The wait has seemed interminable for Western fans of Studio Ghibli and Level-5, Ni no Kuni, but finally arrived in France, more than two years after its release on DS in Japan. Despite bungling surrounding the collector and the cloud edition release, the game is now present in all her finery on PS3, with careful justifying his arrival shifted location. However, the way he managed to fill weaknesses in migrant home console?
"How far are you willing to go to save a genre you like?". This is a question that may arise backpackers traveling in Ni no Kuni, a true synthesis of ideas piochées in Japanese RPG well known to the general public. Dragon Quest and its many heirs, it retains the stories that distract a very classic main frame, the initiatory journey taking place both on the ground and at sea or in the air and monsters from the ranks of his team. The Tales of series, it monopolizes the dynamic combat in near real time and alchemical attempts to create objects. Pokémon, he borrows the manic breeding improbable creatures and compulsive collection of artificially inflating the life of games since the dawn of time. This is just the most iconic appropriations, those that reflect the character of Level-5, an honest makers no real genius who have long suffered from the comparison with the giants of the JRPG company. But in a time when the genre is so fragmented that its best representatives often have to settle for a niche audience, accessibility and the decline of Ni no Kuni to safe values give it an aura of gatekeeping or doudou regressive.
A DIAMOND OF INNOCENCE
The origine joint project of Level-5 and Studio Ghibli prestigious was to recreate a children's story, simple and wonderful, in a video game that anyone could understand and handle. Despite annoying defects and the console display narrow, we can say that the original contract had been honored on DS. Partially rewritten to accommodate the power of the PS3 Ni no Kuni: The Revenge of the Witch Celestial becomes an incredible sight at all times, a huge postcard imagination where we dive without retaining the first minutes of the game thanks to a cel-shading very clean and beautiful scenery, the clips together with the engine teams Fukuoka hold the candle to face high kinematic drawn by the troops of most famous animation studio in Japan. The environments are beautiful based on themes crossed a thousand times, they have such a screen presence that stops at regular intervals to admire the free moving camera. Map of the world - a true open - subject to long walks, cities rustle of conversations are full of details and NPCs, move to the rhythm of an orchestrated soundtrack to great effect by Joe Hisaishi globally inspired. With the exception of normal combat theme, consistent with the purpose of the game but too wimpy to motivate the player to fight, the score is one of the engines of wonder and a sense of living in another world.
The cast of characters also deployed heavily involved immersion in this parallel universe, the main inhabitants have a soul mate in the world original Oliver, hero panties short whose mother died because of him could still live in an altered dimension. A big cat lady squatting and reclining the grocery Motorville become regents animals in the cities of Carabas and Al Mameuh, while a single garage in the real world turns out to be one of the great sages of the alternative world. Again, the process is not very young and ultimately not sufficiently exploited. Although there has not necessarily need to reinvent the wheel to advance a story, that of Ni no Kuni still suffers from a lack of scale and especially rhythm. Redux version of the DS installment, the story never makes waves, explain and recall all issues permanently, while the trio of main runs in trivial quests pigeon where everything is done for the player uses at least his brain. However, we can choose to hide some parts of the interface - map filled with information, for example - in the options for printing to meet the objectives "old", but the solutions are extremely clear and focused in the same zone as the problems.
THE RPG OF COMFORT
The rewards, especially those gathered in exchange cards buffers, fortunately more interest than the rather boring quests that must be accomplished. In the manner of fragments of happiness of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, with Ni no Kuni which shares many qualities and faults, much of the quests is to collect tips emotions of people who resell to repair the broken hearts of those who lack it. A little magic is enough to take the enthusiasm in a young man to "blasitude" disappear with a married woman, the formula also applies to the courage, kindness or to temperance. It therefore spends his time service to everyone to advance the story as to reap rewards optional, saying that all these trips and the trivial dialogues will benefit his karma player. The progression is smooth, nothing exceeds in eccentric yet translated dialogues with talent and the most complex "puzzles" require just read a few pages of in-game spellbook, but provided physical version with limited edition . To find a tad challenge will turn to fighting, very different from the original DS version.
This grinding effect opts for slightly more complex battles, leaving the turn in favor of free movement and actions in real time, even if the weather freezes for that one chooses a target, a spell or object to use. Oliver and his companions can certainly fight on their own, but in reality it is their pets that will make the biggest part of the job. These magical creatures - that can rally to his cause after having weakened as any Pokémon - are run freely by the player on a one at a time to avoid it being too dawa. Each of the three characters has a familiar coming from his heart, but it can carry two other with him among the many monsters to capture. Some are raw melee, others excel in magic and / or special abilities, but all have limited time for action on the battlefield. Once the circular gauge around the icon of a summoned pet is empty, it automatically starts to sit the bench and gives way to his master or another creature of his herd. In a boss fight or beefy enemies, we must learn to juggle characters and familiar for not being cheated.
REGISTER FAMILIAR
Being given that controls a single familiar / character at a time, the companions are managed by an adjustable IA (improvisation, support, magic economy, health ...) and grouped orders (attack or defense grouped) that does its job, but still demand a minimum of attention as each character shares his HP / MP with its familiar. If the creature is knocked out, it also falls to the end of the fight, unless you have a means of resurrection on hand. Nevertheless, the game is not stingy with nudges: alongside the clashes, the fairy-plush Lumi regularly distributes orbs of life and magic, which may also appear in striking enemies. A force to harass or counter an opponent, it will sometimes fall even an orange orb that provides extremely powerful and free attack (different depending on the character / pet who picks), in addition to a total revival of HP / MP. Finally, defense and dodge cancel or significantly reduce damage taken. It slaps the time to find the right timing and navigate instinctively in the wheel of shares (with L2/R2 triggers rather than the cross), but bastons are never really hard, but when we decided to go tickle opponents outside the normal exploration circuit.
Beyond the natural curiosity and bounty hunting, the other reason to deviate from the main thread of the story lies in capturing familiar to Like Dragon Quest VIII or episodes V and VI before him. If they do not match those in the craziness of the Queen series in Japan, monsters Ni no Kuni defend everything even pretty good in terms of character design and funny names. We must once again emphasize the great work done by translators (both English and French) to rename races and developments familiar wacky, adapt jokes and ways of speaking characters, while leaving the choice between two audio tracks (English and Japanese) and five languages (German, English, Spanish, French, Spanish) for text, including inside the rich details grimoire and stories embodying the universe title . To return to the monsters, they are obviously subject to the law of evolution from a certain level of experience, we can give them a pearl corresponding to their type to adopt a more powerful form, but also return to level 1. It is also advisable to feed them to increase their statistics and affection, but also give them equipment to be more effective in combat.
KUNI THAT IS EVIL Y THINK
The purpose this long process is unfortunately not really justified given the moderate challenge of the game, preferring the opulence of unrewarding to the concentration of memorable moments and tasks significant interactions. This is unfortunately a trademark of Level-5, which recycles back his incorrigible alchemical cauldron usefulness debatable and incalculable revenues Stripped. Maniacs 100% and associated trophies will be in heaven, others fly over the a-sides artificially fatten a nice trip, organized on a forty hour at cruising speed. This grand tour through incredible landscapes peopled with characters stamped Ghibli is ultimately the main argument of Ni no Kuni. It does not offer bold veterans of Japanese role-playing thing, but it leaves no one on the roadside. Themes, dialogue and narration do not reach the heights of the best Ghibli productions, but the combined expertise of the animation studio and video game developers in terms of achieving leaves hardly indifferent.
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