Game Review #6

Title screen

Title: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Genre: RPG 
Developer(s): Level-5
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
Release Date: November 17, 2011

About the story:

A young boy named Oliver travels to a mysterious parallel world filled with magic and monsters to save his mom, a dark wizard is terrorizing that world and it's up to Oliver and his friends to defeat the dark wizard and restore the peace throughout the world.

World screen

Battle screen

Gameplay:

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a third person RPG that utilizes a semi-random enemy encounter system. The enemies can be seen roaming around the world and the player has an option to engage or run away from the enemy spawn. The enemy can be approached from behind to get a pre-emptive attack on them and they can also engage the player from behind to get the same advantage as well. The battles are set on an open field and the player can freely control a character while the remaining 2 characters are AI controlled. The player can choose from a number of actions (attack, use magic, use items, defend, set tactics or run away) while engaging the enemy which temporarily freezes the active battle. This game style is similar to games like Star Ocean, Tales of Phantasia, etc. Each character can also carry up to 3 familiars (enemy monsters that can be tamed) to do the battling instead of the human character. Familiars can also perform tricks (similar to magic) which can be used to debuff an enemy, heal yourself & allies, inflict damage, support the party. Both the characters and their respective familiars can be equipped with items. 

Character screen

Familiar screen

The game also incorporates some aspects similar to games like Pokémon and Digimon, you can feed your familiar treats to increase it's stats as well as to metamorphose (evolve) it to a stronger form. Familiars also have their own affinity (Sun, Star, Moon, Planet) which affects how well they do against the opponents (sort of rock-paper-scissors) with the exception of planet (which gives more exp.). Elemental attack and resistance also play a factor with enemy battles as well. When battling an enemy, timing your attacks is significant since you can cancel an opponent's attack / magic when you hit an enemy right before it attacks / cast magic. Glims can also be generated by successfully hitting and defending, these glims can heal the character's HP and MP. Golden Glims can also appear which allows the character / familiar to use a Miracle Move as well as completely restoring their HP. Miracle moves varies depending on the character and the familiar, they can heal, support the party, attack the enemy for a significant damage and also costs nothing. You can also tame monsters that you battle (each monster has a certain capture / tame percentage). Ni No Kuni also features a number of mini-games, puzzles, riddles aside from the regular side quests. The player is also given the ability to craft items such as armor, accessories, shields, weapons, treats, etc. at some point during the story. The player can also engage in battle against other AI controlled familiars on a colosseum-esque in-game location. 

Verdict:

Gameplay: 5/5
Story: 5/5
Aesthetics: 5/5
Audio: 5/5

Alchemy screen

Wizard's Companion screen

This game is an enhanced version of the Nintendo DS game Ni No Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn, the cut scenes are made by Studio Ghibli which is very well known for their great stories and whimsical art. The game successfully mixed different features and gameplay but still retains it ease of use. It offers two difficulties which can cater to newbies and to people more accustomed to RPGs. An intricate and detailed gameplay mixed with a well crafted storyline and amazing art. The story is well written, heart tugging but also fun. The in-game music are insanely good. The cutscene(s) music really draws out the emotions from the scenes, the background music when exploring and doing battles are great. Aside from the wonderful scoring, the voice acting is amazing. The only thing that i can point out that can be improved from this gem of a game would be the rates / percentage for capture, drops, encounters. Some are annoyingly low. As a "completionist", that's my only gripe since some enemies and items are extremely tedious to get. The capture / system could also be changed to something similar to the Pokémon games where you can just lower it's health and catch it using an item instead of just hoping for an enemy to let you capture it. This game, is one of, if not the best RPG ever created, you're given options to customize, craft, train and there are also lots of stuff to do incase the adventure / grinding gets too tedious. The gameplay, story, art, music are unparalleled and it's a good thing that it got released on different platforms since more people will have the chance to play this perfection.