Quick Look: Ni No Kuni II - Revenant Kingdom

WOO!

hope this is good. also hope they did a good job on the pc port

Ding Dong Beast QL

Tidy!

Oh cool!

I've actually been playing the first one. I got to a part where I had to rescue a mountain-sized fairy's children... er, from inside of her. This was at about 3AM, so I calmly put down the controller, turned off the PS3, and went to sleep.

I've been meaning to get back to it, but I've been playing Skyrim on the Switch and that game's pulled me in for the umpteenth time since it came out.

I’m getting weird looping sections in this video, is that just me?

Hmm 30 mins in and it seems really good so far. The combat seems enjoyable so far and there seems to be plenty of loot to get in this.

My only concern is that the difficulty that some reviewers have pointed out is a little on the low side.

Shoulda called it Ni No 2nni.

It's on Steam too and apparently does not use Denuvo.

There is a PC version and it has all the graphical and control options you'd want.

I'm glad the combit is different. I hope there are robits to fight.

@nomtank: starring Mickey Rooney

Studio Ghibli wasn't involved officialy with this one but there were apparently still people from ghibli working on it. Mainly on the storywriting and music if Im not mistaking.

This game looks really pretty but also kind of boring. It's a bummer that you zoom to a separate combat zone instead of having FFXII-style field combat. For some reason the brief load times sap any desire I have to smack monsters.

Ni already means 2/second, so they should have said screw it and gone with the Fast and Furious route: 2 no 2ni.

e: Studio Ghibli is literally anime.

Do you have to play as the cat small boy?

This game seems super awesome! Loved Ni No Kuni 1, can't wait to pick this up! Why are there so many games, my wallet is dying, stop. The visuals are gorgeous, can't get enough of this game.

@nomtank said:

Shoulda called it Ni No Coup-Me

Combat reminds me a lot of the Tales series.

But also on PC.

@joerosa: I feel like this would be more excusable if they didn't run a wiki that lists all releases. Three people on a quicklook, one of them could have looked at the game's page on their own website.

Innit, mun?

Yes you do, but you can also take control of party members during fights I believe.

Ni already means 2 haha, it basically means Second Country or Another Country.

Oh, no, they have the jibblies!

Do they address if you have to played the first one to understand the story in this one?

Neato!

They should have made Mr. Drippy the series mascot

As much as I loved the music in the first game, I'm kinda bummed to see them just reusing the overworld theme, with a sprinkling of altered versions of other tracks elsewhere.

Also that new mascot character just looks like a bootleg Lisa Simpson and it's really bugging me. Otherwise I'm still excited to get around to this game.

I'm on the fence with this game. It looks great, but I'm worried that it's too easy and combat is just going to get boring after a while. I'm currently experiencing the same thing with FF15, it's dissapointing to see these big JRPG's becoming way too easy.

@cannedstingray: According to Kotaku and PCGamer it's a pretty good port and it seems fairly easy to achieve 4K 60fps.

I knew Abby wrote that description before I even clicked on the video link.

@fake_empire: They mention that the plot is not really connected.

Ni No Kuni 1 was awesome. The gameplay got to be a bit of a grind, but overall I really enjoyed it. I had forgotten about Ni No Kuni 2 but I'll have to pick this up.

So excited to get this today! Ni No Kuni is one of my favorite Jrpgs from recent memory.

JRPGs outside of Shin Megami Tensei really haven't been challenging since the NES days. Even the SNES Final Fantasies let you pretty much waltz through the first two thirds with an occasional tricky boss. I still remember my surprise when the first real boss of Lost Odyssey destroyed me 4-5 times in a row.

@paulunga: Good point, but I still think those games were more difficult than the modern ones. I haven't died once in FF15 after 30 hours. I would like some difficulty modes at least.

@avioto: Yeah, adjustable difficulty is always welcome.

@justin258: Funny, I've been playing the first as well: I've just now got my second party member. I've had the game in my backlog of shame for years and all of the positive reviews for the second one prompted me to finally tackle it. I like it and will definitely pick up the sequel down the road.

Jeeeeeeeepers!

At first, I was going to shake my fist at the sky and cry out, "Why is there furry-talk in my GIANT BOOOOMMMBBB?!"

Then I realized that this was the natural progression from Jeff and Dan's ascension to "Anime Experts".

Is there any reason to get this on the PC over PS4? As in, are the graphics that much better on PC? Seems like a couch game to me.

The first one was such a beautiful and personally affecting story about grief and loss, letting go and moving on. It was so grounded and real despite the setting. Seems like that's all the the way gone, which is a shame.

You can't make a sequel to that story, obviously, but I was expecting something along similar lines. Mind, it's 60 quid I don't have anyway so probably for the best.

Oh hey, they found Barkerville.

JRPGs have always had big problems when it comes to creating difficulty. Historically "difficulty" in JRPGs meant grinding for levels or maximizing your out-of-battle party setup, each of which creates huge, unfun roadblocks if you run into a challenge. The NES JRPGs were huge offenders. Boss battles are also 10+ minute affairs, and lots of times the "challenge" in a particular boss battle is just randomness in critical hits, bosses using big attacks, or targeting the wrong party member and taking you down. None of which is fun.

Creating a challenge within standard JRPG battle and party development systems which is satisfying to overcome is almost impossible, given that you have to balance for players that will just bumrush the objectives and players that will seek out every sidequest/chest and maximize their party levels/equipment. Especially since games have moved to more of a story-focused experience that prioritizes more players actually seeing it through. And if you break out of standard JRPG systems to de-emphasize levels, that tends to alienate a segment of the audience too.

Not sure there's a great answer beyond leaving the real challenge as optional/post-game and having the occasional boss that creates a quasi-puzzle to figure out the strategy. Even among JRPGs I've liked, I can't think of one I've been perfectly satisfied with the difficulty balance on it.

HIGGLEDY

Apparently this was next on my Gamefly queue so I guess I'm trying it but from this it doesn't really look like my jam. Never played the first one, maybe I'll end up liking it though.

WHAMSTER

@pxbart : *slowclap* GBTV tears

Vinny: "But there are people who have ears and there are just straight up anthropomorphic animals?"

I'd say most people have ears.

That haircut is an A-line Bob, Vinny.