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

airblade

Banned
just beat the game, my dudes were around 85 so the final boss was pretty easy

random thoughts: Catastroceros is OP as fuck

228px-Catastroceros.jpeg

Amen, makes the game a breeze.
 

WorldStar

Banned
Just finished post-game, every errand and every bounty

hit the level cap which is 99

pretty much my only gripe with this game is that it's too easy

was hella fun tho
 
I would rate the combat a 6 or 7 / 10.

The battle is dynamic and semi-realtime so the majority will enjoy it. The common problem might be the ally AI. I am also annoyed when I'm about to cast a spell and another one has already began animation for a different spell, sometimes your channeling will stop and therefore will have to pick the spell again from the battle menu.

Sometimes it is frustrating when your monsters try to bruteforce run into the enemy but is blocked by other creatures wasting their entire turn in the process.

These are still tolerable and sisn't prevent me from enjoying the game.
 

Despera

Banned
Completed the 5th stage of Double Cross in the Casino. Total attempts of all stage at around 140... and after all that work I get nothing other than 5000 chips? LAME!

Just wanted to say that I've been playing this game for about 50 hours and I'm having a blast. It's been SO LOOONG since I've played a JRPG which felt this cohesive. Felt like the full package. Even when considering the few shortcomings the game has, this is quite the achievement for Level 5, and signifies their return to form (especially after the shitcakes Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles).
 

FireCloud

Member
just beat the game, my dudes were around 85 so the final boss was pretty easy

random thoughts: Catastroceros is OP as fuck

228px-Catastroceros.jpeg


how is the post-game?

I agree. I used Catastroceros as my main familiar for the last third of the game. I didn't have any troubles with the end game. I probably spent too much time leveling up by hunting Ulks and Tokotokos. I was worried that I'd need level 99 familiars for the final boss...that wasn't the case (at least for the familiars I used).

I still enjoyed the game though. I haven't gone back for the post-game stuff, I'm going to give it a rest for a while.
 

codhand

Member
just beat it, loved it, definitely making my top ten. great blend of story, art, and gameplay. sequel seems like there would be lots of possibilities
 

Despera

Banned
Just beat it the other day as well. Solosseum S class cleared, tasks 99% done, all 100 hidden treasures found and all dangerous places cleared.

That one quest which requires farming rare items for an alchemy formula is just too much work. And with that I'm done with the game.

My fav familiars are the Catastoceros and his red brother, the Greater Naiad and the Trumpy Pumper.

Definitely one of the best JRPGs in recent memory, and my GoTY is either this or FE:A from the games I played so far. Hopefully a sequel or a new project of this calibur from L5 is announced soon.

Now, time for some Tales of Xillia.
 

Dunkelgrau

Member
I was pretty hyped for this one but after about ten hours (I received the letter for the ship now) I am very disappointed. Combat is fun, but there is so much childish dialog and tutorials, that you all have to skip away. Damn, when does this end?

Will this game open up later or should I skip it?
 

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
So why is my mite so weak? His stats are actually fine, and at one point was my best character, but around lvl 22 he just stopped being effective at all... he's lvl 32 now and he's way on the backburner for me.
 

Shouta

Member
The game's base is pretty good but a lot of the specifics are not tuned for actual RPG fans, is the big issue blacky.

I enjoyed it despite that though. It's easily L5's best RPG overall though there really isn't anything great from them anyway. =|
 
I'm considering picking this up now that it's cheap but this thread really isn't helping me make up my mind lol.

For the price it's at now, I'd say absolutely go for it. Yeah, NNK is a flawed game, but you're likely to get a good chunk of playtime out of it depending on how much postgame stuff you want to do, and the game's strengths (art direction, soundtrack, familar collecting, Drippy when he's not in tutorial mode) are worth experiencing.
 
Do it now, it's amazing.


For the price it's at now, I'd say absolutely go for it. Yeah, NNK is a flawed game, but you're likely to get a good chunk of playtime out of it depending on how much postgame stuff you want to do, and the game's strengths (art direction, soundtrack, familar collecting, Drippy when he's not in tutorial mode) are worth experiencing.


I'll just clear the games I'm currently playing and then jump on this. It's more because of the time the game requires than anything else, haven't had much time to play lately and I'll need the game to be good to justify spending 50 hours on it.
 

Celegus

Member
I just got the third party member, and it's starting to really make me hate the battles. I don't know if I've ever seen AI this bad, it's even worse than Persona 3 (just try using Mitsuru). Basically you just have to babysit everyone the whole rest of the game and play healer? What is even the point of them having 3 familiars? I've never seen either of them use any but the one in the first slot.
 
I just got the third party member, and it's starting to really make me hate the battles. I don't know if I've ever seen AI this bad, it's even worse than Persona 3 (just try using Mitsuru). Basically you just have to babysit everyone the whole rest of the game and play healer? What is even the point of them having 3 familiars? I've never seen either of them use any but the one in the first slot.

I feel you. They should've opted for a better AI.

My greatest annoyance is when I'm about to cast my spell and then Esther's familiar interrupts me, then Oliver will not proceed on casting the spell after. I can't find any reason why they allowed this.
 

Celegus

Member
I feel you. They should've opted for a better AI.

My greatest annoyance is when I'm about to cast my spell and then Esther's familiar interrupts me, then Oliver will not proceed on casting the spell after. I can't find any reason why they allowed this.

I tried all the different tactics settings, but none of them seem to make a difference other than "don't use abilities". I felt surely I was doing something wrong, but it really does seem to just be that bad. And you can't even micromanage it yourself because switching between characters resets the familiar that's out, and then you're just wasting time. The AI isn't even smart enough to not let the timer run out, or to use the second familiar once the first one is exhausted. It's just insane that a game with this much polish in the visuals and sound got completely neglected in the gameplay.
 
This is one of the games I recently picked up a PS3 for.


No No Kuni, the first hour or two: The story beginnings are really fast paced, but this is still a JRPG and not a Miyazaki movie, so I guess that's how it is. The battle system is different, a bit strange. I've only just now gotten my first mite (I named him Zeke :3) and played through the tutorial battle with him. Am I correct in thinking that you can only have one PC in the battle field at a time? Basically, throw a mite out, use it until its stamina runs out, recall it, and then put Ollie (or I guess eventually a second mite) into battle?

Graphics are great. Music is great so far. Animals and baddies look a bit too Toriyama but it otherwise pulls off the cel-shaded/Ghibli look just fine. Voice acting is... well... it's a JRPG.

Baatender is freaking hilarious.
 

Celegus

Member
This is one of the games I recently picked up a PS3 for.


No No Kuni, the first hour or two: The story beginnings are really fast paced, but this is still a JRPG and not a Miyazaki movie, so I guess that's how it is. The battle system is different, a bit strange. I've only just now gotten my first mite (I named him Zeke :3) and played through the tutorial battle with him. Am I correct in thinking that you can only have one PC in the battle field at a time? Basically, throw a mite out, use it until its stamina runs out, recall it, and then put Ollie (or I guess eventually a second mite) into battle?

Graphics are great. Music is great so far. Animals and baddies look a bit too Toriyama but it otherwise pulls off the cel-shaded/Ghibli look just fine. Voice acting is... well... it's a JRPG.

Baatender is freaking hilarious.

You get more party members eventually, but yes, you only control one character/familiar at a time. The other characters you're not controlling are handled by some truly horrendous AI.
 

Effigenius

Member
I'm considering picking this up now that it's cheap but this thread really isn't helping me make up my mind lol.

Maybe this will help. Buy it now to avoid having to own this monstrosity:

998014_341645_front.jpg


Just saw it at Gamestop today. I'm really impressed this game went GH! Are there any other PS3 JRPGs that went GH? (I mean non-strategy, and non-Final Fantasy)
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Love that more people will probably try this game at the $20 price point, but yeah I do hate greatest hits cases :(

So in love with how beautifully everything came together in this game. From the art style, the wonderful voice work, music, monster-collecting aspects... it fulfills so much for me.

Want more games like this :(

I need to spread Pokemon Y out as long as possible!
 
Wow. I picked this game up for $10 on PSN the other day and I am just in disbelief. Haven't even gotten a weapon yet but this game is just so beautiful, the music and graphics and everything else. Cannot freaking wait to get deep into this, this is the best introduction in a video game that I can remember.
 

Diablos

Member
So ... about the ending. I have been putting off the final battle for so long now, despite completing 95% of the rest of the main game, heh. It wasn't hard really.
Final form caught me off guard with those little orb things when they spawned for the second or third time, ended up cornering me and everyone else was dead when I didn't realize. No biggie, got it down the second time.

It was kind of uneventful, no? I dunno... I expected more. And for some reason I assumed postgame stuff implied Oliver doesn't just go home and "THE END", rather, he knows he can call up Drippy any old time and they can go back to the other world to do quests and stuff.

All in all, this is the PS3 JRPG everyone deserves. Way better than the trainwreck that is FFXIII and just about anything else I can think of.
 
All in all, this is the PS3 JRPG everyone deserves. Way better than the trainwreck that is FFXIII and just about anything else I can think of.

I wonder if I will like this more than Xillia. Had a great time with that one. I wish I had more time to play.
 

creyas

Member
The beginning of the world map music, the melody which is played with the flute first, is tearing my head apart. It sounds exactly like something i've heard before, but can't think of what that is. It came to my head yesterday but i forgot it instantly. It's bugging me so much that it's seriously impacting my playing experience. Help

edit: Finally got over it..
 
Playing through this now it's on the psn sale

I enjoy the world (especially since it's a good old fashioned open world where you can choose where you go and find secret caves and bosses and shit) and the dialog is fairly endearing , really likes drippy's home town too

The music is super generic though and there don't seem to be a lot of songs (or maybe they just all sound the same, can't tell if I've heard 5 or 10 different songs 20 hours into the game)

Bossfights would be super fun and cool if it wasn't for the batshit retarded ai, stand in the fire, stand in the poison, blow mana, call out low def familiar when on low hp because fuck you apparently
I almost always end up with just oliver alive... the jellyfish boss at the fairy town was especially frustrating, I ended up grinding out like 10 levels on my familiars to get them all up to lvl 20+ just to make it doable
Every time a golden glim drops I have to race the stupid ai to it so they don't waste it (took me 4 tries just to be able to pick one up with my aoe ultimate familiar before the npcs got to it so I could aoe down the shitty jellyfish army that spawned)
The ai is a constant liability... and they don't give you the all defend spell till 15 hours into the game (long after you could have used it on several bossfights including the one right before you get it) , and even if you all defend it doesn't work a lot of the time.


the only way to make the combat not frustrating seems to be to be overleveled so they don't drop like flies , but then the game is no longer challenging for the character you control either...

I do like the wizard's compendium a lot, it's like a WIKI with maps, crafting recipes, background stories and a list of drops and gear

Choosing which familiars to get seems like random guesswork (it's quite a pain in the ass to look up each familiar in the book and then seperately look up each of their spells to see what they do and then still have to guess if the spell is usefull or not)


debuffs seem pointless as they miss 80 percent of the time and only lasts for a few seconds

the timing to interupt enemy attacks is another thing I don't understand, the blue bubble pops up for like 0.1seconds and only rarely, trying to learn the timing (if there is one) from that is impossible

the alchemy system is quite fun, getting to upgrade gear from monster drops but you don't get any recipes for the level/area you are at it seems, I always have to go look them up individually in the compendium which is a pain in the ass, also you'd think that recipes you mixed yourself would then appear in the recipe list in the cauldron from then on, but they don't....

as for feeding treats to familiars, should I be doing this a LOT? after +6-7 in their main stat it becomes very slow (and the cap on stats makes me reluctant to level their other stats much)

money also seems too sparse, I never have gold to buy coffee and barely have gold to buy new gear, let alone to buy treats or mats to make better treats
 
Is there another thread for this? I thought more people would post now it's on the psn sale

anyhow updated lttp impressions now I'm near the end of the story:

The combat doesn't come together till late into the game , for some reason they force you to play without the all defend/attack command for a third of the game and without mana to cast many spells for the first 2/3rds
80 percent into the story the game is like OH right almost forgot here's a bunch of final fantasy style summons.
Now the combat has actually become pretty fun, AI is still shit but if you give them some very tanky familiars and take away most of their spells at least they don't constantly die.

Compendium remains awesome, one of those super rare games where I don't think 'lol-lore'

The later areas are pretty cool, from the demo and early game (ding dong well, the rolling hills and the volcano (shimmy past the steam vents, REALLY?) it seemed like a super generic game that is leeching off of the ghibli license and is suffering from stupid scripted 'action' scenes like the volcano ledge
Worst demo ever award from me as it put me off tryng the game until now and isn't representative of the rest of the game.

Length of the campaign (if you do the tasks and explore) seems to be about 50-60 hours which seems like a good length for a jrpg, can't comment on post game as I 'm not there yet

So many HD towns, see it's not that hard Enix (lol)
Between the world map, towns with npcs, many bossfights and semi turn based combat this is as close as we got to getting a proper final fantasy style jrpg this gen.

I'm sure this game has been recommended a thousand times in this thread, but if you want a JRPG to play then get this while it's on sale as it's a good game despite some flaws (frustrating AI early game, difficulty spikes and drops)

They also seem to have playtested and QA's the shit out of this game which is super rare nowadays
Haven't found a single bug or glitch in 50+hours
There's so many convenience things like getting fast travel, a spell to leave dungeons , a spell to avoid starting fights , teleportals placed to get you out of dungeons when you finish them and other things that were clearly put there because some playtester said it was tedious/annoying in that specific part of the game
+ of course the whole compendium as an in game wiki ,which they put a LOT of effort in.
There's also not a single missable item or character or familiar in the game, for once a jrpg that doesn't seem designed around selling you some overpriced official guide

edit: not going to bump this thread a third time if I'm forever alone in here:( the dragon's dogma thread this ain't
question: does post game start when you
beat shadar and marcassin joins you? or do I still need to fight the white witch?
It seems like such a drastic transition that I'm afraid there's sidequests I won't be able to do (I still haven't done the familiar catching one in yule) or something.

also man the voice acting is DIRE , I wish I'd chosen Japanese voices instead :(
 

yamo

Member
Got it on the PSN sale and started playing tonight. I like it so far, very cozy atmosphere!

I named my first familiar Snuffe, he looks really awesome with his cape and sword. Also, why do the old tree have a duck beak for mouth? x)

I chose the Japanese voice acting, I like it alot so far!
 
Yeah the art, graphics and atmosphere of this game are second to none. It's unbelievably good.

I did not finish it yet (55hrs in) - I am past the "last" boss, before the next "last" boss but I have some minor gripes:

- 95% of the side quests are Give & Take Heart. What a wasted opportunity. Quests like "Stolen Cat Whiskers" or "Level this Familiar up to LVL 40" are very rare.
- "Tactics" command is pretty useless. What they should have is an option stating: "Use only the following Abilities -->" and a submenu where you could mark the current Familiar's Abilities to be used.
- Perdida and Yule do not feature exclusive music :( What in the fuck?
- the dungeons are a joke... the only one dungeon that only resembles a random dungeon from DQ8 is the Glittering Grotto. The rest are worthless - very short and very easy.

On the plus side:

+ production values. The game OOZES with them.
+ Wizard's Companion (absolutely amazing and a blast to read)
+ Al-Khemi! (Alchemy, get it?)
+ Merit Card Awards system
+ Hunts (but they are kinda repeatable in the end)
+ story and characters. Lord High Lord of the Fairies is one of the best supporting characters in jRPGs history.
+ ultra-fast loading
+ flying around on Tengri
+ best overworld since FF8
+ ultra-fast battles, almost as fast as FF13 ones

Game is still a 10/10 for me. My dream anime jRPG.

You like dragon's dogma and this game, I like you

OT (not that anyone will read it the thread is dead :( ) how on earth do you choose whick tricks to forget on familiars?
I have 3 storm tricks on the drongo familiar now on his final form but I can't for the life of me figure out what trick is better /stronger/more efficient than the other, the game tells you NOTHING and googling it noone else seems to know either
 

Dragoshi1

Member
Currently stuck during the Mam dungeon, one of the rooms has a whale looking enemy, and it absolutely DESTROYED the stupid AI.

Doesn't help that it takes forever to cast a spell or use a provision.

I ate a burger, and by the time it healed me, I was already dead, since you stand still to use it, and it takes a while before you can access all your commands again after an item usage.
 
Currently stuck during the Mam dungeon, one of the rooms has a whale looking enemy, and it absolutely DESTROYED the stupid AI.

Doesn't help that it takes forever to cast a spell or use a provision.

I ate a burger, and by the time it healed me, I was already dead, since you stand still to use it, and it takes a while before you can access all your commands again after an item usage.

You do have to mind positioning in this game on the character you control (which is part of why the AI is frustrating, as they are idiots and don't position at all)
It's better to run away first and defend/evade the next spell and THEN heal up than panic and try to heal on low hp when the enemy boss/monster is about to cast

Running your character away from the fight is always good practise, you can swap to your character from your familiar to dodge enemy abilities if you can't defend in time and it buys you time to heal if shit goes bad
 
Do medals equipped on your heroes also work on your familiars?
I noticed there's some that say 'increase familiar stamina' for example but almost no familiars can actually equip medals

I crafted 2 medal of impunity (immunity to status ailments) and I wonder if the immunity works on my familiars too (if not it's pretty pointless to even have such an item as the dumb AI will never have the right familiar out anyhow)
 

OnlyWonderBoy

Neo Member
Pretty late to the party on this, but I needed to share my story.

Beat the game and realized I never unlocked any tiers for the merit stamps past the first one. Played the entire game not knowing I had to finish the first row to unlock later rows. Beat the game without any bonus exp or the extra 100 HP and MP for Oliver. My god would that have come in handy.
 
I have this in my basket on PSN and am wondering if it's worth it. IGN's review says it's takes cues from Pokemon and Tales but Pokemon is literally the only JRPG I have ever played and I'm not too sure what to expect.

Loved Anime when I was younger and quite enjoy most things Japanese (Sentai and what-not) but I never really play Japanese games although I love Western RPGs.

For £6 can I really go wrong with this game?
 
I have this in my basket on PSN and am wondering if it's worth it. IGN's review says it's takes cues from Pokemon and Tales but Pokemon is literally the only JRPG I have ever played and I'm not too sure what to expect.

Loved Anime when I was younger and quite enjoy most things Japanese (Sentai and what-not) but I never really play Japanese games although I love Western RPGs.

For £6 can I really go wrong with this game?

I doubt you'll regret it, it's one of the most beautiful games ever made and you can easily get 40+ hours out of it.
I haven't finished it but I'm starting to get the complaints about the companion AI, they are pretty damn useless.
I'm playing on normal (which is the highest difficulty available at first) and I'm actually surprised, the game isn't a walk in the park though a lot of it has to do with the useless AI and with how ridiculously expensive MP items are. I don't know if this changes later but MP is at a premium in the first half of the game.
I really recommend doing sidequests, you get stamps which you can exchange for some VERY useful stuff.
 
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