced monsters.

Team management is essential to victory, and with up to twelve characters deployable in battle, there’s plenty of room for customization. The three human characters can each carry with them three “Imajinns,” monsters created from the depths of human hearts who can fight in their place. This forms three stacks of four characters each, and the stacks share HP and MP across characters. A typical battle will have the fighting member of each stack rotating multiple times, as each Imajinn can only spend a limited time in battle before needing to recharge. Each Imajinn has its own set of equipment, skills and battle commands, and there are over two hundred recruitable or evolvable Imajinn in the game.

Winning fights is determined much less by a difference of one or two levels or a new piece of equipment than by a deliberate focus by the player and attention to the tide of battle. Guarding at the correct time could mean the difference between a character taking 30 or 180 damage, but constantly trying to avoid damage wears down your resources. Enemies dish out a ton of damage in a very short time, and players must adapt or die a swift death. While the early hours are of course easing the player into things, don’t let that fool you; things ramp up. In-battle healing is a necessity even in many regular fights, and one needs to be prepared, as the leader, to play a variety of rapidly changing roles, from tanking to dodging to buffing to delivering killing blows. It’s frenetic, it’s intense, it’s exciting, and it stays that way the whole game long.

Ni no Kuni isn’t the most intense, dramatic and adult tale on the market, but it takes itself seriously, and comes off as sincere instead of artificial. It puts a higher value on telling a good, holistic story than on spinning a yarn with marketable cutscenes. There are no characters tailor-made for profitable demographics, no loud demonstrations of might, no huge philosophical speeches, no outrageous outfits, no impossibly garish weapons, or any other trappings of the genre that have long since grown stale. Oliver, Shizuku, Marl and Gyro aren’t flashy, outgoing or bombastic, don’t act like Hollywood heroes, and are almost painfully uncool. They are just the humble heroes of a quiet story that is equal parts sweet, sad and refreshing.

The main story could take anywhere from 25-40 hours to complete, and doing all quests available before the final dungeon pushes the play time well over 60 hours. Even after the main game is finished, there are still 100 hidden treasure chests, seven pirate memorials, and sixteen hidden villages on the world map to discover; an Imajinn battle league to conquer; a magic spell book to complete; a casino with slots, minigames and a cutscene theater; postgame quests and bounties to hunt down; alchemy recipes to find; and Golden Imajinns to catch. Full completion of the game will require at least 100 hours from most people.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch feels like the second coming of 16-bit RPG classics, with a breathtaking Studio Ghibli exterior and a sublime orchestral soundtrack. The pacing is impeccable. It never slows down, never waivers in the amount of excellence it packs into its experience. There is no “that one part” or “that one dungeon” that drags it down. It turns on the charm, the entertainment, and the fun from the first hours, and doesn’t turn them off throughout the entire duration of the sixty hours you’ll probably spend finishing it. Exploring the world map never gets old, the battle system stays thrilling, and the characters are lovable. Nothing about this game is phoned in. It contains the same elements and same spirit that made so many of us fall in love with the genre in the first place. It doesn’t have a complicated, emotional, life-changing message or story, but it doesn’t have to. It touches a deep vein of nostalgia and childlike wonder.

[bcruise]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Still on track for January 22?

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Still on track for January 22?

Yep

...

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[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Demo Coming This Week

NAMCO BANDAI Games and LEVEL-5 today announce that the demo of the highly anticipated JRPG Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch™ will be available on the Sony PlayStation®Network for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system on December 4th in North America and on December 5th in Europe.

You will be able to play through two different levels of the game where you can test your mettle against a couple of the game’s most infamous bosses: Guardian of the Woods and Moltaan.

[Flawless]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

You get to run around a portion of the world map in the first demo.

Gorgeous game, great music, tons of charm, fun and involving battle system. Only saw Normal and Easy difficulties in the demo. Maybe will be a bit on the easy side? But that wouldn't bother me. Already was one of my most anticipated games next year, and this demo just made the wait for January 22 that much harder.

[jmood88]

Re: Ni No Kuni(PS3)

Joe Hisaishi (the composer for all of Miyazaki's movies) is doing the music for this game, as if I couldn't get more excited for it.