Page 32 • Ni no Kuni: The Another World for PS3 - Studio Ghibli/Level 5 title • Gaming • PS3 • Eurogamer.net

ScandinavianStar 20 Jan 2014 10:07:02 13 posts
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There re rumors now that NNK2 will be released on PS4 I really hope that they are true!

chrisno21 20 Jan 2014 16:18:17 2,488 posts
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Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please, be true.

karlo87 20 Jan 2014 17:49:54 1,859 posts
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@ScandinavianStar They'd be crazy not to after the critical reception the first game has received

ScandinavianStar 21 Jan 2014 09:22:53 13 posts
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@karlo87 yeah thats true

Huggybear 21 Jan 2014 09:59:09 1,807 posts
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Do you recommend playing this in Japanese with subtitles, or English, ie. are the voice actors equally good? English is not my native tongue but all television is subtitled around here so reading them is more or less instinctive, but I don't understand more than a few words of Japanese either.

Edited by Huggybear at 10:00:16 21-01-2014

Gartt 21 Jan 2014 14:03:51 1,940 posts
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The English voiceover is actually incredibly well done and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it. This coming from someone who usually detests English dubs.

karlo87 21 Jan 2014 14:33:35 1,859 posts
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The english dub is probably one of the best I've heard

Huggybear 21 Jan 2014 17:38:34 1,807 posts
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Ok, thanks guys, I'll give it a try then.

SteveV 21 Jan 2014 19:03:39 65 posts
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Cappy wrote:
Ghibli are only doing the cutscenes.

Level 5 are supplying the parts of the game you actually play. Sadly that's where it could go seriously wrong, they haven't struck gold on a home console title in a long time, not since Dark Cloud 2 really.

Ni No Kuni was good though....

Also, I'd use the Jap soundtrack. I tried the Eng soundtrack and it just didn't have zany-ness of sound as comical. And the Jap Drippy is far superior to the Welsh Drippy.

Edited by SteveV at 19:08:11 21-01-2014

chrisno21 21 Jan 2014 19:30:05 2,488 posts
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Bah, the welsh drippy is incredible.

SomaticSense 21 Jan 2014 22:41:19 15,062 posts
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TheMayorOfJugs wrote:
..... Didn't struggle on any boss except piggeh tank. If you grind a little bit or pick a familiar with an advantage/resistance, it'll be easy.

I played on the highest (think it's Normal?) and found it all fine bar that one piggeh. You mustn't be fighting out in the field much Somatic.

Oliver is around level 25 I think. I don't think I'm under-levelled as I went back today to do some grinding to see if it would help, and the enemies around that area have started fleeing as I get near.

I honestly don't understand it. Others are finding it fine aside from the odd flashpoint, yet I'm finding certain aspects - MP especially - fundamentally unbalaced and genuinely too hard. Never have I had such persistant trouble with a JRPG. It's not even the style of comat system they went for that I'm not gelling with, as I played the FFXIII Lightning Returns demo earlier and thought the combat, which is very similar to NNK, was largely excellent. Which was probably because Sqenix realised that using a traditional menu to control real-time battles would be a crap control method, and that an overreliance on random mechanics would be equally crap.

I'm going to grind like a bastard until I can storm that boss. But the game isn't getting many more chances. I'm already beginning to get disappointed at the jarring lack of voice over dialogue and the low rate of Ghibli cutscenes.

TheMayorOfJugs 21 Jan 2014 22:49:59 6,489 posts
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@SomaticSense Have you been doing side quests and using your items?

Never used as many items in an RPG as in Ni no Kuni. The bosses are *mostly* easy but you do need to use items for reliable/quick healing.

Edited by TheMayorOfJugs at 22:51:48 21-01-2014

SomaticSense 21 Jan 2014 23:10:45 15,062 posts
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I've done all side quests to that point, and was forced to use 8 Phoenix Feathers in that fight, and have been downing inexplicably expensive Strong Coffees like a caffeine addict. It's been costing a fortune stocking up on recovery items.

Rajin 22 Jan 2014 01:38:49 830 posts
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Retarded party AI was what made the game so difficult for me. I stopped playing around halfway through the game and i hope i can get back into it this summer.

Nazo 22 Jan 2014 07:20:29 1,951 posts
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I've come back to this after a break and decided to swallow my pride and switch to easy to get it finished off. I'm still getting hammered.

I wonder how this would have reviewed if it weren't for the Ghibli factor. Under that it's a very bog standard JRPG with awful combat.

SomaticSense 22 Jan 2014 12:32:39 15,062 posts
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Ugh.

Esther ran out of MP... again, so proceeded to run around the battlefield hoovering up glims.

Well, I say run around. What I mean is run directly into an enemy blocking the immediate path between her and a glim, but instead of then running around it she just constantly runs into him taking hits.

The AI is atrocious.

Gartt 22 Jan 2014 12:52:10 1,940 posts
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I think you guys need to go and level up a bit and remember to set up your tactics properly.

If youve also reached the point were you can capture familiars go and grab one of the ones that looks like a tombstone (monolith), its ridiculously tough, doesnt do much damage but it gains yoo hoo at some point iirc so it can aggro everything whilst you chip away with your other familiars.

Go back and get one of the snakes from the first dungeon too as its a great damage dealer.

karlo87 22 Jan 2014 15:18:11 1,859 posts
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You guys need to go grind some Toko's

SomaticSense 23 Jan 2014 00:39:48 15,062 posts
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Finally did it. After about an hour of the most boring grinding, which predominently involved just mashing X while staring blankly at the screen, I got Oliver to lvl 27 which was enough to just about manage to scrape past the boss. Thing is though, I know it'll only get harder from here, and I can't be arsed with the grinding at all. Plus grinding lower level familars to get them up to scratch looks to be a complete pain, as they seem level so slowly after lvl 4.

I was after a game with an absorbing world and a narrative which you can just relax with, but too many elements ruin that. It's just not what I was hoping for. It's the same old negative JRPG tropes, but with none of the old-school fun or sense of control in combat. There's strategy there, but while you are actioning some of it the AI is fucking it up elsewhere. Or will outright ignore your strategic callouts. Or you will die while in the middle of rifling through your inventory for a revival item to revive someone else... because the AI fucked up.

30 hours in, and I think that's enough to reasonably come to the conclusion it probably won't magically click now. I really, really want to love it though. But Lost Odyssey is still by far the best old-school JRPG of the generation.

Gartt 23 Jan 2014 11:59:32 1,940 posts
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Id say 30 hours is fair enough, if it hasnt clicked for you then it probably wont.

Personally I loved the grinding, normally dislike that kinda thing but I really enjoyed it in NNK. Like karlo said gotta grind the tokos up at Ugly Duckling Island, 2000xp for each one you drop. Then the Tokotokos at billy goats bluff later on for 8000xp each.

Embrace the grind

Edited by Gartt at 12:00:04 23-01-2014

CosmicFuzz 23 Jan 2014 12:06:27 32,632 posts
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Haha I've had Ni No Kuni sitting here for a few weeks now (playing Tales of Xillia which is great right now) and I have to say, Somatic Sense is really putting me off starting it!

TheMayorOfJugs 23 Jan 2014 12:06:48 6,489 posts
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Gartt wrote:
Id say 30 hours is fair enough, if it hasnt clicked for you then it probably wont.

Personally I loved the grinding, normally dislike that kinda thing but I really enjoyed it in NNK. Like karlo said gotta grind the tokos up at Ugly Duckling Island, 2000xp for each one you drop. Then the Tokotokos at billy goats bluff later on for 8000xp each.

Embrace the grind

Don't forget the tokotocolds on the ivory tower for 24000 each..... :-D

Gartt 23 Jan 2014 12:18:13 1,940 posts
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Tokotokos are more efficient and common often with two turning up in the same battle. Starting at Perdida and running all the way down to the end of Billy Goats Bluff, by the time you got to the end, mobs have already respawned at the other end so you can basically run back and forth.

Or run down to the end and fast travel back to Perdida and repeat for fresh spawns. ;P

Gartt 23 Jan 2014 12:19:16 1,940 posts
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God this really make me want to start playing again, Ive only got my Wizard Edition at the moment which is still sealed and I dont really want to open it

SomaticSense 23 Jan 2014 13:22:16 15,062 posts
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CosmicFuzz wrote:
Haha I've had Ni No Kuni sitting here for a few weeks now (playing Tales of Xillia which is great right now) and I have to say, Somatic Sense is really putting me off starting it!

Give it a try. I never really got on with the Tales games either, so you might get on with it better than me.

SomaticSense 23 Jan 2014 13:25:41 15,062 posts
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Gartt wrote:
Id say 30 hours is fair enough, if it hasnt clicked for you then it probably wont.

Personally I loved the grinding, normally dislike that kinda thing but I really enjoyed it in NNK. Like karlo said gotta grind the tokos up at Ugly Duckling Island, 2000xp for each one you drop. Then the Tokotokos at billy goats bluff later on for 8000xp each.

Embrace the grind

Hmm. Would I be able to reach these places at this point in the game? Because it's not so much the grinding itself that is a problem, but that it has been so slow.

Gartt 23 Jan 2014 13:31:38 1,940 posts
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Ugly Duckling Island is available as soon as you have a water based form of transport. Tokos usually appear at the top point of the island, you'll have to be careful though if they spot you they'll run and you'll never catch them. They'll also flee after a round so sneak up behind so you get first hit then concentrate all your attacks on the toko.
Can be quite tough though depending on your level as theres no where around that you can heal, although if you get some tokos you should level up pretty quickly and auto heal.

Edited by Gartt at 13:34:56 23-01-2014

SomaticSense 23 Jan 2014 13:34:15 15,062 posts
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Awesome. Will try that

Huggybear 23 Jan 2014 15:55:38 1,807 posts
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Another question before I start (want to finish Persona 4 Golden first): Easy or Normal?

I don't really like turn-based stuff, and although I'm playing P4G on Normal, I find it a little annoying that you have to grind to get past some bosses etc.

I guess what I'm asking is... is Easy too easy?

Cappy 23 Jan 2014 16:15:10 14,393 posts
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You don't have to grind on any recent Persona game, ever. Where you have to pay attention is with the persona fusions, the final boss of Persona 3 could barely touch me because throughout a long chain of fusions as I'd played the game I'd arrived at a Persona that was resistant to practically every form of attack. Same goes for Persona 4 your personas decide the battle rather than levels.

Besides, in Persona exp. is scaled the more you fight the same enemies the less exp. you get, you're better off looking for strong enemies if you want to level up fast, it will take forever against enemies on par with or weaker than yourself.

Ni ni Kuni isn't really turn based, it's real time with a command menu component like Final Fantasy XII, you can change the difficulty whenever you want in the settings menu so start with normal and knock it down if want the game to be easier.

Ni no Kuni: The Another World for PS3 - Studio Ghibli/Level 5 title • Page 32