Summary:
Ni No Kuni is much like a jawbreaker hard candy. It's delightfully sweet and lasts a long time but isn't nourishing and you'll grow tired of it at times. Its best features include richly detailed, Studio Ghibli style visuals and a grand, orchestral soundtrack with memorable melodies. These truly belong in the top echelon of not just gaming, but other media as well.
I found the game's story and characters to be less consistently excellent. The tale both starts and finishes strong, however, the bulk of the middle of the game is less impactful. A formula becomes apparent in the structure of how the game progresses, contributing to the sense that the middle is unnecessarily padded for the sake of game length (roughly 60 hours). The game also holds your hand so fiercely that you can shut your brain off and still never have any doubts of what you are supposed to do next. Because of this and some of the story and character beats I couldn't shake the sense that this game is aimed more at children than adults, even if ideally it should appeal to both.
Frequent boss battles keep combat from going stale even once standard battles have grown repetitive and grindy. Fans of Pokémon-like games should enjoy the multitude of familiars you can befriend and utilize in battle. Side content can add 20+ hours to the game and varies in quality from time wasting tasks to comedic distractions to enticing glimpses into this world's past.
Full review:
As a Studio Ghibli fan I was drawn to this game because of that connection and its stellar reviews. I have never played another Level 5 game. From a visual and audio perspective it lived up to or exceeded my high expectations. Cell shaded games can tend to look oversimplified but that is definitely not the case here. Details are abundant and even plain surfaces have tantalizing textures and touches of color that make this world look vibrant and inviting. The soundtrack adds even more life to the sensory delights. The only complaint I can level at it is that a few tracks are overused, but I'll gladly accept this case of quality over quantity.
Unfortunately the narrative isn't able to sustain a Studio Ghibli level of warmhearted charm and strength of character over the course of such a long adventure. It is heavily front- and back-loaded with the vast majority of key plot points happening within the first and last ~8 hours of the game. Additionally, voice acted dialogue and animated cutscenes are bountiful in the beginning then nearly nonexistent in the middle, creating false expectations. I'm not saying the middle 3/4ths of the game is all filler. There are some interesting subplots explored there. But to enjoy this section you need to be OK with short, world-building stories that are specific to the area you are visiting. All while the central plot thread is, at times, nearly forgotten on the backburner.
Without getting into specifics I will say that the ending satisfyingly ties off many questions that have been lingering since early on. It is the unanswered questions that I find most interesting. There are subtle moments that children playing the game aren't likely to pick up on that draw into question the true nature of what is happening in this game. This is left open to interpretation but serves as the best food for thought that the game has to offer.
Ni No Kuni's dialogue writing is a success in that I believe it does what it set out to do in a highly polished, lively manner. It is very clear, occasionally funny, and each character's speech styles are accurately represented in text. My issue with it is one of style. For starters, it is often overly verbose. It is also so direct that it can gain an air of speaking down to a child that is borderline insulting to players' intelligence. When voice acting is present it is of high quality and is delivered in an exaggerated, cheerful style that stays just below the line of becoming sappy.
Those characters that receive nicely fleshed out backstories make up the heart of the game. Their stories are complex and gratifying. Unfortunately, numerous side characters and even a couple of the primary ones tend to fall into clichés. Pervading the game is a positivity and cheerfulness that hardly ever wanes, even in the face of horrible events. This makes the characters better role models but less realistic and easy to relate to.
I got the sense that Level 5 wanted to do more with the combat system than what ended up in the final product. There are a few details that could be used to give you an advantage but are so unnecessary and under explained that you can completely ignore them. Balance among familiars is very haphazard with some being nearly useless while others are over powered. Party member AI is also poor and has too few options for customization. They tend to awkwardly run into things, waste MP and generally make bizarre decisions. Despite its flaws, the system does no worse in regular battles than most RPGs and excels at boss fights. For what is otherwise a very easy game, the combat is surprisingly challenging.
A less noticed feature I'd like to draw attention to is the thoughtful use of the camera. In towns and dungeons it is a very well functioning mid range 3rd person camera like you might expect in this kind of game. A small but appreciated addition is the easy ability to switch to 1st person with a click in of a joystick. Out on the world map the camera pulls back to give you a broader view. It is the use of a fixed angle camera in Oliver's home world to subtly differentiate it from the fantasy world that drew my attention to how much thought went into camera use.
There are a couple of cool end game optional quest lines that build on world lore and reveal hidden character information. Other optional tasks throughout the game range from fun, mini boss bounty hunts to a tiresome group of recurring NPCs that are constantly asking for help with the same type of task they asked you for last time. They try to turn the repetition into a joke, but that joke stops being funny well before it's been repackaged for the fourth time.
My final playtime in order to complete all main content and essentially all side content was 81 hours. My personal taste would prefer to have the game significantly edited down to be shorter.