I've never liked the concept of gacha games, I feel they are a big waste of time and that all that leveling up just keeps you hooked but it never means anything. The stories are lame and cliche, there's little room for strategy and original gameplay, and frankly I just got better things to do.
That was until I met Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds. I still don't like gacha but this is one that is worth checking out because of it's beautiful art, divine music, and charming NPC companions. Oh, and let's not forget it's play to earn, and that is correctly said as you can earn without spending a cent on the game.
Being a fan of all things Ghibli, I've really enjoyed being able to explore this world and feel immersed in the magical landscapes it has.
There's so many things to do in this game it's insane. You can have your farm, train your familiars which have their own battle arena, which much like Splinterlands requires you to set a strategy and watch the combat unfold. You can advance in the story, go on raids, tend to your kingdom, etc. Even exploration is rewarded as there are many hidden chests that when found give you permanent boosts.
Had a hard time finding this one 🥲
The good thing is that this gives you a lot of freedom on how you want to power up your character because if you're a casual gamer like me, you'll never be able to complete all that can be done on daily basis, so you'll have to choose which activities you like most and enjoy.
You can participate in the PvE raids to hunt powerful bosses that you'd have no chance against and stay from a safe distance. As long as you hit them at least once you'll be getting some nice rewards.
The combat is pretty standard MMORPG stuff with auto-battling, but here's something really good: you can control the details of auto-battle and choose which skills you want to use manually. You can go full manual if you want but I've found that I'm most effective on a middle ground. Unlike some other MMORPGS I've played, doing things manually here can really increase your battle performance and there's missions where you absolutely have to be immersed in the fight or you will die.
Even if you don't want to level up or do all the hamster wheel spinning that gachas want to have you doing, the game is just visually stunning. You can around places and look around to behold the beauty that the artists poured onto this world. It's is literally entering into a Ghibli movie and taking control of a character.
The downside is that it doesn't have the depth and spiritual romanticism that Ghibli movies have. That's because your character doesn't really have a personality so it's the NPCs that do all the talking. It's a light-hearted story, at least to where I've gotten so far, but it has a lot of charm and humour so that's not necessarily bad.
All images where captured by me while playing