REVIEW – Ni No Kuni got a sequel, which detours from the first game in several ways. Still, it’s one of those games that every JRPG-fan should try out at least once in their life. It’s different but still decent – the game is one of the best of 2018 so far, hands down.

There’s no full-on collaboration with Studio Ghibli this time around (which is why the first Ni No Kuni looked outstanding, as an anime), but several things have changed – there’s no such Pokémonish creature hunting here, and the turn-based battle system also abandoned the franchise via its back door. Revenant Kingdom… hm, shall I say it? It feels like it’s Westernized a bit.

Royal catastrophe

Evan would be the crown prince of Ding Dong Dell after his father suddenly bites the bullet – turns out that his second in command was behind all this… is it a Korean drama series? -, but thankfully, the little king isn’t going to be alone, as Roland, as sort of comic relief, joins him from another dimension to help Evan regain the throne he rightfully deserves.

The kingdom can be built further and further, which is useful: you can tell your subordinates what to do, and this will help you in the gameplay. You can’t entirely ignore it, though: several plot points will force you to deal with the kingdom building – Level-5 tries to make you a true ruler with this method. There’s also the army’s battles, which instead felt like a tacked on, somewhat unnecessary element rather than an enjoyable portion of Ni No Kuni 2.

Chibi?

On the world map, Evan and his team become chibi characters, making them small and adorable looking. It changes to the „proper” view when an encounter happens, and the switch to and from the battles are fluid, and they occur without loading screens, reminding me of Chrono Trigger a little bit. You deal with the encounters in the same place where you got attacked, just like in SquareSoft’s classic JRPG on the good old SNES.

Take no turns

The combat was changed big time – instead of a turn-based system, you get a real-time combat method with light/heavy melee moves (both of which are necessary to refill your mana!), projectile attacks, pulling out the special moves’ list, switching melee weapons – all are easy to find on the DualShock 4.

I need to mention the weapon switching (L2) – if one weapon is „full,” switch over to that to have that bonus for your attack, and then, you can select another one. Rinse and repeat. On paper (monitor? display?), if might sound complicated, but trust me, it’s easy to learn, and all this is fast-paced, yet possible to follow what happens. Decent.

Higgledy

While that may sound like a word a drunken person would say between two hiccups, this is how the somewhat collectible animals are called. They are mostly passive helpers in battles, and you can use up to four, offering both offensive or defensive approaches. If you’d require a more significant attack, you can pull it off with a Higgledy, and you can also have a healing ring with another to keep you alive.

However, I believe that the concept isn’t polished as much as it should be: couldn’t Level-5 implement these skills for our party members? That could have been a better solution!

Looks and sounds good

Ni No Kuni 2‘s strongest point is easily its audiovisuals. As one of the most impressive (but not best looking!) PlayStation 4 games out there at the moment, it continues the quality that the first game set as a standard. And that soundtrack, oh my God… Joe Hisaishi is back, and he’s done a stellar job! Have a listen:

And yet, I feel that the game didn’t find its place where it wants to belong. The story isn’t the best, the gameplay is somewhat easy, and Ni No Kuni 2 just couldn’t define itself. The sequel is different from the predecessor, yes, but it changed things that worked fine before… and this is the reason why it falls short of a 9/10. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is a GREAT GAME, but IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER. So I’m easily handing it an 8.5 because it’s still an outstanding JRPG that fans of the genre should acquire right away. It’s capable of a 4K resolution on PlayStation 4 Pro, and if it had a bit less „filler,” with maybe keeping true to the first game in a few aspects, it could have been a 9 without a doubt.

It’s still a recommended purchase if you like JRPGs!

-V-

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Developer: Level-5

Genre: JRPG

Release date: March 23, 2018