Would this be a good first JRPG? I've been playing games since the 80s, but haven't ever played one. Love the art style, but found the lack of a tutorial in the demo and it throwing me straight into battle with the tree boss a bit disconcerting. Does the main game spend more time teaching the mechanics?
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Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch |OT|
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Oh yes. You will be totally and beautifully eased into the world and how everything handles. Go for it.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
The actual game has more tutorial than most people can stand. As far a s first JRPG goes, it's pretty good for that, and as good of one as you'll find among newer releases. For someone just starting with the genre, I would like to suggest something with the classic turn based battle system like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy X, but those have the barrier of entry of being older games, whereas Ni no Kuni is fresh, new, and pretty enough to make you want to play it.
RPGCrazied
Member
Theres not a beat the game on normal trophy is there? Think I might just change it to easy for the last boss.
There are no difficulty trophies.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
If you're frustrated, just do it. I got so frustrated with the final bullshit sequence of Far Cry 3, that's exactly what I did. I did that with Mass Effect 3, too, but that was slightly different, as I was playing on Insanity on my first marathon playthrough, and was sleep deprived, and had actually gotten past the hard part and just couldn't get past Marauder Shields for the life of me. I reloaded a save and got the achievement after some sleep, but at the time I just wanted to get to the end.
This is probably the wrong time to admit I have a still sealed copy of Chrono Trigger DS from the last time I thought I should probably finally get round to trying JRPGs...
man this game is swell. really swell. It really is the first time in a long time I've been this warmed by a traditional jRPG. And it's got just the right amount of stat-y obsessing that I love... there's never a battle when at least some of my familiars are not leveling up, prodding me to fight "just one more battle."
Once you start getting into the minutia of signs and double signs and familiarity and all that jazz, it really comes into its own. It's a fun little system. Not the greatest, but very good.
And man they captured the shit out of Ghibli's art style. When I saw the early vids I thought this mostly just carried over to the 3D models, but no... there is constantly really impressive (for PS3) texture work that scarily imitates Ghibli's stuff. It's got their warm use of color too; the stage in
is a particularly good example of this.
This game is making me be all gooey for jRPGs like I was back in the day again. Even if it's just fleeting, it was worth it.
Edit: And the music! Hot damn I didn't even know it was orchestrated before I got the game... and then it's fuckin' this good soundin'? This game has production values out the ass.
Once you start getting into the minutia of signs and double signs and familiarity and all that jazz, it really comes into its own. It's a fun little system. Not the greatest, but very good.
And man they captured the shit out of Ghibli's art style. When I saw the early vids I thought this mostly just carried over to the 3D models, but no... there is constantly really impressive (for PS3) texture work that scarily imitates Ghibli's stuff. It's got their warm use of color too; the stage in
Fairytown
This game is making me be all gooey for jRPGs like I was back in the day again. Even if it's just fleeting, it was worth it.
Edit: And the music! Hot damn I didn't even know it was orchestrated before I got the game... and then it's fuckin' this good soundin'? This game has production values out the ass.
For a 1st jrpg remember to lvl up, feed yer familiars to raise their stats, buy the equip upgrades from the stores, and do not rush , explore and take it easy and do the sidequests
you don't have to grind no matter what in the early going at least. you can definitely use basic strategy to beat the early stuff. Maybe you have to later, but I didn't start really trying to even develop my familiars until I got to
and I didn't have any trouble; and I didn't even do many sidequests. And yes, it's normal difficulty.
Fairytown
Sanctuary
Member
Okay. It's just as insulting, as well as disingenous to say "It's just you, learn to play". A lot of these people are leaving out the fact that they are either overleveled (when they say that they aren't) or they rely heavily on consumables. You simply cannot "skill" your way past awful game mechanics. Believe it or not, not everyone is new to the RPG genre either, so it's not like this is a first dance or anything.
If you do all of the available sidequests by that point, you end up around level 22 at that fight. Of course some of that is luck based if you're working on some of the more notorious creature captures early on.
zyxwvu4321
Member
I just fought my first 3 toko monsters. I need to find more. Things like this and metal slimes are my RPG crack.
Twilight Princess
Member
My first Pokemon game, waiting for the game to get here.
Why are you making so many assumptions about how people are playing. You sound more like a quitter and a sore loser than someone bad at games, if its any consolation.
Also, what is "playing normally"?
Well yeah I'm doing all the sidequests, but most of my time has been spent on capturing which ends up turning into a slight grindfest. It's not like I'm purposely getting myself to ridiculous high levels so everything can be a cakewalk. If it happens, it happens. I gotta catch 'em all though.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
The mechanics aren't great, but they're not awful. The timing in the combat isn't friendly and feels cheap at times, and I wish it were more forgiving, but it just means you have to play defensively, not aggressively (which I hate, but enough people seem to like Dark Souls enough that they're willing to accept it. And no, I'm not comparing this game to Dark Souls.). All over leveling and consumables do are allow for mistakes, Unless you see your familiars dealing single digit damage and you're taking 20% of your life total per regular swing, in which case, you or your familiars are under leveled, or you're using weak familiars.
Your only argument here is that those who are saying otherwise are not being truthful with you about their play style. But Aeana is as straight a player as it gets, and if she says you don't have to, you don't have to. And so far that has been my experience: I use few consumables (the freakin' save points have MP/HP recover) and have not had to grind at all for many hours into the game, and I only did a very select few of the sidequests.
I am starting to do what I guess people call grinding now, finally, but only because I actually want to see what my familiars turn into and stuff, but up until like 18 hours in the game it's been non-existent. Would you say it gets a lot worse later on?
Sanctuary
Member
Yeah, that makes perfect sense considering I said I've almost beaten it twice. What exactly did I lose anyway? The first time through the game was pretty terrible for boss fights, and I never said that I lost on any of them, because I never lost on any of them until the very end of the game. I simply lost members and got sick of dealing with the fact that some of the cheap abilities refresh faster than "all defend" does. The second time around I did exactly what I said people who aren't having any luck finding a good fit with familiars on those who are not Oliver/Esther as well as those who do not have Griffy should be doing. There's no experimenting involved (because I already wasted time doing it, and the net result isn't worth the time).
Obviously you were playing on Easy and still game overing on bosses, you just didnt't mention it like all the grinders and overlevelers in this thread.
Edit: Wow you even overleveled your response, try to chillax please
Yayyyyy Amir0x loves this game!
I'm trying to think of the last time I enjoyed a truly traditional jRPG this way, but it's failing me. It'd have to reach waaay back.
I love the Persona games, but I don't know if I'd call them 'traditional' jRPGs...
For me it was Xenoblade (PAL version). Before that...I can't remember. Maybe Chrono Cross?
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
Up to this point, I would have said Tales of Vesperia was the best representative of a modern, but classic JRPG to me, but Ni no Kuni has put that into serious doubt. It still pales in comparison to Valkyria Chronicles to me (even though I consider it a strategy game, and not JRPG, enough people call it a JRPG that I look for every excuse to include it in the discussion, because I absolutely love Valkyria Chronicles).
Blue Dragon was certainly the last RPG I had trouble stopping myself from playing.
Tales of Vesperia, ah, yeah I did like that one. But I didn't love that one like I am liking Ni no so far. Maybe it's the extra oomph in every corner that is putting Ni No Kuni into the 'love' category ... I freely admit to being obsessed with visual prowess and polish.
I gave up trying to catch it. Unless there's a trophy for completing all side quests, which I'm sure there is since jrpgs love to put ridiculous trophies in, I'm not going to bother with random chance quests in a game like this. 3 hours though...that's some dedication.
Tathanen
Get Inside Her!
So hey this game has seemed pretty great to me in a lot of respects, but I saw a video way back of the kid having some long winded bullshit talk about transferring "enthusiasm" from one guard to another and it was like blah blah jesus ugh and basically killed my whole interest.
So my question is.. how's that kind of stuff? Battles seem neat, world seems neat, but are you stuck doing inane rambling first-grader pap in towns all the time and shit?
So my question is.. how's that kind of stuff? Battles seem neat, world seems neat, but are you stuck doing inane rambling first-grader pap in towns all the time and shit?
Familiarity and the gained stats stick when morphing familiars. You gain the ability to increase more stats by gaining a full heart.
Some is required, some isn't. There is a lot of child-like quests, but that isn't all of the game.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
All the time, no. From time to time, yes, though the instance you're referring to is meant to be a tutorial of sorts.
Audioboxer
Member
Sadly haven't played them as a PS3 owner. Been starved for a good classic RPG on the PS3, so glad I can play Ni No Kuni starting tomorrow.
Thanks.
Audίoboxer;47100165 said:
You missed out then
hehe.Hoping Ni No Kuni will be here tomorrow, DPD's e-mail said it will be here on the 1st of Feb (2 day delivery) but I had that before and it ended up being here (forget what it was though) a day early than it said so hopefully that happens tomorrow as well. If not, ah well, it's just one more days wait.
Audioboxer
Member
You missed out then
Hoping Ni No Kuni will be here tomorrow, DPD's e-mail said it will be here on the 1st of Feb (2 day delivery) but I had that before and it ended up being here (forget what it was though) a day early than it said so hopefully that happens tomorrow as well. If not, ah well, it's just one more days wait.
Hey Stuart my DPD says next day. Maybe as you live a little further north?
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
Audίoboxer;47100165 said:
I liked Blue Dragon, but I feel like it's one where you really have to be a JRPG fan to enjoy when faced with its many annoyances, not the least of which is its completely unlikeable characters. If it didn't feature refined versions of my favorite gameplay mechanics from past Final Fantasy games (FFV's job system and FFX's strategic turn based combat system), I'd probably detest it as much as I do Star Ocean 4. It didn't help that I couldn't find where to switch the voice track from English to Japanese after starting a game on English.
Tales of Graces isn't as good as Vesperia, but it's a reasonable substitute if you only have a PS3. Its gameplay is actually a bit better, though it has much weaker storytelling elements.
You change the voice track on the load screen. Just press X with your file highlighted.
Blue Dragon is one of my favorite games, honestly. It just feels made for me, with the exception of the silly shounen story.
Audίoboxer;47100437 said:
I don't think my area is that further North (but I never describe here as North, south or anything XD) but yeah, DPD usually always has 2 day delivery for me. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. (for the record, my area is the G83, just google that and it should show an image of the area) All I can do is wake up and check the DPD tracking.
Hope you enjoy
it's been hard to not look at this thread (much) oh my god!I can shut up his stupid goddamn sidekick... wait, is his japanese voice actor as terrible?
Audioboxer
Member
I don't think my area is that further North (but I never describe here as North, south or anything XD) but yeah, DPD usually always has 2 day delivery for me. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. (for the record, my area is the G83, just google that and it should show an image of the area) All I can do is wake up and check the DPD tracking.
Hope you enjoy
I assume they are getting shipped from England, so further away than me anyway
My email definitely says next day and the 31st so fingers crossed.
I think it's fairly similar, at least in terms of pitch. Note that BD also has other voice languages besides Japanese and English, so you could try all of them.
I can shut up his stupid goddamn sidekick... wait, is his japanese voice actor as terrible?
No idea why it bothered me so much. Probably because it was 4 stamps and early on.
I will not be doing that again.
Other than that, yeah, Im definetly loving this game.
DLC? Like costumes or something?
I didn't check the DLC at all, but unless it's like story missions I'd probably not be too curious about them.
Ah... I guess I'd just stick to the ol' mute button then
seriously I can't even remember any time any voice acting annoyed me more than that dudes sidekick (forgot his name now)
I didn't check the DLC at all, but unless it's like story missions I'd probably not be too curious about them.
Aeana said:
Ah... I guess I'd just stick to the ol' mute button then
seriously I can't even remember any time any voice acting annoyed me more than that dudes sidekick (forgot his name now)
Audίoboxer;47100763 said:I assume they are getting shipped from England, so further away than me anyway
My email definitely says next day and the 31st so fingers crossed.
Haha, true
. The good thing about DPD is, in the morning of delivery, the tracking should update with the hour it will arrive after being sent out. I absolutely love that 'feature' with DPD.I ran into a Tokotoko near Perdida. That's the only other time I've seen any of them.