Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom review

Recommended

by Mia Blais-Côté

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a game that feels made for children. The themes and pacing feels right at home with Studio Ghibli films and works, but is out of place in a game with this degree of mechanical complexity.

 My memory of Revenant Kingdom is fuzzy, so this review is written largely from an incomplete memory. Revenant Kingdom's story was presented very well, fully voice-acted with quality animations and even some specially animated "anime" cutscenes. There's a varied cast of characters (each of them playable with their own style of gameplay), with equally varied quality of voice acting and writing. Some characters are shallow and 1-Dimensional, others experience radical changes throughout the story. Some characters have decent voice acting talent, others sound like literal children who have never done voice-work before. I enjoyed Lofty, but hated Evan, for example. Combined with several awkward time-jumps, I was never able to get fully invested in Revenant Kingdom's story.

 In terms of gameplay, though, Revenant Kingdom is actually pretty solid. Its combat is reminiscent of the "Tales of" Series (with significantly less complexity), featuring hack-and-slash RPG party-based gameplay. Each character has a fairly unique playstyle, supporting casters and physical attackers equally well. It also features a separate "warfare" mechanic where you command squads of soldiers recruited from various kingdoms in order to expand and defend your own. It wasn't awful, but it lacked depth. Then there's the city-builder gameplay, which bore resemblance to a mobile game. Resources are accrued in real-time, which can stall your progress if you're playing through the game quickly. Besides that, the city-builder was implemented surprisingly well, integrating itself into all aspects of the gameplay and story. I became fairly invested in the well-being of my city throughout my adventure.

 The world is very well put together, building off the solid base in the first Ni No Kuni. The Studio Ghibli style remains visually pleasing, and it's more technically impressive than the original. There's plenty to explore, but not all of it is very rewarding. There's tons of eye-candy present throughout the main story, so that helped retain my attention.

 If you're a fan of JRPG's, Studio Ghibli works, or the original Ni No Kuni, Revenant Kingdom is a solid buy, especially so at a discount. Don't expect a very mature story, crank up the difficulty, and enjoy the gameplay systems they've put together.

I played through the Game completely, but my Playing Time is not a Sign of the length of the Game. Because it often ran in the Background for Hours, because of the City System. The Game lasts about 25 to 35 Hours depending on how much you put into the Side Mission, which unfortunately have 0815 Design. In the Game one is Often Forced to have a certain Building or City Level in order to get on with the Story. So Opinal is not some things after all and is Game time stretching. We get straight to the obvious Point, this Game is not an AAA Game in effort. It is all Clever Cities Consist of a few Alleyways that simply lead directly to the large Castle. Cities can hardly be called this if only a few Places are located where what Can Be Used. Only if it has to do with the Main Story and this simply affects low budget. Just as Caves, Forests were always built with the same Level Pieces and do not even express many Fairations. So that after a few Hours you already notice this, just as Monster falls a lot. Simply Change colors and thus the Element does not make many Of a few Monsters. The Voiceover is so little that it is no longer In time and even there you only have English or Japanese in 2018. That would be ok for a 30 Euro Indy Project but not for a 60 Euro Game. Then the German translation, so this is really a strong Piece, you have little Translation but done your own Thing. Now to the Main Negative Point of Difficulty! Now times in the serious you can't give the Game a high Rating because it's so simple the Button Mashing is enough. There's zero Challenge in there, the only one there is Opponents who are 15 To 20 levels above one. Because then you don't do any Damage but the Opponent hosts an Oneshote. Well and the Ki is then only a Load, but in the Story basically doesn't matter what Level the Opponent has. There it is significantly weakened and 20 Levels are not a Problem there. In Battles on the World Map, however, it is already due to damage Reductions and increased Damage. The Problem is that it is so simple that all The Uprides of Spells etc. practically don't Matter at all. Because you don't need them and if there is no challenge, there is a quick boredom. I think so that the Fun depends a lot on how much Experience and Skill you have in Games. Those who play above average will be underwhelmed very quickly and will get bored. The Target Group is clearly Casual Gamers, you could have made so much of the Combat System, but you don't have anything. I believe that Game has suffered a lot under low budget because Balancing is a long Process. Which would have taken Time and therefore Money and you just notice the Game that you weren't in THE AAA Area. To the Story that is Taste Thing and unfortunately quite visible, but shows how you can deviate from Blunting well against Evil. The End of the Game is Thankfully the best Part in all Points. Technically, the Game has been made clear for PS4 and the Requirements on the PC are too high for the Bid. Japanese Developer for which is the PC, even still New Territory. You just notice there's little Opt-aging in it for the PC as Opposed to the PS4. Although the PC is the best Version, errors such as False Hz Numbers on Monitorn is not possible. 72 Hz Fresco capt the Game, at 66 Fps normal 72 Since has probably charged who. Actually, the Graphics would have to run loosely on any Average GPU in 4K At 60 Fps. Only you need the least of them a 1070 for it and that's just bad Optmated. The PS4 pro even gets to 1800p and a 1060 6GB is significantly faster than an Xbox X GPU. I would give me a Rating it would be a 73%. However, You can only vote ' yes ' or ' no ', so I have to vote ' Yes ' after the Directive. But 40 Euros say no about this and with a clear Perception that it is very simple and Linare'S hose has design. RPG light would be the right Name here, waiting for a Sale or buying it from a Keyshop of your Trust.