Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

[Daft]

That's not too far in, but in many ways that's good keep playing the game at a pace that suits you, that's what I'm doing; still nowhere near finished at around the fifty hours or so mark as I love doing side-quests.

 

It's easily one of the best RPG's I've played in a good while.

 

Yeah, I'm happy to just chug along and not binge on it, like I do with 99% of games.

 

The boss in that area kicked my butt. Probably one of the hardest bosses in the game for me.

 

He's the boss in the demo, I think. I've been wary as I approach him. Think I'm going to grind a little before I go for it. Esther is so shit at staying alive, though. She really can't look after herself and I need to work out how to stop her buggering up my fights.

[Rummy]

 

Yeah, I'm happy to just chug along and not binge on it, like I do with 99% of games.

 

 

 

He's the boss in the demo, I think. I've been wary as I approach him. Think I'm going to grind a little before I go for it. Esther is so shit at staying alive, though. She really can't look after herself and I need to work out how to stop her buggering up my fights.

 

Does she have any healer familiars? I find she kinda does ok with some(though I still have to watch and heal her myself sometimes) - I'm on easy though. I also haven't played since last week.

[Daft]

Yeah, she has two familiar the heal but just seems utterly incompetent. Her familiars are more powerful than mine. Maybe she just constantly uses up her MP. I'll have to watch her more closely next time.

[Agent Gibbs]

have you altered her tactics? her drongo is a real keeper and is my main healer at the moment

 

IF you have a tank/damage absorber give her it, when i went through there i had the griffin from the amazon pre-order, but i also had one of the skeletons from the desert and they become really good tanks (so far for me anyway)

[Daft]

She's got Draggle who is awesome - he can take a crap load of damage and has pretty great attack too, at the moment. She has Drongo and also that familiar you get in the Golden Forest place...before the desert village. I probably need to give them better equipment.

 

Do the tactics reset every battle? I think she's just on the default tactic.

[Hero-of-Time]

She's got Draggle who is awesome - he can take a crap load of damage and has pretty great attack too, at the moment. She has Drongo and also that familiar you get in the Golden Forest place...before the desert village. I probably need to give them better equipment.

 

Do the tactics reset every battle? I think she's just on the default tactic.

 

Yeah, stick her on healer tactic and she works a lot better.

 

I found the AI still burns through MP, no matter what setting you have it on. I changed it to do nothing while I was stealing goods for the alchemy trophy, but the AI were still casting spells all over the place.

[drahkon]

I changed it to do nothing while I was stealing goods for the alchemy trophy, but the AI were still casting spells all over the place.

 

All-out defense is the way to go.

[Rummy]

Oh yeah, she rinses her MP like nobody's business! Not sure how much work went into the AI really.

 

Daft mentioned Draggle though and it made me think - what's the bonus offered by giving people familiar types that they like? Like the 3 symbols they have when you switch them between(I know Oliver likes fighty ones like mighty and purloiner, and types like draggle too)

[ThePigMarcher]

I'm sure the 'Mad Scientist' trophy is going to break me, I'm now up to 119 created items and it looks like I'll have no choice but to go after a few more Kaleidostones or Scrolls of Truth* and it's been a slog with nothing dropping AT ALL. It's not been helped by the fact that despite being set to 'All-Defend' and 'Do nothing' the AI has still found a way to grab the last couple of gold glims that have dropped.

 

*One or two other recipes may just be possible but they also involve items that seem to be very rare steals but also not the rarest of items for the creatures that hold them so the gold glim method can't be relied upon either.

[Hero-of-Time]

I'm sure the 'Mad Scientist' trophy is going to break me, I'm now up to 119 created items and it looks like I'll have no choice but to go after a few more Kaleidostones or Scrolls of Truth* and it's been a slog with nothing dropping AT ALL. It's not been helped by the fact that despite being set to 'All-Defend' and 'Do nothing' the AI has still found a way to grab the last couple of gold glims that have dropped.

 

*One or two other recipes may just be possible but they also involve items that seem to be very rare steals but also not the rarest of items for the creatures that hold them so the gold glim method can't be relied upon either.

 

You don't need any rare items to get the trophy. The only time I needed scrolls and stones was when I did the side mission. Other than that you shouldn't need any more as there are enough recipes without them to nab the trophy.

[ThePigMarcher]

You don't need any rare items to get the trophy. The only time I needed scrolls and stones was when I did the side mission. Other than that you shouldn't need any more as there are enough recipes without them to nab the trophy.

 

Will have to keep searching then, I'm also struggling with Evil Eyes, All Seeing Eyes and Glowstones which would prevent me having to worry about the really rare stuff, so I may just persevere with those instead. I'm also missing three recipes which I'm hoping will be given to me when I finish my one last remaining quest

The Smiley and Surly one

.

 

TBH, I didn't actually realise that the recipe list gave you an indication for which recipes you'd already completed until I was 75hrs in so I can guarantee that I wasted some materials on creating items that I thought I hadn't. That's the price I pay for stupidity

[Hero-of-Time]

Will have to keep searching then, I'm also struggling with Evil Eyes, All Seeing Eyes and Glowstones which would prevent me having to worry about the really rare stuff, so I may just persevere with those instead. I'm also missing three recipes which I'm hoping will be given to me when I finish my one last remaining quest

The Smiley and Surly one

.

 

TBH, I didn't actually realise that the recipe list gave you an indication for which recipes you'd already completed until I was 75hrs in so I can guarantee that I wasted some materials on creating items that I thought I hadn't. That's the price I pay for stupidity

 

I got loads of all seeing eyes around the corridor I was farming Tokocold from. I dunno which enemy dropped them but I certainly had a lot. I never farmed any glowstones as they are a rare drop/steal from the gold enemies.

[ThePigMarcher]

I got loads of all seeing eyes around the corridor I was farming Tokocold from. I dunno which enemy dropped them but I certainly had a lot. I never farmed any glowstones as they are a rare drop/steal from the gold enemies.

 

I do think it was largely due to me wasting them recreating items and then not having much luck when I needed them. Thankfully it's a moot point now, just completed the quest I alluded to earlier and I got a new recipe in which the only item I'm missing is Ring-A-Bells so that'll be nice and easy

[Ike]

Boss fights have some major spikes in difficulty. Beat the volcano area boss after multiple attempts. In the end it was more effective to spam Frostbite with Oliver than use my familiars. The Sage's Elixir (or whatever it's called) was very useful but I wouldn't have had any if I hadn't used the familiar drop off thing.

 

At the port town area I'm then thrown into a boss battle without any warning, I hadn't stopped at the inn so my hp and mp were both low. The first time I battle Al-kemi I got a lot if "chance" opportunities which is fair enough but then he goes and has an attack that if not blocked results in an instant kill which he uses at around 25% health remaining which I wasn't expecting. I know he had the countdown but for it to do that much damage? Second round I had Oliver defend then switched to Esther to have her defend but the AI cancelled Oliver's defend and I ran out of time to have Ether defend anyway. third round I just defended with Oliver and then had to revive Esther.

 

Normally I wouldn't mind but the boss battles are pretty long.

 

 

 

No idea if I'm just under levelled, my familiars/party set up suck (normally just stick with Mitey).

 

Battles did get a lot better after I got my second party member though.

[S.C.G]

Boss fights have some major spikes in difficulty. Beat the volcano area boss after multiple attempts. In the end it was more effective to spam Frostbite with Oliver than use my familiars. The Sage's Elixir (or whatever it's called) was very useful but I wouldn't have had any if I hadn't used the familiar drop off thing.

 

At the port town area I'm then thrown into a boss battle without any warning, I hadn't stopped at the inn so my hp and mp were both low. The first time I battle Al-kemi I got a lot if "chance" opportunities which is fair enough but then he goes and has an attack that if not blocked results in an instant kill which he uses at around 25% health remaining which I wasn't expecting. I know he had the countdown but for it to do that much damage? Second round I had Oliver defend then switched to Esther to have her defend but the AI cancelled Oliver's defend and I ran out of time to have Ether defend anyway. third round I just defended with Oliver and then had to revive Esther.

 

Normally I wouldn't mind but the boss battles are pretty long.

 

 

 

No idea if I'm just under levelled, my familiars/party set up suck (normally just stick with Mitey).

 

Battles did get a lot better after I got my second party member though.

 

Trust me Ike, the game just gets better the more you play it I'm nearly Sixtyyyyyy Fouuuuuur! hours in for example and I'm loving it, but then I've really felt this way about the game since the Thirty-Two hour mark or just before whereas I'd just been merely 'really enjoying it' up until that point.

 

Ni No Kuni gives more back as you put more hours in, it's a special RPG indeed.

[Ike]

Don't get me wrong, I do like the game a lot, the boss difficulty just threw me off I guess.

 

Spent most of yesterday doing side quests and doing the bounty hunts. That last Pigeon. Also that quest that required certain familiars was a pain, took me ages to get the last one.

 

Evolved some of my Pokemon familiars but I still need the specific item for some of them.

 

Pretty fun spotting the similarities with Dragon Quest. Would kill for Zoom right now. :P

[Daft]

Boss fights have some major spikes in difficulty. Beat the volcano area boss after multiple attempts. In the end it was more effective to spam Frostbite with Oliver than use my familiars. The Sage's Elixir (or whatever it's called) was very useful but I wouldn't have had any if I hadn't used the familiar drop off thing.

 

At the port town area I'm then thrown into a boss battle without any warning, I hadn't stopped at the inn so my hp and mp were both low. The first time I battle Al-kemi I got a lot if "chance" opportunities which is fair enough but then he goes and has an attack that if not blocked results in an instant kill which he uses at around 25% health remaining which I wasn't expecting. I know he had the countdown but for it to do that much damage? Second round I had Oliver defend then switched to Esther to have her defend but the AI cancelled Oliver's defend and I ran out of time to have Ether defend anyway. third round I just defended with Oliver and then had to revive Esther.

 

Normally I wouldn't mind but the boss battles are pretty long.

 

 

 

No idea if I'm just under levelled, my familiars/party set up suck (normally just stick with Mitey).

 

Battles did get a lot better after I got my second party member though.

 

My GOD, yes. Out of nowhere. And out of nowhere that attack that took like 1000HP off. I missed defend by a split second and my whole party was unsurprisingly KO'd.

 

I was just literally

 

But I'm not amazingly bothered because it was at the end of a long play session. Still, WTF?

 

I am enjoying this game, though.

[drahkon]

Finished the story.

 

Beautiful. Nothing else to say.

[Grazza]

Been playing this over a couple of sessions now. I do like it (I'm hooked) and Ding Dong Dell is one of the most charming RPG villages I've seen, but I do have a few reservations:

 

1) The overworld. First of all, I really must quote Eurogamer's recent article about Dragon Quest VIII (and how it relates to Ni no Kuni).

 

Even so, leaving Dragon Quest 8's opening village (the sun-baiting town of Farebury, to be precise) was quite unlike any departure yet experienced. Before Level 5's game, stepping out of the village into the wide world was more usually a case of stepping out of the village into a world map, an abstraction that allowed players to cross miles of terrain in a few short hops across a piece of on-screen parchment before diving into the next location. In Dragon Quest 8 there was no abstraction: you leave the town gates and step into a world fully formed and fully revealed

 

Pick out the grey crinkle of stonework on the side of some mountain in the distance and, with some blistering effort and the odd fighty interruption, you could trek there, cross-country. Finally, the world-map divide that your suspension of disbelief could never quite bridge was gone, and the video game fairy-tale took a long step towards Tolkien-esque literalism, where every trip is rendered in explicit detail. In prose or on film this kind of descriptive thoroughness can prove stodgy, slowing the story and overwhelming the reader or viewer. But in video game, the opportunity to investigate each thicket and knock on every house door creates immersion, not just a sense of geography but, importantly, of your place within the geography.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-03-dragon-quest-8-journey-of-the-cursed-king-retrospective

 

Lack of abstraction, lack of abstraction... Ever since I read that, I haven't been able to get it out of my head. See, an issue I have with Ni no Kuni is that it takes RPG overworlds back to a different scale to the rest of the game. When you leave a town, you are blatantly aware that you are entering a different "game mode".

 

2) The other thing (arguably related) is that the game is just not as solidly-built as DQ VIII. The town is gorgeous, as I say, but underneath it actually reminds me more of Final Fantasy XII or Xenoblade Chronicles than Dragon Quest. You can't go in any of the normal houses at all, and only the "counter area" of the few shops you can enter. The inn, too, is just a counter. The upstairs is roped-off. There are also invisible walls all over the place. It's not much good having better graphics if the world isn't as explorable.

 

Ding Dong Dell has a very large castle as its focal point, yet this too is basically just a throne room. When the King told me he didn't know where his wand was, I thought I was going to be able to search the castle... but no. It's a shame, because the castle looks absolutely fantastic! In Dragon Quest, you even have to find the throne rooms yourself - you can also climb up all the spiral staircases, climb the turrets, look down from the battlements etc.

 

...

 

Anyway, I am enjoying this game and I realise it's not meant to be Dragon Quest, but considering it's Level-5's first "big" game since DQ VIII I had hoped they'd carry a bit more of that quality over. I've just got a nagging feeling that the PS2 game was a complete one-off.

[Sheikah]

Yeah I think it's fair to say the same level of expense wasn't given to making the world and environments here as in DQ8. Still great though.

[Pit-Jr]

Wasn't the DS the lead platform on this? That would explain the simplistic overworld

[Rummy]

I agree with the criticisms. Along with Drippy's hand holding, it feels a half linear adventure; though this is abated by the sidequests and bounties somewhat. Anyhoo, almost a month later I finally picked this up again yesterday. Just could not defeat ol' Grosso so I went out, caught some stuff/grabbed some wind based stuff and grinded up a bit - turns out that was enough for me to go back and give him a kicking. Only played a few minutes after, confused by the strange/unexplained turn of events immediately following; but maybe it'll come back to it.

[Agent Gibbs]

i've killed a lot of enjoyment i had for the game by over grinding and training pokemon Monsters, i've just got to Peridia and my characters are lvl 83 and my monsters are between lvl38 and 75! I had some shit monsters on my team and really didn't like them so retrained a load of new ones using Toko's.......and really should have removed some from my teams so i didn't over level them too much.

 

There is a lot of love online for some monsters that i don't understand, the Naja->mahnaja line, i stopped bothering with it at level 60 as even though it had high attack, its defense was always 70 lower than my puss in boats

And everyone seems to love tin man as a tank, but he is soooooooo slow its unbearable

[Rummy]

Just gone back to the past(still completely unexplained?!) and I enjoyed how they have the breathing animation for Swaine and Gascon perfectly in sync. It's such a small little thing, yet I couldn't help but notice it.

[Babooo]

I have finally had the chance to play this wonderful game - borrowed a mate's PS3 and bought myself a copy of the game!

 

Started playing a few days ago and I'm 10 hours in, having just finished the Temple of Trials. I've spent a fair amount of time levelling up as I've found this game can be very unforgiving.

 

Anyways, the game itself looks beautiful...time to go catch some familiars for the first time...BOO YA