Ni No Kuni: The Another World

yes I would prefer a real time combat system any day over this. That's the reason I likedt Ys Seven so much it had all traditional japanese stuff but with real time combat making it a perfect game for me.

I also wish this game had real-time combat but I would not skip it just because it doespn't. I think the battle systems get engaging if you invest time in them as tactics become paramount over button presses.

I hope I out to be right because I want to enjoy this game, really ! I don't want to miss the Ghibli.magic. the reviews seem to suggest that it works . let's hope it does.... for me.

I have played the demo but I don't think that I can just a game from it, has it provides me know motivation at all no context at all.
 
orangpelupa said:
Yikes, Ni no Kuni battle is on the menu?
from watching some trailer a few weeks ago i though its not like that :/

EDIT:
just watched
and ugh... battle menus :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzVQJFGAse0
Click to expand...
Just timed the fight around 5 mins, and I counted nearly 30 seconds or transition and summaries! Also they mention the defend, but in the demo that was reached via menu, and IIRC the menu changes depending on who you're playing. So when you need to reach "Defend", you have to pay really close attention to the menu, making the gameplay "Menu Selection Challenge!" and not the direct decision making of conventional realtime combat (press the block button). That for me, and the time, is the deal breaker. Would love to play this game as a Studio Ghibli creation. It looks beautiful and interesting. But the actual gameplay mechanics I swore off from PS2, Rogue Galaxy being my last, and that means, until Japan branches out and approaches RPGs in more varied and snappier ways, they have no customer in me.
 
reviewers say there is an all out defend and attack command via triangle and square button. Maybe its unlocked later or something.

And the battle has realtime dodge as.u can.control ur character with the left stick during.battle moving.him out of harms way. Infact, u have to do it all the time.

Hope the game gets downloaded soon and I can see how the mechanics are introduced. IIRC, the demo doesn't tell u much.
 
@Shifty: BTW, I hate the transition screen even more than you do. i don't understand why it exists in games ! Wy break the imeersion regularly by that stupid effect. Why not just change the camera angle to show me I am in battle and make menus appear ?

I totally dislike it in all games where it exists, including here. I think the games will become muchmore enjoyable if they remove that effect/transition thingy. Action will feel seamless even if it has a 'battle system'.
 
RenegadeRocks said:
reviewers say there is an all out defend and attack command via triangle and square button. Maybe its unlocked later or something.

And the battle has realtime dodge as.u can.control ur character with the left stick during.battle moving.him out of harms way. Infact, u have to do it all the time.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I had that, but then I also found you had to drop into the menu to activate Defend mode against big attacks. The baddy enters an 'about to mash you' animation when you have to activate defend mode rather than push a button, and I found that tricky and frustrating. Plus spells and actions need menu interaction. Other games maps real-time functions to button presses, like L1 and L2 + face buttons to fire different spells or actions. If you're going real-time, that's the way to do it. Menu's in a real-time game don't make sense to me other than in paused mode.
 
I watched my son play about an hour this morning. We picked Easy.

You can run away from enemy attacks without using the Defend menu option. e.g., When you're ambushed, you can steer your character away from the initial attacks.

The rest is like FFXIII's menu-based battles but simpler because you don't have to manage paradigms. You can call in Familiars to fight on your behalf (like FFXIII's Eidolons, with more of them here).

Unlike the first FFXIII, an open world map allows free exploration.

EDIT:
RenegadeRocks said:
Heh Heh ! Have a wonderful time :p !

Now that u mention it, maybe since this was also a DS game initially, maybe this is also deisgned for small sessions. If so, that would immensley helpful for me as my gaming sessions times are also shrinking and games that let me play 10 -15 mins at a time, like Portal2, are the ones I play now. If this falls in that category, I would be delighted !
Click to expand...

The game is about what you expect from Ghibli's character design and art. ^_^

I did notice some potential ideas about DS's pen input (draw runes to cast spells). On PS3, you pick them from the spell book. No Move support.

Also yes, fighting seems short and quick. So perhaps it's designed for mobile gaming. Too bad there is no Vita version.


I'm going to let the kid finish the game and tell me the story.
Do we get to watch the cutscenes from beginning to end after we beat the game ? They are exactly like a full-blown Ghibli production.
 
RenegadeRocks said:
its $45 on the Indian store. Get it from there if u can.
Watch the review by CGR i posted in the previous page, he mentions which game the battle system resembles.most. I think he mentions Dragon Quest 8, i hsven't played that at all.

As fir the demo, it shows u the battle system without any context or exploration. I think the game is all about context and the world.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I will try and create an Indian PSN account. Anything I should look out for? As far as I understand the Indian PSN is under SCEE anyway.

UPDATE: Scratch that, had leftovers in my PSN wallet, so bought it through the danish store :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
patsu said:
I watched my son play about an hour this morning. We picked Easy.

You can run away from enemy attacks without using the Defend menu option. e.g., When you're ambushed, you can steer your character away from the initial attacks.

The rest is like FFXIII's menu-based battles but simpler because you don't have to manage paradigms. You can call in Familiars to fight on your behalf (like FFXIII's Eidolons, with more of them here).

Unlike the first FFXIII, an open world map allows free exploration.

EDIT:


The game is about what you expect from Ghibli's character design and art. ^_^

I did notice some potential ideas about DS's pen input (draw runes to cast spells). On PS3, you pick them from the spell book. No Move support.

Also yes, fighting seems short and quick. So perhaps it's designed for mobile gaming. Too bad there is no Vita version.


I'm going to let the kid finish the game and tell me the story.
Do we get to watch the cutscenes from beginning to end after we beat the game ? They are exactly like a full-blown Ghibli production.
Click to expand...

Great ! I will get to play on Saturday, not before that. I plan to start on normal, does the game let u change difficulty afterwards? Cos I am not familiar with this type of combat and I don't want o et stuck. Also, don't want to start on easy as I usually end up not learning the mechanics if I start on easy and find myself staring at some difficulty spike that inevitably pops up.
 
Holy crap ! I had somehow missed the Forest part of the demo. The game isfantastic ! And the battle system works. U just can't button mash through fights. Loving it !!! :p
 
Played around 8 hours so far, really leaving no stone unturned, so haven't really gotten that far.

I'm in the Golden Grove right now, level 13 and completed every side-quest and errand I could find. A bit annoyed by the treasure chest I still can't open but I like the game so far.

The artwork is fantastic, grab the Wizard's Companion PDF from somewhere if you didn't get the CE/WE of the game and load it on your tablet :)
 
So I've put an unhealthy amount of time into the game ever since I got my CE last Thursday. Needless to say I'm enjoying it an awful lot. It's very old-school (Jim Sterling called it "Jrpg - The Game"), but it's also incredibly polished and very well designed. I don't think I ever played an rpg, Japanese or otherwise, that did such a fantastic job at dangling carrots in front of my nose. Everything gets rewarded properly, and even money is an absolute necessity here. This is a game where restorative items are actually vital and fairly expensive. The game definitely provides a decent challenge, at least on the normal difficulty setting. I assume you'd find yourself in quite a pickle if you ignored all the side activities.

I really dig the combat as well. It's fast placed and rather complex (opens up a lot later on), albeit slightly too complex for your AI buddies - they rather enjoy nuking low level puppy dogs with meteor showers. Expect to babysit a bit if you want to survive, especially early on. Definitely bring a healthy dose of iced coffee, strong coffee and espresso with you (that's your magic juice in Ni No Kuni). Otherwise your teammates will burn through your costly mana supplies in just two or three regular encounters. Even at lvl. 40+, Esther's mana supply doesn't allow her cast much more than three high level spells.

Combat is generally my biggest gripe with jrpgs. Not because I don't enjoy menu based battle systems, but because most of them have a tendency to get rather formulaic and tiresome after a while. It's my one and only gripe with Persona 4 Golden: it all looks nice and flashy, but you'll be using the exact same tactics for just about every encounter, and that's a 100 hour game. There's just very little wiggle room, and the whole aspect of quickly thinking on your feet is entirely absent. How fortunate then that Ni No Kuni (and FFXIII / FFXIII-2 for that matter) does not have that problem.

Presentation is absolutely lovely as well. So many awesome sights to take in, and the world is proper big. Here's a little request: more Welsh accents in games please. Drippy is the man.

Knickers, already bedtime, mun, en't it?
 
Pressure said:
Played around 8 hours so far, really leaving no stone unturned, so haven't really gotten that far.

I'm in the Golden Grove right now, level 13 and completed every side-quest and errand I could find. A bit annoyed by the treasure chest I still can't open but I like the game so far.

The artwork is fantastic, grab the Wizard's Companion PDF from somewhere if you didn't get the CE/WE of the game and load it on your tablet :)
Click to expand...

Link to the pdf please ! I 'll have ready on my ipad when I start the game this Saturday or better still I'll get it printed out and bound proper :D
 
Shifty Geezer said:
Just timed the fight around 5 mins, and I counted nearly 30 seconds or transition and summaries! Also they mention the defend, but in the demo that was reached via menu, and IIRC the menu changes depending on who you're playing. So when you need to reach "Defend", you have to pay really close attention to the menu, making the gameplay "Menu Selection Challenge!" and not the direct decision making of conventional realtime combat (press the block button). That for me, and the time, is the deal breaker. Would love to play this game as a Studio Ghibli creation. It looks beautiful and interesting. But the actual gameplay mechanics I swore off from PS2, Rogue Galaxy being my last, and that means, until Japan branches out and approaches RPGs in more varied and snappier ways, they have no customer in me.
Click to expand...

Oooh, that right there just made me want to buy it. Turn based combat would be fantastic. But, I'm not about to buy a PS3 just to play this one game. Perhaps if it's playable on PS4 and I decide to get one of those. Although currently I'm not really planning on getting either console.

Regards,
SB
 
You could get or borrow some old, cheap DS and get the original DS version ...

I'm hesitant about this game for the same reasons Shifty mentions, although i do like at least being able to run around, and being able to release little creatures and bring them back in at will. That together with being able to collect new creatures to help fight me, well over a 100 of them, that can be trained etc. makes it a lot less dull than usual.

But I played the forest guardian fight, and it took me quite a few tries to get that right. And the idea that I would have to play the timed section multiple times, that would bore me right out of my skull. Had to stop halfway through that one though so no idea if it is actually hard.

I hear from patsu there's an easy mode though, and that might help. On the other hand, it looks like it is not localised in my language and there seems to be a lot of text - would have been really nice if all that was in Dutch, or at least the text, for my son, but oh well.

Still intrigued though.

EDIT: top of the UK charts this week:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-04-uk-chart-ni-no-kuni-conjures-up-first-place-victory
 
Sigfried1977 said:
So I've put an unhealthy amount of time into the game ever since I got my CE last Thursday. Needless to say I'm enjoying it an awful lot. It's very old-school (Jim Sterling called it "Jrpg - The Game"), but it's also incredibly polished and very well designed. I don't think I ever played an rpg, Japanese or otherwise, that did such a fantastic job at dangling carrots in front of my nose. Everything gets rewarded properly, and even money is an absolute necessity here. This is a game where restorative items are actually vital and fairly expensive. The game definitely provides a decent challenge, at least on the normal difficulty setting. I assume you'd find yourself in quite a pickle if you ignored all the side activities.

I really dig the combat as well. It's fast placed and rather complex (opens up a lot later on), albeit slightly too complex for your AI buddies - they rather enjoy nuking low level puppy dogs with meteor showers. Expect to babysit a bit if you want to survive, especially early on. Definitely bring a healthy dose of iced coffee, strong coffee and espresso with you (that's your magic juice in Ni No Kuni). Otherwise your teammates will burn through your costly mana supplies in just two or three regular encounters. Even at lvl. 40+, Esther's mana supply doesn't allow her cast much more than three high level spells.

Combat is generally my biggest gripe with jrpgs. Not because I don't enjoy menu based battle systems, but because most of them have a tendency to get rather formulaic and tiresome after a while. It's my one and only gripe with Persona 4 Golden: it all looks nice and flashy, but you'll be using the exact same tactics for just about every encounter, and that's a 100 hour game. There's just very little wiggle room, and the whole aspect of quickly thinking on your feet is entirely absent. How fortunate then that Ni No Kuni (and FFXIII / FFXIII-2 for that matter) does not have that problem.

Presentation is absolutely lovely as well. So many awesome sights to take in, and the world is proper big. Here's a little request: more Welsh accents in games please. Drippy is the man.

Knickers, already bedtime, mun, en't it?
Click to expand...
Thanx.for the impressions man !

One question: Do we lose all our money if we die in a fight? cos thats what the demo said to me when I lost to the Guardian. Is it the same in the full game ? One is bound to lose in fights, does that mean we go back to 0 money if we chose continue?
 
@Arwin: What timed sections? It took me three tries but then I 'got it' and defeated the Guardian. Use Oliver and use spells from the get go. Run around and dodge every.attack and collect Mana orbs to unleash more spells.

This was my first.experience with such a combat system. U cannot button mash thru it. Change decisions quickly and u win. I likey !


After that the demo was lovely in the world map n all. Sadly it ended as soon as I was.entering a town :(
 
No worries, there are no timed sections in the game. Well, at least so far there aren't. And I think I'm pretty fucking far in it already.

As for the cash you have to cough up should you wish to continue: Maybe it was 100% of your money very early on, but I cannot say for sure anymore (been a while). Just a couple hours in I had to pay 10% of whatever I had in my purse, and so far that hasn't changed. You can further lower the fee in exchange for merit stamp cards. You collect those by doing side quests.

Don't forget you can save your game whenever you want on the world map too.
 
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