Ni no Kuni

[NeoCracker]

Well, current thoughts are as follows.

1) The animation and artwork are all really good. The exception is the two villians seen so far, who look absolutely amazing.
2) I'm a bit worried the game will try to be too 'kiddy' or 'cutesy'. So far it hasn't gone to far in that regard, though the worry is there.
3) The battle system is a mix of Pokemon on Quest 64 so far. Mind you, only minimal Quest 64, as that game was kind of rubbish. Lot of potential in this system though.

And those are my thoughts thus far.

[Pete for President]

Well, current thoughts are as follows.

1) The animation and artwork are all really good. The exception is the two villians seen so far, who look absolutely amazing.
2) I'm a bit worried the game will try to be too 'kiddy' or 'cutesy'. So far it hasn't gone to far in that regard, though the worry is there.
3) The battle system is a mix of Pokemon on Quest 64 so far. Mind you, only minimal Quest 64, as that game was kind of rubbish. Lot of potential in this system though.

And those are my thoughts thus far.

Sounds pretty good. Please keep us posted (spoilerfree!)

[Rocket Edge]

I haven't played a good RPG in a while so I think i might pick this up. Will be interested to see how it's received when its released though.

[Pheesh]

IGN gave it an insanely glowing review. Not that their opinion holds too much water, but they reeaally kissed this game's ass so I'm at a little intrigued to play it.

[Yeargdribble]

I've been interested since its reveal some time ago. Though I was mostly interested because of Ghibli being attached and the beauty of the game. Ukrimately it just started to look like another JRPG, and I've sort of sworn those off, especially on consoles.

What really has me interested again are some of the reviews from particular sources. Jim Sterling is startlingly ascerbic generally. Nobody calls a game out for its BS faster than him. His tweets leading up to the review were pretty negative, hell, even the review itself had a lot of negativity. But the fact that it seemed to captivate even him despite I all really makes me want to go grab it.

Another noteworthy piece of info came from Giantbomb. Just hearing about how many things are tracked makes it sound like a wonderful dopamine punching set of completionist dreams. It sounds like it might share some of those aspects I loved in DQ IX, but much better.

So I've gone from yay to meh to yay again. Sadly, I've got a music convention in mid February and I've learned to never start an RPG so close to such a disruptive trip. I'm still tempted to try anyway, but wife is being he voice of reason, so I'll probably wait until late February to grab it.

[NeoCracker]

The more I get into this game, the more engrossing it gets.

I like the Idea of basically borrowing a person's excess emotions, such as enthusiasm, to share with others in the world who need it due to the curse of Broken Hearted Ness, as well as people having soul mates between the two worlds, people who are connected with each other.

It's pretty simple and basic, not really complex, but still holds a fun bit of Ghibli whimsy you'd see in some of their less serious movies. (So, the ones not like Mononoke). This game definately has Charm.

Edit: Also, Pokemon isn't the right game to compare it to. Due to the nature of how your Familiars work in this game, I'm much more inclined to say it's more reminiscent of Persona then Pokemon, as the Familiars you summon out can be out one at a time, and share your HP and MP while having varying stats and abilities. So much more like Persona and Quest 64 mixed then Pokemon and Quest 64.

[Loony BoB]

Does anyone know if it's supposed to be a long game?

Also, regarding the children vibe you worry about - I considered Grandia a good way of getting kids as leading characters while still being enjoyable for adults. How would you say this game compares?

[NeoCracker]

I haven't actually played the first Grandia (Only Grandia 2 which was enjoyable) so I can't comment on that, but I can say so far it's looking good. It doesn't really bother me that the child is a main character due to the VERY whimsical nature of this game. The more I play, the more enthralled I become. This game is a great way help roll in the new year of gaming.

[Pete for President]

Does anyone know if it's supposed to be a long game?

From what I've read: story: 30-40 hours. Including sidequests: 60-80.

[Loony BoB]

I haven't actually played the first Grandia (Only Grandia 2 which was enjoyable) so I can't comment on that, but I can say so far it's looking good. It doesn't really bother me that the child is a main character due to the VERY whimsical nature of this game. The more I play, the more enthralled I become. This game is a great way help roll in the new year of gaming.

Grandia 2, if I recall correctly, had a similar vibe to Grandia 1, so if you feel that this finds a balance between child characters and adult-enjoyable gameplay then that is a good thing.

[NeoCracker]

The only thing is I'm starting to think this game will be to easy, even on Normal. (There's only an easy and Normal Difficulty options. )

The only thing that seems silly is the fullness meter. You can basically feed your Familiars in order to strengthen them, but you can only feed them so much, then you have to wait until Fullness goes down. It goes down so fast though it seems irrelevant for it to even be there.

There's some other details about it I'm currently iffy on, though that could get lengthy, and I'm not really sure enough at this stage to say for sure anyway.

[Loony BoB]

I can't wait for the price to inevitably drop for pre-owned games for this, because I really want to play it but can't afford to pay £36 right now when I know SimCity and Tomb Raider are both right around the corner.

[Yeargdribble]

From what I've been reading and hearing, the game starts very easy, but that's basically to very slowly drip feed you more mechanics and get you used to more tactical combat later. Some reviewers have said that even on easy it gets very punishing near the end of the game, especially if you weren't doing a lot of side content along the way.

[NeoCracker]

That's actually very relieving to here.

[Yeargdribble]

That's actually very relieving to here.

Well, crap. My wife went and bought the game for me anyway. I guess when I'm finished with my current time-sensitive project, I'll dive in.