Studio Ghibli's "Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch" for the PS3 - Page 5

Originally Posted by bd2003 

I played the demo for a bit, and I kinda liked it but was put off by a few things.

How are you finding the difficulty level as the game progresses? In the demo the battles were so easy they were almost pointless. But then I hear from others you have to grind a lot?

Do you really have to constantly read walls of text, or was that just the demo? It seemed like relatively few lines were actually voiced, and it really put me off of the game quite a bit.

And the real question on everyone's mind....how on earth do you pronounce ghibli? Is it giblee, geeblee, jiblee or jeeblee?

Originally Posted by americangunner 

I wish I could get into JRPG's. This game looks like it would be a good one, but I hate turn based combat.

Originally Posted by PENDRAG0ON 

It is real time.

When those curious academics look back at our fairy tale games, I believe they will recognize Ni no Kuni as a significant achievement. Few games have captured the once-upon-a-time magic and fanciful spirit of fairy tale so completely. Menacing darkness - a mother’s death, an abandoned child, and an evil spirit bent on destroying him - underlies a bright enchanted universe of eccentric fairies, cat-kings, and cow-queens. A boy overcomes his fears. A perilous journey is undertaken.

Of course, as with most fairy tales, there’s little new here, but novelty plays almost no role in such stories. Familiarity is a pivotal dimension of fairy tale because it is in the act of telling and re-telling that we dig into these apparently simple tales and derive meaning. In Ni no Kuni the infusion of Studio Ghibli style is notable because it distinguishes the game from the avalanche of teen-angst anime that has dominated JRPGs for so long. But in the end Ni no Kuni rings bells we’ve rung many times before, built with blueprints borrowed from Dragon Quest, Pokémon, and Spirited Away.

So, if Ni no Kuni is so familiar, why does it feel so irresistibly fresh? Why does it captivate my imagination so thoroughly? Why does it linger in my thoughts, and why, as I near the end, do I feel a genuine foreboding that this intoxicating journey with friends will also soon end?

I believe it has something to do with Tolkien’s notion of the Perilous Realm and “the air that blows in that country.” Ni no Kuni situates the player similarly to our position reading or hearing fairy fales like The Frog King or The White Snake. These stories aren’t about kissing frogs or talking animals. They’re about enduring values like patience, devotion, and abiding love. The designers of Ni no Kuni know what the Brothers Grimm understood about persuasive storytelling. A good storyteller allows his most cogent themes to drift serenely in Tolkien’s “air that blows in that country.”

Oliver searches for his mother in a land of fairies and monsters, enveloped by game design elements (collecting stamps, leveling up familiars, etc.) that quietly reinforce the game’s central values. He heals broken hearts and helps lost souls find their spiritual middle way. These are presented as apparently extraneous “sidequests,” gameplay padding to fill the 40+ hours that post-Final Fantasy JRPGs are expected to provide.

But like the servant in the Grimm’s The White Snake (and many other faithful fairy tale heroes), Oliver’s simple tasks - small missions he accepts from townspeople or minor characters - are the ones that define him. Grimm’s servant discovers what Oliver also learns: the big quest and the many little tasks are all part of a single overarching journey of sacrifice and self-discovery. In both stories the little things matter, but the reader/player may not realize that truth until the end.

Originally Posted by frankthetoad 

I've been geeking out on being a completionist in this game. I don't advance in the story until I've finished all of the available side quests and bounty hunts. I also spend way too long trying to tame new familiars I run across. The only down side of this approach is that I'm overleveled when I do return to the story....especially since I discovered the Tokotoko's last night on the hills to Perdida. 9k EXP/kill.

Love this game.