Long Live the King.

The original Ni no Kuni on the PS3 was something of a dream project, as the talented developers at Level-5 worked hand in hand with the legendary Studio Ghibli to create an RPG that could hopefully channel the expertise of both of the studios to produce something truly exceptional.

Given how other dream collaboration works like “Chrono Trigger” and “Dragon Quest VIII” are often hailed as two of the best games ever made, the potential for Ni no Kuni seemed endless. However, even though it was received fairly well by both critics and fans alike, it’s a title that I did not love. That is not to say that I hated it or anything of the sort, as I enjoyed playing through it, but as much as I felt pulled in by the gorgeous visuals and interesting story, I did not enjoy the various gameplay elements like the raising of monsters or having to overly rely on the AI to do their job during combat.

Luckily, it seems that the powers that be have heard my complaints as Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is an improvement in almost every front.

The dawning of a new kingdom awaits.

After a particularly surprising opening scene which I won’t spoil, I was introduced to Roland, a man who finds himself in an unfamiliar world and Evan, a young soon-to-be king who becomes ousted from his rightful post by a band of traitors. Having been forced to abandon his home kingdom, Evan vows to fulfill a promise to create a kingdom where everyone can live freely and equally. Roland, having felt as though he has lost a place to belong to, offers Evan his assistance in making his dream a reality.

Both of the stories present in the original Ni no Kuni as well as its sequel revolve around the tried and true “coming of age” narrative. The difference is while the original focused more on the theme of loss and overcoming grief, Revenant Kingdom puts a strong emphasis on the idea of interdependence. Just as how a kingdom and its citizens needs a king to lead it, a king is nothing without his subjects, and as Evan’s motley crew of playable characters grew, so did the population of his kingdom. In fact, the very treaty that Evan and Roland design to bring all the kingdoms of the world under a single banner was titled, “The Declaration of Interdependence.”

It’s a theme that’s explored in multiple ways, some of which I found quite interesting, and even though the story never reaches the heights of the best in the medium, it certainly was an entertaining journey through and through.

The presentation of said story was helped greatly by the fantastic visuals as Yoshiyuki Momose, whose work includes anime feature movies like “Spirited Away” and “Grave of the Fireflies”, once again lends his talents to the project to its great benefit. The beautiful cel shading work really shines, with colorful and distinctly designed characters which populated the world and though they looked gorgeous even in screenshots, they looked even better in motion. However, one notable blemish to an otherwise excellent presentation is the uneven use of voice acting. While the performance of the various voice talent was excellent, there simply were too many scenes that weren’t voiced, and even though many scenes started out being voiced, they would go back to saying one-liners and simple grunts while leaving me to fill in the gaps with my imagination.

I’m not sure if this was an issue with the budget or a creative design choice but I felt it was rather jarring to the ears and would have loved for all the story cutscenes to have been fully voiced.

This is one great looking game.

Given that my biggest complaint about the original game was its combat engine, I was curious what kind of system would be in place for the sequel. I’m happy to report that it’s nothing like its predecessor and the combat is very fast-paced and easy to grasp. The square and triangle buttons were relegated to light and heavy attacks respectively, as I was able to lock onto enemies and slice away with complete abandon. I could also jump attack and use the R2 to pull up a quick menu of 4 special attacks that I could use as long as I had the mana for it. As mana was recharged by simply landing regular attacks, comboing light, heavy and special attacks felt easy to do and quite effective to boot.

I also had access to a ranged weapon like a gun, bow or a magic wand and I could even charge the ranged attack for a powerful concentrated projectile. There were also little spirits known as “Higgledies” which I could bring along with me to battle that would help me out in combat either by enhancing my special attacks by absorbing some of them or interact with them when they’ve gathered up to launch their special ability, which ranged from buffing my party to summoning a mighty Higgledy warrior to aid me in combat for a little while. Even though they were entirely AI controlled, they never really needed to be looked after and using them in battle was not a necessity for the vast majority of the game. The other two AI combatants on the battlefield did a decent job of staying out of trouble but when I found it necessary, I had the option to change between all three playable characters at any given time just with the press of a d-pad button.

However, perhaps due to the nature of how easy the combat was to grasp, the battles often felt lacking in challenge and I barely even had to use the mechanic of changing between weapons to maximize their power during special attacks. There were a few optional bounty monsters that proved somewhat difficult, but that was only when they out leveled me by a significant margin. As many of the story related bosses are quite the spectacle, I only wish overcoming them felt as good as it looked while I was taking them down.

The combat is fast and enjoyable but lacking in challenge.

The other two major gameplay elements are the skirmishes and the kingdom building.

Skirmishes took place on the open world map, where I was able to rotate four units of my choosing with a weapon type and special skills and take them out to battle other armies. There’s the usual rock-paper-scissors element of sword units being more effective against hammers and hammers against spears and etc but it was pretty simple and while not particularly compelling, it served to break up long gameplay segments of standard combat and dungeon exploration.

The kingdom building serves as a much more interesting and essential part of progression as it felt like a very light simulation where I was building facilities, recruiting citizens and posting them where they’ll do the most good. Researching high-impact skills like the ability to move faster while exploring or unlocking new weapons/armors I could forge was quite rewarding and I found myself spending more time perfecting my kingdom than I really needed to.

With over a hundred citizens to recruit and dozens of facilities to build, the kingdom can take a lot of time to fully complete.

Even though I enjoyed this element for the most part, having to wait upwards of 2-3 hours just to have enough resources generated to upgrade my kingdom felt like a silly way to artificially inflate the game’s running time.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is yet another classic example of a sequel done right. Building on the strength of the original, it presents a meticulously crafted world, brought to life by a team of visionaries who deserve every praise they’ve received over their long, illustrious careers. With a much improved combat engine and a myriad of entertaining new gameplay elements, it comes two steps closer to achieving the true potential of a title that can rightfully be recognized as the result of a dream collaboration.

Fun Tidbit – I left my PS4 on idling for more than 20~ hours total during my playthrough to grow the mighty Evermore kingdom to its full power. I don’t recommend you do this.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Solid, fast-paced combat engine that’s easy to grasp
  • A memorable journey set in an interesting world
  • Colorful visuals that look stunning in motion
Bad
  • Lacking in challenge
  • Uneven use of voice overs
  • Real-time elements in kingdom building
9
Excellent
Written by
Jae has been a gamer ever since he got a Nintendo when he was just a child. He has a passion for games and enjoys writing. While he worries about the direction gaming as a medium might be headed, he's too busy playing games to do anything about it.