BABY'S FIRST JRPG
Also for: Nintendo Switch, Windows
The cover art for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom speaks the truth
- this is a colorful, cute, big and open fairytale full of
Studio Ghibli-inspired art design. It's got a tasteful
Joe Hisaishi-composed score similar to the one that made the first
game, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, so effective. But the cover
also fails to reveal its more unflattering side, namely that the game's
JRPG-core is so weak that it cannot hold its many features together.
The tedious exploration loop, naive story and simplistic combat bored me to
the point where I started to procrastinate. Instead, I spent hour upon hour in
the game's kingdom simulator - one of its two full-fledged mini-games - which
does absolutely nothing to advance the story.
I was supposed to liberate the world, but constantly returned home to
micro-manage my own little domain. I got caught in a loop of expanding my
capital; of building, researching and completing menial sidequests to recruit
more loyal citizens. In a deeply story-focused title like Ni no Kuni II, that
was devastating. I eventually got out of the loop and forced myself back into
the narrative. It never got any better. After nearly 65 hours the end credits
started rolling, and I felt sick of it all. In a moment of weakness, I swore
off games altogether.
The story is a fairytale with a wishful pacifist agenda. The opening cinematic
tricked me into believing the protagonist is a president, named Roland, in a
modern-day setting. After the capital of his country gets nuked, and he lies
unconscious next to his wrecked limousine, he gets spirited away to another
world. He awakens in Ding Dong Dell, the capital city of a lush fantasy realm
full of humans, wild monsters and anthropomorphic animals. Oh, and he also
somehow becomes a lot younger.
Roland finds himself in a royal palace, namely in the private quarters of a
young, newly appointed king, Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum. The boy explains that
his father has just been murdered in a coup d'etat orchestrated by his closest
advisor. Now some traitors among the royal guards are coming for Evan, too.
The opening tutorial introduces a myriad of systems and mechanics - real-time
combat, stealth, loot, abilities, etc - as it takes you through a poorly
written prologue where you must escort the boy to safety.
Although I like the concept, Ni no Kuni II contains one of those tired
narratives that spells everything out, denying the player any room to
cultivate an emotional response of their own. Already 30 minutes in, warning
bells started ringing. Young Evan loses a close friend. The young boy cries
out her name repeatedly, louder for each time, as he kneels by her side. This
weird behavior always has the reverse effect on me, and this time I burst out
laughing as Evan called her name so loud his voice broke through the tears.
I find it baffling that some writers still rely on such clichés, hoping that
we take them seriously. They don't bother with moments of shocked silence, nor
any horrific realisation in its wake. This game just blurts it all out within
one single pathetic scene. I realized then that this is just a kid's game, and
the developers (Level-5) probably wants to shield its young player base
from life's harshest emotional truths.
But for an adult, this is an unconvincing start to a story that hardly gets
anything right. It's an unrelatable take on mature affairs, and a boring fable
naive enough to put anyone to sleep.
It also demonstrates Level-5:s design philosophy: "If we can't make it
deep, let's make it wide!" It prefers quantity over quality. Forget
dual-wielding, Ni no Kuni II lets you switch freely between THREE weapons in
combat. It contains THREE major gaming subgenres; a JRPG, a real-time strategy
skirmisher, and the aforementioned kingdom simulator. All of them are
skin-deep.
It also has an absurd amount of sidequests, none of them memorable. You cannot
take a piss anywhere without drenching an item pickup on the ground, needed
for crafting items you'll soon replace by something better. You can build and
upgrade dozens upon dozens of buildings in your kingdom. Every upgrade opens
up new research options that adds an undetectable edge to your already
superior combat performance.
It takes an absurd amount of time to reach 100% completion, and very little of
it really matters. All enemy encounters, including most bosses, are so easy
that all the different unlockable combat options - new spells, new weapons,
new summons (they're called Higgledies) - become redundant. Standard attacks
and dodgerolls let you win most battles without breaking a sweat. The game
provides you with sufficiently good equipment by exploring the world map and
defeating monsters.
After the prologue, the young exiled king Evan becomes the main guy for the
remainder of the game. First, he goes on a quest to find a "Kingmaker" - a
majestic being (wait until you see it) that gives him the rights to rule a
kingdom of his own. He then proceeds to found his own kingdom, and decides to
call it "Evermore". Then he travels the world to unite the other kingdoms in a
struggle against a sinister armor-clad dude who instigated the coup in Ding
Dong Dell. Of course, new party members - all of them dull and interchangeable
- join your noble cause at a steady pace.
After finding the Kingmaker, the hefty kingdom simulator mini-game starts. It
is more fun - or at least more addictive - than the main game. This simplified
affair theoretically affects all other aspects of the game. The spellworks
provides you with spells, lumberyards and mines provide you with crafting
materials, the outfitters sells protective armor, etc.
It is a placeholder level progression system that essentially replaces real
character progression, which happens automatically behind the scenes. Instead,
you get free reins over how to funnel your state tax income. Want more
powerful summons? Pool all your resources into the Higglery, then. If you want
better armament you can upgrade the weapon store and fund some research. The
processes, including income, all take place in real-time, and I often found it
worthwhile to wait awhile for a process to complete.
[ironic remark] Those moments of watching the meters fill were truly the
heydays of my history with video games. [/ironic remark]
The problem is that all these efforts get you absolutely nowhere; it's a
time-sink distracting you from the main story. Very few capital improvements
affect your main game enjoyment and performance in the slightest. At least I
was glad to find one part of the game that tickled my RPG addiction. But in
this particular case, Level-5 made no effort to hide the fact that it's just
that - an addiction - instead of something substantial.
Another major feature of the game is the RTS-skirmish mini-game, where you
lead a small army of up to four troops against a mighty horde of enemies. It
involves very little strategic thinking, feels far too hectic and every
skirmish goes on for far too long. Success or failure depends more on your
units' levels than skill. At least this part was a little challenging. But in
the end, it's a self-contained system you don't need to, nor shouldn't, delve
too deeply into. The rewards only affect future RTS-skirmishes.
What frustates me is how competently every game element is put together on a
technical level. You transition in and out of combat encounters smoothly. The
controls respond well and there is a nice flow to the animations. The game
demonstrates a lot of commendable ideas, and is a feast for the eyes. But the
fault lies in the settings. It's like all the sliders are way off the charts.
The JRPG-action combat is way too easy and the RTS-skirmishes drag on for far
too long. Exploration yields nothing substantial enough to warrant such a vast
open world. And although the kingdom simulator is a really cool concept, it's
too annoying to constantly travel back and forth.
But the most fatal flaw is when you mix them all together. It feels shallow
and inconsequential; every single side distraction intrudes upon the game and gives little or nothing in return. Rushing straight through the story probably
gets you to the end without a hitch. But the writing is so poor that it would
probably make the game even worse.
I spent a lot of time in this Revenant Kingdom, and barely have any memories
of it. My strongest lasting impression is lying on my couch, scrolling through
the world news on my smartphone, while I waited for the income meter on my
kingdom management screen to fill up. Of course, I cared much more about the
real-world affairs. That is not high praise for a game about escapism; of
leaving our dreadful world for a beautiful fantasy realm where resolving every
conflict is a breeze.
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