Ni No Kuni: Finished. Tell you now, game is 4/10. It's pretty, decent music, and some ok to decent character and plot work, which is why it's not lower considering the flaws are big.
In chat, someone expressed the game as "aggressively mediocre"; from any gameplay perspective, this is pretty much spot on. The game has a pseudo-ARPG battle system but functions more like ATB and Turn based in some regards...no, I don't mean "either or" I mean it takes elements of both. It's hard to explain but it's a very poorly play tested system. It has potential if they actually did more with it and fleshed it out but unfortunately they keep it to the barebones so things just become a bore.
The real issue, which is what most of the game's problems stem from, is it's lack of polish. I already covered the resource issue earlier, and this does get better as game goes on and you can actually afford more and better items, but it's always present in some regard, because your AI is just stupid. I'll grant the 4th PC helps mitigate this a lot since he's got basically a combination of Oliver's stats with higher MP, a fast, MT Spell that has low recharge rate that is stronger than expected, and generally seems better at not throwing away his MP on useless stuff the way Esther is (Esther having much lower MP than you'd expect from Bard Mage Girl.) I digress though, as when that issue stops, the game rears a different issue of polish and that's animations.
Let's look at a game like the Tales series for a second, at least modern games. Everything here is real time outside some big heavy cinematic attacks, mostly Mystic Artes, but I'll get to those later. When you use an item or start charging a spell, that aspect is initiated independently of everything else. Items are instant, to boot, so when you use them, you get the immediate rewards. Spells with charge times? Well, you can interrupt them by getting hit, but if Yuri gets hit by a big spell and Rita is charging a spell, Rita will continue to charge the spell! When Mystic Artes pop up, the same logic applies, only there's a break in the action; again, if Yuri is hit by a Mystic Arte, Rita is unaffected, and the battle literally picks up exactly as it was before.
Ni No Kuni says bollocks to that, because SCREW logical design decisions! Let's look at all the problems, and keep in mind the Tales example at all times:
-Items have lengthy animations, at least for items. They're not super long, but they don't activate immediately, but only when the animation ends. This means you can throw a healing item onto a character to save them only for them to die before they're appropriately healed by the item, despite the item having already targeted them. I guess this can happen in a Tales game too but the window of opportunity for this to happen is so small, it's not really notable.
-Items stop the character using the item from doing any action until the item resolves; they can still run around and evade basic attacks, but still. This wouldn't be too bad because hey, all actions prevent you from doing other actions, so that's consistency...
-...except it also prevents the target from doing something if they aren't already initiated in an action. This applies to support spells too. There are times I'd have Oliver run to try and pick up a healing/MP orb, and suddenly he'd stop in his tracks because Esther cast a support spell. Yes, the game punishes you for using MT Support moves meant to be beneficial, and yes, everyone becomes inactive if you try MT Healing items. Anything MT should have been cinematic, just putting a brief stop on the action to prevent this, including MT Healing Items. To credit the game, MT Healing spells were cinematic, so that didn't come up.
--This issue actually cost me a reset on the final boss. There's an MT Resurrection item, which I desperately needed to activate, so I used it! Then a cinematic happened (see below), resetting it. Then I used it again, and my character stopped in place, couldn't move out of the way of the OBVIOUS MELEE ATTACKS, got slammed about 5 times, and before the item resolved, he died.
-To compound the issue further, if a cinematic attack is used during the item animation, the ENTIRE ITEM IS CANCELLED. yes, you can go 4 out of the 5 seconds for the item to resolve (not literal, just being an example) only for the enemy to use some attack, even if it's a worthless status move that hit no one, to interrupt your action. It gets even better when one of your AI partners casts a spell that does something similar. Again, remember how Tales just sort of pauses action and lets things continue where it left off with cinematics; this game doesn't do that. It's especially bad when the cinematic didn't even target your team, so you got interrupted over...nothing? At least the game doesn't take Items or MP if the effect didn't resolve, so you're not wasting resources.
--It does, however, count as using the action for the purposes of recharging the command. So even though you didn't use the item, you still did the action, so you still need to wait to use it again.
-Enemies can move during cinematics, thus cheat. yes, you heard that right; enemies can still move while a cinematic is going off. They can't attack or do anything meaningful mind you, so it's not COMPLETELY cheating, but it does matter in a different way. For standard Single Target and Full Screen Attacks, not a big deal; those will hit the enemy anywhere, so whatever (though sometimes in MT moves, the perspective makes it such that you can't see the effects on everyone, which is another problem, if more minor. It does show damage to off camera enemies at least.) Thing is, when you have AoE attacks and moves with ranges? Your character will generally go to the maximum range and fire the attack off if they're not in range already; when the attack initiates, they usually will hit too. Thing is, enemies under some circumstances can move, so they can in fact walk out of the range depending on arbitrary circumstance so you blow MP on the attack, in a game where resources are not casual.
-If it's not obvious by all of the above, resurrecting is as a result a complete pain in the ass. Compounding the issue further is it's only done via items, so your AI PCs can't revive you ever. Now note that enemies can have Instant Death that can come out of nowhere and gimp you. No one has MT Instant Death, thankfully, but still, nothing is more disconcerting than having a full HP PC just suddenly drop to 0 because an enemy threw an instant death attack, and the move isn't even a cinematic so you have this "Why did I just die!?" moment. Branching from that, enemies love Sleep and Paralysis, which have similar issues. IN some regards, those are worse; if your leader dies, you are forced to swap to a different PC, which is fair enough, but if you're asleep or Paralyzed? Guess what? YOU GET TO STOP PLAYING UNTIL THE STATUS RESOLVES! Same applies to Confusion for that matter, and both Sleep and Confuse last stupid long amounts of time if the enemy doesn't target you.
-AI is completely uncontrollable beyond telling them to "All Defend" or "All Attack"; the former is the only way AI will defend. Latter theoretically makes them more aggressive but it's hard to tell if it's meaningful, other than cancelling "All Defend." You can't do something like have Oliver charge a spell, swap to Esther and control her while he's charging; you have to sit there and play as your sitting duck PC. Again, using Tales as a comparison, I could be playing as Yuri and have Yuri tell Rita to start casting a spell via menu. I think you can even do something like select Rita, use a spell, then swap to Yuri while she's charging, and continue playing but could be wrong.
Combine this with all my complaints before and then remember these are constant problems, and you can see why this is such a big deal. It's a prime example of a game that clearly wasn't play tested well and thus poorly polished; they were definitely put minimal focus on the gameplay after the rough idea of what they wanted was done, as there's no way I can look at this and go "yeah, these were totally conscious decisions that people thought were good ideas!" Make matters worse, the final boss seems to completely abuse all of the above, such that he's a drastic difficulty spike compared to the previous two bosses...quoting Sage from Chat...
[15:47] <SageAcrin> ah yes, long multiform bosses where the last form is a difficulty jump.
[15:47] <SageAcrin> Have I mentioned those are stupid.
To be fair, previous forms aren't too durable, and the last battle does give you an invincible 4th PC with a lot of meaningful actions (though the PC doesn't count as a living PC for game over purposes, so yeah) which is a nice gesture considering the plot circumstances (I was thinking the game wouldn't do this even though the plot suggests "THIS CHARACTER SHOULD BE ASSISTING DIRECTLY!" but then suddenly there the character is, so props to the game for actually following through.) Speaking of the final boss, as shoe-horned in as the White Witch related stuff is (I'll get to that in a bit), the Final Boss fight is even worse. By this point, everything is resolved, and the game could have ended there. Then suddenly
RETURN OF THE COUNCIL, which we just established is actually a figment of Cassiopeia's imagination given illusionary form due to her magic, comes and goes NO NOW YOU FIGHT US. There's no narrative value to this fight, and no purpose other than to force one last boss fight here. I get they wanted a 3 stage final boss, but why not just make the character before have a 3rd form? It was logical before; you fight her in her base form, the she uses magic to transform herself into a super form, and you beat that. Is it really so hard to just go "And then she uses her trump card to go into Ultra form!?" No, instead we pull that completely pointless stunt.
Compare that to Shadar for a second, the obvious originally intended final boss. First form is his base, Executor form we see throughout, logically. 2nd form isn't actually him, but a high powered Dark Knight he summons; considering his plot, this actually fits as a 2nd fight since
Shadar is Oliver's Soulmate, and they just established a few hours earlier that Oliver can tap into the elemental stones using the Unleash spell to summon Nature spirits to fight for him briefly, so this could just be him summoning the Spirit of the Nevermore Marshes. Alternatively, it's just an extension of Oliver's ability to use Familiars, but corrupted and such., so fair enough. Then you beat the Dark Knight and Shadar basically pulls a "Gloves come off!" and goes into his Dark Djinn super form, in desperation to kill you. This is all fitting of a final boss and works well, because everything here is stemmed from Shadar in one way or another. The actual Final Boss after fighting the White Witch (...not a spoiler considering the game is called "Wrath of the White Witch") is just an asspull because they want one more fight.
Speaking of the White Witch, she really needed to be put into a different game or story altogether. Her role in the plot during Shadar's arc is completely pointless; I've covered this already, won't go into details again. When she makes herself known to the heroes, the story...has actually neat ideas...kind of. I say kind of because after thinking about it, she's literally the same character as Shadar.
Both Shadar and Cassiopeia started as young, naive people who wished to do well. Then they both had to face a harsh reality, leading them to do something to try and make amends for it, which in turn only backfired and made them go into the insane mindset of "The world must be destroyed because it's evil!Really the only difference is one was driven by the sense of futility, the other by solitude. I do think the White Witch could have been an interesting character if they actually explored her throughout the game, rather than shove her entire back-story into the last 3 hours of the game, leading to a quick legitimate introduction and resolution. She gets absolutely no development before the last 3 hours. The best parallel I can think of is how she's pretty much Queen Beryl from the first season of Sailor Moon; exists to sit on a throne and bark orders and do EVIL EXPOSITION, but is otherwise completely pointless, as it's her minions that we care about (well, Minion in NNK's case, because Shadar's the only one.) It's not like the game even tries to show parallels between the two or make an attempt to tie-in anything she does to the main story until after Shadar.
The other issue I have is...well...the way the game presents itself, the White Witch really doesn't work in the story at all. The entire Shadar arc, if we factor out the White Witch stuff (which wasn't in the original story apparently), the game actually has an interesting philosophical angle that seems to explain what's really going on.
Namely,
the story seems to be nothing more than an escapist fantasy that Oliver came up with to deal with the loss of his mother's death. Ignoring the White Witch scenes, until his mother dies, the game is completely mundane. Oliver lives in a normal town circa the early 1900s I think it is, and everything is standard. Then his mother dies suddenly, which he feels responsible for (which is understandable), and being a 10 year old boy raised by a single mother, he naturally takes this pretty harshly. THEN suddenly, holding his stuffed animal, it comes to life, with the same weird design because "he cried and is a pure heart!" From here, all the fantasy elements start kicking in.
Some signs that point me to this are the following:
-Drippy's title is "Lord High Lord of the Fairies." Yes, he did use the term "Lord" twice in there.
-Random encounters are small and cutesy, only the bosses are big and monstrous, kind of like how a 10 year old would view the difference between Strong and Weak.
-Soulmates are all conveniently in his town. Given he's 10, it'd make sense that he doesn't think of the world much beyond his own town, because at that age, the real world to you is only what's in proximity.
-Speaking of Soulmates, the fantasy world versions always seem exaggerated versions of his friends. The most obvious is Leila vs. the Cowlipha. Leila is this obese woman who Oliver gets milk from all the time. Her Soulmate, the Cowlipha, is a 20 foot tall cow woman.
-Shadar, as a villain, is pretty standard evil bad guy; he's made to look and seem like your typical evil old man wizard. Nothing subtle about him, again, that'd fit in with the imagination of a 10 year old since while kids can be creative, they do tend to have narrow view of "Good vs. Evil" and Shadar fits "evil" straight to a tee.
-No one can see Oliver's friends in his world, almost like they're imaginary.
-He does solve supernatural problems in the real world, but they could just be him having his imagination run wild. For example, one case involves a father/husband whose been mean lately and acting like a real jerk. Oliver goes and fights the shadow of his heart and restores his kindness! He goes back to normal! Is it possible what really happened is that fight never happened, just the man overworked himself and Oliver being there helped make him come to his senses, such that when his wife comforts him, he finally recognizes how he's been and turns over a new leaf? We're seeing the game through Oliver's eyes remember, so again, expect exaggerated situations.
-The Wizard book just HAPPENS to be found in his fireplace...and only after his mother dies...
-Last and most importantly? The goal of his mission isn't to save the world, but revive his mother by saving her Soulmate. He's clearly not come to grips with the idea that "my mother is dead and I will never see her again!" and to him, his mother was this saint-like figure, so naturally he views her as an amazing Sage, who simply got beat by an evil wizard and he has to save her "soulmate" and by doing so, he can bring his mother back.
I can go on but you can see there's a lot of things that all just fit in well if the story is nothing more than Oliver's escapist imagination "coming to life" as a means to cope with his mother's death. The big plot twist comes when he learns that Alicia, the Sage, isn't his mother's soulmate, but actually his mother, teleported through time and space through Breach Time spell to reach his world. In learning this, naturally it means his mother is gone for good. This to me came as the moment where Oliver had finally come to grips with the idea of death and that "my mother is gone and can't come back no matter what I do" and no amount of imagination can undo it, which is why he "goes into a coma." After mulling it over and thinking of all the people he "helped" was his way of going "I need to move on, I can't keep being sad!" The final battle with Shadar then has Oliver with the dilemma of "I die, you die too, SOULMATE!" which to me was Oliver's way of saying "if you beat me, then this great adventure comes to an end! You'll have to go back to boring reality!" then he comes up with a story that makes Shadar not seem like a bad guy, just someone who had misfortunes because "he's my soulmate, there has to be SOME good in him!" and Oliver was the one who purified his broken heart.
Pea of course is the hardest character character to explain. On one hand, I can believe she was also an addition since her main role comes in the last 3 hours, which if that was the case, then yeah, the theory only fits stronger as she was an addition. On the other hand, unlike Cassiopeia, Pea's purpose actually did fit with the story, as she interacts with Oliver and tended to have answers he didn't have. The best I can come up with is Pea was some sort of manifestation of Oliver's subconscious, a part of his mind even he didn't register and thus couldn't understand. It's worth noting that no one but Oliver can see Pea, even the others from the Fantastic world. As a result, if it was an aspect of his imagination he didn't know existed, and formed because he's letting his imagination run wild, well there you go.
I don't know if that was the intent, but the story just fits so well and would be a nice, different angle if that was what was going on; the White Witch just kind of throws a wrench in it, and her being a later addition just makes me further believe that was the original intent. Even the post-credits ending fits with the theory I presented as it's basically
Oliver gets home, on a broomstick that NO ONE happens to see, and telling himself he's finally ready to move on with his life and he doesn't need his mother anymore.Speaking of endings, the fake ending when Shadar is defeated is far more of an ending than when you beat the real final boss. Typical "load bearing final boss" situation followed by "we saved the world" and celebrations, and yeah, everything feels wrapped up, all that's missing is credits rolling but instead we get to Ding Dong Dell and the game goes "So...White Witch...remember her? Yeah, she's finally going to do stuff now." Then you beat the subsequent arc and the ending can be summed up as "And they lived happily ever after, ROLL THE CREDITS!" No, that's not really a spoiler because there's nothing TO spoil; the important stuff honestly happens right before the final boss, who as I said is a bullshit "we need one more fight, DEAL WITH IT!"
And yes, the post Shadar stuff in Ni No Kuni is comparable to F-arc in Tales of Graces F. The difference, though, is that F-Arc felt like a genuine extension of ToG's plot and characters. It followed up on ideas established in the main story, furthered the development of characters, and worked as extra world building. It also was more honest, as ToGf said "You beat the game!" when you beat the main story then goes "if you want to see more, play F-Arc!" so it's clear "THIS IS AN EXPANSION!" Ni No Kuni tries to pretend it's all one story. Yes, I am in fact saying Ni No Kuni would have benefited from having the credits after Shadar and then having an ominous voice over by the White Witch hinting "there's more to the story!"
As a final note, one last thing I'll give the game credit for is having a different protagonist than what jRPGs have. Most jRPG Protagonists range from teenager to early 20s. Having a protagonist who is legitimately a young boy, as in 10 years old, and not be annoying about it, was a nice change of pace. There's an air of innocence and naivete you get from Oliver that feels more genuine as a result than some of these "inexperienced teen protagonists" that are a dime a dozen. Add in some semi-competent writing and pacing for the most part, and Ni No Kuni isn't half bad of a story. Not something I'll hype mind you, but I was curious where the game was going at times (for all that it didn't throw many curve balls but sometimes you don't need to be different to be entertaining) and even when the game had filler, the filler felt well implemented, as it came off as "breathing room between plot points" as opposed to being outright padding.
