Ni No Kuni: The Game I Didn't Know I Want

“Life’s never perfect. It’s always changing. Meeting, farewells, happy times, sad times… You take things as they come and you keep on going. That’s just how it is.”

-Oliver (Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch)

I finally jumped into gaming and everything again in 2013, the year that arguably one of the great years for gaming. Not the greatest, but still memorable. With the many awesome titles released in 2013, including my most admired game BioShock Infinite,  it was hard to catch up with gaming. How come? Because I had to catch up with the titles released prior to 2013 too.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is one of the games that catched my attention, but not as much as the other games, as I lost my interest due to not owning the platforms. That time, I didn't know much about Studio Ghibli yet. I knew their creations, such as My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away, but I didn't know much more about them including who made them. Until I figured it out and learned the difference between Studio Ghibli's style and other Japanese animations/anime, which I should have figured way earlier. 

"And then and then and then, I found that Ni No Kuni is..."

Is involving Studio Ghibli. I'm not so much into anime that I'd be classified as an otaku, I'm into gaming more than anime. One of the reason why I didn't interested in the first Ni No Kuni is because I wasn't really into anime themed games, which Ni No Kuni is. Sure, I'd play one if I find it enticing enough, but still it's on the bottom of my list. One anime themed game (not based on anime) I played recently is Doki Doki Literature Club!

Until a couple of days ago after I rewatched Howl's Moving Castle, I felt like playing some anime themed game, but specifically Studio Ghibli's anime game. After the greatness I experienced from that movie anime I wanted to experience Ghibli's work in the form of video game. To my surprise, Ni No Kuni, the game that I look at and turn away from for a couple of times is the game I needed. 

^{Feel it. The nostalgic feeling from Studio Ghibli's animations.}

The very first Ni No Kuni was a project made to celebrate Level-5 Studio's 10th anniversary under the name Ni No Kuni: The Another World. Knowing how much love this game got from gamers, I think this project was a delightful birthday cake. And later the name changed to Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch in 2010. It was the second video game project that Studio Ghibli involved in. 

A Studio Ghibli RPG game, that was what on my mind but I never thought I'd actually find one. How could I not pay much attention on this one, especially recently where we could see Ni No Kuni II news here and there. 

Thankfully Ni No Kuni II will be available on PC. Better yet, I see it have more features that expand the gameplay from the average JRPG we've seen, such as kingdom building and recruiting your citizens, claiming teritories, and more. 

Another thing I'm not a big fan of is turn-based combat gameplay. When I saw Ni No Kuni II is not turn-based, which I thought it was, Ni No Kuni II is one of my most anticipated games now. From the latest demo gameplay video by Bandai Namco below, it's shown that there are two types of combat gameplay. But eventhough I'm not a big fan of turn-based combat, I think I still have to play Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch first before the upcoming Revenant Kingdom.

---

---

The first one shown in the first portion of the video is the overworld mode where the characters take on the chibi appearance with RTS-inspired battle with the main protagonist Evan leading a small group of troops in a fast paced small-scale war against a group of bandits.

The exploration is also take the chibi appearance in overworld mode too, but the second type of the combat is the TPS perspective real time combat, with an army of charming little monsters and a companion! Who doesn't love companions and/or characters with deep and compelling story? Knowing this is Studio Ghibli's work, I'm sure the charaters fulfill this expectation. 

In 2D or 3D view, the game's visual still really is our beloved Studio Ghibli style. The transition between the two dimensions doesn't make it look much less Ghibli-ish. It really gives the beautiful Ghibli animation movies feel. And I get that only by watching a gameplay video, I can't wait to play and completely immerse myself. 

Can't say much from just watching a gameplay video, but one thing I'm certain is I'll enjoy this game so much when it's out. Ni No Kuni II previously scheduled to be released on 19 January 2018 for PC and PlayStation 4, but it's delayed and we'll have to wait until 23 March 2018. I think I'll need to get myself a Nintendo DS.

With this game among any other titles yet to be released in 2018, do you think this is going to be another great year for gaming? 

Thanks for your time to read this piece of thought of mine, Steemian..

For more gaming stuff..
Follow me, would you kindly?

Previous Posts:

In Short, My Niche is Gaming
#Gaming Posts of the Week - Laughter In Reviews
The Story Behind the Untitled Goose Game
My Random Thought on Steam Awards Winners: The Witcher 3 And Cuphead

---

Images credit: Ni No Kuni