Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

With the recent announcement of the PS4, you might think that the era of the PS3 is over. But it isn't - yet. I hadn't owned a gaming console for several years when I found out about Ni no Kuni. Now, I played my fair share of games back in the day, but the video game market in recent years has just seemed... dull. In large part that's because I don't care for first-person shooters or fantasy sports games. I don't begrudge anyone who does, but I play games for the same reason I read books: to escape into a story. Online shootouts with trigger-happy 14-year olds just doesn't do it for me.Of course, the gaming studios mainly make games for those 14-year olds, not me. So instead of original content and new stories, we get Call of Duty sequels. So when I found out Studio Ghibli was involved in production of a video game, I was only cautiously optimistic. It seemed too good to be true, and it was hard to imagine that their first video game collaboration would be a resounding success. Then I saw the screenshots... and that was when I started poking around eBay for a second-hand PS3.Because, you see, the game art is astounding. It's really a step above any video game world you've ever seen. Ni no Kuni is simply a Studio Ghibli anime rendered as an entire walk-through world. As you play, you'll come across a scene and think it's the best-looking shot in the game. And then, a few minutes later, you'll come across something better. One of my favorite visuals comes late in the game: a character's backstory told with haunting, comic book-style sketches. It should go without saying that this isn't a game you want to play on an old CRT TV: an HD screen is the way to go, the larger the better (mine is a 100-inch projection system - I was worried about quality, but the game looks great.) Also, turn up the volume: I'd be denying the skill of Joe Hisaishi if I didn't mention the music. In my opinion, it's the best score he's done since Spirited Away.Now, if the game just looked and sounded great, it would still be worth playing. But the other half of the game's development was done by Level 5. Level 5 has been building critically-acclaimed JRPG's for over a decade. And they've been getting better at it. The story builds throughout the game, is clever and amusing, and seems to make an effort to avoid cliches while also making fun of them (your first major objective in the game is to find the king's red herring). As a resident of southeast Michigan, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that this is certainly the first time Detroit (or a throwback to a 50's era Detroit suburb, rather) has been featured in a JRPG! There's even a "To I-75 North" sign on one of the streets in the neighborhood.The battle system in Ni no Kuni is the best and most fun I've ever used - a clever hybrid of live-action and turn-based attacks. Basically, most actions have a time-out period after you use them, but you're still free to move around the arena, or cancel an in-progress attack if you suddenly need to cast a spell instead. But that's not all - like most games involving physical battle, there are defensive moves (usually overlooked in favor of repeatedly pressing the attack button!) In Ni no Kuni, you must learn when to defend, when to attack, and when to use provisions/spells if you're going to beat the game.I played the game all the way through and completed all the side-quests. In the end, it took me just over 100 hours spread across January to April, but you could certainly do it in less, and I could have easily spent more. A big factor in this game is how many familiars you want to collect and battle with - I only had about 30 total. There's also an entire in-game book (the Wizard's Companion), of which I've read only bits-and-pieces. If you think the game is expensive, think of it this way: if you buy the game at full price and a used PS3 for, say, $200 total, you're paying $2/hour for entertainment for a few months. My only real complaints are the click-through dialog text, which gets to be repetitive, and that most of the side-quests weren't very hard. But really, these are small complaints in a masterpiece game. Quite frankly, if you're on the edge about playing the game, you should go do it. You won't regret it.

Well here I am to state the obvious and that is that this game is a pokemon game on steroids, but much more, let me explain. This game follows the adventure of a young boy named Oliver who is transported to an alternate reality where he is on a quest to resurrect his dead mother. Needless to say things get a lot deeper and you meet tons of monsters, enemies, and of course companions along the way. There are tons of things to love about this game especially if you enjoyed the old DragonQuest games on the PS2, or even the old Playstation games on well, every Nintendo platform ever. So to start off with the combat is incredibly smooth. You are able to choose between yourself or what are called familiars, the tiny little creatures you are able to capture, train, and eventually evolve ( hence the Pokemon references ). The familiars are a little more complicated than your typical Pikachu though, you are able to give them treats to boost what stats you desire as well as boost their familiarity with their handler, increasing their power even more. You can also outfit them with certain weapons, armor, and accessories turning them into whatever you desire, if you have the patience. You can also create your own gear and find different recipes to outfit yourself, your comrades, and your familiars which is alot of fun as well. There is the typical "grind" factor in this game though when it comes to finding ingredients for these recipes, but fortunately the recipes themselves do not require absurd amounts of ingredients as is the case of some other RPG's. As great as that may sound, or not, depending on how you rate this review, the 3 things that stood out to me about this game were the graphics, the music, and the story. All three of them were amazing. First off the graphics sucked me in as soon as I loaded the game up and began touring Olivers hometown of Motorville. The cell shading on it was again reminiscent of Dragon Quest 8, and with the combined power of the PS3 was absolutely gorgeous. Secondly the score was amazing. It fit the game perfectly and in all honesty made the game an even greater experience, relaxin when it needed to be and intense when the moments warranted. Finally, I get to the story. It had been a long time that I had been sucked into a JRPG's story like I was with this game. You become very fond of some of the characters, very annoyed with some, and of course just downright hate a lot of the others. I found myself wanting to know more, do more, and of course explore more of the world to gain knowledge and items to beef up my character, yes but also to complete many of the offered quests. I guess that brings me to my final topic the quests and bounties that are offered in gameplay. Most quests are nothing more than just retrieving this here or there or helping someone find something they lost but the game gives you some extra incentive to complete these quests. You have what is called a stampbook, and upon completion of quests you get a certain amount of stamps and every 10 you collect you complete pages. There are certain rewards that can be bought for certain amounts of completed stamp pages which can make it easier to find items, tame familiars, and overall just make your journey easier. These stamps are also offered by hunting bounties, or hunting monsters. These bounties can also get you some rare equipment and items used to equip your familiar, create items, or trade with people in order to complete quests. Well I hope everyone finds this review helpful and if you decide to purchase this game, gamefly it, or borrow it from a friend , I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Happy Hunting!