Few games influenced my decision to buy a PS4 quite like Ni No Kuni: Wrath of The White Witch. Released in 2013 exclusively for the PS3, the collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Level-5 boasted a lush art style, an intriguing narrative and fun-looking combat. Unfortunately, I was stranded in the Xbox 360 ghetto as a high-schooler, left only to stare forlornly through the glass at it forever. Now, I have the chance to finally pick up and play the raw anime power I missed so long ago with it’s sequel.
The sequel picks up 300 years later, as the young king Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum is saved by a mysterious man named Roland, who was pulled from this game’s version of our world into this one. Now short one kingdom, Evan decides to make a new kingdom, where “everyone can live happily ever after, followed by signing all the major powers into a single global pact in order to end war forever. Essentially: “Small child decides to conquer the world in the most twee way possible.”
Paradoxically, bringing about world peace involves a lot of combat, which has seen the most drastic shift over the first game. Instead of being a semi-real-time Pokemon, instead we’ve got an approximation of the Tales of games, with real time combat and a variety of weird mechanics surrounding it. The characters feel good to use, and the RPG mechanics surrounding the fights never drown out the joy of combat. However, the game is generally easy enough that you’ll rarely get killed, which unfortunately means that some systems might get neglected. If any game needed a hard mode, it’s this one.
The story does a decent, if not outstanding job of keeping you invested. The tale of Evan’s growth as a ruler is interesting, and his altruism is commendable. Roland, however, winds up stealing the show through sheer force of cool in his major scenes. Unfortunately, nobody except Evan, Roland, the other rulers, and the main antagonist get their own development over the course of the story, leaving the plot feeling incredibly anemic for a 35 hour game.
The Studio Ghibli style continues strong, despite not including any anime cutscenes or official Ghibli involvement this time. No matter which flavor of PS4 you own, the game’s flat colors and simple characters enable it to look good and run well, and 4K support is merely gravy for Pro owners. The amount of fully animated cutscenes showing off the engine is on the low end, not helping the aforesaid anemic feeling, but the excellent voice acting and localization are more constant companions over the game’s runtime.
While you could go way better for your JRPG fix on modern consoles now that the genre has proved resurgent, your time will not go to waste here. My verdict would be to pick this game up at about $40 or less, and you don’t even need to play the original to get this one.
Logan Graham is a senior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Have you played? Let Logan know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
