Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch™ Remastered

Parental review at the end! ❤ Audience ❤ ☑ Beginner ☑ Casual Gamer ☑ Normal Gamer ☐ Expert Appeals to both a younger and older audience. The simplicity works for children and has positive messages throughout whilst providing an experience which will appeal to adults through a beautiful story, engaging enough combat system, and gorgeous cutscenes which still hold up today (thank you Ghibli). ☼ Graphics ☼ ☐ Bad ☐ Alright ☐ Good ☑ Beautiful ☐ Fantastic Okay, I'll be real here, the graphics are clearly from the PS3 era even with the remaster. The reason I used a beautiful rating is how gorgeous the styling is. Every location, character, item, all have stunning designs and carefully chosen colour schemes. Each location having its own styling and feel adds so much to the beauty the game has. Don't like one location? That's fine because the next one will offer you a totally different viewing experience! The full cutscenes are still amongst the best in gaming due to Studio Ghibli's contributions and are masterfully constructed. It doesn't get a fantastic rating because the game does show the era it was made however it doesn't take anything away from the beauty the game has to offer. ♬ Music ♬ ☐ Bad ☐ Alright ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful ☑ Fantastic Listen to the OST. That is all I have to say. Tab out, go watch a video of the OST, come back, now do you see why I put fantastic? Yes, I know you do. Add the design beauty of the game and it adds another layer. The music fits perfectly between whimsical, epic, optimistic, and threatening. A lot of love was put into this game's music. ☠ Difficulty ☠ ☑ Easy ☑ Average ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Hard ☐ Unfair This game has 2 difficulty settings: easy and normal. Neither are particularly hard, the game overall is rather easy however I put both easy and average here because from reading other reviews it seems that people really struggle with using their familiars effectively. I'm putting that down to them ignoring gameplay mechanics designed to make the companion AI more useful and trying to blindly hack and slash each encounter. Although the game is easy in a general sense, there are some large encounters which can be challenging if you're not prepared but that is on you not being prepared, not the game being hard. TL;DR - Don't ignore game mechanics and the game is easy. Many other reviews complain the combat is bad because familiars aren't good which isn't true and I suspect they skipped all tutorials and forgot core mechanics because they assumed that this is a dumbed down kids game- it is not. § Bugs § ☐ Bugs destroy the game ☐ Lots of bugs ☐ Few Bugs ☐ You can use them for speedrun ☑ Nothing encountered I've not experienced any bugs. There might be some but I've not seen them. ☯ Story ☯ ☐ There is none ☐ Bad ☐ Alright ☐ Good ☑ Fantastic The story is beautiful and has something to offer for everyone. You got an interesting 'big bad', a likeable protagonist, an awesome selection of allies, a Welsh fairy with the best voice acting in the game, and a mystery which sits below the story to prop it up. Under every story beat is the same overarching mystery you slowly discover pieces throughout the game. The smaller story beats are fun and follows a standard flow of being more lighthearted early on and getting more serious later on. [spoiler] Although the story starts of being very emotional and dark, once you progress into the first true gameplay section, it lightens up the tone quite a lot [/spoiler]. It balances the line between something a younger player would enjoy and something to engage an adult audience as it ultimately is an emotional game which touches on some serious topics in a way which is subtle to some and obvious to others. Excellently done and it is a game where you'll have moments of 'what is even happening but I love it' and other moments of 'why am I crying?' ⚔ Gameplay ⚔ ☐ Frustrating ☐ Sleepy ☐ Boring ☑ Fun ☐ Challenging I'm putting fun for the gameplay which I know many negative reviews would say is wrong. I think that the gameplay is fun and continues to grow in how engaging it is as the game moves into mid-later stages. I wouldn't say bosses get harder, I'd say they get more interesting which adds an element of difficulty oftentimes but certainly makes large encounters feel fresh from one another. It is a game which is designed for both children and adults so a more well-versed gamer may possibly find it too easy and therefore boring but I'd disagree. Its not a serious gameplay game, you don't stay for the gameplay. You stay because of everything else and the gameplay is serviceable enough to keep you interested. I actually quite like it, I enjoy sticking a show on the side and kicking back in my chair with a controller and chill for a bit. If you want to 'lock in' then you might feel disappointed but this isn't that type of game, nor does it position itself to be. ۞ Game time / Length ۞ ☐ Really short (0 - 3 hours) ☐ Short (4 - 8 hours) ☐ Few hours (10 - 20 hours) [if you focus on the main story] ☑ Long (40-60 hours) [if you complete everything] ☑ Very Long (61-100 hours) ☐ Extremely Long (101+ hours) If you want to only do the story, not level or collect familiars, do side content, etc then the game probably sits around 30 hours depending on just how much you want to roll through content. I think for most people the game will sit around 45 hours, with people with more of a completionist mindset clocking in potentially 70-100 hours, I would be surprised if someone is getting more than 100 hours in one playthrough. It doesn't feel like a slog and you discover a lot of mechanics in the first ~25 hours at a reasonable pace. Its isn't a huge game but does have lot to offer if you choose to engage with each aspect. You certainly won't feel let down with the amount of content at offer, nor will you feel intimidated by it. $ Price / Quality $ ☐ Full price ☑ Wait for Sale ☐ Don't buy ☐ Refund it if you can There is one massive criticism I have for the game and that is the price. Bandai still having this at £40 is insulting to the consumer. The game on PC is 6 years old, with the original PS3 release being 12 years old outside of JP. The game on release 12 years ago was worth £40 easily but it is insulting to expect it to hold its value over time when there are many games with more to offer as gaming technology has advanced. Level 5 made a brilliant game here but Bandai keeping the price this high is nothing short of greedy. Do not get it at full price. It goes on sale often, usually at a high discount. Wait until then. TL;DR I recommend this game highly, but get it on sale. It is ultimately an old game and doesn't warrant its current price tag. The visual design, music, story are all 10/10 and create a beautiful experience start to end. Graphically it is aged however the amazing art style allows it to hold up well over time. Gameplay is good and I wholeheartedly disagree with the negative reviews criticising it. Read the gameplay and difficulty sections for more reasoning as to why I disagree. For parents: Great game for a young gamer getting into story games. It does touch on some emotional topics so please research this before handing over to your child however outside of the sad topics, there aren't any serious concerns. The game was ultimately targeted with a younger audience in mind and carefully packaged topics accordingly. I'd say under 7 years old, have a look at a more in-depth parental review. Due to the game needing an above-basic gaming understanding, I'd say 5-7 years old being the absolute youngest for this game and should probably be played with an older sibling or a caregiver being present to help (which itself can be a fun bonding experience!). 7 years old and older should be fine with this game, just have a look into the emotional aspects to the story beforehand. I don't want to say more than that here as to avoid story spoilers.