Playstation Ni No Kuni

What, none of you bought the vastly superior Wizard's Edition? :hmmm: This physical wizard's companion is so worth it.

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I'm about 18 hours into it and it's enjoyable. The partner AI is awful, though, so they end up dying or not defending when you want them to against bosses. Characters are fun and interesting, english voice acting is 8/10 (Oliver is probably the only bad one), and the game is pretty to look at.
 
I got that one too Draklor, Wizard buddy :sad2:

And i'm almost 10 hours in myself and i've only had a few stand out issues with the game so far

1. The battle system feels rather basic, and emphasises why I don't think turn based combat should be combined with essencially action RPG, i'm mostly mashing X to win unless I fight a boss (which aside from one notable example, haven't exactly been challenging)

2. You move so damn slowly everywhere, even the speed boost bonuses you get from sidequests doesn't feel substantial enough

3. By extension of 2, no fast travel (at least so far) makes it really drag going place to place, would also be nice if you got told where some of the recipients of the sidequests were located because some are really vague to me, like 'in the east of rolling cliffs' or whatever, I hit the world map and I see no NPC icons anywhere :rage:

That aside though it isn't subtracting much from the enjoyability though with how the game works I don't feel encouraged to really go out of my way for things, such as different elemental familiars and the like :hmmm:
 
Isn't the book awesome :jay: Yeah, walking on the world map can be incredibly slow, even if it is pretty. I end up mashing circle and jump the entire time since it makes you go a bit faster.
 
stevie could not get the wizard edition... it was already sold out

yeah the world map can be very slow to walk round.... also good luck dodging the monsters... that pretty much impossible... i'm in the trails.... PLEASE CAN SOMEBODY ELSE SAY THEY STRUGGLED WITH THE FRIENDSHIP ONE
 
I have this now! I haven't gotten far (only just saved after a few battles when you first make it to the world map), but the opening and everything is seriously stunning. If you can't get past the "childish" names for enemies/places, then you're seriously going to miss out.
I really want to carry on but...Suikoden needs to be finished first. Otherwise I'll just keep thinking about that while playing NNK. FWP :gonk:
 
I really want to get this but I just started replaying Xenogears last week so I am going to wait till I am done. I loved the demo. If anything a cross between Xenoblade and Pokemon is nice. I do hope this game does take some challenge though. I do not care if people find it childish, because I actually love the art style. It cannot. It cannot be such a slow game because I felt the demo to be quite fast. The story seems fine and it is a long game. It should keep me entertained.
 
I'm 28 hours in and I've just beat the main storyline. I have done only a couple of errands/bounties/sidequests.

My characters are at Level 53.

I now have the post-game to do, and one secret, optional boss to beat.

How are you guys holding up?
 
16 hours atm and i just got the ship, but i pretty much done every errand up to this point :P i done half the bounty hunts as well, but been loving the game

as for characters, oliver and esther are lv 24 and swaine is lv 21 atm
 
I sort of want it. Sadly it's only available in-store here at £49.99, for a download code. Unless I can get a physical copy, I'm not bothering >_>
 
I sort of want it. Sadly it's only available in-store here at £49.99, for a download code. Unless I can get a physical copy, I'm not bothering >_>

seriously, you should pick it up, it well wirth the 49 quid price tag...... cuz the game is sooo amazing :)
 
You people upset me. Finishing it in like 20 hours! How dare you!
You need to do all the bounties and appreciate it!!!!!!!! I finally finished it, took me about 60 hours.

Too bad the actual ending is a POS
 
This game is a brilliant work of art. Beautiful to look at, with stunningly well-made animated cut scenes from studio Ghibli, and with the creators being level 5 one should expect none the less. The story in this game is fantastic, it’s powerful and emotional dealing with very serious themes such as death, loss, massacres and despair. Ghibli has this beautiful habit of showing that no being is only evil or good and I think they display it very well in their newest JRPG tittle.

But before I spoil the entire story I must get it through that this game is a world that you want to immerse yourself in and where you truly feel the surge and need to know what happens next. The music score for this is one of the best game soundtracks I have heard in a long time. The game is also huge with a lot of content to go through aimed somewhere from 70 to 100 hours of gameplay worth. Getting a new powerful piece of equipment, learning a new piece of lore or to take on a new boss hunt feels very satisfying. This game truly sucked me in and only after 70 fantastic hours far into the post game was I able to lay it down and think of something else to do.

The Voice acting is exceptionally one of the best high points in this game, it’s really good. Not only can you tell that they have put a lot of effort into doing it right, but should you hate it you can chose to play it with the original Japanese audio which might in itself be a replay value.

I do feel that I personally had a few things I needed to pick on even though I loved the game immensely. Do note that I only view them as minor negative aspects and they were in no way game breaking for me. First of for a game that has both an easy and normal mode I wish there had been an optional hard mode. I feel that most of the high end equipment and the leveling often went to waste because I never needed it. This problem might also go hand in hand with the fact that many of the bosses are easy due to the ability to run away and simply cast spells (especially after you receive a specific spell named after a specific wand), waiting for it to take effect, then proceed to run a good distance away then rinse repeat. By doing this tactic the only attacks bosses can actually hit you with are the ones where they perform a “cut scene attack”.
It’s because of this mechanic that I personally wish that they had gone for a straight classic turn based RPG. Some of the boss battles are challenging mind you, and require that you either change your tactics or grind some more experience to take them on. But I personally felt that there were too few of those. As it stands the combat system is solid and delivers a fun experience.

Also I personally wish that when Familiars evolve they would increased in size and shape more like in Pokémon. Where you can get a small Charmander and transform him into a huge Charizard, while in Ni No Kuni the only things that changes are small things such as color schemes, minor details and such. No familiar grows bigger than any of the main characters! I do feel however, that this is very nitpicky and it might be simply because I am too accustomed with the evolution cycle in Pokémon. Because at the same time I loved that I could equip them with weapons and armor, boosting their stats with treats and cakes.

In short: This is a beautiful game and a great reminder of JRPGs from the 90's.
 
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Getting the game tomorrow once I get paid. Cant wait to finally play this game after hearing nothing but praise from all my friends. Hopefully I finish Grandia before it comes in the mail.
 
I thought it was pretty awesome. I enjoyed all aspects of it and can't really think of anything I absolutely hated. It's still not in my top 5 games though as I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy video games as much as when I was younger. Those damn rose tinted glasses.

The game had a brilliant sountrack aswell.


 
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