Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

This is one of the best RPGs I have ever played on the ps3. I'm not gonna get into super critic mode. The game play is fun and the story is great. Either or is gonna get you stuck to the end. I think everyone should play it an if your not a gamer you would still probably get drawn into the story watching someone play.

There simply isn't enough games like this around. Eternal Sonata was great, but not very well known, kinda cheesey and fairly early in this generations life cycle. Then came along Tales of Graces which was a great, legit RPG, but too anime-y and didn't quite give that 'next gen' feel, but still, a solid JRPG experience. Valkyria Chronicles was another great RPG, but a very unique and different experience, not at all like these games. <br /> <br />This however... this is it. This IS the experience we've all been waiting for since DragonQuest VIII, since Rogue Galaxy, since FFX and FFXII. This is the JRPG that we've been waiting to experience on a PS3. Not White Knight, not FFXIII. THIS. <br /> <br />You need to play this. The story is great, and has a lot of deep layers. The characters are good. It's rare to be playing as a kid and not having being a blubbering, childish whiney moron and instead, get a smart, brave, motivated kid who fulfills all the requirements of a young hero. <br /> <br />Gameplay/combat is all cool too but I especially love all the small side quests, caring for my Familiars and a lot of the little things that make up the whole of them game. The graphics are of course, very pretty. <br /> <br />My only gripe is the game can't seem to make up it's mind when it wants to do voice overs. There's animated cinema scenes (which are choppy, Japanese people animated, ha!) there's cut scenes, and there's OTHER cut scenes with NO dialogue, and then there's just in game conversations, which of course don't have dialogue. It's just a little inconsistent. But when there are voices, they're great. <br /> <br />This is a great experience and you owe it to yourself to play it. <br /> <br />So do it.

This by far is one of the best looking games I have seen, I must say at first I wasn't sure if I should get this but due to the all around good ratings for this game, I decided to pick it up and I must say It is a splendid game well worth the time and every penny. <br /> <br />Ni no kuni is a game that draws you into a fantasy world and definatily makes a believer out of you. This will surely go down as one of the best games of this generation. <br /> <br />Please for the love of God get this game, this is a game that defines class in its own genre.

Sadly RPG's almost feel like a dead genre today, so it's nice to see a title like this come out for the PS3. I waited a week after this came out to see if it was truely the kinda of RPG that I wanted to play and now after buying it, I am not disappointed. <br /> <br />I won't bother talking about the story in the game (there are plenty other reviews here that can fill you in on that). <br /> <br />Gameplay is fairly straight forward. Like any RPG, you move from place to place as the story line develops. Each city you visit has side quests that you can choose to do and bounty hunts for you to hunt creatures on. <br /> <br />In battles you control a familiar that you can give orders to. Some familiars are good at physical attacks, others are good at magic, and others are good at dodging attacks. You only use one familiar at a time and each have a limited time you can use them before needing to switch out to rest up. <br /> <br />What makes this game so deep is that they slowly reveal more things you can do with your familiars. You first start the game with just you and your familiar. Eventually you gain another member to join your party with her familiar. Shortly after that, you learn about morphing your familiars into stronger and better familiars and how to charm new familiars into joining your party. It was approximately 6-7 hours before I had the second character join my party and 8 hours before I learned about morphing and charming. <br /> <br />The one drawback I've had with the game is some of the dialogue goes on much longer than I would prefer. At times it feels like you are told over and over to do the obvious thing. <br /> <br />Overall, this is a great game. I wish there were more classic style RPG's available for the PS3 but this one helps fill that void.

Ni No Kuni is a nostalgic experience that brings you back to the days when you were a kid, sitting in front of your first console, playing your first RPG for hours on end trying to explore every nook and cranny and acquire everything. Back to the good days where Squaresoft was capable of telling a true tale of adventure and creating likeable characters that didn't mope about being a wuss every 5 minutes. <br />I just beat the game, and to me, it is very similar to Tales of Destiny, Xenogears, Chronocross, and FF8 (some might say FF7 too). It is everything that RPGs these days are not anymore, with a strong focus on story telling, character development, and progression. It balances cutesy and mature elements well, and delivers well paces story telling. Everything seems rather simple, but engaging at the same time. <br />It is a nice refreshing breath from current RPGs that focus on coolness, fighting action, excessive unnecessary melodrama.

Very E rated this game is... But fun for anyone -- If you enjoy stories as this. The game reminded me of the movie "Spirited Away" . I'm not sure if it was written by the same author, but it still had much resemblance of that show. <br />The game interface will remind you of Final Fantasy. The simplistic nature of controls fits well for the title, but I still would have preferred a "Zelda-like" interface that could have you switching characters out. <br /> <br />The story is a very rich debt and enlightening tale. <br /> <br />In a world parallel to ours--where magic is still alive--a great darkness has stricken the soul of everyone. Stealing fragments of people's life force and killing anyone who opposes him, this inflicted evil is cast by one who is called Shadar . <br />There is one who can end the reign of that evil... Known as "the pure-hearted one", Oliver. <br /> <br />This game has one very long tutorial, but you wont notice that the first hour of the game is the tutorial. Until you have unlocked all of the menu items in the game... You have not seen what the game or story has to offer. <br /> <br />I'm not a big role-scenario type gamer that likes to sit and press a button and let the game fight itself. But I like these type of stories and its a good break from the western gaming & story routine. Eastern cultures still bring delightful folklore to the table so often and its a very rare thing to see new folklore. <br /> <br />Its a great time killer and fun story. Playing on Normal difficulty is pretty useless. Level5 placed a lot of work in all the game elements and it fits well in all instances. <br />If you like a very clever story or folklore... If you liked Final Fantasy... You would definitely find this game amusing.

Despite what you'll hear from the thousands of screeching fanboys out there, to any other adult gamers out there (I'm 31), this game is frustratingly childish, to such a degree that I had to give it up about 10 hours into it, something I almost NEVER do. <br /> <br />I'm a big fan of RPGs, even JRPGs, but this game makes it impossible for an adult to take seriously. There is fantastic visuals and animation, to be sure; the cut scenes are essentially Miyazaki movies, and the graphics are first rate. The world is large and diverse, and extremely detailed, with a lot of nice little touches. <br /> <br />But you can only play a game so long that actually where your main character actually says things like "Gee Wilickers, Mr. Drippy!" non-ironically. Every character is so cutesy and cornball as to defy belief; every character hits you with a "friendship makes anything possible" and "you can do it if you try your best!" 20 times a conversation. Every monster, too, is basically either a Kirby-like marshmallow or looks like steamboat willie. <br /> <br />I was a huge fan of Dragonquest VII, which while having a "childlike" art style, still had some mature themes. Not so here. A real shame, I really wanted to like it. Maybe it gets fantastic at hour 11 and I'm missing out, but I doubt it. Every real critic's review mentions that the plot is basically garbage, and that definitely seems the case to me.

This game was fantastic for me (23M). However, there are a few things an adult needs to know before going into this game. The story, game-play, and musical score are all extremely engaging and you can have an amazing experience, yet this can only be had if you drop all cynicism before playing. There are dialogues and cut scenes that are almost painfully childish. As an adult, this can really pull you out of a game and it has for me before. I essentially just convinced myself that I was playing a video game form of a Disney movie and was able to enjoy myself quite a lot. In summation, if you can drop the adult cynicism and just enjoy a Disney-esque adventure, then I could not recommend this game more. However if strong, preteen themes and dialogues are too too much for you, then do not waste your time on this game.