I really want to get this game, everything about it looks incredible but I'm not a big JRPG guy, so the combat in games like this can often overwhelm me. I have never really gotten into one of these kind of games before, I'm hoping this will be the one. I have two questions:

1. Is it hard?

2. Does it ease you into the combat slowly enough to grasp if you are new to these kind of games?

yes it eases you into the combat and you have a lot of time fighting weaker monsters to get used to it

but the combat is very fast paced and if you cant make quick decisions and pay attention to a lot of things at a time then you might want to play on easy.

@Tarsier: I might just play on easy. Do you think it's a good place to start for someone who hasn't really played a JRPG before?

it could be. im not a fan of JRPGs . this is the first one ive been inclined to play in years.. last one i played seriously was pokemon. ive been playing on normal and havent had trouble .

I've never played a jrpg before, and I'm not having any problems...yet. Really liking it so far. I was initially worried I wouldn't be able to get a grasp on the combat, but its explained pretty well. So as someone new to the genre, I think you'll be fine.

My top tip for JRPGs is not to run away from or avoid any battles unless it's to prevent a party wipe. Might seem obvious, but when I first started playing FF as a kid I'd run away from 90% of battles which made the games seem incredibly hard when I was faced with tough a boss. If you fight every enemy you come across you should be levelled to a point where you can make mistakes in battle and not suffer greatly from it.

God yes, when I finally got to the battling part at the beginning I did what any good rpgier would, I starting leveling up. I did 5 or 6 battles until I realized once I hit level 2 and battled the same bad guys I stop getting exp.

I'm only about 6 hours into to Ni No Kuni, but it does sort of seem to be setting itself up as baby's first RPG. I think you'll be fine on normal as long as you stick to traditional methods like not running from fights and figuring out how to chain damage.

There are a ton of systems, but they're all easily managed, once you can wrap your head around them.

@pompouspizza said:

@Tarsier: I might just play on easy. Do you think it's a good place to start for someone who hasn't really played a JRPG before?

Honestly I have no clue what the difference between Easy and Normal is. I'm not seeing much of one.

Also the game will get super frustrating for two reasons. Firstly because there are awful difficulty spikes apparently, and secondly because your party AI is awful at times.

@Mesoian said:

I'm only about 6 hours into to Ni No Kuni, but it does sort of seem to be setting itself up as baby's first RPG. I think you'll be fine on normal as long as you stick to traditional methods like not running from fights and figuring out how to chain damage.

There are a ton of systems, but they're all easily managed, once you can wrap your head around them.

I don't really think this is a good beginner RPG honestly. Have you gotten your second party member yet? Things change for the worse at that point. >_<

the demo shows you combat early and later in the game..  I think it's simple enough to understand.  So try demo before you buy it or something.

@kishinfoulux said:

@pompouspizza said:

@Tarsier: I might just play on easy. Do you think it's a good place to start for someone who hasn't really played a JRPG before?

Honestly I have no clue what the difference between Easy and Normal is. I'm not seeing much of one.

Also the game will get super frustrating for two reasons. Firstly because there are awful difficulty spikes apparently, and secondly because your party AI is awful at times.

@Mesoian said:

I'm only about 6 hours into to Ni No Kuni, but it does sort of seem to be setting itself up as baby's first RPG. I think you'll be fine on normal as long as you stick to traditional methods like not running from fights and figuring out how to chain damage.

There are a ton of systems, but they're all easily managed, once you can wrap your head around them.

I don't really think this is a good beginner RPG honestly. Have you gotten your second party member yet? Things change for the worse at that point. >_<

Ever since I got my second party member, the game hasn't been able to touch me. My strategy at the moment is to have her (I can't remember her name, I just got her) loaded up with counter and stagger familiars and have her engage while I run DPS to the target. Worst case scenario, she does 75% damage before retreating to heal (or dies) and I pick up the kill. I beat Bashura in about 45 seconds due to her counter, which allowed me to farm to gold drops which I chained to do about 500 damage in 10 seconds. It's strange that you still gain 100% experience if members die, but you still finish the match. Probably because the tactics AI can be really unpredictable.

It makes me wonder how the rest of the game is going to go if stuff like that can be so easily exploited. The only times I've died where when I was being dumb and loose with new familiars; seeing how their attacks worked and what the spin up on their skill times were. But still, it rewards good strategy, I like that a lot.

@Mesoian said:

@kishinfoulux said:

@pompouspizza said:

@Tarsier: I might just play on easy. Do you think it's a good place to start for someone who hasn't really played a JRPG before?

Honestly I have no clue what the difference between Easy and Normal is. I'm not seeing much of one.

Also the game will get super frustrating for two reasons. Firstly because there are awful difficulty spikes apparently, and secondly because your party AI is awful at times.

@Mesoian said:

I'm only about 6 hours into to Ni No Kuni, but it does sort of seem to be setting itself up as baby's first RPG. I think you'll be fine on normal as long as you stick to traditional methods like not running from fights and figuring out how to chain damage.

There are a ton of systems, but they're all easily managed, once you can wrap your head around them.

I don't really think this is a good beginner RPG honestly. Have you gotten your second party member yet? Things change for the worse at that point. >_<

Ever since I got my second party member, the game hasn't been able to touch me. My strategy at the moment is to have her (I can't remember her name, I just got her) loaded up with counter and stagger familiars and have her engage while I run DPS to the target. Worst case scenario, she does 75% damage before retreating to heal (or dies) and I pick up the kill. I beat Bashura in about 45 seconds due to her counter, which allowed me to farm to gold drops which I chained to do about 500 damage in 10 seconds. It's strange that you still gain 100% experience if members die, but you still finish the match. Probably because the tactics AI can be really unpredictable.

It makes me wonder how the rest of the game is going to go if stuff like that can be so easily exploited. The only times I've died where when I was being dumb and loose with new familiars; seeing how their attacks worked and what the spin up on their skill times were. But still, it rewards good strategy, I like that a lot.

That's almost the games way of saying "yeah we know the party AI is atrocious so here's a freebie".

It slowly layers the mechanics over the first 10 hours of the game (as far as I'm aware, the Attack/Defend buttons are the last thing added to it?). That said, it does have some serious wake-up call moments that force you to reevaluate how you play the game. Along with that, it also has some spots that will rough you up unless you do a bit of grinding before-hand (nothing ridiculous; at most, I spent 15-20 minutes killing stuff, and the money was great too).

i havent had a problem with the AI yet but maybe thats because i am the best and i rule