This is my second time playing through Ni no Kuni, a replay that I though would never come after my disappointment with the game back on PS3.
I had dozens of gripes with the clumsy combat system, requiring real-time navigation of janky menus. The wasteful, borderline suicidal party AI, without any serious ability to tailor their combat habits, felt consistently like a liability unless overleveled to the point of forced competence. Most of the content aside from the story - unironically named Errands - were transparent filler content and enormously tedious, but big spikes in difficulty at various bosses recommended their completion for the rewards and experience, unless you'd rather grind. Ridiculously poor narrative pacing and an endless number of new story gimmicks and wacky events, marred above all by the continuation of the story after the emotional climax - the battle with Shadar - deflated the charm of the characters and excellent voice acting and dialogue. Above all, else, though, I was disappointed in the world - it felt so empty and robotic and static for a game about a wizard who can manipulate environments and mend broken hearts. I dropped it at Perdida, about 80% of the way through, because my well of patience had run dry.
My revisit was played alongside my girlfriend, both of us tempted by the presentation and score from Studio Ghibli. She picked it up for Switch and I had an untouched Steam copy, so I thought why not return to it, try to put our heads together and knock it out. We both played on easy mode, and the remaster comes with a ticket for a Griffin which is one of the best familiars in the game. Surely it would be more straightforward, with less busywork and more of the charms of the characters and setting, but the end result could not have been further from expectations. My partner had never been more agitated with a video game before. The combat system, more pointedly the insipid party AI, drove her to the edge, and she dropped it about halfway through. It's been a few days and she still talks about how it might be the single worst game she's ever played.
I struggle so much to explain my feelings about this game because everything I felt so bitter about in my first playthrough was validated twice over. But I must admit I had a better time than before, and saw it through to the end. I met the game on its terms, and it almost worked. I picked easy mode to avoid the grindfest in normal. I knew that the side quests were designed with completion in mind, because they give you better rewards than you can farm or buy in shops, so I completed all of them. The result was a breezier experience, one I got through much faster than i ever would've guessed, but to my pleasant surprise still required pretty careful team construction and tactical foresight. I actually let go of my starters, who quickly dropped off in power, and ended up using many more familiar archetypes than before, including aggro-drawing tanks and status effect inflicters focused on damage over time. In general, I was just better at the game, experimenting more thoroughly with how my party should approach encounters.
I don't know how to feel about this, though. I did feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but does that deserve praise when it's only because of my extremely narrow approach to the game, and go about things in a stricter, more devoted manner? Should you not be able to opt in and out of the game's nominally optional content at your leisure, in the same way that the game recommends various levels of difficulty for those who play for different reasons? What is to be made about the two casual playthroughs between my partner and I - both in the exact target demographic as Pokemon and Ghibli fans that like more cheerful experiences - ending in a cascade of distraught and frustration?
My unfortunate conclusion is that I am simply the kind of person that is more accepting of tedium for the sake of completion and dangling rewards, unable to refuse low-hanging fruit promising bundles of gold and EXP. While my impulse control can be overwhelmed in the moment, I would never afford these sorts of design decisions any credence or value. After the flicks of dopamine, grappling with the time spent, lost from other parts of life, can be nauseating.
I want to recommend Ni no Kuni because of its beauty, but how could I after wallowing in the aftertaste? It takes a specific type of unflinching patience and a dutiful commitment to the full breadth of the systems to get almost anything out of the experience, and that's a real shame. I don't think most rational people would agree such an endeavor is worth their time.
I had dozens of gripes with the clumsy combat system, requiring real-time navigation of janky menus. The wasteful, borderline suicidal party AI, without any serious ability to tailor their combat habits, felt consistently like a liability unless overleveled to the point of forced competence. Most of the content aside from the story - unironically named Errands - were transparent filler content and enormously tedious, but big spikes in difficulty at various bosses recommended their completion for the rewards and experience, unless you'd rather grind. Ridiculously poor narrative pacing and an endless number of new story gimmicks and wacky events, marred above all by the continuation of the story after the emotional climax - the battle with Shadar - deflated the charm of the characters and excellent voice acting and dialogue. Above all, else, though, I was disappointed in the world - it felt so empty and robotic and static for a game about a wizard who can manipulate environments and mend broken hearts. I dropped it at Perdida, about 80% of the way through, because my well of patience had run dry.
My revisit was played alongside my girlfriend, both of us tempted by the presentation and score from Studio Ghibli. She picked it up for Switch and I had an untouched Steam copy, so I thought why not return to it, try to put our heads together and knock it out. We both played on easy mode, and the remaster comes with a ticket for a Griffin which is one of the best familiars in the game. Surely it would be more straightforward, with less busywork and more of the charms of the characters and setting, but the end result could not have been further from expectations. My partner had never been more agitated with a video game before. The combat system, more pointedly the insipid party AI, drove her to the edge, and she dropped it about halfway through. It's been a few days and she still talks about how it might be the single worst game she's ever played.
I struggle so much to explain my feelings about this game because everything I felt so bitter about in my first playthrough was validated twice over. But I must admit I had a better time than before, and saw it through to the end. I met the game on its terms, and it almost worked. I picked easy mode to avoid the grindfest in normal. I knew that the side quests were designed with completion in mind, because they give you better rewards than you can farm or buy in shops, so I completed all of them. The result was a breezier experience, one I got through much faster than i ever would've guessed, but to my pleasant surprise still required pretty careful team construction and tactical foresight. I actually let go of my starters, who quickly dropped off in power, and ended up using many more familiar archetypes than before, including aggro-drawing tanks and status effect inflicters focused on damage over time. In general, I was just better at the game, experimenting more thoroughly with how my party should approach encounters.
I don't know how to feel about this, though. I did feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but does that deserve praise when it's only because of my extremely narrow approach to the game, and go about things in a stricter, more devoted manner? Should you not be able to opt in and out of the game's nominally optional content at your leisure, in the same way that the game recommends various levels of difficulty for those who play for different reasons? What is to be made about the two casual playthroughs between my partner and I - both in the exact target demographic as Pokemon and Ghibli fans that like more cheerful experiences - ending in a cascade of distraught and frustration?
My unfortunate conclusion is that I am simply the kind of person that is more accepting of tedium for the sake of completion and dangling rewards, unable to refuse low-hanging fruit promising bundles of gold and EXP. While my impulse control can be overwhelmed in the moment, I would never afford these sorts of design decisions any credence or value. After the flicks of dopamine, grappling with the time spent, lost from other parts of life, can be nauseating.
I want to recommend Ni no Kuni because of its beauty, but how could I after wallowing in the aftertaste? It takes a specific type of unflinching patience and a dutiful commitment to the full breadth of the systems to get almost anything out of the experience, and that's a real shame. I don't think most rational people would agree such an endeavor is worth their time.