Ni No Kuni Official Thread

I need more god damned time to play this game. 

My soul is still dancing.  

thorstein


 

Whoooop
I noticed Ni No Kuni's battle system isn't turn based, but it's a similar battle system where you stand in the same place...

Not sure if you realized this but no, you don't have to "Stand in Place" In fact, even if you are surprised, you can start running around as soon as a battle starts! And as you battle you can pick up MP and HP drops from the monsters you are battling, so it is important to move. And when you face off against monsters with slower attacks, you can get out of the way and hit them from behind!

After I wrote that I wondered if I was right about not been able to move since I wasn't really sure, but didn't want to edit my comment. Anyway, you still have to choose between attacking, defending, etc.  You also have to swap companions to so they can fight, etc, etc, right?  That whole system is one of the things I hate the most about JRPG's.

And like I mentioned in the same post you quoted, but left out, you will notice that even if the combat is completely real-time with no turn-based attack between characters, I will still find them unappealing due to their general art-style. Although Ni No Kuni's art-style is rather appealing.

I just unlocked the ability to evolve(metamorph) and catch more familiars. Apparently familiars have a certain percentage of joining your group after you defeat them. They'll pop back up and you have a certain amount of time to "serenade" them into joining you. According to the guide, the highest percentage of a familiar joining you is 18%, so it's not as easy as throwing a pokeball and catching them. Most of the ones I looked at were 4%-6% for wanting to join you, but I'm sure there's something that makes it higher.

The emphasis on attack vs defend in this game amazes me. I can't really think of any other RPG that relies on defense and team balance as much as this game does. And with 300+ familiars that are mostly blanced, there are sooo many combination possibilities that I feel like almost no two games would be the same.

I'm about 20 hours in. I like the gameplay mechanics, but there are lots of little things I still dislike about RPGs/JRPGs that obviously one game isn't going to change for me. Having said that, the game is pretty fun, if not clunky at times (sifting through menus while dodging when you've got a ton of bound attacks/options can be tedious, especially if you're as far away as possible from "Defend" lol).

The game is actually pretty tough and that's good, but I wish my followers were smarter. I've resorted to giving them some of my best familiars, alas, they cannot handle themselves well at all during boss battles and end up dying rather soon, sometimes regardless of the tactics I give them. Oh well. I usually just finish things myself...


The evolution system is great. Really looking forward to getting further evolved. And I've actually found a good chunk of the side quests to be fun.

All in all, excellent game, better than other JRPGs for someone like me who dislikes them. It probably won't win you over if you totally hate (J)RPGs, but it's probably one of the better examples of old and new mixture. Valkyria Chronicles is still my favourite RPG this generation though. I'll post my story-end impressions whenever I get around to completing the main game

Yeah the AI has got to get fixed, its my main problem with the game, and I wish we could bind the P.D. action to a button, nothing worse then being half a second away from Defend/Evade

KozmoOchez


Yeah the AI has got to get fixed, its my main problem with the game, and I wish we could bind the P.D. action to a button, nothing worse then being half a second away from Defend/Evade

Complete agreement man. Great game, but those are the two things that tend to put me off most. At least one review I read mentioned that the AI is rather competent, but I just haven't had that experience myself against any tough enemies. "Do What You Like" might as well read "Get Yourself Killed", and the other orders don't seem to be much better a lot of the time

I just have a problem with the fact that Esther will fight without a freaking familiar if I have her set to heal us. She has no physical attack skills, yet she's running up and swinging her harp doing 1 damage until she gets killed.  Maybe its because they want us to control everyone, so they purposely make them do dumb things

KozmoOchez


I just have a problem with the fact that Esther will fight without a freaking familiar if I have her set to heal us. She has no physical attack skills, yet she's running up and swinging her harp doing 1 damage until she gets killed.  Maybe its because they want us to control everyone, so they purposely make them do dumb things

Esther is the weakest of the party for sure. Her Drongo packs a serious magical attack punch though, provided you manage her MP during battle. She seems to make some pretty bad choices though...


I'm at about 25 hours in and the game just keeps getting better over time. I would suggest acquiring one or two Little Big Horns from the volcano as early as possible and leveling it. They have extremely good physical defense once you've leveled them enough. I grinded for hours just to acquire two of them, it was a serious pain. Luckily, every other familiar I wanted to capture took nowhere near as long. In the end it's all RNG anyway


At Hamelin now. My enjoyment of the game grows as time goes on for sure. The last boss I fought [minor spoilers?] was that squid thing in the Fairylands, and it was very fun. Learning the "All Out Attack" and "All Out Defense" stuff is pretty important too, lets you quickly command everyone if the enemy is charging its animation-sequence attack / pull off desperation tactics if your party is low on health/resources but so is the enemy

aaahhhhh...good to know that there is something for that. I always thought that it was weird that there was no way to get your AI buddies to defend against those attacks. Also, according to the guide, Little Bighorn has an 8% chance of wanting to join you after you defeat it. Also Little Bighorn is the Pikachu of the familiars as it is #1 in the Creature Compendium/Pokedex thing.

5 hours in and this game is awesome! The gameplay is great from the start. Just got the chick. Her bird is good, and now that the monkey is a high level he is my go-to character. I think this game is even better than VC. I hope I can buy the wizard book seperate.

OMG this thread is making me drool

TooTall19


5 hours in and this game is awesome! The gameplay is great from the start. Just got the chick. Her bird is good, and now that the monkey is a high level he is my go-to character. I think this game is even better than VC. I hope I can buy the wizard book seperate.

Have fun with that, I read those things were going for like $400(the whole bundle not just the Wizard's Companion).  Just get the Prima guide, it has everything but the Wizard's Companion stuff, but it explains more.  I was just checking out the creatures that you can fight in the back of the guide, and apparently there is post game stuff, not that I shouldn't have expected it. Some rare enemies and gold familiars are hanging out in the end game. Also, idk if there's a way to find this outside of the guide, but there are 3 levels of growth: Normal, Early, and Late. Normal is even stat boots throughout. Early is for familiars that grow quickly, then become weaker than normal familiars late in game. Late bloomers are the best for post game since they get ridiculous strong later in the game at high levels (the book says 80+)


There are a bunch of secret little tactics that you can't find in the Wizard's Companion.

I was just wondering, for anyone who is playing, what is your strategy with collecting familiars? I know it's hard to tell if you don't have a guide that shows you their stats, but I was just wondering if anyone has an actual strategy.

I'm sort of going by looks honestly, and then from there I'm going by late game strategy - what they excel at the most. Whenever one of them wants to join me, I check their stats in the book and decide based on how strong they will be in any particular stat. Not sure if any of this works yet, but we'll see.

I haven't bought a Japanese style RPG in a long time, the last one was blue dragon. I liked certain things about it but it din't draw me in.

I have some very important tips for new players that you will want to consider (regarding Metamorphosis):


You will read online that pulling off a metamorphosis when a creature is max level every time will increase its stats. This is true, by about 20 points total if you max level first between both evolution stages. However, this is extremely, extremely tedious and certainly not necessary. The ideal time to metamorphose is when your current familiar has learned all the tricks you want it to learn in that form (so if you want all the tricks, then metamorphose it as soon as it has all of them). In the end, those 20 points vs. the amount of extra grinding you'll have to do is ridiculous, but I guess if your goal is to have an ultimate maxed out team then you can go ahead and do that. One thing to note is if you do the metamorphosis too early and miss out on a trick you wanted, you may not be able to learn it again. For example, Gogo as a Strongo can learn Crosswind at Level 35 I think. But you can metamorphose earlier. If you do this, it will not have the Crosswind ability, nor do either of its third forms learn this via leveling.


As for late bloomers, it's good to have some for end game stuff since their stats spike much more notably than doing what I said above (as far as I've read at least). Like the Bone Baron for example, is one late bloomer I plan to make.


EDIT: With Tokotoko farming, this becomes a little less painful. I would stay still it's not necessary to max a familiar for gameplay purposes, unless you are purposefully trying to just for stats. The Dinoceros is one familiar that I did max between evolutionary stages because his level caps are low between forms (10, 20, 28 - although getting to 28 in his last form actually takes forever.)

yeah what he said lol...I read in the guide that its only a 10-20 point difference. I leveled my Small Fry only about 3 levels past his metamorphoses level and he had a 13 point bonus over Deep Fry's base attack.  I also noticed that elementals can be HUGE when they have high magic attack, especially fast ones like Seed Sprite. Run away, hit, high chance for gold glims. 

Also, if you find yourself using just one familiar, go grab a weakling and level it up, you never know which one may come out and be useful at any particular point - it makes a big deal when entering in a new place.

As long as you don't stick the AI with a bunch of underleveled/newly evolved monsters you should be alright for the most part. If I'm trying to level something I try to keep it on Oliver since that way I don't have to worry about Swaine. Esther seems to perpetually suck, but even she can sometimes do something alright








WHOOOAAAAA


I love this game! This game is seriously all about tactics. I went in to the fight against Void Of Confidence pretty underleveled (haven't grinded in ages, and I have a bunch of low-level fully-evolved monsters) and got WRECKED. Swaine, Esther, dead. Then eventually I couldn't hold out by myself and I also died. In the process I wasted a ton of items.


Then I decided instead of grinding I would just do it again and play more solidly. Went into the tactics menu, told Esther to Keep Us Healthy, told Swaine to Provide Backup, and as Oliver I was just gonna go all out. Did my War Cry, got in as many intercept attacks (attack when it flashes blue, literally 2 frames to do this) as possible, and whenever the bastard tried to do an Oil Spill I quickly blocked and issued an All Out Defense command (VITAL if you want your teammates to block). Every time we all blocked we pretty much definitely got a golden glim, and between Gogo's Ice Age and the Mite's Slash Dance, Void Of Confidence got absolutely wrecked. I only used one cappuccino to restore Esther's MP so she could keep casting.


All about tactics. Leveling obviously matters, but you can pull some crazy stuff off if you just play solidly. I have just confirmed for myself that this game is the potentially the best game I've played on the PS3, sitting right at the level of Valkyria Chronicles. Must-buy for anyone who loves tactical gameplay.

Yeah tactics and a little bit of luck - I'll go into a random battle that I normally have the upper hand in, forget to pay attention to everyone then next thing I know, its 3 against one and I'm running for my life.

Another thing on familiars, now that all of mine have hit their second stage, I'm starting to notice some that are getting MUCH stronger in certain stats compared to the ones I started with, so I'm finally starting to replace some. DO NOT GET ATTACHED TO FAMILIARS!!! That will hold you back. I know it sounds silly, but I've played plenty RPGs where I got attached to someone and that held me back (pokemon and valkyria chronicles are good examples). If you find a familiar that is increasing stats faster, replace the weaker one and open up room for something else to level up or for a potential new familiar. For example: Mighty might is lvl 25, has higher familiarity level and +7 food boost, and his physical attack is at 109. Cutpurrse is at level 15 with only +4 in food boost and his attack is already at 104 - and they have the same weapon. Long story short, Mighty might is about to get replaced as soon as I find a tank or elemental that I really want - or maybe another speed familiar, but one that specializes in physical attack instead of magic


EDIT: I also found that its a better idea that if you are going to metamorph or just need to level a newby up, give it to someone its compatible with while it's not in use to get it done faster. I have oliver with three milites, but only to level them up, then I'll send one back to swain and the other is first to get replaced when the time comes

Guys what are your thoughts on the story, if you had to choose a Final Fantasy title, which has a story on par with Ni No Kuni, which one would it be ??

9 I guess. FF9 was the story with the most charm and characters that all came together to help someone - less about revenge or whatever. Also it was the one with the biggest variety of fanciful NPCs which this game has sooo much of.


Man the little things this game adds to details just make me so happy. I just found out that when reading chapter 5 in the Wizard's Companion (creatures and familiars), that if you zoom in on bosses and first stage familiars, it changes from a static page in the book to a moving animation as if you were battling it - like something out of Harry Potter