RPG equals discovery. This train of thought is not too extreme if you think about it.

Akihiro Hino told the following to Glixel: „I think in RPGs, the main part of the appeal is getting that new experience – new world, new story, new adventure. If you bring in the same characters, what happens is you’re forced to bring in the previous world as well, and that defeats the purpose of creating an RPG in the first place. I thought it would be better if we created a whole new set of characters and set it in a different period, so we can have that element of “newness.” That’s the best part about RPGs – that discovery.

It’s the same thing with the story. If you use the same battle system, you don’t get that new experience. Therefore, I wanted to revamp the battle system. This time, we’ve brought in these little sprites called Higgledies. By collecting different Higgledies, you can adjust your tactics, similar to the monsters in the first game. We wanted to add something significant, not just repeat what worked in the first game.”

Who is Hino? The CEO of Level-5. The game? Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. While he doesn’t seem to be entirely right (The Witcher trilogy used the same world, which didn’t backfire), his game, which is out on November 10 on PlayStation 4 and PC, is a highly anticipated title regardless.