The remastered version of Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch releases today (September 20th) on the Switch. Same day as Puzzle Quest and Link’s Awakening! Though many of you will no doubt go for the Zelda title, I was eager to get my hands on Ni no Kuni. The store where I bought my physical copy was very good to me: they wanted to make sure people had it on release day, so I had the game two days early!
A combination of Level 5 and Studio Ghibli
As I mentioned before, I looked forward to this game a lot. The game first appeared on the DS in Japan in 2009, with the title Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn. The DS game never made it west, but now we have the remastered game.
Ni no Kuni is a story driven RPG, turn based with a dollop of real time action. A game where the storyline is depicted in animations made by Studio Ghibli. A game that is made by Level 5. To me, the combination of the two is sure proof that this is a stellar game. Playing it for a bit years back in Japanese made an impression on me, and I can assure you the experience is even better when you play it without having to stop all the time to try and translate.
The opening screen surprised me, where Bandai Namco asks you to agree to all kinds of rules and regulations. It’s made specific for countries in Europe, with for instance Germany having an extra paragraph. In all my years of gaming I have never seen that. But hey, what will I choose? I won’t decline it of course, I want to play!
A moving story
The story of Oliver, his mother, the White Witch and Drippy is set in a beautiful animation, that hasn’t lost anything of its impact. I remember when I saw it unfold for the first time it moved me. Same now, this is some good story telling.
The game offers a choice whether you want to stay on default setting, or if you want to go for easy. Easy enables you to focus more on the storyline, a nice feature to offer!
All during the intro the game doles out the instructions of what you need to know. And same as seen in other Level 5 games like Yo-Kai Watch and Inazuma Eleven, a marker on the map shows you where you have to go next.
The Wizards Companion in your backpack
I was very curious about what to expect when it came to the Wizards Companion. I had the physical book when it came with my imported Japanese DS game, and it looked beautiful. It helped when you had to find what spell to use next, and the DS was the perfect device for spellcasting. Drawing the spell on the touchscreen actually made the spell come to life.
The Switch doesn’t use the touch screen for that, how can they when a lot of people will play the game on the big screen. Instead, you acquire the Wizards Campanion, put it in your backpack and in the menu you can flip through it. Finding the right spell you just need to press A, and hey presto! There’s the Gate (or whatever other spell you where conjuring).
Love a story driven turn based RPG?
That’s it for now, my very first impressions revisiting a game I love. Do you love a great compelling story with lovely visuals? Do you like your fighting turn based though with a dollop of realtime action, but still no need for frantic button bashing? Want to lose yourself in an alternate world and fight for the good guys?
If your answer to these three questions above is yes, then check out Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch! And I’ll be sure to make my full review on LadiesGamers.com soon.
