Ni No Kuni

[Ultra Mantis]

Studio Ghibli team up with Level 5 for this "shit hot" RPG. Looks absolutely beautiful, came out in Japan ages ago for DS, then was remade / extended for PS3 and now we all have to wait until January 2013 until we can play a version we can understand.





Special edition announced earlier today:

A glorious-looking RPG, Ni No Kuni tells the story of Oliver who embarks upon a journey with his buddy Drippy to resurrect his deceased mother. Publisher Namco Bandai has today revealed the EU and Australasian Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch 'Wizard's Edition', which bundles the game with the following: •Drippy Plush Doll •300+ Page Hardcover The Wizard's Companion Book •Exclusive 'golden mite' and 'golden drongo' DLC familiars The full-colour Wizard's Companion book includes a bestiary alongside in-depth item descriptions, spells and a history of the other world. Additionally, if you pre-order Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch from participating retailers, you'll also get two exclusive familiars called 'flutterby' and 'griffy', created especially for the western release. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch's Wizard's Edition will be available in a limited run, launching with the standard release of the game on January 25th, 2013.

[Sepholio]

I hope this game is as awesomepants as it looks. Been watching it since the announcement for the PS3 version coming stateside.

[Ultra Mantis]

My expectations for this game are so high that I'm not sure if it could possibly live up to them. I'm even considering getting the special edition, love the book gimmick.

The world map looks absolutely fantastic, unnecessary travelling has never looked so good. I've really missed that in recent JRPGS. Plus there are no random encounters and monsters run away from you when theyre outmatched. Just fantastic.

[Ultra Mantis]

[Ultra Mantis]

Will Ni No Kuni Be What Pokémon Should Have Been? When Pokémon Red and Blue were released back in 1998 many people liked them for the core gameplay and the collectible aspect, but they had one big problem: the complete lack of any decent story or characters that created any kind of emotional connection with the player. While collecting Pokémon and sending them to do battle was fun, the game felt flat and soulless to someone like me used to JRPGs with engrossing stories and deep, complex characters. Years passed, and I personally expected to see the franchise evolve. The core target of the first games was growing up, and I waited for Pokémon games to grow up with them. Unfortunately this never happened. The franchise remained stagnant, and despite changing colors and technically being part of the JRPG genre, the developers never bothered adding in something that could be considered an even decent plot. Of course most of the hardcore fans didn’t care, but that decidedly pushed me away from the franchise, and while I played a few Pokémon games since, I always had to put them down in dismay after a few hours. I saw so much wasted potential that I couldn’t bear playing further. Of course I’m sure many will feel differently, thinking that Pokémon‘s (excessive) simplicity is fun and a boon to the franchise, but I can’t help but feeling that the addictive collectible element and the balanced battles combined with a great story and actually believable characters would have created a much better game series. Now, thirteen years later, I see a game that could finally fulfill that potential. That game isn’t developed by Game Freak, but by Level-5, and it’s called Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Ni No Kuni offers exactly what Pokémon offers: a lot of monsters to be captured thanks to the Imagine system, online battles and trading with other players, and a child-frendly art direction that can be liked pretty much by everyone. On top of that, there are quite a few things that Ni No Kuni will have, but that every Pokémon game sorely lacks: A great story: while Pokémon‘s storylines are a flat framework that could have easily been written by a fifth grader, Ni No Kuni is quite different. Don’t let yourself be tricked by the fairy tale atmosphere and style, as the game tells a deep and engrossing coming-of-age tale of courage, sacrifice and love. It most definitely hasn’t been written for kids, and if the DS version is any indication, even the most demanding gamers will be satisfied by the storytelling. The fact that the PS3 version promises to be even deeper doesn’t hurt one bit. It definitely won’t be just an excuse to fill time between capturing a monster and the next. Likable, complex characters: Pokémon‘s characters have the depth of a mud puddle during a drought, and honestly detract a lot from the whole experience of the game. Every time I read their dry lines I feel the compelling need to rip my eyes off. I don’t even think it’s just because I’m heading towards the ranks of older gamers, since I felt exactly the same while playing Pokémon Blue when I was much younger. Ni No Kuni characters are much different. They have the luxury of a personality and they are designed and written to enrich the story, not to be mere soulless entities walking around and offering services. A deep and varied battle system: Pokémon‘s battle system is actually very good, no doubt about it. The problem comes after two thousand of those battles, as boredom due to lack of variation ensues. Granted, any battle system becomes boring after a while, but Ni No Kuni grants a lot more tactical options and ways to fight in addition to using imagines, ensuring that boredom will come much, much later. Drop dead gorgeous graphics and art: many people fall in love at first sight with Ni No Kuni graphicsm and can you blame them? Behind the looks of the game there’s what’s probably the best animation studio in the world: Studio Ghibli, fathered by the animation giant Hayao Miyazaki. I shouldn’t even need to mention the long list of anime movies he directed that are almost unanimously considered classic films, as you most likely know at least a few. The best thing about Ni No Kuni‘s amazing graphics is that there’s a lot to enjoy in the game beyond the visuals. Come for the graphics, stay for the graphics and everything else. A dreamlike soundtrack: you may think that Level-5 could have stopped there after teaming up with one of the most prestigious animation studios in the world, but they didn’t. They went out and enrolled Joe Hisaishi for the soundtrack. Hisaishi-sensei is one of the most prominent composers in Japan, with more than a hundred movie scores in his professional history, many of which for the movies of Miyazaki himself. Finally, they put the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Hisaishi-sensei’s capable hands, and the result couldn’t be anything else than pure poetry. There are few things that can enrich the experience of an RPG game more than a beautiful score, and even in that department Ni No Kuni is set to deliver fully. Don’t get me wrong: Pokémon was and still is a solid franchise with an extremely large following, but it’s also a barebones JRPG that really doesn’t do justice to the genre and to its own potential. On the other hand that potential could finally be fulfilled and amplified tenfold by Ni No Kuni, that not only offers pretty much the same features, but much, much more, and is the labor of love of a dream team of developers, animators and composers that has few equals in this industry. I’m sure that many fans of the Pokémon franchise will feel rather outraged while reading this editorial, but in the end they are probably the ones that have the most reasons to be excited for Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Those that started with Pokémon Blue or Red like me are now grown up, but the franchise didn’t grow with them. Ni No Kuni is probably very similar to what Pokémon would be if the franchise was allowed to grow with its fans. It took thirteen years to get there, but good things come to those who wait.

[Requiem]

Is that going to be PS3 exclusive?

[Ultra Mantis]

Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch hands-on preview If there’s one word to describe Studio Ghibli films, it would simply be ‘sublime’. Nobody quite captures the essence of childhood wonder in such a compelling and truly mesmerising way. The closest Western cinema has is undoubtably Pixar, but there sheer other-worldy nature of Studio Ghibli films is simply incomparable. Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch is Ghibli’s second foray into games, the first being a the little-known Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color which never secured itself a European release. Even Ni No Kuni itself was originally released way back when in 2010, in Japan, on Nintendo DS, receiving a PS3 release in late 2011. If Ghibli’s involvement alone isn’t enough to make you bounce around the room in giddy wonder, LEVEL-5 are also having a say, the masterful tykes behind the Professor Layton and Inazuma series. As you’d expect with any Ghibli title, Ni No Kuni is told through a combination of 2D anime cutscenes and similar 3D gameplay, in a world chock-full of bright colours, mystical vistas and some of the most charming characters you’ll ever meet. Think Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle and, or Boh and Yubaba’s bird in Spirited Away and you’re right on the money. This adventure’s protagonist is a 13-year old boy called Oliver, living the exciting and wondrous life of any young lad, until tragedy strikes, sending him through a magical journey to help someone he loves, accompanied by a child-hood toy come to life, the marvellous fairy Drippy. He’s a knee-high cuddle-bug, with a lantern at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose, localised with a charming Welsh accent in the English language version, and brought to life superbly. Drippy takes Oliver into Ni No Kuni, the literal translation being ‘Second Country’, with the aid of a magic book. It’s Spirited Away meets Wizard of Oz, only there’s so much more to Ni No Kuni than that. Every NPC encountered so far is distinct and wonderful, even most enemies possess an innate charm which smudges the line of good and evil. Comparisons with Pokeman have been rife, but again it’s unfair to simply compare Ni No Kuni in such a two-dimensional fashion. As well as Drippy, serving as a friend and guide rather than a battle partner, Oliver is accompanied by familiars, who share Oliver’s mana and health, adding further dimension over the ‘traditional’ turn-based combat which dominates Japanese games like sepia does The West. Death also carries a penalty beyond simply resetting and sending Oliver back 15 minutes in time, it seems the National Health hasn’t quite made it to Ni No Kuni yet and you will be billed. Upon dying once, and not exactly accruing a King’s ransom, I was left penniless, so it remains to be seen just how severe this is. One thing it does, however, is to teach caution. Ni No Kuni is not a game of brute force, and rightly so in a delicate world such as this. Even with but a brief encounter with Ni No Kuni, it looks poised to deliver the Ghibli sensation of the films, with dialogue positively swelling with charm and glee, undoubtable one of the brightest looking titles of 2013. Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch finally comes to Europe on 25 Jaunary and North America on 22 January, published by Namco Bandai exclusively for PlayStation 3.

[Ultra Mantis]

Beautiful Studio Ghibli and Level-5 RPG, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition will get additional bonus content based upon the number of pre-orders the game receives. The higher the pre-orders, the more goodies will be added, Namco Bandai has confirmed. Going under the banner of 'Ninostarter', like a Kickstarter for the Ni no Kuni Wizard's Edition, the campaign will see more items added to the Special Edition once the pre-order numbers have been determined. You can pre-order the Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition on Namco's store. Namco Bandai has yet to reveal what the added items will be, but the pre-order window closes on August 31st, 2012. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is out in North America in January 22nd, 2013 and in Europe on January 25th, 2013.

www.ninostarter.com/home

[Requiem]

PROBABLY going to pre-order the Wizard's Edition. Dunno. I don't play my PS3 much but I love Ghibli and this has the potential to be an absolutely incredible experience.

[Ultra Mantis]

Not sure if I'm actually going to fork out for it but I've pre-ordered the Wizard's Edition and the standard edition. Hopefully I will remember to cancel one of them before release.

I guess I'll see how the pricing goes and if we're going to get the extra kickstarter goodies in Europe or not.

[Requiem]

Just pre-ordered the Wizard's Edition. UGH. I hate the fact that it cost $111 (after shipping) but I've never bought a Collector's Edition of anything that actually came with nice stuff, and I love Ghibli enough to throw my money at them after seeing several gameplay vids and coming to the conclusion that this is probably going to be an absolutely fantastic game. Will give me a reason to actually play my PS3 at least.

[Ultra Mantis]

The US special edition now has more stuff. Looks like the extra stuff will not be included in the EU version.

From Ninostarter Congratulations Everyone! We’ve reached the first goal and the set of 5 Ni no Kuni Prints will be included in every copy of the Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard’s Edition released in North America. The second goal has been opened up and we think that it’s a pretty cool one, a golden Ni no Kuni Wizard’s Coin. It’s not an in-game coin, it’s a physical coin that you can collect or display proudly next to your Ni no Kuni game.

[Requiem]

Coin would be pretty cool. Only got like 16 days to get it though. Although it did reach 14% in only 2 days. Wonder what the next goal will have.

[Ultra Mantis]

After a two day extension they reached the goal so you'll also get a shiny coin with the special edition. Pre-orders must have been huge on the last day since it reached 16% of the placeholder 3rd goal.

[Ultra Mantis]

Feel like I have been waiting forever for this to come out. A pretty neat FAQ was posted earlier this month.

From playstationlifestyle Ni no Kuni will come out this January in North America and Europe. I’ve noticed a lot of people don’t know much about the game, though, so here’s a helpful FAQ. If you have a question of your own, feel free to ask in the comments. Q: Is this game easy? A: Overall, no. It has easy parts and hard parts. Most of the first 15 hours will be very easy for seasoned gamers who have played RPGs for 20 years, yes. But after a while, you’ll find that there are some very big challenges in Ni no Kuni‘s boss fights and even random encounters. If you move at a normal pace through the story, the difficulty will be hover around a moderate level. The thing is, however, that Ni no Kuni‘s battle system is really fun once you get a variety of characters and abilities (as do your opponents), and there is a hell of a lot to do between all the quests and monster hunting, so a lot of people might find themselves unintentionally “grinding.” I hesitate to use that term, though, because the battle system being fun makes it not a “grind” by definition. “Grinding” more applies to battles that you fight because you seriously can’t advance to the next story section without getting slaughtered — you don’t want to fight them, but feel you must. If you’re overleveled or if you’re anywhere before the second or third town? Yes, it’s pretty easy. Once you’ve got multiple party members? Oh hell no, stuff gets real. Your first battles on the water (after you get the ship) will demonstrate a quick step up in difficulty. Q: How do you get into battle? Random encounters? A: In dungeons and on the overworld map, the player can see all enemies (unless they’re hiding in the forest). If they’re strong enough to be confident against you, they’ll charge once they’re within draw distance. Sometimes, however, weak enemies will spot Oliver and run away. It’s a subtle hint from the game that, hey, you’re almost too strong for this area, wink wink, nudge nudge. Q: Is this game too kiddy? A: That depends on you. If you’re an adult who is confident in your maturity level, then no, it isn’t too kiddy. If you have insecurities about your own maturity level, then maybe it is too kiddy for you (or the other way around). There is a strong difference between mature content and mature themes, and there is a big difference between something being childlike and being childish. The inclusion of handguns, the F word, and breasts does not make a game “mature.” This is a fallacy created by the ESRB rating system which brands a game containing such things as “Mature.” The lack of logic in that naming can be found underneath the giant M, where the label says “17+,” meaning 17-year-olds can buy these games. We all know that 17-year-olds are the least mature creatures on the face of the planet. Ni no Kuni stars a young boy in colorful world populated by cute monsters, so it will inevitably be mislabeled as a “kids’ game” by some. There’s a difference between content being appropriate for the whole family and content being specifically targeted at children, though, and Ni no Kuni is a game truly enjoyable adults in the same way that Studio Ghibli’s best movies are truly mystifying to all age groups. In fact, Famitsu’s review said (and I agree) that the difficulty of this game might be a little too high for the kids that might be drawn in by the art style. Q: I’ve heard the battle system is like Final Fantasy XII? Is that true? A: No, though I can see where people get that idea. Both have battles furiously raging on while the characters can move freely, so it does look visually similar. In Final Fantasy XII, moving around had very little effect on your chances of getting hit, whereas in Ni no Kuni, a character can run laps around the battlefield while an opponent is unable to land a hit. Of course, sooner or later, you’ll have to actually do something from a menu, but the point is, temporary survival can come from use of distance, which was an extreme rarity in FFXII. I remember running from enemies only to be getting “hit” in the back as I did so. Final Fantasy XII‘s Gambit system allowed players to be specific about what they wanted characters to do at what times, while Ni no Kuni only offers a very vague set of A.I. management settings. More importantly, the flow of battle is entirely different. Final Fantasy XII had its characters with their license boards and such, but Ni no Kuni has humans who control monsters. It’s tough to explain every single difference, but let’s simplify it to this: playing Ni no Kuni doesn’t feel anything like playing Final Fantasy XII. Where playing Bejeweled gives you an advantage in understanding Puzzle Quest, playing FFXII will not make you understand Ni no Kuni any better. Q: Is the monster catching like Pokémon? A: Only in the sense that you catch monsters. If catching monsters makes things inherently like Pokémon, then I guess so, but the mechanics of catching the monsters and process of raising said monsters are handled very differently in Ni no Kuni. For more on Pokémon comparisons, see the section below the rest of the questions. Q: How is EXP handled? A: EXP given at the end of the fight is received by all human characters (starting with one, but reaching three about one-third of the way through the story main story) and all monsters that they have. Since each human can bring three monsters into battle, this means up to nine monsters can get EXP for each fight. The points are given straight up in a static amount (not divided), to all participants, regardless of their status or HP at the end of the fight. This might sound too generous to the uninitiated, but trust me, with how many monsters you’ll be wanting to improve, you’ll be glad this system is in place. Q: How does crafting work? A: What one might call “vanilla.” You put items in your alchemy pot and see what happens. If the chosen items can’t be combined, then you don’t lose your stuff. After you get the alchemy pot, you can also get a recipe book from a nearby quest, but it’ll take most people some time to be able to fulfill that quest. This book won’t be complete, however, and you’ll need to get other ones from NPCs in future towns. What I don’t like about it is that you can’t double the quantities to make double the items unless you have the recipe, and getting that recipe is often difficult and/or time-consuming. If you want three juicy sandwiches — made with one bread and one soft beef — then you have to add the ingredients over and over and over, manually, for every single one you craft, until you get the recipe. I know what you’re thinking: “Doesn’t it save the recipe after you successfully craft something?” The answer is no, it doesn’t. This really should have been solved with a simple algorithm. Q: Are battles turn-based, action style, or real-time menu based? A: Some portion of all of those. When deciding to attack, escape, defend, or use another type of skill, time marches on and combatants will be punching each other in the face. When controlling a human in battle (instead of a monster) and selecting which of their spells or items to use, time stops. Other than those intervals, things move in a very fast-paced version of menu-based real time combat. Q: So up to nine monsters plus three humans in battle at the same time? Heath, how is that not easy? A: Each human carries up to three monsters to stand in for them during battle; they can fight for themselves or send out a monster, but the humans and monsters share HP. The human’s HP is used for all of the monsters they carry into battle. So when Oliver sends out his magic knight, and the magic knight takes a kick in the groin, damage is calculated based on the magic knight’s defense and equipment, but the HP deduction comes from Oliver. If he’s got a monster out there with weak magic defense and the enemy uses a magic attack, look out Oliver, because here comes the pain — regardless of Oliver’s own magic defense stat. You might technically have 12 combatants at your disposal, but like baseball, it’s three strikes and you’re out in Ni no Kuni. Resurrection items are pretty expensive, and using them will take a lot of time, during which your surviving character will be the target of attacks, so bringing people back to their feet is hardly ever a gimme. Q: What about escaping from battle and Game Over? A: If you try to escape and fail, your whole party stands still and can’t select any commands for a few seconds, during which the enemies will do their best to make you pay. I haven’t been keeping track officially, but I feel like I have about a 50-50 chance of escaping when I try it. When a game over happens (and it will happen to you), you’ll get the option of going back to the title screen or resuming from the approximate point where you died, with all of your EXP and items intact. The latter will cost 10% of your money, though. Q: About how long is the game? A: The main story will take most people 40, then more depending on how much treasure hunting, monster catching, leveling, world map exploration, and questing that you do. If you want to do everything and find everything, you’re probably looking at somewhere North of 90 hours. Q: I listened to some jackass podcast that said there was nothing to do in the game. Why would they say that? A: Because they don’t know What’s Up. Yes, a certain podcast has made its rounds online, during which people express that Ni no Kuni‘s towns are empty and its world map is lifeless. This could not be more false. The world map is one of the deepest, most detailed, and most gorgeous in any RPG I’ve ever played — and this is the genre in which I spend the most time. There are treasures to seek of two kinds, simple items that regenerate after a time, and one-time discoveries that are usually a lot more desirable. There are even secret villages to discover. Those don’t have a whole lot in them (how would they remain a secret otherwise, huh?), but there are often treasure boxes, NPCs to talk to and get some more info about the world, and some will even give you quests. Q: Quests? Are these “fetch” quests? A: No. When I hear “fetch quest,” I think of a guy saying “Hey can you go buy me a loaf of bread?” and then you bring him back some bread and he gives you 20 gold and a dagger. While there are quests in Ni no Kuni that fit this description, the majority do not (find an item, kill an enemy, raise a certain rare monster, alchemize something special, etc.). Moreover, the reward system is excellent. Not only do you get the rewards from the quest givers like one tends to expect from “fetch quests,” but each one is worth a certain number of stamps. Fill up a stamp card, and you can go to the nearest quest office (one in every town) and trade it in for rewards. These prizes include running slightly faster on the world map (good for escaping or for catching foes that try to run from you), EXP boosts, and more. It’s easy to become addicted to questing in this game. If you strip away most games’ quests down to only the design mechanics, yeah, they all end up pretty similar, and I can see why some people might be quick to judge the questing system, especially when they don’t understand it. What I can tell you about Ni no Kuni‘s quests is this: as of my 33 hour playtime and as of my wife’s completion of the game, we both still have a lot of fun doing the quests and filling up my quest stamp cards. The system is set up very well. Q: TOWNZ!? A: Yep. They’re big, colorful, and fun. Q: World map? A: Yes. It has an incredible amount of detail and is worth exploring. If you ever, at any time, enjoyed running around an overworld in a Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Suikoden, Breath of Fire, or Wild ARMs game, you’ll love this world map. THE POKEMON SECTION Since there is monster catching in Ni no Kuni (which the latter calls “imajinns,” but we’ll say “monster” for simplicity), it gets a lot of Pokémon comparisons. Really, the comparison ends almost at the same point it begins: you catch monsters and they can evolve. That’s about all they have in common. Pokémon, however, is a game about catching and raising monsters, whereas Ni no Kuni is far from it. Ni no Kuni is a game about a boy venturing into a parallel world and trying to save it and his own at the same time, all the while trying to save his dead mother. Final Fantasy VII is not a game about shiny magic balls, it just has them in it; Catherine is not a game about sheep, it just has a lot of sheep in it; Breath of Fire isn’t about changing into dragons, that’s just a key battle mechanic; we could go on for days. It should be noted of course, just like the FFXII comparison above, that despite some similar features, playing Pokémon is nothing like playing Ni no Kuni. Having experience with one will not help you with the other. In Pokémon, you beat on a monster until it’s weak, then throw a ball to *try* and catch it. Ni no Kuni starts with beating up an enemy like that, but you can’t just choose to catch any monster, they have to first show affection for your team, signaled by hearts over their heads. Then, the game’s leading lady Maru (called “Esther” in the English version) can use her charm ability to bring in the new recruit. There is a timer on this, but when used within the limit, it has 100% accuracy. Evolution is also different than Pokémon. In Nintendo’s monster catcher, evolution is possible at certain levels, and then the player can choose to evolve them. Skill learning: Pokémon – With level, though certain forms of a monster will get skills earlier than other forms. Ni no Kuni – Some monsters within the same evolution path can’t learn skills that others can, but you can *see* this beforehand, so you can avoid missing something that you think might be useful. You can also see ahead of time what your new stats will be when you evolve. Levels and Stats: Pokémon – Monsters maintain the same level when they evolve. Monsters higher on the evolution path tend to learn skills more slowly but have higher stats. You can’t see (as far as I remember) what skills you will and won’t learn or what your stats will be after you do evolve. Ni no Kuni – Evolving a monster is done with consumable stones found in chests or dropped by enemies, and only after they’ve reached a minimum level. Choosing to evolve a monster will take its level back down to 1, but its base stats will be much better than the Lv. 1 version of its predecessor, and it may have a better growth rate to boot. This means that the Lv. 8 version of some monsters will be superior to the Lv. 18 versions of some others. The higher a monster’s stats at the time of evolution, then in general, the higher its new base is in the new Lv. 1 form. There may also be an impact on the growth rate. Variety: Pokémon – Monsters evolve on a straight path (with the exception of Eevee). Pichu can only become Pikachu, and Pikachu can only become Raichu. Ni no Kuni – Most monsters have only one option for their first evolution, but after that, they can take a different path. You might want to catch a few of certain monsters so that you can explore both paths, because once you evolve up, there is no going backwards (a trait shared by both games). OK! I hope I’ve covered everything. If you want some opinion on the matter, I’ll be reviewing the game on PSLS soon, and you can meanwhile check out my wife’s Ni no Kuni review. If you have more questions, fire away in the comments section and I’ll either answer them there or even add them to this feature. Thanks for reading! If you can’t wait till January, there’s always the import option for those willing to brave the Japanese language.

[Ultra Mantis]

Demo is on PSN this week (that's NOW in American time), bitches.

[Requiem]

Gonna have to hop on that.

Disappointed that we're the only people interested in this game. It looks fantastic.

[OssMan]

I got the demo and was killed

[Ultra Mantis]

I died my first attempt on Forest Guardian too, then I figured out how to switch to Oliver and he's actually better for the fight than the Marr Mite since you can move him out of the way of attacks and heal yourself.

Love the demo though, everything is as good as I hoped it would be. Played through twice and used up the time limit both times just exploring. The world map is a beaut.

[Requiem]

Got to play each little mission of the demo. Didn't die at all yet, but it certainly got close. Mostly from getting used to the controls, which I really like. I like the combination of moving around/positioning, with the active turn-based combat. When you get 3 different familiars at the same time, it can be a little daunting trying to decide what to do in the allotted time between attacks, but I think I'll get used to it when actually starting at the BEGINNING of the game instead of minus any sort of tutorial when they drop you in the game.

[Ultra Mantis]

The volcano mission seems to give you a way overpowered team to make up for blindly dropping you at a mid game boss, the little totoro lookalike in particular has sky high stats. I found the battle system a lot of fun, keep going back to the demo in between other games and trying things out.

[jcmoorehead]

Got done playing the demo the other day, was actually the second time I've played it as I had an opportunity when I went down to a convention and they had a Namco Bandai rep there with this exact demo.

When we played the demo at the convention, the person from the audience who had a go on it nearly died on the guardian, and the rep did actually comment that many journalists had failed on that mission.

It was nice to actually play through the demo properly, I didn't really get a chance to try it when I was at the convention only a bit of the first mission so it was fun to go through the Volcano level too.

[Requiem]

Everything definitely felt easy in the demo except the bosses, which were actually somewhat tough. But I think the game itself is likely to be more challenging once you get into the guts of it. The amount of things I saw looking through menus was a bit overwhelming, which I like because it means there will be plenty to geek out on. Wish they had at least a partial version of the Wizard's Companion just cause I wanted to see it.

[Ultra Mantis]

If you still aren't interested in this because you have no soul or whatever, have some exposition.

[Poit]

OK, I think I'm going to need to try this demo once I get some time off work.

[OssMan]

I don't understand why it's taken this long for a game to be created with a proper world map. When the PlayStation 2 era started I felt like games with a proven formula like Final Fantasy would keep their formula and just use the technological advancements for their benefit like Zelda did, instead of completely abandoning everything. After playing the demo of Ni No Kuni it seems like this is what Final Fantasy should have turned into after Final Fantasy 9.

[Poit]

OK, after playing the demo, I'm getting this game.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

Want this, but my PS3 is kind of out of action.

Wish these cunts would have kept the DS version

[Poit]

I was trying to decide whether or not to get the Wizard's Edition or just pre-order from Amazon. I want the book & plushie from the Wizard's Edition, but the bonus familiar from Amazon looks kinda awesome.

But, it looks like the Wizard's Edition isn't available anymore, so that decision is made for me!

[Ultra Mantis]

Reviews are starting to roll in and they're pretty high if youre into that sort of thing.

This has been delayed a week for Europe though and it's the most devastating news I've heard since Walter White got cancer.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I played this at Hyper Japan and REALLY want it, but I lack the necessary PS3. If only they'd localised the DS version.

[Poit]

IGN review: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/...e-witch-review

[Requiem]

Want this so bad. Next tuesday! Hope they ship it so it arrives on release day.

[Ultra Mantis]

My Wizard's Edition has an estimated delivery of 4th Feb. So jealous.

[Poit]

Your Amazon.com order of "Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the..." has shipped!
Your estimated delivery date is: Tuesday, January 22, 2013

[Ultra Mantis]

Did you get it yet Poit? I want to play this like a year ago.

[jcmoorehead]

EU Launch trailer for this just came out, can't wait till Feb 1st.

[Poit]

Originally Posted by Ultra Mantis Did you get it yet Poit? I want to play this like a year ago.

It was waiting for me when I got home last night. I'm about 3 hours in.

My only complaints so far is that it's awkward to select the Defend command in battle, and the after battle screen where you get XP & treasure is too slow.

Overall, it's pretty good. Obviously I haven't gotten too far into the game, but any game where you need to

SPOILER: show

literally find a red herring

is one I'm probably going to like.

That probably wasn't worth a spoiler tag, but whatever.

[Ultra Mantis]

I've read / watched a couple of reviews and had a few snippets like that, going to have to avoid looking up this game now that it's out over here though since I expect spoilers to be popping up everywhere without warning. Gameplay wise, I did see

SPOILER: show

you can unlock a one button "all out defend" command later in the game

so there's that to quell my fears.

[Poit]

OK, that sounds like a good thing. Thanks.