*SPOILERS*
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment & Level- 5
PS4 Review
I've been waiting for a surprise late Christmas present from James for a while now he kept making out that it was delayed so I wouldn't clock on to what present he had got me. Then one day whilst he as at work a package arrived he said it was for him so I didn't question it at all when he arrived from work and opened it, called me upstairs and sitting on my desk was the king's edition of Ni No Kuni 2. I was so surprised and overwhelmed because how much it cost I cried a little, yes I know it's sad but I wanted the King Edition so bad but couldn't afford it inside it included:
- The Ni No Kuni 2 full game
- The season pass
- A steel book case
- a vinyl record of the Ni No Kuni 2 soundtrack
- A music box that plays the games theme tune
- 148-page artbook
- The Kingmakers: the making of Ni No Kuni 2 blue ray with postcards
Brace yourself, readers, this is going to be a long post! As you know the first Ni No Kuni (Wrath of the White White) is set in Ding Dong Dell so you will be pleased to know that the second game first takes place there, although it's set many years after the first one, when I put the game on I didn't want to sit and compare it to the first as it would get in the way of me trying to enjoy it but some aspects of the game it was hard not to such as the battle system, the first was turn based some may not agree with that but I personally felt it was where as the new one is live action which I felt made the game a less long winded than Wrath of the White Witch, it seems they have changed a few things in order to keep our attention. In Ni No Kuni 2 there is a protagonist by the name of Evan and he is very similar to Oliver from the first which is why I think I liked him so much, he isn't the only Protagonist in the game there is a man named Roland too who you will learn more about as I tell you more about the story.
Ni No Kuni 2 takes place with Ding Dong Dell being attacked and Evan is rescued by a man who appeared from nowhere named Roland, at the start of the game we see Roland sitting in the back of a car (he is the president in his world) and the world around him being destroyed and then he gets transported to Ding Dong Dell where he has become much younger, he and Evan escape just as Mausinger is taking over the castle, Mausinger is meant to be someone who can be trusted he was after all the advisor to Evan's father but they soon learn that Mausinger actually poisined Evan's father in order to take the throne in Ding Dong Dell and he needed Evan out f the way in order to do this. Roland and Evan manage to escape and Evan is determined to establish a new kingdom where there is no war and everyone can be free and happy but it's going to take a lot of work and people in order to achieve this, so Evan has his work cut out for him.
On the first leg of their journey, Rolan and Evan travel to the Cloudcoil Canyon but face a lot of monsters in the process which they battle together in order to level up, the higher the monster the more EXP you get for killing them, they want to seek out a kingmaker to use to their advantage for themselves for this is one of the ways in which Evan can become king of his own kingdom. Along the way they meet sky pirates who at first wanted to capture Roland and Evan but soon learn that Evan can be of help to them too, they meet the leader Batu who has a daughter called Tani, she eventually joins the boys on their journey to find a kingmaker.
On the first leg of their journey, Rolan and Evan travel to the Cloudcoil Canyon but face a lot of monsters in the process which they battle together in order to level up, the higher the monster the more EXP you get for killing them, they want to seek out a kingmaker to use to their advantage for themselves for this is one of the ways in which Evan can become king of his own kingdom. Along the way they meet sky pirates who at first wanted to capture Roland and Evan but soon learn that Evan can be of help to them too, they meet the leader Batu who has a daughter called Tani, she eventually joins the boys on their journey to find a kingmaker.
Tani helps Roland and Evan reach the shrine where the Kingmaker is, you see in order for Evan to become a king he has to take on a trial, this trial tested me that's for sure it took a good few goes to get through it but I managed to get to the end where Evan makes a bond with the Kingmaker who is called Lofty! Lofy is a lot like Drippy from the first game and this made me happy as I loved drippy he was a such a fun little character. There is a lot of travelling in this game, you will find yourself running around a lot bumping into monsters until you come across trap doors which you can use to fast travel to places, although I unlocked them I still found myself walking around in order to collect as many materials as I could, these materials are important not only for use on the main quests but also on the side ones.
Once they had the Kingmaker the three of them head to Goldpaw where they find out that the ruler, Pugnacius is doing something very shady in order to exploit the population of Goldpaw but we soon learn that he was only doing this as he was under the power of a man named Doloran who was once a king of a beautiful kingdom that disappeared long ago, they help Pugnacious break from Doloran's spell. Tani, Roland, and Evan find a place to build their kingdom and along with the help of people they befriended along the way they create a kingdom called Evermore, but in order to bring peace to the world Evan must learn how so he seeks out the knowledge he needs at Goldpaw's library where he learns of an ancient king named Ferdinand, he united all the kingdoms in the world by using the Declaration of Interdepencance and this inspires Evan to do the same. He manages to get pugnacius to sign the Declaration which is the start of his journey in getting closer to making peace.
Ni No Kuni 2 is beautifully put together with it's bright enviroments and upbeat characters, against all odd's King Evan set's out to bring peace to the world.
Evan has some very strange dreams throughout this game, where a young boy his age start to become his confidant, he has a lot of hope in Evan and gives him advice whilst they sit and drink tea, which is adorable, this little boy is very important in the game so pay close attention to the things he tells you and don't skip the scenes. There are a fair amount of side quests in the game and side quests have to be completed in order to get more people to come to your kingdom and to level up, collect food/armour/weapons etc and your skirmish army, the higher the level the easier it is to fight against other armies (obviously) I wasn't a huge fan of skirmish but it's another element of the game that you will need to do in order to get certain trophies. It can get tedious at times trying to level up but stick with it, fight as many enemies as you can, collect the gold sparkles, open chests and go through the dream doors.
The team head off to the Hydropolis next, they have a big task on their hands when they reach this place and at this point they have a boat (you also get a plane at some point) which makes it easier to visit the island's, there are monsters in the sea which you get chased by or can bump into just like on land in order to battle them, they were some of my most enjoyable enemies to battle especially the jellyfish type of monsters. Whilst they visit the Hydropolis they try to stop Doloran from stealing Queen Nera's Kingbond, but even though they failed the Queen still agreed to sign the Declaration as she also wants no peace brought to the lands. The reason why the Kingsbond is so important to Doloran is that he needs them in order to retrieve his own Kingmaker and he manages to get another from Broadleaf from the president Zip Vector (who also agrees to sign the Declaration) and one from Mausinger who we find out was actually made corrupt by a character named Vermine but Evan and his gang go up against Mausinger and make him see what had happened. Doloran than steals Vermine's soul instead of praising him for his efforts. Once Mausinger realises what has happened he makes a promise to Evan that all of Ding Dong Dell's citizens will be treated the same and signs the declaration too.
By this point your Evermore kingdom would have grown vastly, I was on level 3 out of 4 for my kingdom and started to do more sidequests in order to level up and get more supplies, there is a main quest where you need to fight using skirmish so make sure you've passed level 25 skirmish in order to do this, it doesn't take too long to level up with skirmish, I found it a lot quicker than levelling up my main characters. After I leveled up my forces I went back to Goldpaws library to find out about the Morningstar, this sword is very important as it will help you defeat The Horned One but it needs to be recreated in order for Evan to use, once it is Evan and his army of five nations will form an army to fight the Horned One. Once they get inside The Horned One the gang reach Doloran where he informs the gang that he is Roland's soulmate, so if they kill him they will kill Roland too, the whole reason Doloran has brought Roland to the world was to help revive his lost kingdom and restore his lover Alisandra who was a Kingmaker, their love was not allowed and went against all the rules but Doloran needed her back as he loved her so much he was willing to try anything.
Alisandra turns out to be The Horned One all because she defied the god's rules by loving Doloran, I was a little shocked at all this because I would have never guessed that Doloran was doing evil in order to get back his one true love. Doloran asks Roland to join him but Roland wouldn't not like this, this wasn't the way to go about things, so Doloran chooses to go head to head with the gang, I admit I died once at this point because I wasn't dodging Doloran's attacks very well but the second time around he was pretty easy to beat, after that point I saved the game went back to Evermore and got supplies as I knew that I would need them going up against The Horned One. Once the fight started the Morningstar sword was a huge help the fight took about 20 minutes but was easier than I anticipated. When The Horned One was beaten Alisandra's spirit appears in front of Doloran and tells him she sacrificed her powers in order to live with him, but when she did this she becomes the horned one and tells Doloran she will see him one day in the afterlife.
I think you can tell from my enthusiastic post how much I enjoyed this game, it captured my heart and pulled my heartstrings, the soundtrack alone kept me wanting to play. The story took me 59 hours to complete, it's a little longer than most people but given I have a chronic illness that prevents me spending too long on games I did pretty well. My favourite character would have to be Bracken, she is made available once you have signed the declaration with Zip Vector, I chose her to be on my party of 3 most of the time as she leveled up faster than most of the other characters. Another feature that stood out to me was when you walk around exploring the map your characters turn into chibi characters, I know that some people don't like the style but I think it worked out really well considering how zoomed out it becomes when you're walking to destinations. Let's talk about the most adorable part of the game, the Hiddledies! These little creatures had me sitting at my desk saying Aww out loud many times, you can use them to help you fight in battle and can either cook them up with materials you find and get given or you can find them at Higgledy stones where you have to offer them the right material. They become part of your team which you can level up by nurturing back at Evermore, I still have a fair few to collect and find before I get the trophy for it but I will do that once I get the game back off of my Brother in law.
There is a lot of merchandise that has been released for this game that I'm looking forward to getting, so far I've only got a top with lofty on the front but I shall be getting the Pop Vinyls of the three main characters Evan, Roland and Tani which also come with Higgledies! For me personally, I'm rating this game 5/5, it had all the right elements and even after the game had finished I had lots more to do, I'm looking forward to playing the DLC.
Elle May
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