Studio Ghibli's "Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch" for the PS3 - Page 2

Dang, that's pretty. Not sure how I feel about the combat mechanics, but Wow.

With so much money and time being spent on this title, they'll have to release this game outside of Japan. Localization might take a while, but they can't expect to make any money by just selling this within Japan. They've already had to expand to the PS3 from the DS in order to recoup costs, so I'm sure we'll be seeing this in the US.

Actually, they could expect that, but there's no reason why they wouldn't localize it for foreign sales. And the PS3 version isn't being made to recoup costs...the PS3 version will cost more a lot more to make than the DS version did, including the animation (which the PS3 will feature less of, given that most of it will be rendered in real-time). The DS version is currently around 450,000 units in sales, which is not as big as hoped, but still solid. The big seller in Japan right now is the juggernaut that is Monster Hunter 3 for the PSP, which has sold about 4 million copies (which in turn is dwarfed by the new Pokemon, at 5+ million units). Once Pokemon sells abroad, of course, it's going to sell even more...Monster Hunter may not be brought over.

The PS3 version is probably going to have significantly more content and certainly a lot more voice acting. If anything were to defer the cost of the DS version, it'd be the cell-phone version which will almost certainly never leave Japan. The DS version will very likely get brought over (Nintendo has pushed it in their magazine and online). The PS3 version? No way to know. We may just have to import it.

You may be right. But much of the "heavy lifting" had already been done (pre-production work, design work, etc). Unlike most other games, this pre-production and design work is a major part of the game's development and overall budget. The biggest change to the PS3 version is just on the tech side--though there are a few feature and content tweaks here and there AFAIK. I'm sure this cost them quite a bit to produce, so if at all possible, they'll try to make a foreign release work.

It's pretty and all but I hope it's fun. I'm kind of surprised this is the first game that looks like this. Nearly all the games I see with anime art on the front of the box look like blocky crap in the actual game.

Do US PS3's play Japanese games? I can't remember.

Yes, unless the developers put a region lock on it.

No PS3 game is region locked.

360's region locking is optional but most games have it.

I sure hope so. I mean, this is from Ghibli, who should have quite a bit of cache in the US on that aspect alone. Add to that the makers of the Professor Layton series and Dragonquest IX...well, they should have enough 'street cred' to hopefully warrant a release. The real question is who the US publisher will be. Presumably Sony, since Level 5's primary partner to this point has been Nintendo as a publisher. I'm not sure if there's an issue of rights with Disney being involved, since they've been the only company licensed to release stuff in the US for Ghibli.

The biggest problem I've heard is that the game, while possessing a great story and luscious graphics, is kind of an RPG throwback. The DS version also has a book that comes with the game with all the spells/gestures in it. Not sure if/how that will factor into things for the PS3 version.

Meaning what, exactly? I honestly wouldn't mind if it played just like Final Fantasy 4.

Meaning I'm not looking forward to random, unpredictable combats while travelling outdoors or lots of grinding and some of the other more 'old school' elements that JRPGs have been getting rid of more recently. From what I'm reading, however, the game seems to owe more to Pokemon than Dragonquest. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it may be a surprise to some.

It's interesting to compare a boss battle on the DS version to a boss battle on the PS3 version.

If the import cost wasn't so high I would buy it instantly, but Xillia comes first for now. I really hope this gets a US release akin to Star Ocean TLH International with full support for not just JPN language but text as well. When I first saw this game it reminded me of when I first saw Dragon Quest VIII, now if only that game could get an HD release...

**** YEAH!

Sorry, I honestly thought that I would have to import this one.

Now please have the option for both English and Japanese, both language and text.

The book that came with the DS version will be a digital item in the PS3 game:

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/10/04...playstation-3/

if the japanese version has english subtitles, menu etc, i will important it instantly.

voices i dont care. i just want the game.

IIRC this ultimately received mediocre to decent reviews in Japan. Nothing spectacular, though, right?

Nope. You'll have to wait for the localized version.

And from what localization companies (like 8-4) have said, it is often too expensive to do Japanese language versions with English subtitles. Not only do they have to renegotiate licensing and contracts with the Japanese voice actors, but they also have to do the work of translation, localization, QA, etc., on top of that. It's a lot more work, money, and time for something that adds little extra revenue. If they do add Japanese voice with English subs, it's out of a dedication to the game's vision (or in the case of a series like Yakuza, it's out of the total hopelessness of fully localizing such a "Japanese" game). In other words, don't hold your breath.

If they're localizing this, I'm sure it'll get the full English treatment.

I thought it was going to be coming out in November... so either those are previews, or I'm wrong .

Yup. That's what I was referring to. The PS3 version just has more VO and higher res, but is otherwise basically the same, right?

Cool. Interested to see how it turns out. Fan of Studio Ghibli (or, at least, Miyazaki), and I have enjoyed some of Level 5's work (DQ8). Some quick research shows that Famitsu gave the DS version a 38/40 FWIW. I'll def keep an eye out.

Here's a couple of previews for Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch


Gamespot


IGN