Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom’s New Battle System Might Just Have Been A Step in the Wrong Direction

Ni No Kuni’s only real resemblance to the original game is its art style. Even that is kind-of aping what Studio Ghibli does, because the acclaimed studio isn’t actually working with Level-5 on the game like it did on the first. The result is like something you’d see between installments of Final Fantasy - the game may bear the same name as its forebear, but the only real similarities are superficial. That works for the title, and against it.

The game's battle system is unlike previous RPG Wrath of the White Witch. Instead, Ni No Kuni 2 is a much more action-orientated affair. That may have some JRPG purists running for cover, but don’t worry: there’s still a satisfying amount of depth in the game, and a decent amount of thinking is required to react to dynamic situations that present themselves in battle.

This is handily explained to you by Lofty, the in-game familiar that sort-of acts like Drippy from the first game. The game revolves around both short- and long-range attacks, and both can be either cast immediately or charged to do over double damage (with extra animation frames, too). This means that most battles will have you watching bosses for attack animations and cycles, waiting to figure out when you know you can unleash a charged attack or rush in with quick ones. 

The game also introduces ways to dodge and block incoming attacks, so you can make protagonist Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum (amazing name, by the way) into a nimble, responsive fighter very easily. Anyone that’s played a Monster Hunter or even something like DmC or Bayonetta will get that side of things down, whilst players of the Tales Of series will get the attack system. 

It takes the best bits of some other RPGs and smushes them together, but then the Higgledy add another layer onto that, too. The Higgledy are sort-of a replacement for the previous game’s familiars - they will assist you in battle by peppering your enemies with damage, but you must make your way to clusters of them to trigger certain abilities (Greens will heal you, Reds will damage the enemy and so on). Some of the battles we’ve played seem to rely on this mechanic a bit too heavily, and it seems to artificially draw out the length of the encounters… which isn’t always fun. Especially when your companion AI at times seems a bit… simple.

Our E3 demo was limited to just two kinds of encounters, sadly, so we can’t say much about how well (or badly) the world is put together outside the careful eye of Studio Ghibli. The combat is satisfying, and the start of each encounter we were pretty excited about the massive beasts and amazingly well put together minions we were fighting, but towards the end of the bouts we were starting to get fatigued.

This, of course, is based on an early demo, so the balance might change by the time the title actually releases. For now, we know there is a specific type of RPG fan that is going to get on well with bullet sponge bosses and go here, do this battle mechanics, but it left us longing for the tight turn-based system of the previous game more than anything else. Still, at least it looks incredibly pretty, right?