Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (2018)

This Ni no Kuni entry is a colorful and ambitious action JRPG that aims to capture the magic of its predecessor while expanding into a larger, more open world. Developed by Level-5, the MC is called Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, a young king who is forced to flee his kingdom after a coup. Determined to reclaim his throne, Evan embarks on a journey to build a new kingdom where everyone can live in harmony. Along the way, players meet a cast of quirky companions, each bringing their own charm and abilities to the adventure.

The game’s world is visually striking, with environments and character designs clearly influenced by Studio Ghibli’s signature style. The landscapes are lush, the cities vibrant, and the attention to detail in every corner of the world helps create an immersive experience. The real-time combat system adds a dynamic element to battles, allowing you to switch between party members and employ strategic use of abilities. Additionally, the kingdom management mechanics provide a welcome layer of depth, letting you construct buildings, recruit citizens, and expand their influence across the world.

Particularly speaking I really hate management mechanics such as the ones on this game, so I can't really give an in-depth opinion, but I can assure you that if you also don't like this kind of thing, this title won't win you over. Fortunately this is just but one of this game's aspects, and you can easily overlook this since almost all the other mechanics are very well implemented, so I wouldn't bother much about this. The soundtrack complements the game beautifully, enhancing both the emotional weight of the story and the sense of wonder during exploration.

Despite these strengths, the game does have some drawbacks. The story pacing can feel uneven at times, and certain character arcs lack the depth seen in the first Ni no Kuni. Some people may find the dialogue and quest structure overly simplistic, and the combat, while engaging, can occasionally become repetitive during longer play sessions. But all these problems are really more related to the JRPG genre than anything else, the only particular issue in my opinion is that this title really tries to make compelling and charismatic characters, but it fails more often than not.

Overall, this title manages to deliver a charming and magical RPG experience. Its combination of striking visuals, a heartfelt story, engaging combat, and kingdom-building mechanics makes it a memorable journey, even if it doesn’t fully reach the emotional heights of the original. For fans of JRPGs and anyone looking for a visually captivating adventure, it remains a title worth exploring. I would say this is a must-play for fans of the JRPG genre, it is high up there along with the classics.

the core mechanics of NNK 2 are good, the combat is like Tales but simpler, the kingdom management is weirdly addictive and the skirmish battles are a fun side activity

however.

who the heck wrote the plot and characters, it's all so shallow and barrels along so quickly you barely get a sense of who anybody is. also, the 'twists' at the end??? girl what<3 the game completely fails to marry the two worlds like they do in Ni No Kuni: WoTWW, and the hackneyed attempt to make us care about Evan using the same (but woefully less well employed) plot device as they did with Oliver just looks DESPERATE

i also never thought i'd say this abt a JRPG but WHY WERE THERE SO FEW CUTSCENES, it made the game feel so bootleg when there would be like a thirty second full cutscene then just text conversations.

it's just such a shame because the world and the side characters are all pretty well fleshed out and interesting (especially if you do the side quests, though the side quests are all pretty repetitive) but the people you actually play as??? litrally no personality luv, and that makes it pretty hard to care about the story overall

I remember years ago when I decided to give a demo in the playstation store a try. I hardly ever downloaded demos but I do not know why i got this one but I ended liking it quite a lot so i decided to buy the game.That game was Nu No Kuni 1 and turned out to be magical.How I loved it and platinumed it.(was not that hard if I remember correctly)

Now I am playing Ni No Kuni 2 and I admit to it not being as magical as the first game but I didn't really expect it knowing from life experience that beloved things you do for the first time are hardly ever as good the second time.

That being said I hoped for a fun game and that it certainly is. To my surprise I very much enjoyed the leveling of my kingdom and fulfilling the quests. Now I am an old JRPG gamer so I am used to grinding and I even like grinding so tome that was fun. I love Roland, the other characters are fine but Roland is special.

What I did not like : Skirmishes. I can do them fine but not fun. If I want to do skirmishes I am sure there are games I could buy like that. But I can live with skirmishes but one big thing is the lack of explanation of the battle system!

I'm nearly finishing and only now while I was watching a video do I see there is more to the battle system where you can suck up higgledies to get stronger spells. Still have to figure that out if I want to play the post game. I have played the game on hard and had no problems with the last bosses .

No idea why they did not explain the battle system more because I love a good battlesystem. Al in all I would give the game 4 stars and yes I would buy Ni No Kuni 3.

First of all. I was a huge fan of first Ni no Kuni. I loved the game, combat and all. That in mind I rushed to get my Ni no Kuni 2 and…. I was a bit disappointed. Later in the game my disappointment fell away but even then I was thinking…where is the magic am I missing something. Let’s start the breakdown

Story: Story is great. As a young king Evan whose father has passed away and is dethroned of current kingdom, the city of Ding Dong Dell you are planning to become a king of new nation and bring peace to the world with help of president who came from world similar to ours. That sounds weird but it works. The problem is, there are many good characters in the game, but a time with their story feels too short. Evan is great and all but he’s hard to identify.

Combat: This is improvement to the previous game (or not). It depends if you liked the original combat system. Combat is real time with only a couple of buttons but surprisingly much in depth. Familiars are gone. You fight yourself with your party and some weird little creatures called higgledies. With skills, magic, weapons, party, higgledies you can really make your own style of destroying enemies. Problem is ones you discover yours. You don’t change it. If you get steamrolled of an enemy or boss you probably just try to level up some more and try again than change your tactic.

Visuals: I’m not a good person to talk about this subject. This hit hard to the stomach. I loved the visual of the first game. The Ghibli cut scene animations were the best thing in the whole game and the slightly cartoony and colorful visuals of the first game. They are gone. Everybody says that the Ni No Kuni 2 looks great but the half realistic half cartoony visual after the first game…. I don’t like it. Everything feels slightly less alive comparing first one.

Music: It was good but I don’t remember much…only the parts that were similar to the first one.

Everything else: Let’s start with enemies: Too little variations. Everybody was just the couple of basic enemies with different color. Side quest: Most of them was quite repetitive which I don’t mind but it was hard to find interesting story behind those quests. At one point I was thinking “Just give me the quest I don’t want to read your dialog”. Skirmish: These were fun at first. Then got a bit repetitive. Then they were fun again. A simple time killing between everything else (only few you have to do in story wise). Tainted monsters: This was a favorite part of the game for me. Hard as balls but not impossible. These were the reason I actually gave a thought about the combat and explored a different option because I don’t like level grinding . Kingdom management: I put a research, went to someplace else do some stuff, came back, but another etc. and finally I had my full kingdom. This may sound stupid but building your kingdom you can have unlock many things that will help you through your journey.

Final words: Ni no kuni 2 is a good game for the fans of the original and for new commoners but depending how much you loved the first game this can let you a bit cold.