The first hour of Ni no Kuni II is the best half hour of a JRPG I have ever played.
TL:DR Start us in the interesting part.
The Following will spoil the first half hour of the game, you have been warned.
After an hour playing Ni No Kuni II, its clear that the first hour of this game accomplishes what many other story focused media fail to grasp:
Engaging the player in its story.
First a little about Ni No Kuni II's development studio, Level 5.
Level Five has been around for a long time. There first game was released as part of a partnership with Sony, a dungeon crawling, action rpg, Dark Cloud. After several break out successes, some of the most notable games being Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, for PS2, The Professor Layton Series, Yokai Watch, and many others. Level 5 as a studio has established itself as a development studio who can develop quality title after quality title.
Dragon Quest 8
-Ni No Kuni-
The "Ni no Kuni" series, loosely translated as, "Another world"(along the lines of a "Chronicles of Narnia"), is a joint venture between the art and narrative powerhouse, Studio Ghibli, and the masters of role playing game design, Level 5. What was impressive about the first game was not only the art and world design straight from Ghibli, but the interesting twist on action rpg combat, where characters used magical monster familiars. Yes they made an action Pokemon
original monster battling rpg.
Wizards battling their monsters
And guess what~ its Harry Potter a totally original concept: because everyone in your party is a wizard. But in all seriousness the combination of these design elements truly made for a gaming experience like no other.
So being barely an hour in why has Ni No Kuni II hooked me in so hard?
- The Story Starts at a Critical Exciting/Inciting Moment
Ni No Kuni II Starts out with a bang. Quite literally. We experience Roland's death at the hands of a warhead that decimates an entire city. Within the first 30 seconds, the game established that
gg no re
- Roland is from a world much like ours,
- Roland is a leader of a powerful country.
- Lives are at stake
This isn't the main plot but we will see these themes popping up again within the hour.
Upon dying, Roland is brought into the castle of the recently appointed boy king of Ding Dong Dell, King Evan, a grimalkin(cat people). Seemingly, reincarnated as a younger Roland. Evan mistakes Roland as a would be assassin and orders his guards to detain Roland.
SUPRISE:
The mice are staging a coup and stab Evan in the back.
DOUBLE SUPRISE:
Pistols reincarnate.
After dispatching the mice, the two resolve to flee the ongoing coup.
Withing the span of minutes this is what Ni No Kuni II:
- Introduces us to Roland and establish he is a good guy
- Establish high stakes~Roland has just died, Evan's father has just died, and we are fleeing a coup in a castle, fighting our way through mice men with our sword and gun (its always good to double remind the player that he is the baddest guy around)
- Introduce the player to the inciting incident, the conflict between the Grimalkin and mouse people~ THE why: Why are we fleeing. The why are we burning through these mice soldiers.
This beginning section of the game(and maybe a specific later character)
It gives us our who, what, where, when, and especially why. There is no long introductory scene. We are thrown into a high risk, high tension situation. And its amazing. There is more to the beginning, but I'll let you discover the crescendo of Roland and Evan's escape for yourself.
In the future I hope to write more about the combat. I'm still in the tutorial section of the game, but Ni No Kuni two is already showing great promise. The loot system and combat mechanics are hinting at alot to dig into. I hope to do a more meaning analysis of the combat in the future.
Hope you enjoyed this mini analysis.
Have you been playing Ni No Kuni II? What are your thoughts on the game? No spoilers please!
-Wolf Win