This review contains spoilers
Ni no Kuni could be a perfect game, but some gameplay choices really hold it back in a way that take away from an otherwise unforgettable game.
From a presentation stand-point, it's near perfect. It rides the line between light-hearted fun adventure and serious stakes (your Mom dies in the first hour, and the game plays around with issues of depression and hiding from reality). It also pulls off the RPG trope where there was a bigger bad all along by constantly reminding the player that there is more at stake than just Shadar, so when the characters finally learn it, we're not thrown offguard.
The gameplay is where we get a real mixed bag of things. There are times when the combat can be really fun, and utilizing weaknesses, swapping between familiars and spells, and having a bit of control in kiting, avoiding, and blocking feels great. Then you try and cast a spell multiple times to only have it interrupted over and over by the enemies or your allies doing things. Or your allies are just standing there doing nothing because they decided they don't want to throw out a certain familiar. Or the animation to ressurect your allies is still going off, and you still can't switch off of Provisions to start blocking or attacking, and you get killed before they get ressurected. It can make all of the good will you have for the game start to dissapear.
Thankfully, everything outside of combat is built really solid for a 40+ hour RPG. The Magician Spellbook is an awesome in-game way to work as if it was a guidebook, showing me where to find specific items, familiars, and even alchemy recipes. Using spells for non-combat scenarios feels really rewarding, but my biggest issue is Mr. Drippy. 80% of the puzzles are solved by going up to them, pressing X, and having Mr. Drippy tell you to use the spell you already knew you had to use. When I ran through the poison marshes, I felt great when I noticed the puddles kept poisoning me, but if I cast Levitate I could hover over them. When I realized that, I was honestly surprised that as soon as I ran in to the Marshes Mr. Drippy hadn't jumped out of nowhere to say "You'd better watch out for them poison puddles, if'n only we had some sort of way to FLOAT ABOVE THE PUDDLES!"
At the end of the day, I really loved the game, I just wish it felt better in certain respects and I maybe would have went for the Platinum trophy. I'm looking forward to eventually moving on to the sequel though!
From a presentation stand-point, it's near perfect. It rides the line between light-hearted fun adventure and serious stakes (your Mom dies in the first hour, and the game plays around with issues of depression and hiding from reality). It also pulls off the RPG trope where there was a bigger bad all along by constantly reminding the player that there is more at stake than just Shadar, so when the characters finally learn it, we're not thrown offguard.
The gameplay is where we get a real mixed bag of things. There are times when the combat can be really fun, and utilizing weaknesses, swapping between familiars and spells, and having a bit of control in kiting, avoiding, and blocking feels great. Then you try and cast a spell multiple times to only have it interrupted over and over by the enemies or your allies doing things. Or your allies are just standing there doing nothing because they decided they don't want to throw out a certain familiar. Or the animation to ressurect your allies is still going off, and you still can't switch off of Provisions to start blocking or attacking, and you get killed before they get ressurected. It can make all of the good will you have for the game start to dissapear.
Thankfully, everything outside of combat is built really solid for a 40+ hour RPG. The Magician Spellbook is an awesome in-game way to work as if it was a guidebook, showing me where to find specific items, familiars, and even alchemy recipes. Using spells for non-combat scenarios feels really rewarding, but my biggest issue is Mr. Drippy. 80% of the puzzles are solved by going up to them, pressing X, and having Mr. Drippy tell you to use the spell you already knew you had to use. When I ran through the poison marshes, I felt great when I noticed the puddles kept poisoning me, but if I cast Levitate I could hover over them. When I realized that, I was honestly surprised that as soon as I ran in to the Marshes Mr. Drippy hadn't jumped out of nowhere to say "You'd better watch out for them poison puddles, if'n only we had some sort of way to FLOAT ABOVE THE PUDDLES!"
At the end of the day, I really loved the game, I just wish it felt better in certain respects and I maybe would have went for the Platinum trophy. I'm looking forward to eventually moving on to the sequel though!