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Ni no Kuni II New Wyverns' Den area gameplay

W

Willenium

Member
After the delay and the lame State-side limited edition announcements, I was just about ready to cancel my preorder on this....

But this looks pretty great.
 
T

Tyaren

Member
Looks beautiful. :)
One thing that is strange to me though: When the game switches into overworld mode, the art style changes from cartoonish shaded/cel shaded into a more realistically shaded World of Final Fantasy art style. That feels disconnected to me.

Here's a screen:

original.jpg
 
W

Willenium

Member
Tyaren said:
Looks beautiful. :)
One thing that is strange to me though: When the game switches into overworld mode, the art style changes from cartoonish shaded/cel shaded into a more realistically shaded World of Final Fantasy art style. That feels disconnected to me.
Click to expand...

That, to me, feels like a callback to the old JRPG world map trope of "make the characters or cities smaller so the world looks bigger" and I like it a lot.

I mean, I don't think anybody ever complained about stuff like this:
when you approach a certain city in FF6, it looks like this:
Imperial-Vector.jpg

When you land and go to enter the city, it looks like this:
5.jpg


Sure, technology has clearly progressed to the point where everything can be in full detail but I think this differentiation between towns/dungeons and world map stuff will add a nice Vintage JRPG vibe to this game.
 
ThatStupidLion

ThatStupidLion

Member
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either

edit - the chibi styled characters is what im referring to not liking, not the environment. they shoulda stayed with NNK1 cel characters
 
F

family_guy

Member
heckmanimation said:
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either
Click to expand...

I think it looks great. There are plenty of other games out there that have that realistic style. This stands out.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
heckmanimation said:
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either
Click to expand...

Its classic RPG with an overworld like that.
 
S

silva1991

Member
heckmanimation said:
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either
Click to expand...

Yeah, those chibi characters in the overworld are such a turnoff. Terrible design that doesn't suit big screens.
 
M

muteki

Member
heckmanimation said:
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either
Click to expand...

I'd take this over the alternative, any day. This mindset led to no jrpgs having world maps for years.

But so far of what I have played of DQ11 it does world maps the best.
 
B

BluWacky

Member
Willenium said:
That, to me, feels like a callback to the old JRPG world map trope of "make the characters or cities smaller so the world looks bigger" and I like it a lot.

Sure, technology has clearly progressed to the point where everything can be in full detail but I think this differentiation between towns/dungeons and world map stuff will add a nice Vintage JRPG vibe to this game.
Click to expand...

However, compare it to the first game's overworld, one of the finest in recent memory:

ni-no-kuni-2-revenant-kingdom-headed-to-pc-as-well-as-ps4-148544139609.png
Click to expand...

While the picture isn't the best, the cel-shaded characters remain in proportion and the aesthetic is more anime-esque, rather than the tonal shift in graphic styles present in the new overworld ("realistically" textured landscapes and chibis).

The rest of Revenant Kingdom looks to be a very pleasant improvement on the original, but the original game's world map was probably my favourite bit of the game (Joe Hisaishi's overworld theme is one of the best pieces of game music ever, which helps!), so it is a little disappointing.
 
N

Neoleo2143

Member
It looks great but I have to agree that the change to a Chibi look in the overworld is off-putting and unnecessary particularly when Ni No Kuni One handled it fine (great even I would say).
 
L

Labadal

Member
heckmanimation said:
wow - that overworld really turns me off. what the hell. did not know this was happening. why oh why ruin it with this chibi style. the characters dont feel like they fit in the environment either
Click to expand...

I agree. I love the over world of the first game. I wish more of the game was actually cel shaded. It's still a game I intend to bu, I am hyped and all that... But, some of the stuff I have seen, I wish resembled the first game more in visual style.
 
Copper

Copper

Member
Overworld looks great. I like how vertical it is. I also don't mind the chibi style, WoFF did it and was one of my favorite games last year. I also like how he mentioned there are things you might not be able to access right away.
 
ThatStupidLion

ThatStupidLion

Member
family_guy said:
I think it looks great. There are plenty of other games out there that have that realistic style. This stands out.
Click to expand...

HStallion said:
Its classic RPG with an overworld like that.
Click to expand...


NNK 1 did the overworld perfectly already with a throwback to the old style rpg overworlds and cel shaded characters. Chibi characters isn't indicative to classic overworld rpgs in my mind. sure the environment is scaled down to fit the character size, and maybe the characters sprites became less detailed, but the characters didnt always become some short and fat proportioned chibi representation.
 
D

Dadasch

Member
Thankfully I don't mind the chibi characters.
Overworld looks great with the verticality on display and I even like the new combat system, but it's actually not that hard to surpass the combat of NNK1. It was easily the least interesting part of the game.

And the graphics...holy shit. Phenomenal.
 
N

nelsonroyale

Member
The game looks very impressive visually...It is up there with Gravity Rush 2 as the most impressive cell shaded style game I have seen.
 
S

Sinh_Magnus

Member
Looks good. I hope I'll like the combat system this time around, I'm interested in this pikmin like system they have implemented.
 
Begaria

Begaria

Member
TimeEffect said:
Lets talk about the combat
What do u guys think?
Click to expand...

As someone who actually enjoyed the first game's combat, this version still looks so much better. Actual direct input complete with skill mapping to face buttons rather than going through a menu in real time with real time blocking and dodging is going to feel so much more fluid.
 
D

daveo42

Banned
God damn is this a beautiful game.

Edit: Combat looks much improved over the original, which is welcome. The biggest issue I had with the first game was the combat system.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
heckmanimation said:
NNK 1 did the overworld perfectly already with a throwback to the old style rpg overworlds and cel shaded characters. Chibi characters isn't indicative to classic overworld rpgs in my mind. sure the environment is scaled down to fit the character size, and maybe the characters sprites became less detailed, but the characters didnt always become some short and fat proportioned chibi representation.
Click to expand...

I mean its classic RPG in all ways but the chibi models then and several JRPGs had the super deformed character models on the overworld.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
the world map is a let down after the first game world map BUT i like it like this too

Chibi is ok , especially if this lead to a better design world map.

This one is fine by me. if i have to trade this world map for the action system in battle .. this trade is well worth it , imo
 
L

Linkura

Member
BluWacky said:
However, compare it to the first game's overworld, one of the finest in recent memory:
Click to expand...

The first game's overworld was quite like DQ8's, which Level 5 also developed. That style of overworld has yet to be topped in a traditional turn-based JRPG. Really sad that they're going backwards.
 
Shin-Ra

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
From the little shown, the structure of the overworld's looking more intricate and layered than NNK's.
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
Linkura said:
The first game's overworld was quite like DQ8's, which Level 5 also developed. That style of overworld has yet to be topped in a traditional turn-based JRPG. Really sad that they're going backwards.
Click to expand...

Like DQVIII's? It was more like DQIX's or the 3DS version of DQXI's I think with a more overhead view versus the behind the character view in VIII. It was a happy medium between old school and modern and it maintained a visual consistency that is lacking with this new approach. Still a gorgeous game though.
 
D

Durante

Member
TimeEffect said:
Lets talk about the combat
What do u guys think?
Click to expand...
I'll need to play it for a few hours at least before making any judgement.

The first one looked OK (and even played well for a few hours), only then the lack of depth and repetitiveness became fully apparent.
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
Durante said:
I'll need to play it for a few hours at least before making any judgement.

The first one looked OK (and even played well for a few hours), only then the lack of depth and repetitiveness became fully apparent.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I wonder how I put myself through that combat for the 40+hrs I played but then I remember it was a playthrough that lasted about a year and half. Really hope this one is a massive improvement. That can't be that hard a task.
 
S

Staf

Member
I've only played one JRPG since FFX, and that was Ni no Kuni. I didn't finish it but boy did i love it. I'm looking forward to buy this one.
 
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