Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

[TheChampIsHere]

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch originally released in Japan in 2011 recently in late January made its was to America and later got a European release on February 1st. With the amazing reviews for the game from the likes of IGN, Official Playstaion Magazine, GameSpot and so on was that could this game actually deliver and live up to all the hype surrounding it since the current Gen of consoles have be somewhat of a let down to the RPG genre. I picked the game up a month or so ago and have been playing it through so have decided to review this game in my own words.

As soon as you start the game you start in Motorville with the introduction of some of the game characters Ollie, Mr. Drippy (his accent is just epic), Pea and of cause you get your first spell and wand.. After this you get to cast your first magic spell one of the first things you will notice is the great animation in the game and then the stunning art on the FMV that follows just could not of done it any better or hoped for any better. You are then teleported into the other world where your adventure takes place where you must make your way to “Ding Dong Dell” yes the places have odd names that actually work quite well..

During the game you will notice on the world map there are these little creatures that just love to chase you and cause a nuisance, although you will probably get bored of battling in the first area trust me its worth it since you will need the levels not the gold so much since the game has so many side quests and bounties that you can even go away from the main story for a little while and have some fun doing a bounty or doing side quests (errends). You might notice that the creatures are all unique and each and every one looks awesome in its own way my person favourite in the map you start on would be “Oroboros” come on who wouldnt like a weird lizard with its own tail in its mouth and then its eyes do not even have the slightest hint of “OUCH this hurts”.

The battle system a lot has been said about the catching of familiars that you mean on the world map and this is true it really does give it the feel of Pokemon.. Great so theres 250 familiars we can catch?...... Nah theres about 70 odd familiars you can catch but no worries you can always battle their morphed forms later in the game and catch their later forms...... WHAT so whats the point in leveling up and morphing them then?............
Also one issue I have notice is that the AI characters are really poor in move choosing does not really affect you at all until the latter stages of the game but when the creatures get really tough you can not really do with a AI choosing to attack instead of heal when it has 10 HP left. 1 more small issue also with the battle cutscenes would be the dreaded cancelling of magical moves and items. So say you have just spent 3000 odd gold or had used 40 odd MP for a magical move and then the boss uses a cutscene magical move yours will randomly vanish and so does the MP/Item very annoying since near enough all the last bosses ALWAYS do cutscene moves. From a personal view if you find the creature that gives you 24,000 XP in the final dungeon just walk away it ruins the whole point in griding levels what a RPG should really be about in my eyes.

All in all the game has a few issues mostly battle related and the complete lack of unique familiars even the morphs look like the previous stages just slightly different do not let this put you off playing the game thou since it is really a great game just that these few points slightly shadow the great parts, the story is fantastic definitely worth playing if you were a big fan of RPG games back in the good old PS1 days it really has the feel of belonging to that era. The graphics definitely not are a let down that are stunning throughout the game is so close to being the perfect game.

My Rating
Graphics 10/10 cannot really find any reason to mark down on this whatsoever only a 10 would do it justice.
Storyline 8/10 I know I said the storyline was stunning and it really is just with it could've been longer I am taking into account the errands and bounty hunts also I completed the whole thing in 55 hours and I over trained.
Uniqueness 9/10 where else are you going to come across a game like this with a feel of Pokemon and Grandia/Final Fantasy VII-IX your not
Overall 8.3/10... wish I could give it a 9 I really do but the battle issues are really annoying towards the end of the game and reflect on the score