Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Video gaming fans will know about the debacle behind the pre-orders for the Wizard's Edition version of this game, with Namco Bandai having to issue an apology.

If you don't know the story, this link gives a nice recap:

http://www.ign.com/blogs/mikebrns/2013/01/24/ni-no-kuni-and-the-wrath-of-the-horrible-pr-disaster

Anyway, I am one of the angry ones who had their pre-order cancelled (eBay scalpers are selling it for upwards of £250, but generally around the £150 mark, grrrrrr), however, I did manage to get the regular version for a decent price on-line (my local Game store whacked the price up to £55 instead of the standard £40 for new games instore).

I am only 3 hours into the game and maaaaaaaaaaan, it is glorious. The visuals are fantastic, especially the cut scenes, but then, with Studio Ghibli's input it was bound to be. The controls are fairly intuitive if you've played any number of JRPG's before, with all the staples of a good RPG - immersive story, daft characters, a fantasy world, pressing 'X' quite a lot :evil:

Is anyone playing this yet?

 

I got the Wizard's Edition from GAME (had ordered it at HMV, luckily I noticed when GAME were given HMV's stock so managed to get in on the Wizard's Edition there - and blagged getting my reward points restored after not using the card for an age due to the gf workign at HMV - so got a nice £10 off too!) The Wizards Companion book is beautiful! Although admittedly I was expecting it to be bigger lol. My only slight gripe is that game had a special offer where if you pre-ordered the standard edition you got a Japanese copy of the Wizards Companion, but you didn't get this if you paid double the price to get the Wizard's Edition - I was going to buy both, but the time they replied to my emails questioning this they had also run out of pre-order allocations >_<

I was already looking forward to this game, I'm a huge Ghibli Fan, so any game with the story and artwork produced by Ghibli was always going to be good. The fact its a JRPG that is a beautiful mix of Final Fantasy and Pokemon just completes this.

I'm about 10 hours in, and other than 1 quest (I'm yet to have a bunch of bananas want to be tamed >_<) I've completed all of the side quests in the first 2 Towns in the other world - I'm back in the second, although I was sent back after starting the third to speak to the great Cowphilla back at Al Mamoon :3

I don't think I could say a bad thing about this game so far, its a delight to play because it is so beautiful, the gameplay is pretty spot on for the most part, and certainly some of the boss fights I've encountered so far are just about the right level of difficulty as well. I'm usually quite bad at sticking at games long enough to complete them - usually get distracted by a new game, or something else stops me gaming for a while etc, but I think its safe to say that with this one I'll be addicted right until the end!

If you like Studio Ghibli - Get this game
If you like Final Fantasy and Pokemon - Get this game
If you like J/RPG's - Get this game
If you don't own a PS3 - Buy one and get this game!

 

Yeah, I placed my order with Play.com and set up a stock alert with Amazon.co.uk. Play.com cancelled my order ("blah blah blah sold out blah blah blah"), then suddenly it was back in stock (rumour was that it was HMV stock also). A few days later, they cancelled my order for the same reason and Amazon never got any stock in.

I was gutted, but I'm currently highest bidder on a set on eBay. However, if I lose the bid (likely as I won't go higher than £100), then yeah I'll be unhappy, but no big deal, I'm already playing the game and it is great.

Does the actual physical book add any real value when playing the game or is it just eye candy?

 

Yeh I'm bidding on a couple of the Japanese books =)

The physical book is mostly eye candy - its the same book you gradually unlock in game, but you've already got all of it ready to go in your hands. I find it nicer to look things up in the real book rather than the way you 'read' the book in game, its good to look up some of the familiars you've not yet seen in game as well =)

but is really more of a collectors item, I'm not sure if the golden familiars are actually any better game wise than their normal counter parts (ie not sure if they have better stats etc) as I've yet to be able to unlock them - though I did read that I can now unlock them now I've completed a certain part of the game (avoiding spoilers for you ;op)

 

From what I understand, the little golden dudes are just re-skins, they aren't any stronger or more powerful than the other familiars, though I could be wrong.

I wasn't sure about the Mr Drippy character to begin with, but he has really grown on me. Oliver himself is also pretty cool, very much a Studio Ghibli character, reminds me of the girl in 'Spirited Away'.

Anyway, are you playing in the original Japanese language or the dubbed English?

 

Yeh they're all very Ghibli Characters IMO =)

As with the anime its all in Japanese with Subtitles - I had the 'advantage' of being able to play a bit at HyperJapan a couple of months ago and that was in English by default and I didn't really like the voice actors, much prefer the Japanese ^_^

I figured they were just re-skins, but if you're not fussed about having a couple of golden familiars (not sure if there are other ways to get golden familiars in game - might be like in pokemon where there is a very small chance you'll encounter one in the wild?) and you're not too fussed about the Mr Drippy cuddly toy then I guess you're not missing out on not having the Wizard Edition, but if you're into it then its definitely worth it =D

I like that some of the animal based characters fit their animal sounds into the way they speak, I'm not sure what Mr Drippy is trying to do with his youer(your/you're) and ouer(our) though, might have to put it back onto English and see if I can gleam any hints onto what he is trying to achieve - or indeed if it is just a spelling error like I first thought =p

 

I guess I don't really 'need' anything in the Wizard's Edition, it's more a 'want' as I'm a but of a geek collector - I have a room littered with limited edition games, Blu-ray, DVD, etc., etc.

I might just try to bid for the spell book on ebay...

 

yeh I've got loads of LE games/dvds/books etc as well, its the way forward =D

the book is the best bit =)

I got the golden familiars while at home on my lunch break, I put the Golden Hurly and the non golden dragon one (can't remember its name off the top of my head - one of the PSN Free ones) and oddly the hurly is leveling much quicker, I'm not sure if different familiars just need different amounts of xp to level up, or if golden ones level faster, but just after a few battles including a boss battle the golden hurly is nearly level 9, while the dragon one is still only level 6 =/

 

Awwww man. Could have sworn the gold ones were simply re-skins...

 

they could be, it might just be a case of a normal hurly levels faster than the dragon one, to test it I'd need a golden one and a normal one of the same kind and see how they level up =/

 

apparently after you clear the game gold familiars start appearing in the wild (albeit rarely) and apparently there is a casino later on where you can win more golden tickets - yet to find anything about difference in stats etc though

 

I've just downloaded the golden dude and a dragon thing...

 

As suspected, I've just been hugely outbidded on the sealed Wizard's Edition set. No matter, this leaves me free to seek out the Wizard's Companion book instead...

 

I'm glad my GF noticed the free ones on PSN - I think the draggo one just levels up really slowly, I started leveling another familiar from level one and that too has already over taken the dragon - which leaves me to think the Dragon one might be super powerful once it is levelled up :3

Yeh I think a sealed Wizard's edition will be costly, just the book might be doable - I've just been outbit on one of the Japanese Versions of the book >_<

 

I found a seller from Hong Kong selling the Japanese book for £9.55 with postage to the UK of £15.91. However it is listed as 3DS/PS3 (despite it never coming out on 3DS and only on DS and PS3), claims to have sold 20 with 9 list, but I'm a bit wary about ordering this one... Still, mostly good feedback, mostly...

 

hmmm might have to check that one out if I get outbid on the other one ...

 

I just thought... I might be bidding against you, lol.

I'm tempted to hunt down the DS version of the game. It'll be more as a collectable though as the game is purely in Japanese.

 

ah so its not a buy it now jobby? =p
let the bidding begin! ;op lol

yeh the DS one could be interesting after playing this ^_^

 

Well the Hong Kong seller is a buy it now, but I'm bidding on a Japanese book located within the UK.

Ok, a bidding duel it is then.

 

did you bid on the one being sold by "edmoorhouse" per chance? thats the one I was outbid on >_<