Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

[Klyde Chroma]

Gotta say, the more I play Ni no Kuni the less I like it.  Just got the boat and the third party member and I'm really getting tired of melee characters missing because something is in their way and they won't properly rearrange to engage the enemy.  Also, the AI on your other party members is flat out stupid and gets me killed more than anything else.  Either they use too much MP or nothing, and the lack of a solid middle ground is baffling. 

These are honestly my biggest issues with the game. It's not just the AI, which is undoubtedly a problem, but the pathing in general.  With the very large monsters, your Familiars just don't know where and when to attack.  They'll simply run around it, despite being in range.  And, of course as mentioned, Familiars running into each other pointlessly for the entire attack round.

I mentioned another issue a few pages back, but the true ending really, really soured the experience for me as well.

On the other hand, the final post-game quest had, in my opinion, the most emotional moment in the game.  It saddens me that most people probably won't see it.

Code:

But what the hell was Level 5 thinking?  The entire post-game quest series is the literal rehash of every
boss in the game, recolored.  It was horrible.  I get that they wanted to add extra content, but that's not even new content.

Uh-oh.... klyde detects something missable..... i have been crossing my t's and dotting my i's so to speak, whilst playing thus far.... i REALLY don't want to miss the true ending but no way in hell i'm spoiling anything by checking a guide..... this is troublesome

[Cyril]

Don't worry, it's not missable.  I only used that term because I wanted to reference a certain something without spoilers.  You'll understand when you get there.

I will say what is missable, however - no spoilers:

After every major event, go back to the Deep Dark Woods and speak to the NPC there.  You'll get new dialogue and an item.  The dialogue is missable, but, fortunately, you can get the items elsewhere.  It is a bit of a pain to walk back, though, and arguably not worth it.  This doesn't have anything to do with the ending and doesn't influence the story, it's just a nice bonus to those who remember the promise from the beginning (ie, coming to visit).  I think the most important item you can get from him is a ring that increases your attack speed by one-star.  You can make it later, but it's nice early on.

[Eusis]

The game to me is another Valkyria Chronicles: a product with a standout cartoony aesthetic that garners the game more love than it honestly deserves.  The game's a fun romp, but we're honestly playing a pretty average RPG.  Next to say, Chrono Trigger or Phantasy Star IV, this game is blatantly inferior in storytelling, character development, gameplay mechanics, etc.

Still having fun though, anyway.  Can't say it'll get a replay anytime soon.

Well, Valkyria Chronicles at least tried for somewhat unique gameplay, so I think that got it a lot of attention that otherwise wouldn't have been there, it really did look like a legitimate path for strategy RPGs to take, not that many did while the series fled to PSP. In hindsight that was probably a huge mistake, especially for international release.

Anyways, yeah, I feel like the love for this is partially a product of just how bad it's been on consoles this generation. If you were to bring this up last gen it'd probably get blown off similar to Rogue Galaxy for many people, but what are your alternatives this time on 360/PS3? FFXIII, Tales, and Atelier games mainly for more traditional RPGs (and even then), with Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey earlier on that were more strictly traditional, especially Blue Dragon. In fact, I think only this, Blue Dragon, and Vesperia really had traditional overworlds, everything else is picking a spot on a map, or in the case of FFXIII running down a corridor, and FFXIII-2 didn't exactly expand too much on that.

[Der Jermeister]

I don't understand why people get so bonerific over world maps. In real life you don't become a giant whenever you leave a town, and to me overworlds are just another game-padding gimmick. Also, it'd be nice if they made them actually spherical instead of toroid (i.e. going north off the map takes you to the south side of the map, which isn't true of our planet).

[Eusis]

I don't understand why people get so bonerific over world maps. In real life you don't become a giant whenever you leave a town, and to me overworlds are just another game-padding gimmick. Also, it'd be nice if they made them actually spherical instead of toroid (i.e. going north off the map takes you to the south side of the map, which isn't true of our planet).

I'm pretty sure people aren't looking for realism in games like this.

And part of that is when it's ideally used, it's great to have a world you can find optional caves, little secrets, or just to enjoy exploring and poking to find your destination. When it's NOT used well, honestly yeah we'd probably be better off without them. It's why I didn't really care that the PSP Lunar removed the overworld, because in SSS it was essentially a glorified area select.

[Agent D.]

So I haven't been back to this game in a week and change, and I haven't really missed it all that much. It was a fun run, but looking back, I feel I had to take advantage of too many elements in the game to get by. I seriously overleveled trying to get everything, which made every fight simplistic. Most of the puzzles weren't that hard (I admit the one puzzle in the vault of tears was....annoying), and boss fights were simply a test of patience, opting to defend more often instead of gunning for that extra hit or spell. I enjoyed the silly humor of the fairy thing, but even as I type this, I realize I can't remember its name. Generally a good sign of a game's lack of staying power. Maybe it's because I rushed through it, but it's lost that appeal to me now.

Doubt I'm even gonna finish the post game honestly.

Quick Edit:DRIPPY! Fuck, can't believe I forgot it.

[Parn]

[Dice]

So I haven't been back to this game in a week and change, and I haven't really missed it all that much. It was a fun run, but looking back, I feel I had to take advantage of too many elements in the game to get by. I seriously overleveled trying to get everything, which made every fight simplistic. Most of the puzzles weren't that hard (I admit the one puzzle in the vault of tears was....annoying), and boss fights were simply a test of patience, opting to defend more often instead of gunning for that extra hit or spell. I enjoyed the silly humor of the fairy thing, but even as I type this, I realize I can't remember its name. Generally a good sign of a game's lack of staying power. Maybe it's because I rushed through it, but it's lost that appeal to me now.

Doubt I'm even gonna finish the post game honestly.

Back in the day, this would be a game I gameshark.  I'm not too amused by the gameplay elements, but I like the world enough to push on though, with codes.

Love the image; seriously, fucking Tales of games let you adjust tactics to limit how much magic they use, was this too hard to program in??? >=/

I'm inclined to believe the love is due to the relatively JRPG-famine we've been in.  Hopefully slowly fixed this year?????

[Farron]

The image is great! I just got the first party member in the game and I'm beginning to see why people are complaining the AI uses all their mana in a flash.
I think I'll stay with Oliver throughout most of the game so at least one character has some MP to go by.

[beLIEve?]

i played a little last night the frog puzzle was really annoying. i tend to not give any of my party any mana buffs during fights unless it's a boss and i need consistent healing i just spam ding dong dell hotel when i run out. 

[Klyde Chroma]

Don't worry, it's not missable.  I only used that term because I wanted to reference a certain something without spoilers.  You'll understand when you get there.

I will say what is missable, however - no spoilers:

After every major event, go back to the Deep Dark Woods and speak to the NPC there.  You'll get new dialogue and an item.  The dialogue is missable, but, fortunately, you can get the items elsewhere.  It is a bit of a pain to walk back, though, and arguably not worth it.  This doesn't have anything to do with the ending and doesn't influence the story, it's just a nice bonus to those who remember the promise from the beginning (ie, coming to visit).  I think the most important item you can get from him is a ring that increases your attack speed by one-star.  You can make it later, but it's nice early on.

I am sorry I didn't get to giving you a proper "thank you" for your prompt response to my inquery... so here it is.... "thank you!"... LoL

In truth I got some terrible news and was too depressed to even come and visit RPGfan for a few days... ok so I visited, but I was too sad to post.....

In Ni No news, my German Wizards Edition finally came.... only to be flung up against the side of my house by the fed ex dude.... I nearly had the f****r's job on my "to terminate" list.... then I opened up the Wizards Edition and looked at drippy... calmed me down a bit...

[Datastorm]

Hello

Been listening to your podcasts on Ni Nu Kuni, very interesting and entertaining, keep up the good work!!

One of the issues I've been hearing about is combat, especially when you get another "tagalong". I just got Esther and her familiar, so went out and did some battles. I can see what you mean now about the combat and mp use but after fussing with some of the settings it wasn't too bad, for instance.

I made Esthers tactic to just provide backup and removed all of Drongo's tricks so all Esther is really doing, when grinding, is to provide health when needed, and Drongo was just doing physical attacks...mp usage wasn't bad at all.

And as far as the familiar pathing, make sure that attack a different target is selected and when attacking with your familiar always choose the enemy thats too your left or at least fairly out of the way of the other ones if theirs two or three... After you've killed your enemy run around and pick up the glim's then go after your enemy your partner's familar is attacking.

This of course is just world map and dungeon grinding, I'm sure its a different story with a boss, but with this setup it didn't feel "frustrating" at all as you guys mentioned..

Anyway hope this helps a little...

[Klyde Chroma]

I made Esthers tactic to just provide backup and removed all of Drongo's tricks so all Esther is really doing, when grinding, is to provide health when needed, and Drongo was just doing physical attacks...mp usage wasn't bad at all.

^^This.....^^

To elaborate.....

I too have found that through careful use of the tactics function you can pretty much evade all the pitfalls of the terrible AI..... additionally I've also managed to keep the game challenging by not grinding post familiar metamorph, and cycling when I morph each familiar (thus I constantly have weaker links in the group which I usually have to keep localized to the character I control).... The problem is one really shouldn't have to be mindful to such a measure in the interest of keeping the gameplay fun and not frustrating.... None the less, 45 hours in and I am still enjoying the hell out of this... flawed or not this is in my top 5 for this generation for sure... I feel comfortable saying that without even having finished it at this point...

[Datastorm]

Hello

I have a question about the growth limit on familiars, for instance on my Mite. I'm at 20/20 and I did the morph on him to the next stage but the growth limit is still at 20/20 and if I feed him treats the next heart isn't getting any fuller. Do I just need to level him up again for the growth limit to increase again and to get the next heart to increase..

Thanks

[Zendervai]

The more filling the treat, the more the heart fills.