The PlayStation 3 has a wide variety of exclusives, ranging from interactive movie like experiences such as heavy rain or beyond two souls to almost perfection in gaming with the last of us. But if you prefer the jrpg genre, the PlayStation 3 has you covered with a great selection of titles! And what better a game to pick, than level 5's Ni No Kuni, one of the most charming games from the last generation of consoles.
Studio Ghibli are perhaps the masters of creating some truly stunning traditional anime, my neighbor totorro and princess monouke are some of the greatest movies of all time, and the grave of the fireflies clearly shows they can hit seriously emotional heights in story telling. So ni no kuni was always in great hands, level 5 have created past titles which have been some true classics such as dark cloud and rogue galaxy to name just two, so they could have a classic on their hands here, right?
Well not exactly, no! The first 5 hours are just fantastic, this is as close as you will get to playing within a studio ghibli movie, it even has dual audio support for those after the original Japanese cast! The English voice cast is great I might add, and is almost worth playing with if not for such a great original Japanese audio. You are treated to some of the greatest cell shaded graphics ever seen its truly a sight to behold, its nothing technically impressive, but it looks so good and gets its beauty from how it has been artistically created. Ni no kuni will age very well. It has awesome hand drawn animations for cut scenes which are truly unique and set the tone, when you are lucky enough to reach a cut scene its very special.
The initial location at the start of the game, motorville, is gorgeous, and it is a pleasure to experience. And each area you explore as you begin your adventure is a memorable experience which will have you hooked and wanting more! However, after about 5 hours you start to notice these moments happen less and less, even conversations will rarely have voices, which is a shame as when they do feature, they are executed perfectly, and you will start to know exactly what is to come next in the story… and what you will have to do. A shame, as the games artistic merit and charm deserved more attention to detail in this field..
The story is also quite average, due to predictability and linear progression it can't stand alongside other jrpg's in this department. Again. Its worth noting the first 5 hours are great, a truly unique game that starts fantastically. With the initial setting of motorville being so gorgeously designed to embarking on your adventure into the unknown magical world, it really gives you a sense of adventure ahead, something you never truly feel again. Although quite charming and a very likable cast, it just kind of tip toes its way through after the first part of the game, never really reaching classic moments, a shame considering studio ghibli'sand level 5's lineage!
To avoid spoilers, its basically a tale about a boy named oliver, who by a series of unfortunate events, ends up meeting a rather peculiar and hilarious fairy by the name of Mr drippy! Oliver and Mr drippy embark on an adventure to a "whole other world" as they set out to save his mother and fix the hearts of many of the worlds citizens, eventually unraveling the world's fate and thereby setting out to rid the world of its evil rule, shadar and the white witch! Fixing broken hearted NPC's is the core of the game, the evil villain shadar has basically controlled the world by taking away love, courage and other fragments of heart, and its your job to fix them! The "white witch" is always involved in the villains narrative, but only really tacked in toward the last hour or so of the game, which felt like a strange approach as I would've liked to have seen more of her involved throughout the story.
Repetition is so apparent here, the side quest missions are all pretty much identical. But you can forgive that considering how gorgeous the game is, but it was a shame to see little effort in this department. A shame because the game has so many other epic highs, it has an old school styled open world map! You can even ride an airship! The world of ni no kuni is truly beautiful, you will explore volcanoes, deserts, deep dark woods and many more memorable locations.
The battle system is quite traditional too. You can run around the battle screen freely, you control familiars which are essentially monsters "similar to pokemon" captured in the wild, they follow a quick timer for certain actions, you can evolve your familiars also, feeding them treats to raise stats and gems to learn new tricks. This is a nice addition to the game as it adds depth to an otherwise linear and quite basic battle system. Its not a bad battle system, its just a good system which works, nothing fancy here! Feeding your familiars to boost stats, and capturing unique familiars to create your own team is a really nice time sink, which you will have to do in order to have earned the 250 familiar trophy! And capturing a familiar which eventually evolves into captain whamtastic is quite hilarious!
The soundtrack in this game is largely very pleasant, I don't think it ever truly reaches iconic highs that say final fantasy has managed many times, but it will more than likely have you humming away to yourselves long after play! And the general sound effects used in menus and voice work is very good, as mentioned earlier the dual audio is a big bonus.
Overall then, no no kuni is an enjoyable jrpg, that falls short if you are expecting studio ghibli magic, and in my opinion, past level 5 titles have been better games than in ni no kuni. The first 5 hours are magical, but things become quite repetitive quickly and only on a few occasions will you feel like you're playing something that's truly amazing, under the stunning graphics and style it has all largely been done before in the genre. This is a shame, you are playing a beautiful game but the features that matter, are all pretty much standard and pretty average. If you are a jrpg fan, you will love this game, its an absolutely charming experience and light hearted along the journeys 60-70 hour play time, a worthy addition to any collection
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.
Any thing from level 5 and studio Ghibli is great as usual . I just wish they make a dark rpg because they have some really dark great movies like grave of the fireflies which was excellent , aside from that , this is a great review and this is definitely on my must have list when i get the Ps3 :) . Hopefully we see more rpg reviews from you .
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, is one of my favorite games of all time. I ended up being engrossed in the story and caring about oliver. Anyone with a PS3 should not miss this.
I hope we get a sequel.
Started playing this game today. Its truly beautiful and charming, a lot of positive and humorous moments. A must have game for JRPG fans.