Hello everyone, hope you're all having a great day, and welcome to my review of Ni No Kuni 2 Revenant Kingdom! For as long as I can remember I've always loved a good RPG. From the early days of Final Fantasy, to PlayStation 1 classics like Chrono Cross and The Legend of Dragoon, these games have provided me with countless hours of entertainment, and have taken me away to so many wonderful fantasy worlds. These days the genre is still going strong, although some of the game mechanics have been changed or tweaked a little to keep up with today's standards. One of the most promising new series to throw their hat in the ring is Ni No Kuni. The original game, released on PlayStation 3, was a huge success and everyone couldn't wait to see what they did next. Now finally, after some delays, the much anticipated sequel has arrived, so let's get into it.
Ni No Kuni 2 Revenant Kingdom is an action role playing game developed by Level 5, and is the sequel to Wrath of the White Witch. Just like the first game in the series Revenant Kingdom is a PlayStation exclusive, but is also available on PC. It tells the story of a young Prince named, Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, who is a race of half human, half cat people called, Grimalkin. His Father is the King of Ding Dong Dell, a peaceful kingdom held in high regard. One day Evan's Father dies mysteriously making him the new King, even though he is still very young. Evan is heartbroken and in shock that he lost his Father so suddenly, but before he is able to be sworn in as the new King a coup breaks out and Evan's people turn against him, planning to force him out of his position or kill him.
Suddenly a beam of light fills Evan's bedroom, and out of thin air a man appears before him. The man is named Roland and is from another planet entirely. Roland has no idea how he got transported to Ding Dong Dell, and is completely unaware of where is. Seeing that Evan is in trouble Roland agrees to help the young king, even though he's not sure what is going on. The two of them cautiously sneak out of the city through the sewers and make their way to safer grounds outside in the wilds. Roland can see how distraught Evan is because of all that has happened, and since he doesn't know anyone else Roland pledges his allegiance to keep Evan safe, and help him build a new kingdom.
This is where your journey really begins, as the two of you set out on your own to hopefully start a new kingdom where Evan can become King. This means starting over from scratch though. They're going to have to find a suitable place to make it, then they need to construct every building as well as find people to eventually live there. This monumental task is the focal point of the game, and it takes you to every corner of the map searching for resources, and talking to the heads of all the other kingdoms of the land. Once you find the right spot you first build your castle, then as kind of a mini game, you can build each new facility one by one. A weapons shop, armory, items shop, a place to learn new spells, everything must be built, manned, and leveled up.
Once your new kingdom is getting started, Evan decides to create a treaty that he wants every other city to sign, uniting the entire world as one, with no more wars and everyone helping each other. Now you venture out to visit every major city in the game trying to convince everyone to sign this treaty. Along the way you meet new friends and your party begins to grow more and more. You're only allowed three people in your party at once though, so you need to pick which ones will accompany you into battle. Since everyone has their own unique weapons and abilities, I usually would keep swapping between them regularly.
Combat in this game is not the old school turn based style, but the more modern live action style where you can run around freely on the battlefield. Each character can carry three different melee weapons at once that you can swap with the press of a button. You also get different abilities that you can use ranging from special melee attacks, to various magic spells using the different elements, fire, water, lightning, and earth. You can also swap between your three active characters at any point with the press of a button, opening up all kinds of different play styles. Combat is fun and fast paced, but also easy to understand and execute. Most of the enemies you encounter can be defeated pretty easily, but there are plenty of challenging foes to take on if you're up for it.
While in a dungeon battles start and end seamlessly in real time whenever you come across a pack of enemies you just engage them, but if you're in the world map running around encountering an enemy will trigger a battle that takes you to a fighting area. This is also very smooth and quick so there is no waiting around, and in the world map battles can be avoided if you wish by simply staying away from enemies. I've heard some people say that the combat is too easy in this game, but I personally had a blast with it, and really enjoyed jumping around, blocking, attacking, and throwing spells at all sorts of crazy creatures.
My favorite part about Ni No Kuni 2 is the incredibly beautiful art style that the game uses. I've never seen such a vibrant, colorful game world with such clear and crisp looking environments. The characters look so amazing, each with their own unique personalities. I actually cared about everybody I met, even the side characters that you don't interact with much made an impact on me because of their memorable looks and style. The game does an excellent job of making each new place you visit have its own distinct look and feel to it. There are no two places that could be mistaken for each other, and the citizens of each place were just as recognizable.
This really helped to keep me engaged throughout my long journey, and I always looked forward to where we were going next, wondering what it would be like. Always seeing new places, always getting new loot, always meeting new people, getting new party members, and fighting all types of different enemies completely immersed me in the world of Ni No Kuni 2, and made the 60+ hours I spent playing it seem like it went by really fast. On top of that there are many unique mechanics like, building you kingdom, creating an army and fighting in special battles with them, plus countless side quests that actually give you useful rewards that will easily double the play time of the main quest.
This is a beautiful game rich with content that is extremely well done in almost every aspect. It has such an innocent, childlike tone that is very refreshing to see nowadays. There are so many memorable characters and places that are a joy to experience, as well as fun fast paced gameplay where you're constantly getting new gear and abilities. The whole thing is such a wonderful blend of different ideas that are all done so well that I never felt frustrated or bored. If you're a fan of action RPG's than this game is a must have, it's one of the best I've played in a long time. It completely took me by surprise and gave me over 60 hours of excellent gameplay. I would say around 30 hours for the main storyline quest, and at least another 30 hours just exploring the world taking on side missions. I had a blast with this one and will probably continue to play it even though the main story is over. I'm going to give Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom a grade of.............................
A-
Thank you for checking out my review of Ni No Kuni 2 Revenant Kingdom, I hope you enjoyed it!