Speaking of 2 final bosses this game’s difficulty is a little bit all over the place (I don’t think I died once without really grinding at all, but I’m pretty good at JRPGs so this is mostly a thought on how much of a pain XYZ battle was, or how much I had to abuse items to succeed). However, the main additional character is legitimately good so it kind of works out in the end anyway.
However you have these random scenes with a council of dudes and the titular White Witch who constantly make fun of how incompetent Shadar is, which makes Shadar a lot less intimidating than he could be. Basically the game has 2 final bosses spread 10 hours apart or so, but for the first 30 odd hours of the game it’s all about the main guy from the original game. The plot itself is sort of weakened to start out with due to the obvious over arching additions to the original storyline. Mr Drippy really is a fantastic character just for comic relief, and most of his best parts aren’t voiced, they’re simply written or translated extremely well. This is the second version of Ni No Kuni to be released and said imaginary friend is not in the original game it is simply brilliant that they actively make fun of their own design decision like that, and it all adds an additional layer of levity to almost every conversation. As a small example Oliver has an imaginary friend effectively in the “real world” that his other imaginary friends aren’t aware of so they mock him for having one.
Almost all of it is extremely self aware, humorous, or interesting in one way or another. What really does shine is the game’s incidental dialogue, the stuff that isn’t in cutscenes, isn’t voiced. This isn’t on par with something like Vagrant Story, Xenosaga, or Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of storytelling but it certainly does much better than various games (almost every Final Fantasy, Rogue Galaxy, Grandia, and so on) that fall short of the titans in the genre and as far as the last generation goes it is probably in the top 5 of best storylines in games. This all sounds a fair amount dumber than it actually is and truth be told they handle the emotional aspect of the game extremely well, making the vast majority of the game a fun, exciting experience with only a brief handful of moments being particularly emotional one way or another. Douchebag Phil makes Ollie go and crash a car which mysteriously kills his Mother somehow or other and then his doll comes to life and they’re transported into JRPG land. We start out with Oliver in Motorville, home of douchebag Phil.
Dragon Quest VIII is a mammoth game clocking in at around 90 hours and Ni No Kuni is merely around 40 or so, so maybe it is slightly easier to pace a much longer game in a notoriously lengthy genre. The game is very similar to DQVIII but has a better combat system, better characters, and a more interesting story on the other side it has slightly worse music (admittedly still excellent) and the world exploration progression doesn’t feel quite as natural. Ni No Kuni is a fantastic game and the best thing Level 5 has produced since Dragon Quest VIII.
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