I just finished playing Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch and absolutely adored it. As an RPG fan, I was already attracted to this game, but the added creature capture feature just makes it that much more appealing to me. I originally wrote this post for a website I do freelance work for. You can check out the original post on their website here.
Level 5’s collaboration with Studio Ghibli created something that is all together a beautiful experience. Along with the animation being absolutely gorgeous, the soundtrack brings this whole world to life brilliantly. Most of the game’s cutscenes are where Studio Ghibli’s participation will shine. The studio’s gorgeous anime style can be spotted anywhere, and it fits right in with this game.
The game’s battle system is certainly interesting. It is essentially real-time, but you have a drop down menu to navigate so it isn’t hack and slash combat. You can choose between either the character you want, or one of their three familiars.
Familiars are the lifeblood of this game. As a wizard, Oliver can command familiars in battle and throughout the story you’ll be introduced to more characters who can also command familiars that will become a part of your patry. Each character has their own type of familiar genus they do better with, and matching the familiars to the right character is crucial, especially towards the end of the game.
Each familiar will have a sign attached to them. There can be moon, star, sun, or planet sign familiars. Sun signs do more damage to moon signs, who do more damage to star signs, which do more damage to sun signs. This is also an important thing to remember, as it can dictate the tide of the battle. Familiars also have certain elemental strengths and weaknesses to take into account.
Those three signs are the most common signs you’ll encounter, while the planet sign is extremely rare. However, if you are lucky enough to find and capture a familiar with the planet sign, you’ll find it is superior to all the other signs. It will also do more damage to any of the other signs, and withstand those signs, as well.
You’ll level up both your characters and familiars so finding some to start out with is the best to utilize all of the experience you will get. This game handles familiar leveling and abilities a lot like Pokémon does. They’ll learn new abilities at certain levels, and they can transform into stronger versions using special items.
The story revolves around Oliver, a boy who just found out he is a wizard and is the one who is supposed to save another world from an evil force known as Shadar. Mr. Drippy is a fairy who follows Oliver around through his whole adventure offering helpful hints and help in battle sometimes. It can begin to feel a bit like the game is holding your hand though, especially in the later boss battles when he is still giving you hints.
The story is, however, one this extremely well-written. I was rooting for Oliver and his team the entire time and grew attached to them. The game’s story is fairly linear despite being and RPG, which helped me to follow it a lot easier. There are a lot of side quests along the way, and a reoccurring objective to heal broken-hearted individuals who were affected by Shadar’s dark magic.
Essentially, Shadar has robbed them of a part of their heart whether it is love, enthusiasm, etc. and you’ll find people who have an excess of these attributes. Oliver has a special locket that can hold these pieces of heart and he can use them to heal these broken-hearted individuals. It makes Oliver an even more compassionate and loving protagonist and leaves you feeling like you’ve truly made a difference around this world.
The world is a huge place to explore, offering different environments and plenty of different types of familiars to battle and capture. In the overworld you’ll walk across the map in a similar fashion to the older Final Fantasy games. Towns and other areas will appear small until you enter them, at which point you’ll be able to explore them.
You can stay at inns to restore HP and MP, and at the beginning of each dungeon there is a save point and a place to store familiars. This is a lot like Pokémon, as well, allowing you to store extra familiars and swap them out whenever you need to.
I enjoyed everything about this game. I played around with a few different familiars before landing on the combinations that worked for me, and I always enjoy exploring an RPG like that. There are plenty of choices here, which makes it well worth your time. Building a good familiar team is definitely worth your time, as well.
There is a lot of depth to this game too. From the story, to the battle system, there’s a ton of content. My playthrough took me about 57 hours, and there is still some post-game stuff I haven’t finished, yet. I can’t wait to finish that content and experience the second game. It is absolutely worth your time if you like RPGs or creature capturing games.
