A Boy and His Mom
Level 5's Ni No Kuni fuses old and new while telling a moving tale of loss and acceptance.
Published: April 16, 2012
Emotional investment is a tricky sort of thing in the case of video games. Despite the considerable efforts the industry has made to mimic film more closely over the last decade and a half, it's still an incredibly rare case for me to find a game that truly moves, or compels me. Presumably, being a big RPG fan, I've been looking in the right place. Of all the genres we have, RPG's are perhaps the only one in which the story and characters are considered a primary point of critique. And yet despite having spent countless thousands of hours vanquishing ancient evils and saving doomed worlds, I can scarcely recall having ever shed a tear or even feeling choked up. I've heard people say that they play these games for the story, to see what happens to the characters next. Me? I play to reach the next character level and get that sweet new spell. “If I want a story, I'll watch a movie.” Yep, I'm that guy.
I couldn't imagine a more unlikely moment in which that would change than while sitting amongst a crowd of other press members last week during the keynote presentation at Namco Bandai's Global Gamers Day, as they presented a new trailer for their upcoming RPG, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The trailer, comprised mostly of animated clips produced by the venerable Studio Ghibli, depicts a very different, far more personal “coming of age” story than most.
Our protagonist is a young boy named Oliver. Unlike the legion of young boys we've played as before, Oliver has no interest in becoming a hero of legend, saving the world, or going on grand adventures. In fact, Oliver doesn't have much interest in anything at all anymore. As the tale begins, Oliver has just experienced the loss of his mother you see, and is entirely inconsolable, as any young person would be. Crestfallen, and completely unable to accept her death, he spends his days alone in his room, barely eating or drinking. His only solace is found in clutching a little bird-like doll, a gift from his mother. One day, while overwhelmed with grief, he cries into the doll, which then miraculously comes to life and opens up a portal to another world filled with magic. Possessed of the notion that he may be able to find a way to bring his mother back, Oliver steps through the portal and Ni No Kuni begins.
I don't care about Hyrule. I don't care about Midgard. Aeris means less than nothing to me. But I love my mother. I can't articulate why any virtual world should mean something to anyone, but losing someone you love and being so unable to comprehend or accept a life without them that you need to escape into fantasy just to cope is something that nearly every human being has experienced at some point in their life or another. I don't know a thing about the world in Ni No Kuni, but I know all I need to know in order to feel compelled to help Oliver. Tying the player's investment to a human concept as relatable as struggling with loss is a brilliant move, and one I wish more writers in this medium would make.
To my delight, my hands on time with the game left me assured that I would indeed want to play Ni No Kuni for the gameplay as much as for the story. Frankly, they don't make RPG's like this very often anymore, and I can't remember the last one that had such massive production values behind it. Developer Level 5's collaboration with animation giant Studio Ghibli has bore far more fruit than a few original animated sequences. Rather, the entire game is drawn and animated in the studio's unmistakable style and the effect is quite impressive. Their films invoke a sense of wonder and sentiment that complement the game's story perfectly. Few RPG's capture a sense of wonder and possibility palpable enough to make the act of exploring the game environment it's own reward, but I found myself wanting to go to every corner of Ni No Kuni's overworld just to see what was there.
Yeah, you read right, “overworld”. Not a hub world, or a narrow series of linked corridors, or even a menu screen with a list of locations. An honest to god overworld with rolling hills, a sea to explore, islands to find and forests filled with enemies too high level for you to fight. But as much as it adheres to many of the old school traditions of the genre, it isn't afraid to shirk the less engaging ones, such as random encounters and static, menu driven combat. Enemies are visible entities on the map and while they can be avoided, they can be rather persistent in their pursuit of your party. I found trying to avoid combat oddly entertaining in it's own cat and mouse, Pac-Man kind of way – something I don’t usually experience with visible enemy systems.
This isn't to say I was avoiding combat because I didn't enjoy it. On the contrary, the battle system is rather enjoyable. At the start of a fight, you choose one of up to 3 familiars to deploy. You assume direct control of these little guys' movement, but you issue commands to them via a menu system. Each has their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I noticed that some of my familiars were actually the same as the enemies I was fighting, which would seem to indicate that you can capture creatures and add them to your party like Pokemon. At any time, you can either deploy a different familiar, or assume direct control of one of your party members, who themselves have spells and abilities of their own. Keeping your party members positioned properly while supporting and issuing orders to familiars had a good strategic feel to it, while also keeping an action packed pace. The result is a combat experience that feels far more dynamic than the typical turn based fare, but far less chaotic and unfocused than say, Final Fantasy XIII.
Overall, my time with Ni No Kuni left me wanting more. It's visual style packs tremendous punch, the RPG gameplay is a pleasing mix of old and new systems, and the story looks to be one of the few that will really grab players by the heart strings and pull. Top it all off with a beautiful, fully orchestrated soundtrack, and an incredible sense of exploration and you've got the makings of a truly memorable role playing experience. We were told the game would release in North America in early 2013, which can't possibly come fast enough for me. I want to collect its critters, I want to sail its seas, but most of all, I want to know if Oliver ever finds a way to bring his mother back, and whether he will finally make his peace with it if he can't.
Vince Ingenito loves his mother to pieces, and when he isn't writing reviews and previews for Total Playstation, he's rambling on Twitter as @WK_VGAMS.
I couldn't imagine a more unlikely moment in which that would change than while sitting amongst a crowd of other press members last week during the keynote presentation at Namco Bandai's Global Gamers Day, as they presented a new trailer for their upcoming RPG, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The trailer, comprised mostly of animated clips produced by the venerable Studio Ghibli, depicts a very different, far more personal “coming of age” story than most.
Our protagonist is a young boy named Oliver. Unlike the legion of young boys we've played as before, Oliver has no interest in becoming a hero of legend, saving the world, or going on grand adventures. In fact, Oliver doesn't have much interest in anything at all anymore. As the tale begins, Oliver has just experienced the loss of his mother you see, and is entirely inconsolable, as any young person would be. Crestfallen, and completely unable to accept her death, he spends his days alone in his room, barely eating or drinking. His only solace is found in clutching a little bird-like doll, a gift from his mother. One day, while overwhelmed with grief, he cries into the doll, which then miraculously comes to life and opens up a portal to another world filled with magic. Possessed of the notion that he may be able to find a way to bring his mother back, Oliver steps through the portal and Ni No Kuni begins.
I don't care about Hyrule. I don't care about Midgard. Aeris means less than nothing to me. But I love my mother. I can't articulate why any virtual world should mean something to anyone, but losing someone you love and being so unable to comprehend or accept a life without them that you need to escape into fantasy just to cope is something that nearly every human being has experienced at some point in their life or another. I don't know a thing about the world in Ni No Kuni, but I know all I need to know in order to feel compelled to help Oliver. Tying the player's investment to a human concept as relatable as struggling with loss is a brilliant move, and one I wish more writers in this medium would make.
To my delight, my hands on time with the game left me assured that I would indeed want to play Ni No Kuni for the gameplay as much as for the story. Frankly, they don't make RPG's like this very often anymore, and I can't remember the last one that had such massive production values behind it. Developer Level 5's collaboration with animation giant Studio Ghibli has bore far more fruit than a few original animated sequences. Rather, the entire game is drawn and animated in the studio's unmistakable style and the effect is quite impressive. Their films invoke a sense of wonder and sentiment that complement the game's story perfectly. Few RPG's capture a sense of wonder and possibility palpable enough to make the act of exploring the game environment it's own reward, but I found myself wanting to go to every corner of Ni No Kuni's overworld just to see what was there.
Yeah, you read right, “overworld”. Not a hub world, or a narrow series of linked corridors, or even a menu screen with a list of locations. An honest to god overworld with rolling hills, a sea to explore, islands to find and forests filled with enemies too high level for you to fight. But as much as it adheres to many of the old school traditions of the genre, it isn't afraid to shirk the less engaging ones, such as random encounters and static, menu driven combat. Enemies are visible entities on the map and while they can be avoided, they can be rather persistent in their pursuit of your party. I found trying to avoid combat oddly entertaining in it's own cat and mouse, Pac-Man kind of way – something I don’t usually experience with visible enemy systems.
This isn't to say I was avoiding combat because I didn't enjoy it. On the contrary, the battle system is rather enjoyable. At the start of a fight, you choose one of up to 3 familiars to deploy. You assume direct control of these little guys' movement, but you issue commands to them via a menu system. Each has their own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I noticed that some of my familiars were actually the same as the enemies I was fighting, which would seem to indicate that you can capture creatures and add them to your party like Pokemon. At any time, you can either deploy a different familiar, or assume direct control of one of your party members, who themselves have spells and abilities of their own. Keeping your party members positioned properly while supporting and issuing orders to familiars had a good strategic feel to it, while also keeping an action packed pace. The result is a combat experience that feels far more dynamic than the typical turn based fare, but far less chaotic and unfocused than say, Final Fantasy XIII.
Overall, my time with Ni No Kuni left me wanting more. It's visual style packs tremendous punch, the RPG gameplay is a pleasing mix of old and new systems, and the story looks to be one of the few that will really grab players by the heart strings and pull. Top it all off with a beautiful, fully orchestrated soundtrack, and an incredible sense of exploration and you've got the makings of a truly memorable role playing experience. We were told the game would release in North America in early 2013, which can't possibly come fast enough for me. I want to collect its critters, I want to sail its seas, but most of all, I want to know if Oliver ever finds a way to bring his mother back, and whether he will finally make his peace with it if he can't.
Vince Ingenito loves his mother to pieces, and when he isn't writing reviews and previews for Total Playstation, he's rambling on Twitter as @WK_VGAMS.
