I've played through the demo about 4 or 5 times and can easily say that the combat is one of the most challenging and robust systems I've played in a long long time. I'm picking this game up launch week because I support everything that this game stands for - I love JRPGs and Ghibli, and this seems to be a perfect mash up of the two. I highly recommend you at LEAST play the demo and experience this game for yourself.

Who else plans to pick this game up in a month and what are you looking forward to from this game? The prospect of each familiar playing such a different role and having it's own unique skills is the most tempting to me. I also foresee a really great Ghilbli story from this.

Late January cannot come faster!

The 8-4 guys said it was incredibly simple to the point of being a little kids game.

@JZ said:

The 8-4 guys said it was incredibly simple to the point of being a little kids game.

An extremely challenging, Dark Soulsian Boshy little kids game. :|

@TruthTellah said:

@JZ said:

The 8-4 guys said it was incredibly simple to the point of being a little kids game.

An extremely challenging, Dark Soulsian Boshy little kids game. :|

This is true. The demo was really challenging. Especially that boss in the forest. It was one of the first JRPGs I've played that introduces healing and makes it critical at such an early stage. It requires a lot of dextrous command selection.

I likened the demo's combat to the Pulse section of FFXIII. Really fun and really tight.

@JZ said:

The 8-4 guys said it was incredibly simple to the point of being a little kids game.

Pretty accurate to my experience with the demo. I just found the combat super boring and started avoiding it after like 2 fights.

@JZ: The impression I got from watching a couple of people play the demo was that the game is very child-focused in terms of the art direction, and from (half-)listening to the 8-4 podcast I got the impression that this was what they were referring to as well, rather than the game being unusually simplistic to play. What I've seen of the combat doesn't look especially simple compared to the average JRPG.

I don't know who to believe. I'm going to go with the 8-4 guys, because xyz has a xenoblade icon and that game was total garbage.

No the straight up said it was easy

I don't know, I have no expectations or plans to buy this game but I watched a little bit of streaming of the demo and saw a guy get his arse kicked by some lava boss. According to the streamer that wasn't his first playthrough of the demo. The 8-4 guys wouldn't strike me as being the most trustworthy people around either, if we're going off their tastes and general gaming opinions.

@Laivasse said:

I don't know, I have no expectations or plans to buy this game but I watched a little bit of streaming of the demo and saw a guy get his arse kicked by some lava boss. According to the streamer that wasn't his first playthrough of the demo. The 8-4 guys wouldn't strike me as being the most trustworthy people around either, if we're going off their tastes and general gaming opinions.

That lava boss is a total joke. For that particular mission you're given a little ice guy who makes the fight kind of trivial. Too bad the demo does a terrible job at telling you anything about what's going on.

I have no doubt that this game will turn out well, but I have no confidence that it'll sell. It bombed in Japan already last I heard. Hopefully I'm wrong though.

I liked the demo...and it's a really odd thing to point to that completely sold me on the game. But damn that overworld was awesome.

The combat was fun, and was challenging to a degree I guess...but that overworld just did it for me.

This game could play like absolute shit and I'd still play it for the visuals alone. And besides, the combat in Costume Quest was pretty damn easy and I loved that.

@EVO said:

This game could play like absolute shit and I'd still play it for the visuals alone. And besides, the combat in Costume Quest was pretty damn easy and I loved that.

I'm kinda the same way. Not completely sold on the gameplay (though I got some fun out of it), but I'd get it anyway thanks to the art style.

I found the demo was only hard when I tried using the monsters (familiars?) on the boss encounters. They seem to be underpowered compared the actual characters, and basically the second I stopped using them and just spammed Olivers spells I won with ease.

Its the reason I haven't sold my PS3 yet. It looks great and the combat seems interesting.

Maybe it's just me being stupid, but it took me a while (and many deaths) to understand the combat system. But once I got it, it was fun.

I wanted to enjoy the demo, but it threw a boss at me without telling me how the combat works that slaughtered me a couple of times before I figured it out on my own. Defeating the boss unlocked the tutorials telling me how combat and familiars work. A little late by this point, but I pored through them anyway, and the bloody demo timed out. I had to then defeat the boss again and not read the tutorials to see the world map, which promptly blew my mind.

The disposal of the world map was one of the most egregious errors ever committed by JRPG developers. I heartily welcome its return and am thoroughly on board with this game, as long as it's not as poorly put together as this steaming pile of a demo.

Fuck I need to download this demo been meaning too but got so wrapped up in finishing up No More Heroes:Paradise that I forgot.

The demo was challenging even when the game gave you blatantly over-leveled familiars. I'm really looking forward to the main game.

I'm trying to avoid as much info as I can about this game, but from what I have seen the combat always struck me as being turn based. Is this not the case? I really hope there's no timing or action aspects to the combat because I hate RPG's with that stuff in them. I'm really looking forward to seeing this game for the story and art, but if the combat is action based instead of turn based I know I won't be able to get past it to enjoy the story.

@crusader8463: The combat is real time 3D action like in Namco's Tales series.

@Icemael said:

@crusader8463: The combat is real time 3D action like in Namco's Tales series.

Dam. That really sucks. The bits of gameplay I saw looked like it was turn based. I couldn't get into the Tales games because of the combat so I guess I won't get to enjoy this one ether. Dam it. I was really looking forward to this game too. Oh well. Better to have found out now then when I fired up the game. Thanks.

@NegativeCero said:

It bombed in Japan already last I heard.

Really? That's hard to believe, Studio Ghibli movies make great money over there. It must not have been marketed well, or perhaps Japanese gaming fandom and Ghibli fandom don't have much overlap.

@Vanek said:

I found the demo was only hard when I tried using the monsters (familiars?) on the boss encounters. They seem to be underpowered compared the actual characters, and basically the second I stopped using them and just spammed Olivers spells I won with ease.

Pretty much this. I'm getting the game due to the people involved in making it, but the combat was a little boring.

@JZ said:

I don't know who to believe. I'm going to go with the 8-4 guys, because xyz has a xenoblade icon and that game was total garbage.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I have no idea what to believe anymore. No seriously though. I feel like any given person either hates a specific JRPG more than Hitler, or would defend it to their grave.

I can't decide between this and Ken's Rage 2. Do I want to punch people over and over or play a Studio Ghibli game?

So, here's the thing: I preordered the Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel Edition as an investment collection piece, but yet I failed to preorder the NNK Wizard Edition. What the fuck's up with that?

After playing the demo for a second time, I found that using the familiars was a much more "fun" experience. Playing with Oliver made you completely overpowered in the demo, but I think that's because he's a little more over-leveled than the familiars. This game looks like it might be my GOTY, and 2013 has just started.

I had tons of fun. My only concern is the familiar system. I know basically nothing about this game, but hopefully the familiars will have a fair bit of a variety and complexity between them. Hopefully more than a couple abilities, anyway.

There is a demo?!?! Awesome. I think I will just wait till Tuesday but I'm getting pretty excited about this. I'm not a huge JRPG player but the screen shots look amazing. This is a must play for me!!! Even thought I know nothing about it.

Every time I think I've outgrown JRPG's a game like this comes along and reels me in like a coked-up sturgeon. Level-5 + Ghibli= Day one purchase for me.

This game is going to be pretty awesome!

Also to add my two cents to the table on the combat it seemed more thought provoking than say FF 13-2 where all you have to worry about is all out attack or all out healing yourself.

In this you are judging between your familiars and Oliver's skills while placement matters in the sense of where your standing and attacking. I say that alone is worth a look as far as complexity in combat goes because everything else looks stellar.

@project343 said:

I had tons of fun. My only concern is the familiar system. I know basically nothing about this game, but hopefully the familiars will have a fair bit of a variety and complexity between them. Hopefully more than a couple abilities, anyway.

This might help:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/video-games/AmazonPreOrder1_NiNoKuni2.pdf

@Zeik said:

@project343 said:

I had tons of fun. My only concern is the familiar system. I know basically nothing about this game, but hopefully the familiars will have a fair bit of a variety and complexity between them. Hopefully more than a couple abilities, anyway.

This might help:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/video-games/AmazonPreOrder1_NiNoKuni2.pdf

That link is pretty good, thanks!

I havent wanted to play a JRPG for some time the last one I tried was FF13 and oh my did it leave a bad taste in my mouth....really excited about this one!!!!!

it got 9.3 on game trailers. the review sold me. im buying a playstation 3 just for this and journey.

@Zeik said:

@project343 said:

I had tons of fun. My only concern is the familiar system. I know basically nothing about this game, but hopefully the familiars will have a fair bit of a variety and complexity between them. Hopefully more than a couple abilities, anyway.

This might help:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/video-games/AmazonPreOrder1_NiNoKuni2.pdf

Oh man... this is the most amazing thing ever for someone like me. A lot of great sounding stuff in here. I think you just made Level-5 some money.

I think the points that make me the happiest are:

• All familiars in your current set (of 3) earn XP, whether they fight or not (one of the worst parts of Pokemon, IMO, is having to do the leveling up juggle)
• They evolve ("metamorphosis")! The biggest things I was hoping for.

@Timnoldzim said:

@NegativeCero said:

It bombed in Japan already last I heard.

Really? That's hard to believe, Studio Ghibli movies make great money over there. It must not have been marketed well, or perhaps Japanese gaming fandom and Ghibli fandom don't have much overlap.

I think I remember hearing that it retailed for like the equivalent of 100 US dollars or something in Japan cause they spent a shit ton of money on big name voice actors and included the magic book. They probably overestimated how much people were willing to pay for a game just cause it had the Ghibli name on it with famous VAs.

Personally, I didn't think the demo was THAT great. Felt the combat was a little too simple. Then again it's hard to demo a JRPG, especially when the demo pretty much denies you access to half of the menu options. I loved Level 5's games on the PS2, but White Knight Chronicles just bored me to death with how unsatisfactory and unengaging the combat was. I kinda got the same feeling from the demo. Maybe when I play the full game it will be different. But for now, I'm skeptical.

@Zeik said:

@project343 said:

I had tons of fun. My only concern is the familiar system. I know basically nothing about this game, but hopefully the familiars will have a fair bit of a variety and complexity between them. Hopefully more than a couple abilities, anyway.

This might help:

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/video-games/AmazonPreOrder1_NiNoKuni2.pdf

This link just gives me a dead page?

@MiniPato: According to the Gametrailers and IGN reviews, the game is very linear and guided for the first third or so of the game; after that however, they claim the combat becomes very intricate, difficult, and engaging. I haven't played the demo yet, but it sounds like level 5 intentionally chose a simple section for it.

@oulzac: Try opening it up in a different browser.

For some reason it's doing the same for me with Firefox but Chrome opens it fine.

I like Ghibli movies pretty well, but that's despite their art style. Don't like children as main characters, and that goes double for RPGs. Kids saving the world? Really? Does that make any sense outside of a cartoon? Does this movie feature children or is it just one of those things where they're animated to look young but don't act it?

When do people enter magical other worlds outside of cartoons? I think you're nitpicking a little there, it's fantasy.

He's not trying to save the world though, he's trying to save his dead mom. Whether he acts his age depends on how you look at it. He's clearly a pretty innocent kid rather than some brooding badass. However I expect him to come into his own over the course of the game, and not just be some snivling little kid who can't do anything but be annoying.

@Veektarius said:

I like Ghibli movies pretty well, but that's despite their art style. Don't like children as main characters, and that goes double for RPGs. Kids saving the world? Really? Does that make any sense outside of a cartoon? Does this movie feature children or is it just one of those things where they're animated to look young but don't act it?

There is something really special about seeing the world through a child's eyes. Spirited Away (for instance), as a reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderland, simply would not have worked without a child as the protagonist. In terms of Ni No Kuni, it is Oliver's purity that makes him strong. He is a wizard in a magical land (so the physical limitation poses no issue), and he fights primarily using manifestations of his own spirit ("Familiars").

You must have really hated Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, huh?

@project343: I didn't hate either of them, but it bothered me that I didn't get to be adult link again. There isn't enough story in those games for them to not make sense.

@Veektarius said:

@project343: I didn't hate either of them, but it bothered me that I didn't get to be adult link again. There isn't enough story in those games for them to not make sense.

After witnessing a husband beating his wife and seeing the traumatized state that the daughter is in from Oliver's perspective I will safely say that this game would be significantly worse if it had an adult protagonist (vague-ish spoilers of a small portion of the early game). What makes this game stand out (narratively) is its protagonist and some of the darker tones juxtaposed with his innocence. There is a fair bit of JRPG convention here, but this is easily the most endearing JRPG narrative that I have experienced this generation (unless it turns into a total trainwreck... we'll wait and see).

@project343: I have to agree with you, generally speaking, that Ghibli films featuring Children generally make the most of the children's perspectives while delivering a serious story. At the same time, those Children aren't asked to do anything like engaging in a pitched battle with a terrible sorceress. But yeah, I don't have any trouble believing that the personal story of the game would work, particularly after seeing the quick look. Maybe it's possible to do it right all the way, and maybe they did.

An example of doing it wrong, on the other hand, is those Golden Sun games (particularly the last one) where it's not particularly clear why the adults didn't go deal with things themselves.

The demo is super easy. You can just stand there and heal yourself and kill the boss or you can run around and kill the boss from afar without taking any dmg at all or you can summon your op familiars and be done with it. Whatever you choose to do you cant possibly call it challenging becouse you might have to use one or two items eh?

The only strange thing was the complete lack of tutorial in the demo so you had to trial and error out the very basics of the combat system by yourself. ( i didnt knew you could move around the first time i played :) )

Just downloaded it yesterday and I'm loving it so far. It's been a long while that a game made me smile while playing it, but that's what this one does to me. The game is incredibly charming so far, but then again I'm only a few hours in. I really hope the game can carry this forward through its entirety, because if so this may already be my goty.