Digitally Downloaded writes: "let’s pretend for a second that people genuinely believe that Ni No Kuni is a saviour for a dying genre. The author, Bob Mackey, is still wrong. It is far easier to argue that Ni No Kuni is the most important thing to happen to the genre in a decade than it is to suggest it’s just another JRPG."
Matt from We Game Daily writes: "Cross Worlds isn’t going away. It’s making a small fortune, particularly in Asian markets, so there’s no reason for Level-5 to pull the plug. That said, there’s no real reason why a full PC/console sequel can’t be developed alongside efforts to support Cross Worlds."
While Ni no Kuni 3 would be cool, if it was like the first game, where is Dark Cloud 3 and Rogue Galaxy 2?
I thought the dev recently went mobile and Japan only. They shut down their American offices. So don't expect anything for consoles
I swear they just announced a few new games.
https://www.nintendolife.co...
I stand corrected then. Never heard about these games and also i just remember ni no kuni online being mobile only.
they said a loooooong time ago that Level 5 was working on a new installment but there has been no news since afaik. I just hope that they take more inspiration from 1 than 2, especially when it comes to the story.
Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds is the mobile game you're thinking of.
It looks amazing but I don't like to play mobile games.
Yeah the sequel was okay but had nothing on the first game, especially the battle system.
The story just didn't have that charm and even the twist at the end of the game wasn't really anything cool like Wrath of the White Witch.
Also the fact there was like ZERO mention of Oliver or his adventures in the game, no references, nothing was such weird. It's set a hundred or so years after but still, I'd have expected to seen some throw backs. I think we just got like a temple with his statue in it or something.
yeah, especially outside of japan. They should have released on pc at the same time as the ps3 version or a short time after.
They should've worked with Ghibli to put out a proper movie. Should've also made a Pokemon-esque spin-off rather than make Yokai Watch. If they do make a third game they gotta work with Ghibli!
Get ready to embark on a journey filled with monsters, magic, and overpowered haircuts, because this list features the best JRPGs on the PS3.
There wasn't that many. Thanks to the west's criticism. It was definitely lacking compared to every other ps system. Dont get me wrong there were a few good ones i know that.
Nier, Valkyrie Chronciles, Tales games , Ni No Kuni, Resonance of Fate, FF13’s, Ys8 just a few off the top of my head and there were a lot more.
Not nearly to the degree of PS1 and PS2.
@shinoff2183 makes a good point that around the PS3/Xbox 360 gen is when the genre wasn’t as prevalent and began to shy away from turn-based. There’s some standouts for sure, but look at the PS1 and PS2 JRPG library and then compare that to the PS3 and PS4’s.
Theres definitely a decline in a selection of titles. Even worse was the quality seemed to take a massive hit as well. I think Lost Odyssey was a huge standout for that gen when you look at production values, then you look at something like Fairy Fencer on the PS3 and it’s kind of depressing.
But by that generation there was a shift from western developed games overtaking Japanese developed games. Back from the NES to PS2 Japanese games were the cream of the crop… I don’t know what happened but like midway into the PS3/360 life-time they became less so.
Compared to the ps1 ps2 and he'll even ps4 ps3 doesn't hold a candle to either imo. It's also when turn based damn near disappeared. Again thanks to the west's criticism
Crimson I'd put money on the west being at fault, guys like Phil phish, and numerous others at that time were attacking jrpg and Japanese games in general pretty hard.
Ni no kuni was probably my fav jrpg back then , and the blue dragon
Tales got kinda lucky here. When they took a chance and finally brought tales of graces f over west it sold like 250k lmao a lot of jrpgs did 500k or below. Disgaea was worse i think. Bamco decided to keep bringing more games over though.
Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II were the best RPGs on PS3 made by Japanese developers. Everything else just fell short always. Ni No Kuni was a full package, an okayish game as well. Nier and Drakengard III had superb writing, setting and voice acting, however, the performance was a real drag on the gameplay. Traditional RPG-wise I'd actually say 360 had better JRPGs, and think that Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were the best traditional JRPGs of the era. PS3 Valkyria Chronicles was okay, but it is closer to an SRPG.
Ryu Ga Gotoku games were also solid, they were still finding their footing and breaking new ground with new cities and formats.
PS3 was the era that almost made me quit gaming and I started playing on PC because I could not find good performance nor games on the system. PS4 got me back into it, and now PS5 is a mix in and between, I just play my PS4 library on the PS5 and rest on PC, just like during the PS3 era. The only new exclusive Sony JRPG is pretty much FFXVI and it is so streamlined and simplified from the normal RPG experience that I can't fit it into the genre anymore. Dragon Quest XII hopefully remedies all of this, but it is just one game.
These new games will all be on PC (while it does take 2-3 years to wait, and 6-12 months from launch to have them patched + fixed by modders) and they perform better on it. The only point in owning a PS5 is to play games a couple of years earlier, but for a hard-working family man like me, the quality of the experience is more important than playing it as soon as possible. And I can't do modern games at 30fps 720p after playing 120fps at 4K. For older games, that's okay.
PSX and PS2 though, those were the days...Still have a massive collections of classic RPGs in CD and DVD format and a phat PS3 to play them!
It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games, shooters dominating that gen, the racism from western game journalists (it was bad, between G4, Phill Fish, and a slew of others), and the higher development costs...
It really made me miss the PS1/PS2 days of JRPGs, even the quality of half of those games during the 7th gen weren't as good. The 360 tried, but Microsoft's consoles weren't popular in Japan and no body in the West bought a Xbox for JRPGs (despite Xbox having Vesperia, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey).
" It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games "
This is when everything fall down and games looks not fun to play anymore except for few games like demon and dark souls for example
Nah. It's a bad trilogy of games
The only reason XIII-2 stands out is because XIII was so bad
When the bar is so low, anything after feels better.
Watching the credits roll on ff16 now it is good but , I'd really like to re try ff13 least it's turn based and would fill that gap for me.
They got better after the first one in the trilogy, not outstanding game though.
Honestly, I played FFXIII a few years after release and maybe because it was after the hype cycle and I knew the flaws of the game, it actually became my favorite FF after VII.
I took off the mini map and never used auto battle and the stuff that mattered to me in an FF was just so well done.
The art and graphics were insane at the time
The music is still special
The story still lingers in memory more than a decade later
The RPG systems were decent
I never really got the hate for it, still have a soft spot for that game inside me.
Only gripe I have with Ar Tonelico 3 is that Saki is annoying as hell whether English or in Japanese. Then Saki's English voice actor became Ionasal on Ar Nosurge she was a little annoying but not as bad. Johnny Young Bosch voicing Tatsumi I thought he did a great job. And Akiko Shikata with her vocals and the music from the games just went hand and hand.
Twinfinite: "During the PS3’s tenure, plenty of huge games launched, but the interesting thing is, many of the system’s rarer titles are largely not amazing games. Sure, there are one or two exceptions to that rule (I’m looking at you Ni No Kuni!), but many of the more desirable and valuable games in the PS3’s library are usually rare for a reason."
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Sold my Painkiller for around £3 years ago and my Asuras Wrath for even less. Managed to pick up Lollipop Chainsaw and Splatterhouse again but they cost me a fair bit more than I initially paid on release when I first bought them.
Wish I bought Godzilla, the number of times I saw it in the game store for the price of a coffee and didn't bother.
i own nba, lolipop and nino kuni. never heard of the rest tbf xD surprised they are worth that much, for what they actually are.
Getting a valuable game is all luck.. I had three of these. Africa is one that people might have seen coming, but otherslike Ni No Kuni wouldn't have been.
My most valuable game I remember owning was Conkers Bad Fur Day. When the game was being re-released on Xbox (remake/ upgrade if you will), the price dropped dramatically. Once the game released and the changes were seen, the value went back up. Then it was released on Rare Replay and value dropped again. 2020 hit and all collectables shot up along with Conker. Before stopping around $110 which it currently is.
Games change all the time because their digital media that can be reproduced even in weird contract bindings (GoldenEye as an example). One day it can be worth $300 and the next $150. The shrink wrapped items in mint condition cannot be reproduced.. but that takes strength to spend, not open, and hope its worth something.
No it isn't. It IS a great game, but Shin Megami Tensei games (including Persona 3 and 4) innovated in the genre, and kept JRPG's afloat even in the west, during a severe drought. Ni No Kuni just had more publicity backing it. But it is a great game too.
agreed with the article
^I agree with both of you, but I'm agreeing more with Matts here. Persona 4 Golden for the Vita is great, but this is the first time in years that a JRPG is getting world critical and sales acclaim.
One can argue that Xenoblade for the Wii can also be considered a savior of the genre of sorts, but most people have mindsets that the genre needs a revival on an HD console in an HD format. So I'm basing my statement on this.
Final Fantasy XIII could have pulled it off. Instead, SE opted for a more straight-forward approach with the game that angered away many established fans. However, this is not to say that it didn't gain new fans. Still, although FFXIII was a sales success, SE knows, and a lot of people know, that it fell too short when it comes to meeting JRPG standards.
So to a degree, yes, Ni no Kuni is deserving to be considered a Trojan Horse of the JRPG genre; a device that has high potential to penetrate the Western market once again.
Xenoblade was/is the most important thing to happen to the genre this generation. It united gamers in a way that no other title in recent memory ever did.
Edit:
Xenoblade did all these things that the article is talking about but we just pretend it didnt mean as much because it was on the Wii? Gtfoh! Operation Rainfall was huge, it was a movement. And it brought a critically acclaimed title here that everybody was talking about and alot of people still are. Considering it sold exclusively at only one store it did great numbers. But alas we ignore that because its cooler to like something from the PS3. I hope the game sells well but lets not blow it out of proportion
What Ni no Kuni is a wake up call for Japanese developers that it is ok to stay traditional. You do not need to cater to western audiences with your gameplay & what not to stand out like a very significant studio is doing currently.
We all remember those JRPGs of the past that gave us the feeling of a grandiose adventure, the thought of connecting with that game to see it through to the end. FF6, Chrono trigger, Earthbound, FF4, FF7, etc all invoked those feelings. We remembered the hours spent losing sleep to make it to the next save point or see the next cut scene. We were drawn in to the character, the story, the music, believing that while playing you are making a difference in these characters lives.
Here's a test. Close your eyes & remember the JRPG that you are most fond of. Do you remember that feeling it gave you while playing? That is what Ni no Kuni & very few others this gen are capable of doing. We get lost in the game & forget for a moment that all the stress of our daily lives are gone.
Yes it is a debate whether Ni no Kuni is a 'saviour' of the genre. However what Ni no Kuni is doing is transcending gaming borders crossing over to mainstream audiences. That is what Final Fantasy 7 did way back when, although Ni No Kuni may not be a runaway smash like FF 7 was but it is at least making the rest of the non gaming audience take notice of it. Studio Ghibli is so well known & respected around the world & just the idea that they are involved with this game is a HUGE deal for the millions of fans of the studio. I wouldn't be surprised if Ni no Kuni will maybe cross over to film.
Ni no Kuni may not be a 'savior' but it is an important piece into making the JRPG genre as relevant as it once was. If in the next sales charts & we see Ni no Kuni on the list that is a big win for the genre. I hope it happens.