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Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch |OT|

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Yep.
The song that plays on Russet island is so damn good.
Oh, ha. I had it backwards, I didnt know he was a film composer who did his first game.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
I think the games says to use L and R from the beginning.

Nope, the first battle tutorial definitely tells you to use the D-pad to select actions. I was just there an hour ago or so. So yeah, you have to figure out the L2/R2 thing yourself (or RTFM, I guess!).
 

Beckx

Member
The combination of the griffy plus the toko EXP method has allowed us (we have four playthroughs going on in my house right now :D) to really forget about some of the battle system issues and just enjoy all of the goodness this game has to offer.

Leveling up familiars and seeing what they evolve into is really fun. Going to Hamelin with a full party of level 3 evolutions is too.

If you're finding yourself frustrated by the battle system and have left Castaway Cove, I highly recommend doing this.
 

Beckx

Member
Oh, ha. I had it backwards, I didnt know he was a film composer who did his first game.

If you like this music and art style, you really owe it to yourself to watch at least one Miyazaki film. Spirited Away is my favorite of the modern ones, but Nausicaa is my favorite overall.
 

pelicansurf

Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
The combination of the griffy plus the toko EXP method has allowed us (we have four playthroughs going on in my house right now :D) to really forget about some of the battle system issues and just enjoy all of the goodness this game has to offer.

Leveling up familiars and seeing what they evolve into is really fun. Going to Hamelin with a full party of level 3 evolutions is too.

If you're finding yourself frustrated by the battle system and have left Castaway Cove, I highly recommend doing this.

Where's Toko at again?
 
Finally found the time to push through the final dungeon and finished the game last night. Final time was 40:17

Really? I just
kicked the living shit out of Shadar with my Catastroceros (whom I now mention at every opportunity)
last night, and I was at about 38 hours in. And I've got a whole bunch of errands left.
 
A few questions (Just visited Al Mamoon for the first time):

There are multiple Swift Solutions locations, do they all have different bounties and errands to display, or do they show the bounties and errands for older locations as well? (aka would the Al Mamoon location tell of the bounties around Dong Dong Dell if I never did any bounties back there?)

Also, what are the good merit rewards to grab initially?
 

Beckx

Member
Would like to know this too. I wouldn't mind farming those since I'm pretty tired of this game's combat system and story and just want to blaze through it for trophies.

Where's Toko at again?

Yeah, I had to search several places to get all the info (especially the tips about using gateway to respawn them, and staying on the beach when you're low level). Here's what I learned:

Go to Ugly Duckling Island - open your map, and look at the continent that has Ding Dong Dell and Al Mamoon. UDI is a small island off the northeast coast - NE of Ding Dong Dell. Several pages back you can find a picture showing the location on the map, but it's pretty easy, on the map you'll see a large island chain and UDI is the southernmost of those.

If you go there around 24, you'll have some trouble with the battles, so the thing to do is get out on the shore, and if a toko is nearby, try to sneak up on it (see below). If not, use Gateway to reset the spawns until a toko spawn is near you. (Tokos can be in any of the monster groups, but right now you're trying to find a sure spawn.)

Tokos run when they see you. So wait until they are walking away, and try to pin them against cliffs.

They also run in combat. So the first thing you do is target them, and have everyone do an all out attack, and bring them down fast. You'll get 2000 exp just for the toko, which is double what the royal jelly gave you!

Once you get a few of them under your belt, the rest of the island will start becoming trivial. As I said, tokos can be in any of the groups, even if it looks like a mite or a sprite, so once that happens it's better to burn them all down, then gateway.

edit: later locations have tokos worth far more exp - 8000 - but we haven't needed them yet.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Yeah, I had to search several places to get all the info (especially the tips about using gateway to respawn them, and staying on the beach when you're low level). Here's what I learned:

Go to Ugly Duckling Island - open your map, and look at the continent that has Ding Dong Dell and Al Mamoon. UDI is a small island off the northeast coast - NE of Ding Dong Dell. Several pages back you can find a picture showing the location on the map, but it's pretty easy, on the map you'll see a large island chain and UDI is the southernmost of those.

If you go there around 24, you'll have some trouble with the battles, so the thing to do is get out on the shore, and if a toko is nearby, try to sneak up on it (see below). If not, use Gateway to reset the spawns until a toko spawn is near you. (Tokos can be in any of the monster groups, but right now you're trying to find a sure spawn.)

Tokos run when they see you. So wait until they are walking away, and try to pin them against cliffs.

They also run in combat. So the first thing you do is target them, and have everyone do an all out attack, and bring them down fast. You'll get 2000 exp just for the toko, which is double what the royal jelly gave you!

Once you get a few of them under your belt, the rest of the island will start becoming trivial. As I said, tokos can be in any of the groups, even if it looks like a mite or a sprite, so once that happens it's better to burn them all down, then gateway.

edit: later locations have tokos worth far more exp - 8000 - but we haven't needed them yet.

Thanks for this. My people are around 25 so I think I'll give it a shot.
 

laika09

Member
so the battle system is the games weak point?

I like it conceptually. It's poorly executed, however. It definitely fails to live up to the presentation and story.

Like others have said, the AI is obnoxiously bad, but that's far from its only problem. There's a dozen different minor frustrations and irritations that just added up the more I played it. Some others don't seem as bothered.

Beyond that, the only criticisms I have of the game are some of the quest objectives (
Derwin, looking at you
) and the extreme dearth of voice acting/drawn cutscenes in the last 80% of the game.


can you customize the AI?

Your options are basically "blow all your MP immediately attacking dudes," "blow all your MP immediately casting heals and useless buffs," and "don't use any abilities whatsoever."
 

QisTopTier

XisBannedTier
I don't understand, Amazon still hasn't dispatched this game and it's February 1st, WTF amazon? :(

Edit: Oh crap, I just read this email someone from Amazon got.

"As we discussed, Ni No Kuni is now back-ordered and we expect to dispatch your order on the 19th February using 1st Class delivery."

February 19th!? What!? lol I didn't think this game would be sold out, my fault for preordering so late I guess.

I guess I'm gonna check the stores later on today instead.

God damn I'm so lucky I got mine then
 

Finalow

Member
The combination of the griffy plus the toko EXP method has allowed us (we have four playthroughs going on in my house right now :D) to really forget about some of the battle system issues and just enjoy all of the goodness this game has to offer.

Leveling up familiars and seeing what they evolve into is really fun. Going to Hamelin with a full party of level 3 evolutions is too.

If you're finding yourself frustrated by the battle system and have left Castaway Cove, I highly recommend doing this.
but Griffy is broken.

Nope, the first battle tutorial definitely tells you to use the D-pad to select actions. I was just there an hour ago or so. So yeah, you have to figure out the L2/R2 thing yourself (or RTFM, I guess!).
my bad then, they should have said that indeed. so much better than using the d-pad.
 

Beckx

Member
but Griffy is broken.

There is no question about that. Insanely broken. His second evolution had over 180 attack at level 17, compared to a level 27 second evolution mite having around 120. When I give him claws from Hamelin (he's in his third form now with 220+) he's going to be ridiculous.

I honestly wonder if his stats are glitched. It's the first pre-order exclusive I've ever seen that had a useful effect - let alone so overpowered.
 

ekim

Member
I'm having problems with the volcano boss. When my MP is empty he still has 50% LP left. I guess I should have evolved all my familiars. Shall I do it and grind?
 

Aeana

Member
Really? I just
kicked the living shit out of Shadar with my Catastroceros (whom I now mention at every opportunity)
last night, and I was at about 38 hours in. And I've got a whole bunch of errands left.
I tend to finish RPGs in less time than most people. Don't worry about it. My play time is padded with time I spent at the casino (a lot) and dinking around with familiars too.
 

burgerdog

Member
Tin-man's capture rate blows, I really don't like the catch familiar errands. I don't even know where to find the cog dude either.
 

QaaQer

Member
Got my copy today.

As I feared, I love everything except for the combat. The story seems a bit childish, but I think that's part of the charm of it. Soundtrack is outstanding. Graphics and art style are excellent. Combat is... Meh.

I hope I warm up to it a bit.

full symphonic soundtrack from the Tokyo Symphony.
 

Ricker

Member
Got my copy today.

As I feared, I love everything except for the combat. The story seems a bit childish, but I think that's part of the charm of it. Soundtrack is outstanding. Graphics and art style are excellent. Combat is... Meh.

I hope I warm up to it a bit.

You have to otherwise the Bosses destroy you...I am 1/3 into the game I think and I still have problems with it,for Bosses,for the reasons many mentionned before...currently have to grind because I don't even get close to killing the Boss I have to face and I have a limited area to grind so it's annoying...the lack of money,mana pool and huge spikes in difficulty is a bummer but everything else is so great that I will push on...
 

Dantis

Member
You have to otherwise the Bosses destroy you...I am 1/3 into the game I think and I still have problems with it,for Bosses,for the reasons many mentionned before...currently have to grind because I don't even get close to killing the Boss I have to face and I have a limited area to grind so it's annoying...the lack of money,mana pool and huge spikes in difficulty is a bummer but everything else is so great that I will push on...

:/

I might just give up. It's no way near too difficult at such an early point, but I'm just not enjoying the gameplay. Shame, because I really love everything else. The world map theme just screams Ghibli.
 

Torraz

Member
Does one lose out on anything by playing on easy? Only a few hours in but the battle system isn't really pulling me in. I'm quite impressed by the rest of the package, however. Especially the wonderful soundtrack.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
I was playing the game on easy and just absolutely destroying every fucking boss.

I'm 35 hours in, and this one "boss" went down so easily, I thought for half a second that it was just a random encounter. Bumped it back up to normal because it was stupid easy. Hopefully there is some challenge back and not that I'm too overleveled or something like that.
 

Aeana

Member
I was playing the game on easy and just absolutely destroying every fucking boss.

I'm 35 hours in, and this one "boss" went down so easily, I thought for half a second that it was just a random encounter. Bumped it back up to normal because it was stupid easy. Hopefully there is some challenge back and not that I'm too overleveled or something like that.
If it's going that quickly, you're definitely overleveled, regardless of difficulty level.

It's pretty easy to tell, though. I mean, if enemies in the area run from you, you're over leveled.
 
Quick question: what color does damage text flash if an attack is strong against the enemy, and what color does the text flash if the attack is weak against the enemy?
 

parazen

Neo Member
The general boss-fight strategy is:

Set all your guys to all-out attack with the triangle button.

When boss starts a super attack

Set all your guys to all-out defense with square button.

You run around healing your guys, and casting your most efficient damage spell against the boss, while picking up health and mana.

Depending on the touchness of the boss, you may want your guys on all-out defense all the time.


I feel like, if you understand this, the boss fights aren't so bad, and you won't be as annoyed by the limits of your AI companions.

However, the above isn't intuitive, so there's no shame in being irritated that your guys keep dying.
 
Jeepers Creepers. So I started the game few days ago and now got my second party member. I really like the music and graphics. VA is fine too. Combat is ok but nothing special. I perhaps made a mistake buying the jumping boots that don't do anything :lol. Merit Card wasted, oh well.

Any missable trophies by the way?
 
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