After completing Dark Souls Enhanced Edition, I left my Nintendo Switch on the shelf for a while. But God how much I love playing on the little Nintendo console. I can play on my bed during my lunchbreak, and don’t have to use the same device I use for work (my PC).
I originally wanted to play Breath of the Wild. Unfortunately, I don’t have the cartridge with me. I actually have, however, an unplayed game which has been waiting for my attention for a while.
I’m talking about Level 5’s Ni no kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (for short, NNK). I bought the game almost five years ago, started it thrice, left it without even reaching the fantasy world the game takes place in. Short attention span at the time. Let’s try again.
Here are the first notes I took after one hour and a half of playing. I feel the necessity to point out that I’m not a keen JRPG player. The only game of the genre I’ve ever finished is Persona 4: Golden on the PSVita. However, I’m interested in the genre as a whole and studied it a little. I’ll probably say things which may sound naive to an avid JRPG player, though.
As usual, there will be SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.
- Opening sequence in Motorville
- The game plays the Studio Ghibli feel card right from the opening. I read that Level 5 had most of the story and the worldbuilding finished before Studio Ghibli joined them to animate the cutscenes. Still, it feels like the game was conceived as “a Ghibli movie made game” from the start.
- Like P4G, it takes its time to start the actual game. The first 20 minutes are made up of basic interactions with NPCs and objects, while a pletora of cutscenes play for us. LET ME PLAYYYYYY.
- The death of Oliver’s mother and the start of his journey hit hard, even though the tone is childish, akin to a fairy tale (as we intend them nowadays; in the XIX those stories were quite cruder than Ni no kuni). I may have shed a tear.
- From the beginning, I feel that the character of Oliver, his growth, and the acceptance of his mother’s death will play an important role.
- In the fantasy world diorama
- After the long exposition, we find ourself in the world of Ni no kuni and in the middle of our first battle. Wow. Gameplay!
- Very simple gameplay, actually. As I was expecting from the genre, the game unfolds its systems one by one, very slowly. The first battle is nothing more than choosing the same option in the battle menu three times.
- The diorama where the player travels from a location to another is wonderful. Finding interesting way to represent travel is something I wish more games did; NNK chooses to make travelling pretty and evocative, while very simple from a mechanical perspective.
- Talking about mechanics. Moving to avoid enemies results most of the time in the enemy bumping into us anyway, but from behind. Having to fight multiple times without being able to avoid a fight is a little annoying.
- After the long exposition, we find ourself in the world of Ni no kuni and in the middle of our first battle. Wow. Gameplay!
- At the gates of Din Don Dell
- We have to get into the city of Din Don Dell, so we get to the gate, but the guard responsible for letting us in had his heart stolen by the Big Evil Guy (Shazar’s the name). If we want to enter, we need to get the heart of the guard back. But to do so we need to make a stop at the Deep Dark Wood first.
- Classic obstacle to force us on a different path.
- I have to admit I hadn’t seen one example of this plot device in a while. The fact that a developer feels confident enough to use it is kinda refreshing.
- NNK is a special example, though, for how strongly it evokes the feeling of a classic children fairytale.
- I don’t know if contemporary JRPGs rely so much on this kind of plot devices anymore.
- We have to get into the city of Din Don Dell, so we get to the gate, but the guard responsible for letting us in had his heart stolen by the Big Evil Guy (Shazar’s the name). If we want to enter, we need to get the heart of the guard back. But to do so we need to make a stop at the Deep Dark Wood first.
- The Deep Dark Wood
- It’s a dungeon.
- It’s a long liner corridor which splits into two equally linear corridors. On the first, we find the NPC which grants us our first familiar and a couple of new spells. On the second, the actual scary dungeon littered with monsters and the boss at the end.
- The third person camera takes its time to move while exploring, and is very close to Oliver. A little to close to get a good feeling of the environment, I feel.
- The music is unexpectedly epic for such a small, calm dungeon themed after a forest. I was expecting something one or two tones down. Joe Hisaishi is roaring here.
- Enemies respawn in mere seconds after you took them down. You can never clear the dungeon.
- I died once. And I wasn’t expecting to.
- Also, I lose all my money if I want to go back to the game and not reload my last save. That’s brutal, in a way.
- Need to use consumables a lot if I want to get out of the dungeon.
- A checkpoint right before the boss takes away some pressure. Level 5 doesn’t want me to cry in front of my Switch/PS3/DS.
- By the way, I discovered today the first iteration of the game was for DS. Wrath of the White Witch was developed as an enhanced edition for the PS3. WOW. VIDEO GAME HISTORY IS SO COOL!
That’s it. I may add more stuff if I play it again or find myself excited at the idea of sharing my silly notes.
Image credit: Level 5
Be First to Comment