Destructoid's Jim Sterling and Polygon's Phil Kollar join Kevin to dissect Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and its giant exploding head-genitals.
Kevin hosts Destructoid's Jim Sterling and Polygon's Phil Kollar to dissect Level 5's Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Or, as Jim calls it, "Role-Playing Game: The Role-Playing Game." How great are the Welsh? How solid is the White Witch's game plan? We have all the answers, plus a question of our own: how painful is it to insert a dangling lamp into one's nose piercing?
It would be great if someone could get back to us on that.
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Kevin VanOrd is a lifelong RPG lover and violin player. When he isn't busy building PCs and composing symphonies, he watches American Dad reruns with his fat cat, Ollie.
I like that they never tell you whether the other world is real or not. They let the idea grow that Oliver is using the world to cope with his loss, and that's the perspective I took (I think all good fantasy enriches the real world), but someone could still take it literally. It's more interesting that it could go either way and it's one of the storytelling aspects that the game actually trusts the user to take a stance on.
This might be one of my favorite episodes. I would like to suggest that you guys do this more. I do love Gamespot Gameplay so is it possible for a game discussion to get its own show? It is so interesting for people to sit down and just discuss what they like and didn't like about a game. I feel this would be beneficial not only for fellow gamers, but for developers as well because they will be able to hear what the consumers liked and didn't like.
I love you guys, keep up the good work and interesting segments.
I totally do the stair test in games. It feels good to know that I'm not alone in that field.
I'm not sure who was the guy who gave this game a 6.5, but based on what Ive seen, what my friends have told me and what my customers have told me 6.5 doesn't seem right... granted its his opinion.
@FreedomPrime 6.5 is a little low, but 9.0 is much too high. The high scores are due to it's visuals, and character/creature designs, NOT because the gameplay is actually any good (because it's quite frankly downright bad).
@FreedomPrime His opinion is his own, that being said my opinion is that his opinion is wrong.
5 Like I used to have a 360...microsoft disappointed me with weak exclusives. I sold it..got a ps3. Good decision!
1 Like @FreedomPrime I understand your position Prime. However, I cannot afford to have two systems. Also, I am indeed a PC gamer at heart. If I can buy a game for pc I usually do. My ps3 is just for exclusives. I enjoy all forms of gaming. The thing is, the 360 exclusives were just not what I was looking for in games. It seems to me like the 360 has more FPS and that genre does not attract me anymore. Cheers
@Aleksanian I had a 360, bought a ps3, then built a High end PC. status, real gamer with no biased opinion.
1 Like I'm seriously considering buying a PS3 JUST so I can play this game.
Blast ye Ghibli and Level 5.
@Keeper963 Just wait a bit more until PS4 comes out. Prices on PS3 are surely to drop. Ha, you thought I'd advice you to buy a PS4. No, don't do that just yet.
Thought about that. I imagine they will drop, but only by a tiny margin. Sony is already losing money per machine, so the only real pricedrop I see coming would be if the Xbox 720 reduces the prices of the 360 reasonably.
Then Sony will have to follow suit.
2 Like @Keeper963Ni Ni Kuni then Last of Us and God of War will be out this year. Definitely can't go wrong with PS3
@Solid_Azeus @Keeper963 Yeah I tried looking for the game but it's sold out, makes me hate retailers again. I've only played the PC for the past 13 years and it makes me feel happy that we don't have to deal with that now we have Steam. The consoles have their online services but half the time the games aren't on there or they're a complete rip off. Ni No Kuni is £35 for the boxed copy but it was like £50-60 on their store. However logging on now it's not even on there any more..........
The closest retailer to me is like 30 miles away which is a lot to people in the UK and I traveled there and they didn't have it in stock....
I bought a second hand 60GB launch PS3 for MGS4 and this is the first time I've used it since lol, I played around 20 mins of MGS4 and realized I've grown up and the story is stupid and couldn't stand it lol.
The player needs a volume button and the download link needs to be separate from the player so people who don't have Flash on their phones can download it.
@Tixylixx Sorry about that; it's the very nature of the SoundCloud player. The best solution? Subscribe on iTunes or through your favorite podcast player! Links below.
@blackrunie @Tixylixx Cause it is their site, they edit it and can put an MP3 link on their own site......
you asked for the download link to be seperate from the player, that'd mean editing the player itself, which gamespot can't do, since it's not their player.
you could've explained it better, in which case i wouldn't have replied. you could've just said ''i wish there was a seperate download link for phone users without flash'', instead you asked the download link to be seperated from the player.
@Ippongi_Ryuta Tales is a great series, I need to get to Xillia, but there is no need to compare them. Play em both, cause they're both brilliant games!
1 Like @psuedospike @Ippongi_Ryuta I did play them both, that's why I know why which I prefer, Xillia 2 is better than NNK, but I think NNK is superior to the first Xillia.
No hate, just love :'D Thanks, I enjoyed this spoilercast! I really appreciate it when a person can review a videogame neutrally, and honestly tell it's flaws and good things without exaggerating.
I love listening to the podcasts, but I can't spoil this game. I will be picking it up in the next few weeks and it will be even longer before I finish it. Wonder if I will ever get to listen to this show.
About a year ago I watched in some bafflement as my wife (Japanese) sank over 100 hours of her life into this game. Now that it's been localized for the West, she's demanding I give it a try. And now that I know it's based in the valleys of South Wales (that's accurate right?) my heritage is demanding that I give it a try. No escape. Cymru am byth!
@AnyMorePie All the Fariys (which Drippy is the "Lord" of...) speak in Welsh accents because in Japanese they speak with Osaka accents, so since Oliver has a British accent the Fairy's have Welsh accents, just like I suppose if Oliver had an American accent Drippy would have a southern accent or maybe a Boston accent...I tried in in Japanese and English and they are both great! The Japanese is a tad more conversational in it's flow, but English translation is terrific...just liken it to the Disney translations of Ghibli movies as a comparison.
@AnyMorePie Drippy your companion with the lantern hanging off his nose, has a Welsh accent
This game is cool but way over hyped. A solid 7.5 is a good rating for this. It's not wack, but definitely not for everyone. On a good note, Ni No Kuni is a perfect entry level game for anyone new to RPG's though. Whether you're a JRPG fan or not, the animations are the coolest thing about this game. Unfortunately you end up reading tons of text bubble dialog midway into the game.
Ni No Kuni holds your hand waaaay too much with tons of menu and combat tutorials. The 1st few hours are overwhelmingly slow. Almost like watching a tortoise walk across your living room floor.
Catching Familiars should involve something simple like setting a trap instead of battling the same Familiar over and over until one of them decides to join your party. I really want to like this game because I want to support new IP's but I am having a hard time staying awake whenevr I play this. Hopefully things will pick up soon.
@HipHopBeats I love RPGs and I beat the game and think it's a perfect 10. It is far too difficult at times to be called entry level for sure! That and the alchemy is never spelled out for you exactly and the puzzles are more logic based than straight up go here and do this kind of thing in most RPGs (*cough* Skyrim). I guess it's personal taste, if you don't like beautiful anime style, Pokemon elemnts or Dragon Quest tropes you are not gonna like this game.
Still the rep Ni No Kuni gets as a kids game is the same thing that happened to Wind Waker when it first came out and look at how people look back on that game now!
1 Like @HipHopBeats How much have you played the game and how into RPG games are you? I know for many RPG fans like myself it has been a long dry spell this generation and this is a game myself and many have been dreaming for. I didn't think we would be seeing any games like this in the current generation.
Everyone is free to have their own opinions on a game I am just curious what it was you didn't care for as much with the game that makes you feel it wasn't deserving of a 9.
1 Like The game is definitely not 9.0 material. It does have way too many problems, but many people, Kevin included gloss over them because of it's presentation and because there's been far too few many decent JRPGs this gen. It's got an amazing presentation, but it's doesn't offer anything new and has combat mechanics (due to the AI) that are flat out awful. There's also way too much handholding and mechanics that are plot blocked.
@Isaac_Redfield I think you're probably right. I'm almost embarrassed to say that I sunk over 300 hours into Dark Souls. Granted they are totally different games but there is no way this game will captivate me the way DkS did. I didn't even stick with Skyrim that long.
To go from a general consensus of 9.0 to 6.5 this guy that gave it the low score must of had more than "a few issues" with the game. IMO a game that's rated 6.5 is NOT worth buying. I hate listening to this because I haven't played the game but I think I really need to hear what the gentleman who gave the 6.5 score has to say before buying it.
@push88 You could go to Polygon and read the review, I'm sure there won't be major spoilers there. Just trying to help out ha
@faizanhd They shoulda just called it: "Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and the free XXX drunk blonde boobs". lulz
BTW - Drippy's Mah did have clearly visible XXX boobs on the island! There are two hills below her face if you pay attention. Such a terrific game. If you love a good RPG like Dragon Quest, Studio Ghibli design and Pokemon elements this game is a perfect 10.
THe best part about the Lama dude was the Lama keeper, if you talk to him after giving the lama different food he asks why you're feeding him all those strange foods. The side quests were great, they turned simple fetch quests into emotional sub-plots. That and the overall plot was beautiful and made perfect sense. The only real problem with the game was the MP consumption. Even late in the game you can't go more than 3 rounds without using Items...which I guess is what makes the Colosseum challenges so hard. Try Level S - even at lvl.75+ it's wicked hard! There is a ton of post game stuff!
@Kevin-V Dude, do you really think I'm taking this seriously? What the balls, please google search "lulz".
In all seriousness though this podcast felt longer than the 65 hours I put into Ni No Kuni cause it's so boring and tedious. It's just a bunch of dudes nitpicking all the details of the plot through very opinionated lenses. I guess there's no other way to do an hour long podcast about this game, but when I talked about it with my DnD friends it was like fans of games and Ghibli talking about all the great things this game was whereas you guys generally sound like 60 year old Jewish women complaining about the weather...(I went out n bought a new humor sense for that joke since my earlier lampoon of your podcast title fell so flat).
;)
@psuedospike Dude--it's clearly a reference to something I mention in this very podcast. That, in turn, is a fun way of describing an event that yes, indeed, very much happens in this game. Get a sense of humor :/
@faizanhd @psuedospike Well, to be fair, Ni no Kuni doesn't have any XXX drunk blonde boobs--but it does indeed feature a giant exploding head-v*****.
