Maybe it’s my love of Studio Ghibli. Maybe it’s my love of RPGs. Or maybe it’s my desire to play a game that has both of these things as equal parts. No matter how you slice it, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch from developer Level-5 looks like it’s going to fit the bill, and I will probably post any news I can find about it. Deal with it.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S_Sq8JgMUA0&w=620]
One new thing that I learned while watching this is that the score for the game was created by none other than Joe Hisaishi. This name may not be one that you pass around the dinner table, but if you have seen pretty much any Studio Ghibli film in the last three decades, you have heard his work and know that it’s amazing.
The overworld in this game looks exactly like what people have been wanting from a Final Fantasy title for about the last ten years, or maybe that is just me (FFVI 4 LIFE). The addition of water travel by three masted ship certainly hearkens back to the good old days of jRPGs as well. Just the thought of it all is making me giddy.
Battle on the overworld can be avoided for the most part, but once you get in to fighting, the main character, Oliver, doesn’t always address the conflict himself. Oliver can send out “familiars” (over 200!) to do physical battle for him, all in real time. By hitting the L2/R2 buttons, you can cycle through special attacks the familiars can do. Oliver can attack himself, but is relegated to mostly magic attacks since he just simply isn’t a physical fighter. Although the battles play out in real time, you can pause the action to settle on a more strategic approach.
For those of you who hate English dubs, you will be able to play the game with the original Japanese voices and English subs.
And how gorgeous is this game? I mean COME ON. I don’t really have the words to describe it.
Jump into another world when Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch releases on January 22nd, 2013 for PS3.