Ni No Kuni: Level 5's magnum opus!!

The current generation has had some very interesting trends from downloadable content, system updates, digital distribution and retro 2D gaming highlighting the horizon. Perhaps one of the biggest talking points of the entire generation has been JRPGs. The genre had two bumper decades when the number of games on consoles used to decide the console wars. SNES, PS1 and PS2 had some of the greatest ever JRPGs which gave incredible popularity to these systems. The HD generation was a different kettle of fish. Large production teams and higher budgets meant game companies needed to have block buster titles. JRPGs weren’t given priority like they were in previous console cycles. That led to the false perception that the genre was died or dying. As the generation hit its stride the number of JRPGs slowly started to increase. It’s thus fortunate that some quality games started to roll in onto consoles in the form of Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy XIII and Xenoblade Chronicles. Hence this brings me to Level 5’s magnificent Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch!  A traditional JRPG made in the mold of some of the classic games of the SNES era but with all the bells and whistles of an HD generation! Ni No Kuni is the prime example of how a traditional JRPG can turn heads in the new generation.

A couple of years ago when Level 5 unveiled Ni No Kuni for the PS3 after the success of the Japan only DS game of the same name it was clear that Level 5 meant business in giving the HD generation its best traditional JRPG which it required. 2009’s Lost Odyssey was the only game which acted as flag bearer for traditional JRPGs and while it was a fantastic game in its own right, it was a sinfully overlooked. But Level 5 took it upon itself of not only making a great JRPG but to make sure it sold a few copies through aggressive marketing. Coupling itself with the animation giant Studio Ghibli, it crafted a deep RPG with some of the most astounding visuals and art style to grace a gaming console. Screenshots and trailers looked great but seeing the game on a proper TV was something else! So finally after 8 wonderful months of playing non-stop I have finally reached the end credits. Incredible is a word that comes in mind when talking about Ni No Kuni!!

In the following paragraphs I will be jotting down things which I liked about the game and things which I didn't:

LIKES:

Make no mistake, Ni No Kuni ranks as one of the most beautiful and colourful game ever created! The game looks gorgeous when in motion. The level of animation fluidity is outstanding and the vivid colours almost ‘bleed’ off the screen. The towns and dungeons are spectacularly rendered and visiting any new place was an awe-inspiring experience. The current generation has given us some amazingly realistic and mature looking games which blurred the lines of the uncanny valley, but Ni No Kuni is one of the rare games that seem to have bucked this common trend with this colourful bonanza! Level 5 partnership with Studio Ghibli was an inspired one as the studio was responsible for the amazing art style of the game. It was truly like playing a Studio Ghibli movie.!That in itself was a surreal experience and which definitely made the game stand out from its peers! I will be very surprised if the game doesn't win any awards for its visuals and art design.

Level 5 has earned its stripes in the JRPG industry as a seminal game company and the game play of Ni No Kuni once again shows how much the company and its founder Akira Hino understand what makes JRPGs click. The battle system is a hybrid of real-time and turn-based mechanics in lieu Grandia, Xenoblade Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles. The battle system uses the whole Pokémon/Persona mechanics of using monsters to do all the battling. I know that a lot of people were put off by that and I too have never been a Pokémon fan but Ni No Kuni borrows that feature quite smartly. I finished the game with 90% of the familiars I captured in the first 20-30 hours of the game. What makes the combat involving is how tactics have to be changed on the fly especially during boss battles. The stiff difficulty kept me on my toes. Don’t let the cute exterior fool you into thinking that the game is easy as it’s not.  I had to have good levels and good equipment to overcome tough monsters and bosses!

The length of the game was very satisfactory. It took me 62 hours to finish the main story and 90% of the side quests and bounty hunts (which there were quite A LOT of). As soon as the game finished I found myself back in the game world with new side quests which were tough and complex and an ultimate secret boss (whom I am still trying to fight with, having to go through a long series of hoops). There is also the coliseum to compete in. So basically the game can easily take 80 hours to fully beat.

The sound productions were top notch. Studio Ghibli’s alumni Joe Hisaishi produced the entire sound track which was epic and yet very heart warming. As his first foray in games Hisaishi-san did a fantastic job as his work easily rivals that of Nobou Uematsu and Yasunori Mitasuda. The voice acting has got to be one of the best this year. The last couple years has seen British voice actors coming to the fore: Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story had some amazing voice work and Ni No Kuni once again follows the trend. The entire British cast was pitch-perfect esp. the main antagonists but  the best performance was by Mr. Drippy, The High Lord of High Fairies and Oliver’s trusty side kick, who had a thick Welsh accent which was just wonderful. More games should have Welsh accents as far as I am concerned! The rest of the cast were right up there although I did feel the ‘weakest’ performance was of Oliver as it sounded too sweet and innocent. Guess that is what the aim was in the first place!

Oliver’s journey after his mother death was quite heart breaking and poignant. His quest to bring back his mother from another realm was a very effective plot hook which kept me going on ahead. Not many games have the courage to have such a depressing back ground yet Ni No Kuni wore it as a badge of honour  Yes the plot isn't a complex or epic but had enough charm to pull at the heart strings. What backed up the good plot were the characters; Oliver, Esther and Swaine weren't the most fleshed out main characters but I always felt close to them and egged them up on their perilous journey. The relationship of the 3 heroes really took the simple plot and made it very personal.

While the game was truly fantastic there were just a couple of things which did not sit in well with me:

DISLIKES:

The most glaring negative was the amazing voice acting. As I mentioned before the voice work in Ni No Kuni was quite strong, but there was so little of it! In this day and age a game of Ni No Kuni’s pedigree should have been fully voiced. Namco Bandai was in charge of the English localization and I just feel they may have cut corners. I mean Namco Bandai’s own JRPG franchise: Tales games are 90% voiced yet Ni No Kuni had very little voice work! Sure it isn't a deal breaker but I think more voice acting would have certainly made the game more immersive.

Level 5 was clearly inspired by the SNES era as it lovingly recreated it for the HD era in Ni No Kuni, yet the plot narrative still retained the old school feel. What that meant that sometimes the plot took a back seat and that kind of killed off tension of the plot. Once again this doesn't really affect the game on a whole but it would have been nice if it told the story in a proper way.

Lastly the ending was very VERY disappointing. Without going into detail to avoid spoilers the ending didn't do it for me. I am sure many of you guys will disagree but for me the game’s ending lacked the ‘oomph’ I was expecting.

Ni No Kuni will be fondly remembered in the years ahead as the game which not only stood against the dreaded perception that traditional JRPGs were dead but did amazingly well sales wise. Even the harshest critics of the genre warmed up to the game and its fairy tale aesthetic. Level 5 should be lauded for its effort as it created the company’s second best game (after Dark Cloud 2). The current generation will be remembered for a lot of mature games and themes but Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will remain the darling of this generation with lush visuals, solid game play, top notch audio and a beautiful setting. If anyone is looking for a deep and fascinating JRPG experience then Ni No Kuni fits the bill perfectly. My rating: 9.3!

My most anticipated RPGs of 2011: Day 8

Solatorobo: The Red Hunter – DS – July 1^st (EU), August 2011 (NA):

In most things in life, time has the ability to change everything. This notion is also true for the video game industry. Staples which were considered as irreplaceable and being the norm of the industry have either been reworked or cast away out right. One of these norms were games which had anthropomorphic characters as their main leads which in itself gave birth to some of the most iconic characters in the industry. From the likes of Sonic and Crash to the modern day Banjo and Sly Cooper, these characters (or lovingly known as ‘furries’) were dime a dozen from the SNES days right down to the PS2 era, at times there seemed no stopping such characters from sprouting up in most games. That all changed when the current generation was ushered in late 2005, as the furries were put on hold and game developers started focusing there energies in created sophisticated, true to life graphics and believable worlds. Although I still have mixed feeling about this trend, but the fact remains that with the evolution of technology, such a change was all but inevitable. So where does that put the furries? Sure a few developers are still interested in creating games with furries, but not as many as before. So hence the game which is featured in this post comes as a pleasant surprise, and like cherry on top it’s a RPG. Match made in heaven if you ask me!

Solatarobo: The Red Hunter for the DS is the spiritual successor to an old PS1 cult hit, Tail Concerto. Both these games take place on spectacularly fantastical worlds which are inhabited by furry humanoid characters. One of the main features shared by both games is Mechs, elaborate robots used for travelling, warfare and every day use (something very similar in those anime with huge mechanical robots). Tail Concerto came out late 1999, developed by Cyber2Connect and published by Atlus, and while it did not win any awards, players were hooked on to the play mechanics and the quirky setting of the game world, and since then fans have to clamouring a sequel to the charming title. In early 2010 Namco Bandai announced Solatorbo for the Nintendo DS, and Cyber2Connect were behind the development, and that unlike the original this game would be an action RPG. Although it has taken the usually localizing shy Namco Bandai a while to announce an English version, the game is finally prepped for a summer release. For a small number of loyal fans this is great news, and for people like myself who didn’t play the original this will be a good way to check out why Tail Concerto gained a loyal following, although both games are very different in nature.

The game takes place on the floating islands of Shepherd Republic where the inhabitants are made up of dog and cat like creature. The story picks up when the protagonist, Red Savarin, a hunter by trader, is commissioned to retrieve an important document from some ruins. The plot is not the most original but it seems to get the work done, while the characters conform to the anime aesthetics. Personally I was intrigued the moment I watched the long trailer from last year’s Tokyo Game Show, as the game looked quite spiffy, with incredible 2D back ground art and solid 3D graphics (something which DS struggles with), while the game mechanics seemed interesting with the meshing of platforming, adventuring and RPG mechanics which come in the form of customizing the aforementioned mechs. The game visuals are a treat in my opinion, and will even call it the best looking DS game yet. The levels of detail in some of the backgrounds are astounding and I can’t wait to see more of this beautiful world. The cut-scenes look quite amazing as well presented like a graphic novel, and it all looks really polished.

The game not only looked amazing, but what really attracted me was the comeback of the furries and the crazy world which the game takes place in. As I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago how the industry has moved away from this trend and are more interested in creating amazing graphics, so in that regard Solatorobo: The Red Hunter represents a return of innocence, and that is why this game became a part of this list. And with just 10 days to its release, the anticipation is growing steadily.