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[LiquidMetal14]

Yes I actually liked it. Put over 50 hours into it. Did have a period where I lagged behind but got over the hump. It's actually the last RPG I beat.

 

[Psychostar]

I finished it and really enjoyed it. I loved the kingdom building side stuff I had played the first one and enjoyed it but I never finished the last chapter of the first game.

This is a franchise that I have the collectors edition for both games, that being said, j was not interested in any postgame content for no no kuni 2

 

[Punished Miku]

I've heard really good things about it, so decided to play it after never having gotten around to it. I will say the character animations are gorgeous. Really impressed by them.

I don't know what I expected though, since I never played NnK1 yet either, but this game feels... cheap. Bland, linear dungeons that have a lot of dead ends and doors you can't open. The battle system isn't overly deep, though it isn't bad. I just thought it would be more interesting than essentially a button masher. And the world map I thought would feel like a classic old school JRPG would map, but it really doesn't. There's really nothing interesting in it, and on screen enemies are faster than you, so there's no point in running away from any of them you can't avoid because they'll catch you from behind and you'll get a surprise attack.

So far the music is terrible, and for some reason only like 10% of the dialogue so far is voice acted. I don't know what that's about.

Anyway, I don't think it's bad. But it has like an 85ish on metacritic, so I was expecting an instant classic, but this feels very run of the mill.

Has anyone here played it? Do you think if I keep playing, I'll have a different impression?

I was thinking about shelving it and coming back to it later. I definitely will finish it at some point, but this doesn't feel like the classic JRPG experience I was in the mood for now, unless people can vouch that it does get there at some point.

Level 5 sucks bad these days. They usually have nice visuals though.

 

[Fbh]

It perfectly exemplifies modern Level 5: Really nice visuals, mediocre everything else.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

If Ni no kuni 1 was a plate of egg fried rice from the local take-away (i.e. greasy and unhealthy but yummy when you're hungry), then the sequel is plain boiled rice with a dash of broccoli on the side (i.e. bland, but fills you up when there's nothing else to eat).

 

[cash_longfellow]

I liked the battle system more than the first…I know it was simple, but it just felt more welcoming than the tedium of catching monsters.

 

[SaturnSaturn]

Tried playing the first one back in the day, would have been cool if i was 5 years old.

Cant imagine the newer one is any better

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

I'm sorry to say ni no kuni passed me by. It was apparently serious when if first came out i really wanted to play it, soak in the ghibli... But i couldn't get it until i got an old ps3 a couple of years ago.. and i found it to be too PG and grindy. Such a shame, I'm sure I'd have got more out of it if I'd had it back in 2010 or whenever

This exactly. I picked it up years later on PS3 and PG and Grindy described my disappointment in a nutshell.
Never bothered with 2.

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

its crazy I remember back when they initially announced their partnership to everyone it looked like a match made in heaven.
It seemed like this would be what finally launched level 5 into Square Enix Level acclaim

..but it turned out to be a disaster.
Level 5 used to churn out games like capcom but there output has slowed to a crawl ever since they started working on lackluster Ni No Kuni games.

 

[peronmls]

Currently playing it. It's not fun and the main battle system is boring.

 

[cireza]

Definitely looks super boring.

 

[Saber]

I felt very, very dissapoited when I beat it.

The game is pretty, but everything else falls short. Monster diversity is very VERY low. Gameplay mostly consists on hitting monsters, swapping weapons constantly(can backfires if automatic) and expecting them to not pain enduring you(there are monsters that has heavy AOE attacks that needs charged weapons to stagger them). Difficulty level is horribly balanced, combat gadget is stupid and makes you constantly pause the game between battles to adjust, quests are mostly mundane, boring fetching quests that most of times requires another specific dungeon(door dungeons respawn those items randomly on certain higher floors) just to complete, forging is basically useless(barelly any difference for the amount of materials) and enchantments vary that much to the point of making enchanting weapons on NPC useless.

Seriously, this game is a pretty damn dissapointment.

 

[Kuranghi]

I'm gonna grab NNK 1 soon, that game just looks so amazing graphically and seems to have that Ghibli sweetness too. Anyone know if theres a PC mod for NNK 1 that increases model tesselation? Its the only thing that sticks out to me when supersampling the game way above how it looked when it came out.

 

[SegaShack]

I adored the first game and it is by far my favorite PS3 game period. I really loved everything, including the Battle System that so many didn't connect with.

I paid a lot of money to get the collector's edition of the 2nd game and they turned it into an action game with these weird RTS modes?

I only got 5 hours in and haven't touched it since.

 

[scydrex]

I finished it and very generic. I loved the first one. This one is a disappointment for me. Is not a bad game but mediocre. Is a weak sequel.

 

[Mercador]

I completed it. I didn't complete the first one (but was close).

 

[JayK47]

I'm digging it. The town building is addictive and I want to "collect" all townsfolk. It did take some time to start enjoying it though.

 

[Zekra Dezivad]

Combat is way better than Ninokuni 1, but the rest is clearly done on a tighter budget. It feels very cheap indeed

 

[Fbh]

The modern Level 5 experience:
- Nice visuals, probably nice music too
- Everything else sucks.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

It was a fun, simple little JRPG. Felt like baby's first JRPG.

It wasn't as good as the first, but it had its own redeeming qualities.

 

[tmlDan]

I liked it but it always felt like it was missing something, I enjoyed it for what it was

 

[Thief1987]

Liked sequel more just for a decent combat instead of that dreadful thing in the first game. Also city management staff was pretty addictive. Though i'm clearly aware of all of its shortcomings and limitations.

 

[gothmog]

I enjoyed both 1 and 2 but it really was not as impressive as it should have been. The presentation is amazing and the rest of the game is okay at best.

 

[sigmaZ]

It was a fun, simple little JRPG. Felt like baby's first JRPG.

It wasn't as good as the first, but it had its own redeeming qualities.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Good JRPG. First one was the best though.

But the graphics, environment and music in second game is phenomenal

Also I liked the Kingdom Building aspect. After I finished the game I spent a lot of time just doing that

 

[GenericUser]

I think the game tries way to hard to be likeable. Everything feels forced and nothing really comes together. The story is slow and boring, the world tries way to hard to be likeable. It tries to please everyone but feels shallow and generic. I played for like 4 or 5 hours and stopped. It's just not entertaining at all.

 

[yansolo]

i feel like the golden age of jrpgs was the ps1 era, like others have said unfortunately they have been mostly rubbish for a while now

 

[GenericUser]

i feel like the golden age of jrpgs was the ps1 era, like others have said unfortunately they have been mostly rubbish for a while now

There are great JRPGs though. Ys 8 Lacrimosa of Dana was the best jrpg I played in 10 years. They are just not AAA titles anymore. Maybe FF16 can bring the genre back to its former glory. Fingers crossed.

 

[Petopia]

I've heard really good things about it, so decided to play it after never having gotten around to it. I will say the character animations are gorgeous. Really impressed by them.

I don't know what I expected though, since I never played NnK1 yet either, but this game feels... cheap. Bland, linear dungeons that have a lot of dead ends and doors you can't open. The battle system isn't overly deep, though it isn't bad. I just thought it would be more interesting than essentially a button masher. And the world map I thought would feel like a classic old school JRPG would map, but it really doesn't. There's really nothing interesting in it, and on screen enemies are faster than you, so there's no point in running away from any of them you can't avoid because they'll catch you from behind and you'll get a surprise attack.

So far the music is terrible, and for some reason only like 10% of the dialogue so far is voice acted. I don't know what that's about.

Anyway, I don't think it's bad. But it has like an 85ish on metacritic, so I was expecting an instant classic, but this feels very run of the mill.

Has anyone here played it? Do you think if I keep playing, I'll have a different impression?

I was thinking about shelving it and coming back to it later. I definitely will finish it at some point, but this doesn't feel like the classic JRPG experience I was in the mood for now, unless people can vouch that it does get there at some point.

What's your classic rpg base then and what platform do you prefer.

 

[JayK47]

Good JRPG. First one was the best though.

But the graphics, environment and music in second game is phenomenal

Also I liked the Kingdom Building aspect. After I finished the game I spent a lot of time just doing that

Oh God, it never ends!

 

[RoboFu]

I play small parts every year or so... ill probably beat it in 3 more years. lol
There is just too much going on. they should have omitted the team battles and town building.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

One of the most boring rpg's ive played in awhile.

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

The first game sucked. what a drag it was to play I tapped out in a few hours.

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

It’s missing a lot of the charm the first one had, and it doesn’t know how to just end. I still stuck with it, but you’re definitely gonna get to a point where you wished it would just be over, but you’re too far in to give up lol

Imagine playing a game you wish would end. it's not the game that doesn't know how to stop, it's you.

 

[Impotaku]

I enjoyed the 2nd one i got S ranks for all of my kingdom and started the post game quests stuff plus the DLC extra quests but they were so damn difficult even with playing slowly my characters were severely underlevelled making the extra content brutally hard. Even so i enjoy the series then again i have been playing since the DS release which is still the best of the series hands down. The PS3 version was just basically an extra part tacked onto the original story minus all the cool puzzles the book originally did.

 

[Captain Toad]

Yeah, I platinumed both and later replayed the first on Switch. The first is a much better game.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Only game ever I sold to a friend. Didn't click. Thought it was too easy at the time, but I do believe they added difficulty option later

 

[Captain Toad]

Imagine playing a game you wish would end. it's not the game that doesn't know how to stop, it's you.

 

[Kurotri]

Never got around to playing the first one but was always intrigued since I like anything that's even remotely similar to Ghibli, when this one rolled around I was pretty excited.
Been a while but I remember it clearly that I thought it sucked hard lol.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Anyone remember how pathetically easy the combat was when this came out? I'm pretty sure it wasn't until months had passed that they decided to patch in a "hard" difficulty level. Be glad you're playing it now OP. That being said while it's not a great game I do think it has as much charm as the first or almost as much.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

It's excellent for the right price. I'd say 20 is fair these days.

It has a lot of depth and things to do later like those RTS lite sections. I love the classic world map too.

I actually beat that before getting the Deck too and I'd imagine it would be a great game for the Deck.

 

[Secret of Evolution]

I bought both games pretty cheap on steam, like $10 each, and I enjoyed them both pretty well. The city building and RTS stuff was fine. The story was definitely a step down from the first game though. First game has significantly more charm.

 

[Strider Highwind]

Imagine playing a game you wish would end. it's not the game that doesn't know how to stop, it's you.

Four posts over the course of the year in the thread and your feelings got riled up from what I said in January?

Heres that attention you crave ma'am

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

Four posts over the course of the year in the thread and your feelings got riled up from what I said in January?

Heres that attention you crave ma'am

I haven't been here in awhile, it was up front when I came to the site, didn't remember I posted in this thread already.

 

[JayK47]

Wrapped this up. The city building gets so expensive and time consuming at the end, I was running out of stuff to do while waiting for coffers to fill and research to get done. And so I went ahead with the main story and finished the game. I was thinking you could keep playing after finishing the story, but it doesn't seem that way. It sends you back to an earlier point in the story before the boss battle. So I ended up not completely finishing the town or recruiting all townsfolk.