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Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi

by James Charlton - September 17, 2010, 9:50 pm EDT
Total comments: 2

Check out impressions of the action part of the Ni no Kuni demo.

The first game that I wanted to play at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show was Level 5 and Studio Ghibli's much talked about Ni no Kuni.

The demo was divided into two sections: one, which allowed you to start the game from the beginning, and another from a save game, created specially to sample the game's battle sequences and other more gamey elements.

My fellow Japan Correspondent, Matthew Walker, had the story section covered, so I jumped into the action.

The game puts you in control of a young boy called Oliver, his pet stuffed toy friend, and a female companion, all adorably cute and reminiscent of the best Hayao Miyazaki characters you'd see in a feature-length animated feature.

The controls are very similar to the DS Zelda games or Dragon Quest IX, as touching the bottom screen to the point you want to walk, adjusting the on-screen arrow for how fast you want to go.

Almost immediately after starting the demo, I was confronted with a merchant who posed me a question and I was told to refer to my spell book. Next to every demo unit was a beautifully printed and bound book, which read like something between an encyclopedia of spells and an instruction manual.

I was told to look at page 61 for a reference to a "Magic Master," with a text box that I couldn't continue passed until I had inputted the correct name. Knowing that my time with the game was limited I frantically picked up the book and scanned the page for possible names that could fit. At the bottom of the page was a fantastic hand drawn picture of a genie-looking monster, with his name printed underneath. I quickly typed in his name, pressed OK, crossed my fingers and hoped I'd got it right.

Suddenly the pot sitting on the merchant's table sprung to life and a red genie popped out, flying and dancing around with some incredibly detailed animation.

What impressed me was that this was all in-game engine, with the backgrounds all being hand drawn, all the system's graphical power can be dedicated to the characters.

The merchant is also animated wonderfully. He seemed to have more joints and movable parts than any other DS polygonal character I'd seen before, with wrists separate from forearms – such progress! When the genie had finished strutting around, things got serious and I was taken straight to a battle sequence.

This is where things will become familiar to RPG veterans. Touch screen controls at the bottom let you select regular attacks, magic spells, or items. Oliver had a spell called fireball, so I lobbed one at the genie and got some decent damage. Next, my female friend had some cool status-affecting spells so I let him have a 'sound wave' directed to his round red face. It did average damage and also possibly his speed was affected.

My stuffed animal friend on the other hand didn't have much going for him except a fairly weak melee attack. It felt like he was tickling him for pleasure rather than fighting. For the rest of the fight I assigned him to healing item duties.

After several rounds of spells to the nose, he got down to his last few hit points, and that's when Oliver suddenly got even more bad ass. His fireball tripled in size, leapt up into the air, and smashed the meteor-sized rock into the genie's fat stomach. Victory!

After I humiliated the pot-dwelling fool, he seemed to warm to my gang and offered his help creating new items and spells. I threw a few of my items into his pot, he did his magic, and a few seconds later, I got some super-powered honey out of it.

I was then taken to another screen where I had a little pet monster carrying a sword and shield running around. I had options to touch, feed, and clean him. I did all three, but he still had a storm cloud over his head, indicating that he was sad. I felt sorry for the little guy, so I let him have my awesome honey potion that I'd just made and he loved it, perking up instantly. It wasn’t clear what purpose this guy had in terms of gameplay, but I'd imagine it being a way to get new spells or items.

After I tended to my pet, I started to explore the town, admiring the detailed artwork of the wooden decking of this waterside floating town. Despite it being 3D characters on a 2D plane, they really blended together nicely, without the usual pixelation of DS games.

This, combined with the Studio Ghibli movie-quality animated cut scenes, voice work, and emotionally moving story elements, could make for a very special adventure. I really want someone to translate this 4GB mega-cart for the west, whether someone will or not is another matter entirely.

Talkback

SundoulosSeptember 18, 2010

I was hoping that we'd see an update on the gameplay portion of that demo soon.

I'll say it again...I want to play this game pretty badly.  Based on some of the more recent trailers I had seen, especially the PS3 version, I had wondered if monster collecting was a major part of the game.  I wonder if the different creatures join your party, or they just provide access to new abilities.  Having to care for them in some way could provide for some interesting RPG-ish gameplay.

If they don't bring it over to western shores, I will be a sad panda.

CalibanSeptember 18, 2010

I'm thinking of getting both PS3, and DS versions of this game if it ever comes out here. A 4Gb cart? I wonder if they could've just developed the game for the 3DS.

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Genre RPG
Developer Level-5

Worldwide Releases

jpn: Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi
Release Dec 09, 2010
PublisherLevel-5
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