Thank you so much for watching!! Look forward to Persona 4, Eastward, Tears of the Kingdom and of course Final Fantasy 16~! Currently working on some lists videos as well. Please consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/pelvicgaming Thank you!!
I was really disappointed with the cast. I remember thinking that close to the end of the game I genuinely couldn’t tell you anything interesting about any of the characters beyond what you learned in their introduction.
I played this one first and had a great time building the town. My biggest gripe was that the postgame stuff would have still made sense if the final boss was gone after your victory. But the game didn’t do that! Instead, you rewind to right before the final boss, just leaving Doloran gasping on the ground to go hunt down extra stuff. Armageddon is still coming, but we can get more people now! It feels so weird.
The biggest feeling that I had was that the whole game was just... I don't know, almost the entire game felt like filler, or like you said, weightless... plus you only get interesting (imo) character gameplay mechanics for the battle system after you go into the DLCs, which is supposed to be postgame!!! Such a baffling choice. Everything in this game felt like a list of chores.
'I put the game down after the amazing coup, tangle with sky pirates, found a new kingdom.. and what next..."lets get some wood". "Excuse me?", "Yea we need wood....for houses."
@@divinesolstice3744it barely gets any better after the forest. you gotta go to the second kingdom cuz the owner lost it due to gambling. then you gotta expose the kingdom for rigging dice. then for like the next 3 hours you do fetch quests for that kingdom because you need to access its library but the librarian is all like “do these favors for me and then i’ll let you get books” and it’s just boring. i hate how no other characters beside roland and evan get any development. and somehow i’m only 15 hours in 💀
I must admit, when I learned they made it no longer a monster collector game, that was a big turn off. For a game so focused on commanding / defeating giant royal beasts, it's an odd choice not to add it. There's other small nitpicks, but the missing beastly buddies was in my top 3.
While I agree with some of your critiques for the storyline and the overall vibe, particularly in comparison with the first game which had a really soulful story, I do not agree with how much emphasis you put on critiquing the difficulty when it was something addressed by the devs on a update adding difficulty levels (hard which feels like the correct curve difficulty wise and extreme for even more challenge). If you say that you always play games in normal then don't complain when you don't take the opportunity to tune the game to an experience you were probably gonna enjoy better if you just went to the options and change a slider. That way you could've engage with the mechanics and half of the complains wouldve been nullified. Kinda defeats the purpose of making a review of this game years later when you don't want to acknowledge the fixes the devs included afterwards and makes it seem like insincere criticism to me
I think the point is that, in a jrpg, you shouldn't need to put a difficulty toggle on the game. RPGs in general are supposed to be brainier and more tactical. If a game is easy on normal mode, then I think it's failing to be a good RPG. RPGs are supposed to challenging by default. Also, I don't like having the option to turn off the difficulty midgame. Why should I play on extreme when I can change the difficulty and make it easy if I ever come across a challenge? I like it when games force me to "git gud". I only need one difficulty, and that's "hard enough".
Totally agreed and two things in the main story what baffled me: HEAVY SPOILER ALERT ----- ---- ------> 1) Ding Dong Dell: The Grimalkin are deported to a Ghetto and some of them "vanished", but you can get away with racism/genocide if you are really sorry. 2) Ding Dong Dell 2: The force ghost of your flipping father appears to your enemy and absolves him, but does not speak one word to his own son and rightful heir to the throne.
Respectfully, I think your understanding of Ghibli's contribution to the original Ni No Kuni versus its sequel is a little inflated. Yes, the studio is rightfully credited as a collaborator. But their contributions were mostly limited to anime cutscenes, character design and original score. Level-5 kept Yoshiyuki Momose as character designer and Joe Hisashi as composer for the sequel. So the only Ghibli contribution missing were anime cutscenes. While the anime is missed and would have enhanced the sequel, in the original game only about 15 minutes of about four hours total cutscenes are anime. I think we all would have preferred the resources that went into the Ni No Kuni anime feature would have gone into cutscenes for the game instead, but a lot of players find the in-game visuals still look terrific.
Ni no Kuni 2 is one of those games that you would really appreciate if you grew up with it. The problem is that people who make review videos of Ni no kuni 2 say negative things about it because they compare Ni no kuni 2 to their favorite RPG games, and right away, they say it's disappointing. Ni no kuni 2 should not be compared to any game and should stand out by itself. This game is amazing. Many of those who make reviews of this game fail to deliver on how great this game really is. Just look at the tales series. When making reviews, comparing a game to another game will always cause the reviewer to say something negative. The game should be reviewed by just focusing on the game being reviewed without comparing it to other games and then you will get the true review. Ni no kuni 1 and Ni No kuni 2 are ment to be very different different games that take place in the same world.
I will say the combat of ni no kuni 2 was so fun for me, since i didn't like the combat of 1 but i guess our trade off was not a great story and not great characters 😅
I prefer 2 to 1 personally. 1 has the better art direction, better music and a better story. But the gameplay itself bore me to tears. The combat is bad, the familiars become useless the moment we unlock the more powerful spells, which turn the fights into spamming spells and drinking coffee. 2 has tons to do and a lot of it can become enjoyable if you become invested. Sure, the plot is not nearly as good, but it's a game after all and the gaming experience still matters more to me. Ni No Kuni 1 would have made an amazing ghibli anime though.
Criticism of the game's normal difficulty is valid. But harder difficulty options exist that present more of a challenge and necessitate more dodging, better timing, strategic use of abilities and higgledies. Not addressing this kind of makes your gameplay critique a little narrow and insubstantial.
The mark of a great review is that even a negative one can still make me kind of curious. Like you, I am a sucker for town building mechanics, so if I see this one on sale or something, I might spring for it. Great work as usual!
As someone who played Ni No Kuni first. (And loved it) I absolutely adored Ni No Kuni 2. Was it as good as the first no. But it gave me the same feeling the first one did.
I didn't care much for the story but i enjoyed the gameplay a lot however it kind of felt like it was a bunch of prototype mechanics put around a story to get a product out and an art style to sell it. I enjoyed it far more than the original.
I totally felt the same way about NNK2, and I couldn't explain why to anyone. It just fell short on so many fronts, and dedicated itself to mechanics that I didn't care to explore.
I'm actually trying to figure out the escape room thing too. Maybe you're locked in due to a system security failure caused by kaijus fighting, and you've got to get out before the building you're in is destroyed?
i tried to play this game multiple times and each time i gave up.. one thing i remember is it had a lot of reading.. and the first game had reading but it would turn into a cutscene after a while.. this one didn't really do that.. it just felt like constant reading without the same amount of cutscenes as the first game so it felt more boring (but keep in mind i didn't finish the game so i'm speaking on my limited experience)
I liked it just fine but I never beat it, it's a very relaxing game, I was very invested in Evan as a character though because he's such a wholesome kid who just wants everyone to be happy
Yes! Or.. it can be lol. On expert the opening hours of the campaign are decently challenging. And if you resist the urge to grind that difficulty can track throughout the game. The tainted monsters and optional bosses are definitely challenging on higher difficulties.
Even before playing I was put off because there was no Studio Ghibli involvement, well of course not at the level the first had, 2 people but no official connection. I also worry when I hear a game is being made to target more of a Western audience. Too many times has that failed and caused no future games to release because of it.
I felt the opposite. I really enjoyed the game and the stupid grinding but I couldn't be bothered to complete NNK1 with how awful the AI allies were on launch. At least this game wasn't completely reliant on your allies. 😅
I honestly can't believe that I stuck through this game sometimes 😅I even platinumed the base game and the dlc The new combat "stances" from the dlc and overall town building mechanics are the best parts of this game for sure
13:25 - I gave my copy of Ni no Kuni II to my (at the time) 57 year old mother when I couldn't get into it... and she loved it! Maybe it all comes full circle in the end. To be fair I think the lack of investment was the big appeal for her as she played it in short bursts.
Respectfully, I can't disagree more. I found the first game to be incredibly boring, didn't care about the characters one bit, and the combat was barely there. The second game's story and characters weren't much better, but the gameplay was actually fun and that's all that really matters. Plus, the second game didn't have any difficultly spikes like in the first game. Sidequests, skirmishes, special dungeons and exploring the world were all fun. I liked the town building aspect in theory, but in reality there's no freedom to it at all, you're really just going down a checklist. At first I thought I would miss the monster catching system, but a few hours into the game and I had already forgotten about it. I found the second game to be better in just about every way, the most glaring exception being that Drippy was a great character and Cor was annoying af.
I’d take easy combat over frustrating, I often find myself wanting to replay the first Ni no Kuni but then I remember the (in my opinion) absolutely terrible combat system and immediately lose interest 💀
i hear u.. personally, i didn't think the combat of the first game was terrible, but i didn't like how u constantly ran out of magic.. it was like u never had enough
Craziest part about this game to me was when the Evan's dad's ghost appears and doesn't even acknowledge his son there. He just forgives the advisor who betrayed him. That was an insane moment story-wise. A lot about this game felt like a fever dream. Doloran's whole deal and also the boy who appeared in Evan's dreams too. Haven't played it in years but yeah. I didn't like the skirmishes. Was about to platinum it until I had to do those. I did really like the kingdom building minigame though. I was addicted to checking my timers. The game's towns are also really pretty.
NNK2 was such a disappointment for me. I wanted a game that felt like the first but improved, and it is basically a different game entirely when it comes to systems, gameplay, the general loop and charm. While I was playing it I missed the spell book, feeling like a wizard, training my monsters, unique events happening. 2 feels like some sort of treadmill with loot rarity, kingdom management timers, and nothing really interesting happening. Stuff like voice acting seems almost pointless with how littler there ever is. The last NNK game was some sort of mobile nft game that autoplays itself, and I honestly feel liek theyve sold the brand completely out.
Completely agree. Having loved the first game I was so excited to try the second one but fell off super quick. The game didn't have the charm of the first one and the battle mechanics were dull. Great review and honest and honest as always! :)
Subtitles issues! 4:02 He gets to grow up into a malevolent and hardened ruler? I thought people going through such journeys were supposed to be good... 5:22 The swordhammer!
Difficulty levels are for different types of gamers. Easy difficulty is good for new gamers. If you find it too easy why not play it on a higher difficulty?
I agree! Difficulty levels are for different types of gamers! What I dont like is selecting normal - which is supposed to be a balanced experience- being EASY. Painfully so. I play my games on normal, this game on normal....which is easy.
Oh no, I was hoping you would like it. The town building was definitely the best part. I am glad that Roland is your favorite character, as he is mine as well.
Am I genuinely remembering wrong.. because I don't remember there being any fun in the town building because none of it you could choose where to put anything, basically all of it was necessary and a grind and could have been toned way back. If there was customization or any personality then maybe but I don't remember there being any of that at all.
Just finished this game, and it feels like it suffered from major budget and development issues. Half the map has nothing of note on it, the voice acting cuts in and out, areas feel smaller the farther along you go, etc.
I mean the first game was no gemstone either. I remember how playing ni no kuni 1 and going through its monster collector aspect made me apreciate pokemon more, lol
I played the first Ni No Kuni once when it was available on gamepass and as a grown ass man, I confess the prologue was a tear jerker for me as any man with a good heart and loving mother would understand. I never played Ni No Kuni II but one thing I observed the two games have in common from this video is that both protagonists are thrusted into their wonderlands after experiencing an extremely traumatic moment in their lives. This is actually the most interesting part of narrative from both games to me personally because for all we know, the dark truth to the game's story could be that whatever they're experiencing in these worlds is all just trauma induced delusions and both protagonists are now actually just completely insane from despair and sadness in the real world.😢
What made me most disappointed by Ninokuni II was the fact they made a world filled whit interesting races and yet they made your entire party generic anime humans and a cat boy. I was convinced id get like a Dog guy/girl a Robot or a Fish-folk party member. But no even when you get to the fish town or robot town they somehow made the new associated party members you get generic forgettable human characters. At lest all the citizens you can get ware unique.
THAT'S SUCH A GOOD POINT. I wanted a Zora person so bad. But no, you're right the cast wasn't just unmemorable but visually bland IN A WORLD OF VARIOUS CREATURES.
The first one wasn't perfect, but it was special, it had heart, character, charm, a story it had something to grasp. I don't need perfection in my gaming, I need a soul.
The only problem I had with this game was the building of the kingdom and defending it. Also creating more armies for that kingdom which took a long time and made the game feel longer than it was already is.
This was such a surprise review from you for me. I really anticipated you enjoying this one. I do understand your perspective but thought that you would at least give it an "eh, its okay" as opposed to "Ni No Kuni II sucks!". That's okay though. Good, honest review as always.
Really??? Trust me, I WANTED to enjoy it, I had fun with the first game! But this really....didn't do much for me. I honestly wanted the pain to end. As always though, thank you for watching, even if it's a less favorable review!
I actually liked and finished Ni No Kuni II over than the first one but I believe that the first one probably had the better story Running in the overworld in 1 felt too slow for a big world, that was the biggest reason why couldn't finish 1
Believe it or not,what got me to this review (and your channel) was me looking for more games like Metal Gear Solid 5 (cuz you build and manage your army and your base) lol. I'll be subscribing cuz I love jrpgs and I liked your review style.
i was very disappointed by Ni No Kuni 2 the first time i played it. i just expected so much more. my second time on switch though.... i think i didnt have expectations and i enjoyed it so much more
You know what, I'm happy for ya! The thing is I feel like I went in with no expectations despite the warnings of most people saying it sucks. I thought it couldn't be that bad and...it kinda was. It just did not stimulate my mind in any sort of way and honestly that makes me sad. I want this series to thrive!
Ni No Kuni 2 delivered in everything. I see nothing wrong with this game, it very awesome. Ni No Kuni 2 is also not frustrating like the first game because Ni No Kuni 1 is actually too hard for the age group that it's rated for.
I love the game personally, it's basically Suikoden mixed with Dark Cloud. I Will say I was incredibly annoyed you had all these cool races in the game, and the game went "Here's your party of Humans and 1 half human whose Traits from his non-human side is physically non-existent outside his ears.". And I'm like "Ok, but why not literally anyone of the others?". We can sympathize with species that don't look like us Writers, 2 of the most popular characters in Marvel and in turn one of the most profitable franchises is a Fucking Tree and Raccoon. Annnnnnnnnnd I just ranted about Human-Centrism again.
I would agree with most of your points but it's also clear that everyone isn't gonna have the same feelings towards a game. For one it definitely was too easy but that's why I turned up the difficulty right away. It seems like you were harping on that a lot but if you played it on hard from the beginning then it probably would've addressed some of the issues. Also skirmishes were by far my least favorite part of the game but I could understand someone liking that more. They honestly tried to do too much, too many characters without a fleshed out personality, too many features that I never bothered to use because I really didn't need to. I would argue that combat is actually better here than the first game but that's also arguable.
4:10 this summed it up really well, and looking back this is most likely why I dropped this game years ago. The storyline of this game felt rly shallow.
I'm in the same boat I love the first game and everything it had to offer but for some reason the second really did feel weightless and just not nearly as interesting it's sad really because iI wanted to enjoy the game
The thing that bothered me the most was the rat king and basically all the royals were acting evil because of what Serpentaro did (I forgot what the final boss's name and i don't care enough to Google it) and that's that no twists no turns no villians except guy in snake costume. Even 4kids wasn't that bad.
Ni No Kuni was a really amazing game. the Sequel really didn't come anywhere close. I did eventually have some fun with the battle system in the final hours once you actually invest in the higgledies. story and characters just didn't have that ghibli charm that the first game had, and the game was a complete cakewalk for a seasoned jrpg gamer.
It sucks because I did like the battle system. But the cast weren't doing it for me. I haven't beaten it yet, so maybe my opinion will change. I don't like the lil army battles though for sure 🤣
The battle system just felt incredibly simple, hit thing till it dies. Bosses required a single extra brain cell with 'breaking' them by using special Higgldies. I actually warmed up to the army battles haha
@@PelvicGamingHello, I can understand your point, but it appears that you did not apply that same logic to Trails of Mana. You increased the difficulty on that game. And you did not judge that game as harshly on the base game be too easy. I have been on a hunt for some Action JRPG for mm to play. So I decided to binge watch your videos...lol Also, I am new to JRPG gaming community. And I have no prior knowledge of this franchise.
First game was great but yeah I have a hard time going through the second game and I own it for my playstation and switch :/ sucks cause it could have been a good franchise.
This review was so on point for Ni No Kuni II. I LOVED Ni No Kuni and have it in the discussion for top favorite JRPG's, but I was so disconnected from Ni No Kuni II I couldn't even finish the game. I just couldn't understand how Level-5 could fall so short when the first game was such a masterpiece. It's like when you eat at a restaurant and it's amazing and you come back another time and have the worst meal ever and wonder how that happened when they got all the same ingredients and most of the same people making the food. It was just off..
My biggest issue with NNK II was the story. I loved the first one BECAUSE of the story because of the plot twists. Gameplay is honestly just a bonus in my eyes 😂 But when the second game came out I was upset to find they improved gameplay and combat but literally said, “Screw the story!” My biggest jaw drop moment was when they revealed Roland’s son not in a core part of the game-but in a random side quest 😭😭 Like nobody commented on that while y’all were working on it? And don’t even get me started when they suddenly threw back in soulmates as if they had been talking about it the whole time. Girl you mentioned soulmates twice, why is the villain suddenly Roland’s random soulmate? It would’ve made more sense if Roland’s soulmate gave Roland his body for the soul purpose of making sure Evan fulfilled his destiny. Like, he used the time spell to go back in time because of something that ruined Evan’s kingdom in the future. I should’ve written this dang game. Would’ve made so much more sense 😂
From my experience playing Revenant Kingdom, I was most disappointed with the story. The first game made me cry, but by the end I either felt nothing or frustrated with plotholes (there were citizens you can find post-game who are supposed to be from a long lost kingdom, but details of how you meet them just don't add up once you finished the end of the game). The Ding Dong Dell arc was especially disappointing because it was a great opportunity to push Evan on his ideals for a peaceful world, but the way it was handled it felt like they were not interested in having interesting conflict; it just felt weightless, as you said, and egregiously shallow. Overall, it certainly shows that it's a product of years of development hell.
I didn't hate this game, but I was severely disappointed by it and fully agree that it felt 'weightless' in the characters and story. I remember finishing it and feeling like nothing happened and I never got to know the characters very well. I was hoping for a game that at least matched the intriguing world and sense of adventure from the first game, but if this wasn't called Ni No Kuni I likely would have just completely forgotten about it. I played it when it was still new, and what I remember most about it is town building and lots of disappointment.
11:57 I'm playing Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny right now, and that game does this with its voice overs. I can't stand it. A conversation will start with a fully voiced line, and then silence, or a grunt, and then another fully voiced line. It's just so frustrating. I know I'm playing an old ass game, but these RPG game studios need more budget for their voice acting because this is unacceptable in this day and age. Either go full-on voice acting or none at all. I have the same issue with games where (important) cutscenes are voice acted, but the rest of the game's dialogue isn't.
I could not disagree more. But it just goes to show that you can’t satisfy everyone. Your opinion is yours, and it’s why we all subscribe. Here is mine: Ni No Kuni 1 was too childish, with bad AI companions, a poorly fleshed out Pokémon battle dynamic, and generally came off as generic with a Ghibli coat painted over to try to fool us all. The sequel completely redeemed the franchise. Waaaaaay better combat, incredible worlds, wonderful story, fun twists, incredible music. Wow. To me, it is the second best jrpg on ps4, coming in just after dragon quest 11. Like seriously, I got something quite opposite from you out of it. Unfortunately, it seems the community adores the first game, which I cannot at all understand, so likely, the next game will be another Pokémon clone.
I wonder if the main combat was made so easy to attempt to balance out all of the skirmishes and kindom building you have to do? Maybe so it doesn't feel like it's too daunting, but they made it too easy I guess.
I hated the inventory. Give me straight up weapons and armor, not loot adjective junk. Give every character their own unique weapons (Evan/Roland share swords, Tani/Leandor share spears).
I don't know I recently played this and there's some actual talk about prejudices and segregation that's alot more nuanced than most Japanese video games out there. We even get the mouse leader to apologize. Evan not realizing the prejudices of the home they live were really good, as for the characters? Yeah I completely agree, they were shallow, empty husk of characters; like they were waiting to be filled with...anything ! I completely agree. And while the combat was er decent I preferred fighting with creatures, I wasn't a fan of the higgledees, as you said by the time you call them the battle's over, and I disliked stopping my combos to run over and activate them. They were mostly unused and don't offer anything for the story. If there is a third game I hope Ghibli works on it and I pray they bring back the monster fighting system. There are already so many hack and slash games anyway, you so something unique would be fun. And I hate the excuse people make of "Just play pokemon" Why can't we have more than one creature capture series? I loathe the idea that it's either one or the other, and we can't have two different series. I encourage there being multiple series that deal with unique monster designs, that is only a good thing it exist.
same bc to me pokemon is so incredibly different than ni no kuni the familiars were so cool and unique and one of my favorite game mechanics!! i loved trying to collect all of them but you have to like switch between max of three characters and then between three of their familiars which imo was so fun (:
I bought the 1st game on sale some time ago but haven't had time to play much of it. I was considering getting the 2nd one but after seeing your review I'll probably pass on buying the sequel.
This is a pretty chill game on the steam deck. The plot is a little babyish but im enjoying the gameplay. The first couldn't hold my attention with its gameplay, but I know one has the better story.
i played ni no kuni 2 then played 1 but never finished it. i think i was 20 levels away from the boss fight on nnk1 and said nah cuz the familiars were a pain to mess with. i liked nnk2 for the story and kingdom building but hated the skirmishes. the quests are a little tedious and the postgame depends on endless grinding in a labyrinth with 30 floors and an end boss of level 100. was alright but by far not my favorite.
Thank you so much for watching!! Look forward to Persona 4, Eastward, Tears of the Kingdom and of course Final Fantasy 16~! Currently working on some lists videos as well. Please consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/pelvicgaming
Thank you!!
Excellent work! The time you put in on the effects definitely made a difference. You're so good at this!
it was "too easy" because the studio is known for how grindy it's shit is & first Nnk got lambasted fr it's grindiness
did you play rogue galaxy & white knight chronicles?
Definitely looking forward to your TotK and FF16 reviews.
@@getinthering7309 I played both White Knight Chronicles and loved them, but you're right, they were so grindy.
I was really disappointed with the cast. I remember thinking that close to the end of the game I genuinely couldn’t tell you anything interesting about any of the characters beyond what you learned in their introduction.
I haven't played the first game yet but absolutely loved Revenant Kingdom.
I played this one first and had a great time building the town. My biggest gripe was that the postgame stuff would have still made sense if the final boss was gone after your victory. But the game didn’t do that! Instead, you rewind to right before the final boss, just leaving Doloran gasping on the ground to go hunt down extra stuff. Armageddon is still coming, but we can get more people now! It feels so weird.
I thought about that too. and roland could be mined for another character. but it would be necessary according to the plot to bring this
The first Ni No Kuni had such a stellar casino I was so bummed to find the sequel had a whole casino town, but with no casino games :(
The casino town was my favorite part. Though I'm not a casino lover I wouldn't have spent much time playing casinos anyways.
Played around 10 hours of the game and i could not have been less invested in the story, combat and exploration
I knew it was coming. Ni No Kuni 2 only has one of two outcomes 😂
What are the 2 outcomes?
The biggest feeling that I had was that the whole game was just... I don't know, almost the entire game felt like filler, or like you said, weightless... plus you only get interesting (imo) character gameplay mechanics for the battle system after you go into the DLCs, which is supposed to be postgame!!! Such a baffling choice. Everything in this game felt like a list of chores.
In all fairness, that's the same vibe I get from 90% of Ghibli movies. 😂
'I put the game down after the amazing coup, tangle with sky pirates, found a new kingdom.. and what next..."lets get some wood". "Excuse me?", "Yea we need wood....for houses."
@@divinesolstice3744it barely gets any better after the forest. you gotta go to the second kingdom cuz the owner lost it due to gambling. then you gotta expose the kingdom for rigging dice. then for like the next 3 hours you do fetch quests for that kingdom because you need to access its library but the librarian is all like “do these favors for me and then i’ll let you get books” and it’s just boring. i hate how no other characters beside roland and evan get any development. and somehow i’m only 15 hours in 💀
I have to disagree. Loved NNK2 so much more than NNK1. I platinumed the game even.
I must admit, when I learned they made it no longer a monster collector game, that was a big turn off. For a game so focused on commanding / defeating giant royal beasts, it's an odd choice not to add it. There's other small nitpicks, but the missing beastly buddies was in my top 3.
While I agree with some of your critiques for the storyline and the overall vibe, particularly in comparison with the first game which had a really soulful story, I do not agree with how much emphasis you put on critiquing the difficulty when it was something addressed by the devs on a update adding difficulty levels (hard which feels like the correct curve difficulty wise and extreme for even more challenge). If you say that you always play games in normal then don't complain when you don't take the opportunity to tune the game to an experience you were probably gonna enjoy better if you just went to the options and change a slider. That way you could've engage with the mechanics and half of the complains wouldve been nullified.
Kinda defeats the purpose of making a review of this game years later when you don't want to acknowledge the fixes the devs included afterwards and makes it seem like insincere criticism to me
I think the point is that, in a jrpg, you shouldn't need to put a difficulty toggle on the game. RPGs in general are supposed to be brainier and more tactical. If a game is easy on normal mode, then I think it's failing to be a good RPG. RPGs are supposed to challenging by default.
Also, I don't like having the option to turn off the difficulty midgame. Why should I play on extreme when I can change the difficulty and make it easy if I ever come across a challenge? I like it when games force me to "git gud". I only need one difficulty, and that's "hard enough".
Totally agreed and two things in the main story what baffled me: HEAVY SPOILER ALERT
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----
------>
1) Ding Dong Dell: The Grimalkin are deported to a Ghetto and some of them "vanished", but you can get away with racism/genocide if you are really sorry.
2) Ding Dong Dell 2: The force ghost of your flipping father appears to your enemy and absolves him, but does not speak one word to his own son and rightful heir to the throne.
I respect your opinion but I still love this game and it brings me lots of joy ☺️
Fair enough! I'm glad you enjoy it!!
@@PelvicGamingdifferent strokes for different folks!
i didnt even realize it was easy because i was playing on a high difficulty. bosses would beat me in one or two hits
Respectfully, I think your understanding of Ghibli's contribution to the original Ni No Kuni versus its sequel is a little inflated. Yes, the studio is rightfully credited as a collaborator. But their contributions were mostly limited to anime cutscenes, character design and original score. Level-5 kept Yoshiyuki Momose as character designer and Joe Hisashi as composer for the sequel. So the only Ghibli contribution missing were anime cutscenes. While the anime is missed and would have enhanced the sequel, in the original game only about 15 minutes of about four hours total cutscenes are anime. I think we all would have preferred the resources that went into the Ni No Kuni anime feature would have gone into cutscenes for the game instead, but a lot of players find the in-game visuals still look terrific.
The combat in this game is infinitely better than the first
Ni no Kuni 2 is one of those games that you would really appreciate if you grew up with it. The problem is that people who make review videos of Ni no kuni 2 say negative things about it because they compare Ni no kuni 2 to their favorite RPG games, and right away, they say it's disappointing. Ni no kuni 2 should not be compared to any game and should stand out by itself. This game is amazing. Many of those who make reviews of this game fail to deliver on how great this game really is. Just look at the tales series. When making reviews, comparing a game to another game will always cause the reviewer to say something negative. The game should be reviewed by just focusing on the game being reviewed without comparing it to other games and then you will get the true review. Ni no kuni 1 and Ni No kuni 2 are ment to be very different different games that take place in the same world.
I will say the combat of ni no kuni 2 was so fun for me, since i didn't like the combat of 1 but i guess our trade off was not a great story and not great characters 😅
All in all this still looks like it could be a really fun playthru on game pass. Thanks for reminding us about it!
I prefer 2 to 1 personally. 1 has the better art direction, better music and a better story. But the gameplay itself bore me to tears. The combat is bad, the familiars become useless the moment we unlock the more powerful spells, which turn the fights into spamming spells and drinking coffee. 2 has tons to do and a lot of it can become enjoyable if you become invested. Sure, the plot is not nearly as good, but it's a game after all and the gaming experience still matters more to me. Ni No Kuni 1 would have made an amazing ghibli anime though.
Criticism of the game's normal difficulty is valid. But harder difficulty options exist that present more of a challenge and necessitate more dodging, better timing, strategic use of abilities and higgledies. Not addressing this kind of makes your gameplay critique a little narrow and insubstantial.
The mark of a great review is that even a negative one can still make me kind of curious. Like you, I am a sucker for town building mechanics, so if I see this one on sale or something, I might spring for it. Great work as usual!
You can easily tell how little investment this game had by the significantly reduced voice acting
As someone who played Ni No Kuni first. (And loved it)
I absolutely adored Ni No Kuni 2. Was it as good as the first no. But it gave me the same feeling the first one did.
I didn't care much for the story but i enjoyed the gameplay a lot however it kind of felt like it was a bunch of prototype mechanics put around a story to get a product out and an art style to sell it. I enjoyed it far more than the original.
I totally felt the same way about NNK2, and I couldn't explain why to anyone. It just fell short on so many fronts, and dedicated itself to mechanics that I didn't care to explore.
I'm actually trying to figure out the escape room thing too. Maybe you're locked in due to a system security failure caused by kaijus fighting, and you've got to get out before the building you're in is destroyed?
i tried to play this game multiple times and each time i gave up.. one thing i remember is it had a lot of reading.. and the first game had reading but it would turn into a cutscene after a while.. this one didn't really do that.. it just felt like constant reading without the same amount of cutscenes as the first game so it felt more boring (but keep in mind i didn't finish the game so i'm speaking on my limited experience)
Strangely, I'm having this issue, but with the 1st. Just recently gave it a go again
I liked it just fine but I never beat it, it's a very relaxing game, I was very invested in Evan as a character though because he's such a wholesome kid who just wants everyone to be happy
Is the game at least somewhat challenging on the highest difficulty setting?
Yes! Or.. it can be lol. On expert the opening hours of the campaign are decently challenging. And if you resist the urge to grind that difficulty can track throughout the game. The tainted monsters and optional bosses are definitely challenging on higher difficulties.
Lol on expert mode they 1 hit you
I love ni no kuni 2, it feels like a alive world you’re a part of
Even before playing I was put off because there was no Studio Ghibli involvement, well of course not at the level the first had, 2 people but no official connection. I also worry when I hear a game is being made to target more of a Western audience. Too many times has that failed and caused no future games to release because of it.
I actually didn't realize it was trying to capture a Western audience. Honestly, it felt like it wasn't capturing an audience period.
I felt the opposite. I really enjoyed the game and the stupid grinding but I couldn't be bothered to complete NNK1 with how awful the AI allies were on launch. At least this game wasn't completely reliant on your allies. 😅
I honestly can't believe that I stuck through this game sometimes 😅I even platinumed the base game and the dlc The new combat "stances" from the dlc and overall town building mechanics are the best parts of this game for sure
Good taste. Factory Floor definitely had some ankle in it.
13:25 - I gave my copy of Ni no Kuni II to my (at the time) 57 year old mother when I couldn't get into it... and she loved it! Maybe it all comes full circle in the end. To be fair I think the lack of investment was the big appeal for her as she played it in short bursts.
They should have kept the old gameplay style, I thought the story was ok but the first game was so classic
Respectfully, I can't disagree more. I found the first game to be incredibly boring, didn't care about the characters one bit, and the combat was barely there. The second game's story and characters weren't much better, but the gameplay was actually fun and that's all that really matters. Plus, the second game didn't have any difficultly spikes like in the first game. Sidequests, skirmishes, special dungeons and exploring the world were all fun. I liked the town building aspect in theory, but in reality there's no freedom to it at all, you're really just going down a checklist. At first I thought I would miss the monster catching system, but a few hours into the game and I had already forgotten about it. I found the second game to be better in just about every way, the most glaring exception being that Drippy was a great character and Cor was annoying af.
I’d take easy combat over frustrating, I often find myself wanting to replay the first Ni no Kuni but then I remember the (in my opinion) absolutely terrible combat system and immediately lose interest 💀
i hear u.. personally, i didn't think the combat of the first game was terrible, but i didn't like how u constantly ran out of magic.. it was like u never had enough
Honestly outside of Professor Layton,Dragon Quest VIII and IX level 5 is a mid studio.
@@Chelaxim I really like Rogue Galaxy, too. That's level 5, right?
@@sir_hammyyeah and that game is a big example of why alot dont like level 5 haha
@@Jack-nj9pi lol, gotcha. I really liked Rogue Galaxy hah *_*;;
Craziest part about this game to me was when the Evan's dad's ghost appears and doesn't even acknowledge his son there. He just forgives the advisor who betrayed him. That was an insane moment story-wise. A lot about this game felt like a fever dream. Doloran's whole deal and also the boy who appeared in Evan's dreams too. Haven't played it in years but yeah. I didn't like the skirmishes. Was about to platinum it until I had to do those.
I did really like the kingdom building minigame though. I was addicted to checking my timers. The game's towns are also really pretty.
NNK2 was such a disappointment for me. I wanted a game that felt like the first but improved, and it is basically a different game entirely when it comes to systems, gameplay, the general loop and charm.
While I was playing it I missed the spell book, feeling like a wizard, training my monsters, unique events happening.
2 feels like some sort of treadmill with loot rarity, kingdom management timers, and nothing really interesting happening.
Stuff like voice acting seems almost pointless with how littler there ever is.
The last NNK game was some sort of mobile nft game that autoplays itself, and I honestly feel liek theyve sold the brand completely out.
Completely agree. Having loved the first game I was so excited to try the second one but fell off super quick. The game didn't have the charm of the first one and the battle mechanics were dull. Great review and honest and honest as always! :)
Subtitles issues!
4:02 He gets to grow up into a malevolent and hardened ruler? I thought people going through such journeys were supposed to be good...
5:22 The swordhammer!
This game started so strong, and then I got to the middle of it. Just stop out of nowhere.
Right??? The opening was AMAZING, I was IN IT then... it just fell off.
@PelvicGaming I'm glad that you agree with me.
But you know, the game just had a lot of stuff going on. It's very distracting from the main story.
Difficulty levels are for different types of gamers. Easy difficulty is good for new gamers. If you find it too easy why not play it on a higher difficulty?
I agree! Difficulty levels are for different types of gamers! What I dont like is selecting normal - which is supposed to be a balanced experience- being EASY. Painfully so. I play my games on normal, this game on normal....which is easy.
Oh no, I was hoping you would like it. The town building was definitely the best part. I am glad that Roland is your favorite character, as he is mine as well.
Am I genuinely remembering wrong.. because I don't remember there being any fun in the town building because none of it you could choose where to put anything, basically all of it was necessary and a grind and could have been toned way back. If there was customization or any personality then maybe but I don't remember there being any of that at all.
Sad thing is that it's not available for Xbox One/Series. 😢😢😢
Put your difficulty setting up.
Everything hit the bell with me for this game. I absolutely loved it. 🔔
Just finished this game, and it feels like it suffered from major budget and development issues. Half the map has nothing of note on it, the voice acting cuts in and out, areas feel smaller the farther along you go, etc.
I mean the first game was no gemstone either. I remember how playing ni no kuni 1 and going through its monster collector aspect made me apreciate pokemon more, lol
Baby hair on point in today's episode
I played the first Ni No Kuni once when it was available on gamepass and as a grown ass man, I confess the prologue was a tear jerker for me as any man with a good heart and loving mother would understand. I never played Ni No Kuni II but one thing I observed the two games have in common from this video is that both protagonists are thrusted into their wonderlands after experiencing an extremely traumatic moment in their lives. This is actually the most interesting part of narrative from both games to me personally because for all we know, the dark truth to the game's story could be that whatever they're experiencing in these worlds is all just trauma induced delusions and both protagonists are now actually just completely insane from despair and sadness in the real world.😢
What made me most disappointed by Ninokuni II was the fact they made a world filled whit interesting races and yet they made your entire party generic anime humans and a cat boy.
I was convinced id get like a Dog guy/girl a Robot or a Fish-folk party member. But no even when you get to the fish town or robot town they somehow made the new associated party members you get generic forgettable human characters. At lest all the citizens you can get ware unique.
THAT'S SUCH A GOOD POINT. I wanted a Zora person so bad. But no, you're right the cast wasn't just unmemorable but visually bland IN A WORLD OF VARIOUS CREATURES.
I just wish they added those post game mechanics earlier. definitely would have made the game less stale
The first one wasn't perfect, but it was special, it had heart, character, charm, a story it had something to grasp. I don't need perfection in my gaming, I need a soul.
The only problem I had with this game was the building of the kingdom and defending it. Also creating more armies for that kingdom which took a long time and made the game feel longer than it was already is.
Do you recommend it?
Not really no
@@PelvicGaming thanks. I trust your recommendation.
This was such a surprise review from you for me. I really anticipated you enjoying this one. I do understand your perspective but thought that you would at least give it an "eh, its okay" as opposed to "Ni No Kuni II sucks!". That's okay though. Good, honest review as always.
Really??? Trust me, I WANTED to enjoy it, I had fun with the first game! But this really....didn't do much for me. I honestly wanted the pain to end. As always though, thank you for watching, even if it's a less favorable review!
I actually liked and finished Ni No Kuni II over than the first one but I believe that the first one probably had the better story
Running in the overworld in 1 felt too slow for a big world, that was the biggest reason why couldn't finish 1
Believe it or not,what got me to this review (and your channel) was me looking for more games like Metal Gear Solid 5 (cuz you build and manage your army and your base) lol. I'll be subscribing cuz I love jrpgs and I liked your review style.
i was very disappointed by Ni No Kuni 2 the first time i played it. i just expected so much more. my second time on switch though.... i think i didnt have expectations and i enjoyed it so much more
You know what, I'm happy for ya! The thing is I feel like I went in with no expectations despite the warnings of most people saying it sucks. I thought it couldn't be that bad and...it kinda was. It just did not stimulate my mind in any sort of way and honestly that makes me sad. I want this series to thrive!
@@PelvicGaming i totally get it. level 5, even without studio ghibli, should have been able to deliver so much more
🎊 Another video! 🎉🥳
Heck yeah. I’m looking forward to the Zelda TotK and FF16 reviews
Ni No Kuni 2 delivered in everything. I see nothing wrong with this game, it very awesome. Ni No Kuni 2 is also not frustrating like the first game because Ni No Kuni 1 is actually too hard for the age group that it's rated for.
I tried to get into the first one but just couldn’t do it. Said that the second one isn’t any better
I love the game personally, it's basically Suikoden mixed with Dark Cloud.
I Will say I was incredibly annoyed you had all these cool races in the game, and the game went "Here's your party of Humans and 1 half human whose Traits from his non-human side is physically non-existent outside his ears.".
And I'm like "Ok, but why not literally anyone of the others?".
We can sympathize with species that don't look like us Writers, 2 of the most popular characters in Marvel and in turn one of the most profitable franchises is a Fucking Tree and Raccoon.
Annnnnnnnnnd I just ranted about Human-Centrism again.
I would agree with most of your points but it's also clear that everyone isn't gonna have the same feelings towards a game. For one it definitely was too easy but that's why I turned up the difficulty right away. It seems like you were harping on that a lot but if you played it on hard from the beginning then it probably would've addressed some of the issues. Also skirmishes were by far my least favorite part of the game but I could understand someone liking that more. They honestly tried to do too much, too many characters without a fleshed out personality, too many features that I never bothered to use because I really didn't need to. I would argue that combat is actually better here than the first game but that's also arguable.
I thought the same. Increasing the difficulty may have addressed some of her critiques
Is there a game you actually like?
Are you new here?
🤣
I like the story in the first one better but the combat is leagues better than the first one
Couldn't agree more. I TRIED with this game, but I couldn't even make it past the first two hours.
Im socked you didn't talk about lack of voice acting, they really cheaped out on the voice acting!
I mean I mention the voice acting being weird in terms of what is voiced and what wasn't.
@@PelvicGaming true, but like the lack of voice acting I mean 🤣, I found it like they tried to cut corners and reduce the voice acting.
4:10 this summed it up really well, and looking back this is most likely why I dropped this game years ago. The storyline of this game felt rly shallow.
Very smart review. You really understand story.
Lofty looks like combination of Calcifer and Lisa Simpsons
I'm in the same boat I love the first game and everything it had to offer but for some reason the second really did feel weightless and just not nearly as interesting it's sad really because iI wanted to enjoy the game
The thing that bothered me the most was the rat king and basically all the royals were acting evil because of what Serpentaro did (I forgot what the final boss's name and i don't care enough to Google it) and that's that no twists no turns no villians except guy in snake costume. Even 4kids wasn't that bad.
Lol I fkn luv your no filter give it to me str8
I felt that maybe the cast of Ni No Kuni 2 could have been more involved with the story.
not gonna lie......that thumbnail is fire
Haha thanks
Ni No Kuni was a really amazing game. the Sequel really didn't come anywhere close. I did eventually have some fun with the battle system in the final hours once you actually invest in the higgledies. story and characters just didn't have that ghibli charm that the first game had, and the game was a complete cakewalk for a seasoned jrpg gamer.
It sucks because I did like the battle system. But the cast weren't doing it for me. I haven't beaten it yet, so maybe my opinion will change. I don't like the lil army battles though for sure 🤣
The battle system just felt incredibly simple, hit thing till it dies. Bosses required a single extra brain cell with 'breaking' them by using special Higgldies. I actually warmed up to the army battles haha
@@PelvicGamingHello, I can understand your point, but it appears that you did not apply that same logic to Trails of Mana.
You increased the difficulty on that game. And you did not judge that game as harshly on the base game be too easy.
I have been on a hunt for some Action JRPG for mm to play. So I decided to binge watch your videos...lol
Also, I am new to JRPG gaming community. And I have no prior knowledge of this franchise.
First game was great but yeah I have a hard time going through the second game and I own it for my playstation and switch :/ sucks cause it could have been a good franchise.
This review was so on point for Ni No Kuni II. I LOVED Ni No Kuni and have it in the discussion for top favorite JRPG's, but I was so disconnected from Ni No Kuni II I couldn't even finish the game. I just couldn't understand how Level-5 could fall so short when the first game was such a masterpiece. It's like when you eat at a restaurant and it's amazing and you come back another time and have the worst meal ever and wonder how that happened when they got all the same ingredients and most of the same people making the food. It was just off..
My biggest issue with NNK II was the story. I loved the first one BECAUSE of the story because of the plot twists. Gameplay is honestly just a bonus in my eyes 😂 But when the second game came out I was upset to find they improved gameplay and combat but literally said, “Screw the story!” My biggest jaw drop moment was when they revealed Roland’s son not in a core part of the game-but in a random side quest 😭😭 Like nobody commented on that while y’all were working on it? And don’t even get me started when they suddenly threw back in soulmates as if they had been talking about it the whole time. Girl you mentioned soulmates twice, why is the villain suddenly Roland’s random soulmate?
It would’ve made more sense if Roland’s soulmate gave Roland his body for the soul purpose of making sure Evan fulfilled his destiny. Like, he used the time spell to go back in time because of something that ruined Evan’s kingdom in the future. I should’ve written this dang game. Would’ve made so much more sense 😂
From my experience playing Revenant Kingdom, I was most disappointed with the story. The first game made me cry, but by the end I either felt nothing or frustrated with plotholes (there were citizens you can find post-game who are supposed to be from a long lost kingdom, but details of how you meet them just don't add up once you finished the end of the game). The Ding Dong Dell arc was especially disappointing because it was a great opportunity to push Evan on his ideals for a peaceful world, but the way it was handled it felt like they were not interested in having interesting conflict; it just felt weightless, as you said, and egregiously shallow.
Overall, it certainly shows that it's a product of years of development hell.
I didn't hate this game, but I was severely disappointed by it and fully agree that it felt 'weightless' in the characters and story. I remember finishing it and feeling like nothing happened and I never got to know the characters very well. I was hoping for a game that at least matched the intriguing world and sense of adventure from the first game, but if this wasn't called Ni No Kuni I likely would have just completely forgotten about it. I played it when it was still new, and what I remember most about it is town building and lots of disappointment.
11:57 I'm playing Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny right now, and that game does this with its voice overs. I can't stand it. A conversation will start with a fully voiced line, and then silence, or a grunt, and then another fully voiced line. It's just so frustrating. I know I'm playing an old ass game, but these RPG game studios need more budget for their voice acting because this is unacceptable in this day and age. Either go full-on voice acting or none at all. I have the same issue with games where (important) cutscenes are voice acted, but the rest of the game's dialogue isn't.
I could not disagree more. But it just goes to show that you can’t satisfy everyone. Your opinion is yours, and it’s why we all subscribe. Here is mine: Ni No Kuni 1 was too childish, with bad AI companions, a poorly fleshed out Pokémon battle dynamic, and generally came off as generic with a Ghibli coat painted over to try to fool us all. The sequel completely redeemed the franchise. Waaaaaay better combat, incredible worlds, wonderful story, fun twists, incredible music. Wow. To me, it is the second best jrpg on ps4, coming in just after dragon quest 11. Like seriously, I got something quite opposite from you out of it. Unfortunately, it seems the community adores the first game, which I cannot at all understand, so likely, the next game will be another Pokémon clone.
First game was so bad. Abandoned it midway through.
NNK wasn't as revelatory as people think anyway. Oooh, a Ghibli-inspired RPG. That's a lot of turn-based RPGs.
Still, better than this trash.
Story was excellent in the 1st 90%, extremely horendous in the last 10%.
That's not an opinion.Thats just wrong.
I think this is the first time I've ever seen an opinion that's just straight up wrong. Do you happen to be six?
I wonder if the main combat was made so easy to attempt to balance out all of the skirmishes and kindom building you have to do? Maybe so it doesn't feel like it's too daunting, but they made it too easy I guess.
I hated the inventory. Give me straight up weapons and armor, not loot adjective junk. Give every character their own unique weapons (Evan/Roland share swords, Tani/Leandor share spears).
im glad i wasnt the only one feeling this way
13:05 Straight to the point
Taking Familiars out of Ni No Kuni is the biggest mistake.
Agreed.
I agree with most of this review. However, I thought the side quests for kingdom building were terrible! I abandoned the game partly because if them.
I don't know I recently played this and there's some actual talk about prejudices and
segregation that's alot more nuanced than most Japanese video games out there.
We even get the mouse leader to apologize. Evan not realizing the prejudices of the home they live
were really good, as for the characters? Yeah I completely agree, they were shallow, empty husk of characters;
like they were waiting to be filled with...anything ! I completely agree.
And while the combat was er decent I preferred fighting with creatures, I wasn't a fan of the higgledees, as you said by the time
you call them the battle's over, and I disliked stopping my combos to run over and activate them. They were mostly unused and don't
offer anything for the story. If there is a third game I hope Ghibli works on it and I pray they bring back the monster fighting system.
There are already so many hack and slash games anyway, you so something unique would be fun.
And I hate the excuse people make of "Just play pokemon" Why can't we have more than one creature capture series? I loathe the idea that
it's either one or the other, and we can't have two different series. I encourage there being multiple series that deal with unique monster designs, that is only a good thing it exist.
same bc to me pokemon is so incredibly different than ni no kuni
the familiars were so cool and unique and one of my favorite game mechanics!! i loved trying to collect all of them
but you have to like switch between max of three characters and then between three of their familiars which imo was so fun (:
I bought the 1st game on sale some time ago but haven't had time to play much of it. I was considering getting the 2nd one but after seeing your review I'll probably pass on buying the sequel.
Yeahhh I would 100% pass on the sequel.
I'll take an easy battle system over the terrible cumbersome battle system the first one had.
This is a pretty chill game on the steam deck. The plot is a little babyish but im enjoying the gameplay. The first couldn't hold my attention with its gameplay, but I know one has the better story.
I played through this after finishing Dark Souls 3 so it was a pleasant palate cleanser.
i played ni no kuni 2 then played 1 but never finished it. i think i was 20 levels away from the boss fight on nnk1 and said nah cuz the familiars were a pain to mess with. i liked nnk2 for the story and kingdom building but hated the skirmishes. the quests are a little tedious and the postgame depends on endless grinding in a labyrinth with 30 floors and an end boss of level 100. was alright but by far not my favorite.
for me it´s just an ok game with a lot spam arrows in the masters fights
Yeah that sounds about right.
@@PelvicGaming you REALLLY must play radiata stories !!!