Overview
Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madōshi (Second Country: The Jet-Black Mage) is a role-playing game on the Nintendo DS, from Level-5 partnered with Studio Ghibli. It was first released in Japan on December 9, 2010. An enhanced HD port, Shiroki Seihai no Joō (Queen of White Sacred Ash--officially localized as Wrath of the White Witch) for the PS3 was announced for a 2011 release in Japan and early 2013 in other territories.
Story
Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoshi tells the story of a 13 year-old boy, Oliver, whose mother has died from a heart attack. Soon after, he comes across a fairy named Shizuku that bestows upon him a magic book, which allows him to travel to Ni no Kuni, a reality which is parallel to his own. It is there that he encounters alternate versions of people he knows, such as his cat, who is a king there. After coming to grips with the idea of this alternate reality, which exists in a different time frame than his own, he decides that he must save his mother no matter what.
The Magic Master
Every copy of the game is packaged with The Magic Master, a hardcover 352 page book representing the same one Oliver uses in the game world. The book is necessary for playing the game, and contains information necessary for unlocking the game's spells, recipes for the game's alchemy system, a bestiary, maps and some fairy tales containing clues to some of the game's puzzles. The book is lavishly produced and was a major advertising point upon the game's release in Japan.
Trivia
Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoshi is the first time Studio Ghibli officially does animation for a video game, however Katsuya Kondo and Yoshiharu Sato have worked on video games like Jade Cocoon and LostMagic in the past.
Reception
In August 2013, Level-5 reported that the DS version of Ni No Kuni had sold 554,378 units in Japan.
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