I played the first Ni no Kuni game on PS3, not the DS version (the PS version has a bit more content and a little different story from what I understood). I originally got interested in it because Studio Ghibli was involved in the graphical & music design of the game and it is obvious: the artwork in general is very beautiful and has a lot of details, as is usual in Studio Ghiblis aesthetics. The creature designs are very varied, as is fitting for a monster collector game. The soundtrack is made by Joe Hisashi, which also is again on an expert level. The few cutscenes are also wonderfully animated. Especially the design of the titular White Witch and her zodiac council was great. I am a sucker for that moving space effect of her cloak.

Another great part of this game is the in-game grimoire, which you need to fill with pages in order to learn spells and learn more about this world. Every new area, item and monster has a page inside it you need to unlock. They also included in game fairy tales, which are always connected to some in game event or mechanic, fleshing out the world. And there are even some nice little hidden puzzles in there. In the DS version you cast spells by drawing the runes which are shown in the grimoire with the stylus yourself, which was probably a nice immersive mechanic, but on the PS you just select it from a menu, making it quicker and easier.

2 other reasons that made this game enjoyable for me are the world building and the story. The story is classic good versus evil, but it includes some nice twists and if well told, I do enjoy a classic fairy tale. The different parts of the world are all interesting and unique in design and style. While the main character and story mostly put the game into the games for kids box, some of the background story is rather dark, which is why I love it. For example you see some strange round archipelago-like things in the ocean and then later you find a story telling you about some kind of mage war in the past and a sunk city and then you realise: oh, that was where that one city stood and it was completely annihilated by magical nukes. Or the zombieplague… Suffice it to say, the main story is for kids, the background not necessarily. But they probably will not make those connections in the first place, so it’s fine to let them play it.

But you might have wondered that I didn’t include the gameplay as one of its strength and that is for good reason. I didn’t enjoy it but saw it as a necessity to advance. One big part is that they draw out the tutorial far too long. Yes, JRPGs are long games, but when they introduce new concepts after 10 hours, which would have helped earlier… I can understand those, who stopped playing. In addition I could never get the AI to work as I wanted it, misusing spells and precious MP, so I completely disabled it and had to do everything myself, which made it less fun. But that might be my perfectionism speaking. And finally the grinding. Oh god the grinding. While it wasn’t really necessary for completing the game, the grind to 100% it is simply bullshit. The RNG to get certain gold enemies to spawn is far too low and then you need to catch them and that’s where I stopped and said: OK, I’m done. Another problem is that newly caught monsters need to be trained to evolve and then they are weak again and need to be trained again. So best option is to get a team that you like and is varied enough and then just keep on playing with that one instead of trying to change your team.

So in conclusion, with this game I’m really torn apart. It’s a great game except in it’s game design.
On the one hand, I recommend it for the world and the atmosphere, but I can not recommend it for the gameplay mechanic, which is… well, the main part of the game. So be aware there is a slooooow pace and a loooot of grinding if you want to catch them all. Or maybe just watch a Let’s Play, to see if it would be up your alley. But at least listen to the OST, because it is awesome, especially this one here which is the theme for the over world map