STRANGE AMUSEMENTS: Video Game Review ? Ni No Kuni for ...

Although I usually don?t cover video games here on Strange Amusements, I was recently held captive for over 50 hours by a role playing game that bears mentioning. In an era when video games have found themselves on the radar in Washington, DC due to their sometimes violent nature, one cannot draw enough attention to a game like Ni No Kuni. If politically there is a movement to denigrate the gaming industry and its consumers because of the taste for violence in games, there should also be a strong push to promote a game like Ni No Kuni, a game where your hero quite literally goes on a quest to mend broken hearts and save the world from a consuming nightmare of darkness.

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Ni No Kuni tells the story of Oliver, a pure-hearted boy, and his quest to save a parallel world after the death of his mother. Starting from a moment of pure sadness at his loss, he embarks into a fantasy world where each person from his world has a soul mate, or a soul's double. That world has fallen under the shadow of Shadar, a dark figure bent on destruction and a man himself merely a player in a greater plot of despair. Along with his sidekick and guide, Mr. Drippy, a brought-to-life stuffed animal given to Oliver when he was a boy, Oliver sets out against incredible odds to become a wizard and a world's savior.

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The story that you follow along with as you play is nothing short of charming, but that alone is not enough to make a great game. The gameplay itself is fantastic, though, featuring a variation of a classic JRPG turn-based mechanic with some more real-time action. Each member of your party relies on familiars that you capture throughout the game and develop into fighting surrogates, and the variety here is diverse. There is always plenty to do, featuring a pile of side quests that give you tons of opportunity to power up your party without ever feeling like you?re grinding and fighting just for the sake of it. These side quests often feature chances to mend broken hearts and right wrongs, but there are also some fun bounty hunts to do as well as some item hunts that assist you in another layer of the gameplay?alchemy.

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The flow of the game is well paced, especially after the first few hours that set the story up, and the graphics are perfect, feeling almost as if you are a participant in a classic anime film, especially one made by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) which sort of makes sense since Studio Ghibli is behind this game.

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Without a doubt, Ni No Kuni is one of the best role playing games to come along in years. The story is epic and heartfelt, and it also, in a weird way, addresses much of the reasons that good people do horrible things, wrestling with a philosophical question hardly being addressed when politicians point fingers at the gaming industry instead of the social forces that lead to societal ills. If you are even a casual player of role playing games, this is one that shouldn't be missed as it has solid and engaging gameplay and a story that you can enjoy as much as a kid could and, at its core, there is a great message and purpose for the tale it tells.

Source: http://www.strangeamusements.com/2013/03/video-game-review-ni-no-kuni-for-ps3.html

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