Written by: PlayDevil.com Staff

 

 

 

Coming from Level 5 and Studio Ghibli, "Ni No Kuni" is a beautifully animated JRPG. Utilizing Hayao Miyazaki’s (Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro, among others) distinctive cell-shaded art style to create a lush detailed world it is no exaggeration to say the game looks like a playable cartoon (particularly in the more cinematically framed scenes).

 

Two small sections of Ni No Kuni were available to play, each demonstrating a different facet of the game. With the adventure mode in Japanese there is little to tell other than the fact it looks like a high-resolution town exploration section of Zelda, exploring the inhabited areas of the world and fulfilling simple quests for the town’s folk.

 

More telling was the battle section that revealed an interesting active time battle system. A mix of Final Fantasy 13’s active time battle system crossed with the pet fighting aspects of Pokemon, Ni No Kuni’s combat exhibits significant death.

 

Controlling a small boy and his pet I was able to explore the environment until I ran across the enemy at which point a battle would ensue. From this position it was possible to yell commands to the animal under my control or switch back to the boy to perform spells and reposition him if he was in danger.

 

For the most part the boy’s powers focused on support, healing etc, while the animal actions (selected from a list of items, usually four) were primarily combat orientated, such as attacks and defence.

 

With a mix of real time and active time battle systems within the familiar ‘pet-combat’ of Pokemon Ni No Kuni felt comfortable while remaining inventive and novel. Combat’s depth was evident but for me the success of the game will hinge not on the action but on the story, exploration and interactions with none player characters.

 

It certainly looks very impressive and seems to have the combat mechanics to back-up its visuals and if Miyazaki’s well established moral story telling can hold up riggers of such an extended period of exposure Ni No Kuni could be one of the few JRPGs this generation that gets me interested.

 

With an early 2011 release in Japan and no word of a western release yet however I may have to keep my enthusiasm in check.