this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2025
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I'm probably about an hour into Ni no Kuni, which I bought on sale years back on steam, but so far I feel a bit underwhelmed compared to the hype.

I will say that my biggest complaint is really around the writing and the snails paced intro. Even if you accept the beginning as being a "Ghibli Movie" preface to a JRPG, I actually feel the direction and story telling is much worse than your average Ghibli production.

I'm just past talking to the old tree, and completed what is likely the first dungeon. So far, the battle system is ok but a little bit drab. I feel like the mechanics would have to pick up to make me enjoy the game more.

Should I give it more time? Are there eventually more choices in the battle system or minion growth? Will there be any stand out characters that might alter how I feel about the writing?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I’m going to go against the grain here. I abandoned it after about an hour or two, then forced myself to try it again. It took a couple hours to pick up, but I ended up loving it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm going to keep going with the game, I decided; At least a little bit further.

I think it's at least notable enough as a JRPG partially developed by Ghibli that I should establish at least 10 or so hours. It's going to be slow but if I change my thoughts on it I'll update people here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Lmk what you think. It’s a lot of setup and it feels like it’s gonna be a Pokémon ripoff but it isn’t.

Like others have said, the audience is odd. It starts out like something you’d think is aimed younger and then gets interesting imo

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

I will say it was a game that I had really looked forward to, but I lost interest in it fairly quickly.

By objective measure it seems like a generally good, well-received game, but I think the gameplay just didn't interest me after the first few hours. It did a good job selling itself on its art style, but the substance was just a bit lacking, in my opinion.

Maybe I've just played too many JRPGs in my time that I felt it wasn't really doing anything novel.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Nah the game would probably a lot more enjoyable if you were a kid when it came out and played it right away. If you want to do every last thing its a super grindy rng slog to get all the monsters and I forgot the other chores but none of the 100% route was enjoyable. There's a couple funny references like the porco grosso but its pretty generic over all.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

I'm really not sure who the game was meant for. I played it to see if it would be a good game to play with my daughter. It's really very childish in a lot of ways and it seemed like something she'd love but I quickly realized that the mechanics of the game, the grinding required, and overall the difficulty without a guide meant that this game was not meant for children. So in the end it seems to be a game for adults or at least veterans of turn based open world jrpg games that want to feel like a child. And overall it's not for me or my daughter.

The soundtrack is great however.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

It's a very slow start, where they introduce one of the mechanics and its tutorial (alchemy I think it was) after ten hours or so.

So no, if you don't like the game now for what it delivers (world and creature design, music, battle system), I don't think you will like it later.

Especially the battles don't get better, I often cursed the AI for using spells in the wrong moment. So in the end I turned it off and did everything myself.

I liked the game, but as one of the other comments said: it's a mystery who was the target group for this game.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

A bit overrated imo. Bought it on switch because "ghibli". Played it and lost interest. Havent touch it simce then.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

I remember it feeling very slow. I think I spent the whole game hoping it would pick up soon, and it never really did. The battles never got more interesting and the writing continued to take up screen time that it didn't deserve.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I thought it was pretty fun. The story can be hit or miss, but I remember it being a fun and mostly light-hearted one. The battle system is servicable and there are a few stand-out fights towards the end. Sadly, as much as I like them, if you don't like the battle system, pushing through just for them is probably not worth it. Once you have everything setup - meaning three characteres to switch between with minions and a few spells on the characters themselves, the system does not get any more complex.

Minions cab evolve, I din't know if you were teached that already. Other than that, it does not get more complex. I think they had up to 3 stages with different paths to evolve.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

I just really didn't like the battle system. Maybe I would've enjoyed the DS version more.