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Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch |OT|

Haha, I actually have a 40GB PS3 too.

And yes, we're fucked. Now I'll have to get a physical copy and wait another 2 extra weeks.

I'm right there with you dopes. That 40GB model seemed like a good idea at the time, its hard drive was twice that of my 360's :/

Been meaning to upgrade it but I've never really had an incentive. Now I do.
 

zeopower6

Member
Oh, and as a note to anyone who wanted the steelbook, it's not on their GameStop page for the game anymore. You will have to call a local GameStop to see if they have them.
 

Yagharek

Member
Considering some people here couldn't figure out that fire would hurt the wood boss and ice would hurt the fire boss in the demo who knows what joe public will do. I guess that's why there are strategy guides...

It took me four or five retries before I realised you could freely move the main characters around the arena when fighting. I thought it was turn based for the first few goes! >.>
 

zeopower6

Member
UUviz.jpg


Had to cap this. Pretty legendary. I never thought for a minute that I would see Ni no Kuni at the top of the Amazon.com overall video game sales charts.
 

Eusis

Member
Why would you say that? The gi review is a fucking mockery and anyone baited by it deserves 1000 lashes bare assed. The story is exceptional going by the import.......
This isn't the Etrian Odyssey review, and story IS subjective. We'll see, but Level 5 isn't exactly who I would turn to for amazing story telling.
Ugh. Gamestop better have some kind of statistic as to who have ordered first.
I'm hoping I get lucky, but I guess retail locations won't track that fully. Still, I intend to be fair with my late pre-order, waiting until the day it's out then asking if they have any steelbooks left. It's possible they'd send extra stock anyway as happened with P4G, though I'm guessing Atlus just made sure to send as many skins as copies in that initial batch whereas Namco probably wouldn't have.
 

madhtr

Member
Ugh. Gamestop better have some kind of statistic as to who have ordered first.

Usually something like "No Preorder Bonus" or such is printed on the receipt next to the game's title, but I imagine most Gamestop employees don't care and will give them first-come.
 

Eusis

Member
I must admit, if there's no minuses on that list, why is it not a 10? Or is 10 the new Bat-Signal for moneyhat accusations nowadays?
We're talking about how much they liked a game, not how well they completed a test. Sometimes there simply isn't any rational reason you can pin down, it's just "I really enjoyed this but not to THAT level", and you're not going to be able to point to something specific like "the controls aren't responsive".
 
I must admit, if there's no minuses on that list, why is it not a 10? Or is 10 the new Bat-Signal for moneyhat accusations nowadays?

Jesus. Those negatives down the bottom are bulletpoints for major positives or negatives. There are obviously some small flaws in the game but nothing so major that should deter a fan from buying it or him from giving it a great score.

Im laughing at the rage for a 9.4/10.
 

zeopower6

Member
The reviewer elaborated on what a '10' is in the comments section... kind of.

It's hard to define what a 10 is, other than to say that this game isn't a 10. But it's excellent in its own right.

I didn't play the demo. I've had the full game since around the time the demo came out.

I guess it's 'close to perfection'? I don't know, haha. As far as I can see, Infinity Blade 2 got the last 10 from IGN.
 

Eusis

Member
The reviewer elaborated on what a '10' is in the comments section... kind of.



I guess it's 'close to perfection'? I don't know, haha.
So it's pretty much exactly what I said. I really do find "but why ISN'T it a 10 if they're listing no flaws?" to be some of the worst logic people will use to attack a score, especially one that's very high already.
 

zeopower6

Member
If it's any consolation to people who are like "Why isn't it a 10?!?!" They haven't given a score like Ni no Kuni's in a few months.
 
Isn't the most important part about a game what YOU think of it? Not how some reviewer in some magazine or site feels about it.

Also, it's just a score. Read the review: if everything in there is overly positive, any score is as good as a 10.
 

zeopower6

Member
Isn't the most important part about a game what YOU think of it? Not how some reviewer in some magazine or site feels about it.

Also, it's just a score. Read the review: if everything in there is overly positive, any score is as good as a 10.

For the individual, yes. It doesn't really matter what the reviewers think or what they 'score it' as.

However, after the IGN review dropped, sales of Ni no Kuni basically went through the roof (#1 on Amazon overall video games after floating in the mid 10s-20s last week) and interest has peaked at a level we haven't seen since the demo came out. I'd call it a coincidence but somehow, I don't know if that's the case here. As much as I want to say "Eh, reviews don't matter that much.", what's happened in the last day or so has proven me completely wrong, at least in terms of how reviews are perceived by the general public and how it drives their purchases.
 

JebusF

Neo Member
To clear up the "wizard book" discussion a little - hopefully...

The physical book is literally the same as the in-game book.

There are few (can't actually think of any off the top of my head) occasions which require the player to use it. I'd say you could complete the game's main story only looking at the digital book twice, maybe less.

Crafting is the main use of the book, as the recipes are laid out in the real-book, so you can just sit looking through it, whereas you have to find the pages/recipes as you progress otherwise. Same for the spells, part of the story is that you have to find the pages of the book as you progress. Again though, even with crafting, it's an optional part of the game, there are a few tutorial style bits where you'll be told "go look in your book for this recipe", but it's no hardship.

Likewise, there are some optional quests that have a new language, that language is in the book so solving the puzzles/deciphering the language is easier with a physical book, but it's not hard with the in-game book, because you can zoom in and out at will, turn pages etc. It's really not a big deal.
 
For the individual, yes. It doesn't really matter what the reviewers think or what they 'score it' as.

However, after the IGN review dropped, sales of Ni no Kuni basically went through the roof (#1 on Amazon overall video games after floating in the mid 10s-20s last week) and interest has peaked at a level we haven't seen since the demo came out. I'd call it a coincidence but somehow, I don't know if that's the case here. As much as I want to say "Eh, reviews don't matter that much.", what's happened in the last day or so has proven me completely wrong, at least in terms of how reviews are perceived by the general public and how it drives their purchases.

Sure, but I don't think a 10 would have caused the presales to skyrocket more than a 9.4.
 

JebusF

Neo Member
i forgot to ask earlier
are there alternate costumes/physical armor changes in the game?

Sort of. You can equip shields, armour, etc to familiars, accessories too, but they don't make a graphical difference, only a stats one.

There are alternative costumes, but they are story based and area based.
 
I like this quote from the IGN review

I didn’t want the game to end. It proved one of those special experiences – like I’ve had with Final Fantasy VI, Wild Arms or Tales of Destiny in the past – where I didn’t want to see the conclusion. I wanted it to keep going. That’s because Ni No Kuni is just that special, and every RPG fan owes it to him or herself to pick it up and see why.

This pretty much sums up why people have an issue with "his" 9.4.
 

jiggle

Member
Sort of. You can equip shields, armour, etc to familiars, accessories too, but they don't make a graphical difference, only a stats one.

There are alternative costumes, but they are story based and area based.

oh that's a little disappointing after dq8/9/dc2/wkc
 

zeopower6

Member
oh that's a little disappointing after dq8/9/dc2/wkc

I think it was probably a wise choice since there seems to be a ton of different accessories/armor/weaponry in the game and accounting for the different shapes/sizes of the hundreds of Familiars... well...

Also, the area costumes are pretty neat. It's like they change when in a cold area or a really blisteringly hot level and it actually makes sense compared to when sometimes people are in skimpy outfits in the middle of a blizzard in some RPGs.
 

zeopower6

Member
So I guess the demo has none? I'm over hear reading text like its 1997

The demo has a bit of voice acting.

I would say a lot of people thought there would be more, but the game is by no means fully voiced. It's kind of peppered throughout the game in real time cutscenes like when you give Enthusiasm/Yaruki to someone in the demo.
 

Persona86

Banned
So this guy has nothing but praise for this game still the score is 9.4. Why the fuck?

Fucking IGN.
OK Imagine this, you have a girlfriend, she's really beautiful, she has a great personality, she does many things you like, she fun to hang around with and you can't think of any negatives.....yet you don't really "love" her, so you can't really rate her a 10.

A 10 has that something special that words can't really express, it reaches deep into your soul and touches something unreachable by any other person or thing no matter how perfect they may seem.
 

Persona86

Banned
So I guess the demo has none? I'm over hear reading text like its 1997

If you listened to voice acting for all the text, it would take forever for you to get through the game, especially a long RPG like this, most people can read the text of a whole sentence before the character has a chance to say half of the sentence. That's why voices are only there for the more important parts.
 

Eusis

Member
If you listened to voice acting for all the text, it would take forever for you to get through the game, especially a long RPG like this, most people can read the text of a whole sentence before the character has a chance to say half of the sentence. That's why voices are only there for the more important parts.
Actually, while that angle holds the bigger one I think is that it'd cost quite a bit, both in money and in storage. It's why dual voice tracks only started to become a serious consideration with DVD, and even then licensing, multiple platform support, and just going crazy uncompressed can wreck that.
 

Persona86

Banned
Actually, while that angle holds the bigger one I think is that it'd cost quite a bit, both in money and in storage. It's why dual voice tracks only started to become a serious consideration with DVD, and even then licensing, multiple platform support, and just going crazy uncompressed can wreck that.

Yeah that came to my mind too.
 

Kiyo

Member
If this had released a month or 2 ago I wonder if it would be getting GOTY awards since there wasn't really a standout game last year.
 

DatDude

Banned
If this had released a month or 2 ago I wonder if it would be getting GOTY awards since there wasn't really a standout game last year.

The Walking Dead, Journey, XCOM, Hotline Miami.

There were plenty of standout games last year. They just weren't coming (aside for XCOM and a few others) from the big budget AAA games that were so used to seeing.
 

Kiyo

Member
The Walking Dead, Journey, XCOM, Hotline Miami.

There were plenty of standout games last year. They just weren't coming (aside for XCOM and a few others) from the big budget AAA games that were so used to seeing.

I meant more of a game that swept most of the GOTY awards (like Skyrim did in 2011, Uncharted 2 in 2009, etc). The awards were really split last year (more so than usual) and if the IGN review is any indication, NnK could have definitely taken a majority of them.
 

Eusis

Member
There were plenty of standout games last year. They just weren't coming (aside for XCOM and a few others) from the big budget AAA games that were so used to seeing.
It's why having Downloadable Games stonewalled from GotY at GameTrailers was such an abhorrent stance: no, not as many people worked on those games (normally), but if they're that much better than the ones with tons of people working on them and loads of money then maybe something's deeply wrong with the AAA model? Especially when you get some assholes talking about taking it up to AAAA, as if they heard about the "take it to 11" joke and failed to see the context it came from.

But, yeah, there were plenty of amazing games, just none of them had that sort of push to come off as standing head and shoulders over everything else we say with games like Uncharted 2 and Skyrim, and they're far from unanimous OR even my favorites from those years (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, striking twice!). Ni No Kuni would most likely have been fitting alongside stuff like Xcom, Walking Dead, and even ME3 had it come out last year, probably taking a few GotY awards but far from landsliding.

... Especially as, if you're willing to look past the bugs and the fact it's light on gameplay, The Walking Dead seems to have been that game to stand head and shoulders above the others.
 
I received a fully paid pre-order receipt for this game as a gift. Of course with the game right around the corner, my slim PS3 decides to freaking die. Just a month after the warranty expires too. (T_T)

Regardless, I'm still super pumped to pick up my copy.
 

Eusis

Member
I received a fully paid pre-order receipt for this game as a gift. Of course with the game right around the corner, my slim PS3 decides to freaking die. Just a month after the warranty expires too. (T_T)

Regardless, I'm still super pumped to pick up my copy.
Might have to have the person pick it up for you too, they depend on the phone number and the Rewards membership for pre-orders now.

Still nice though, even with the slim dying on you (and man, I really hope I don't have something like that crop up on me, especially with how stupid the backup system is. :/)
 

bh7812

Banned
I pre-ordered this and DMC on amazon last week, had been meaning to do it for a while but it kept being put off so I guess I'm lucky I was still able to get one! I got a regular edition. The reason being is seeing as the spell book is basically in game I figured I could live without the Wizard Edition. So for me personally paying 60 bucks instead of much more for the WE made more sense. I also lucked out cause originally I was supposed to get both games in 1 shipment next week for Ni No Kunis release but then they changed it around so I got release day delivery on both games!

I'm not a graphics freak but good God the graphics in this game look stunning. It's a cartoon come to life for a 40 to 60 hour game. Just damn. I hope the soundtrack is as impressive, I have been wanting a soundtrack like the days of old that will stick with me long after the game is done for a while now.

My goal is to get DMC done this week, it's short so that should be no trouble. Also at least start Anarchy Reigns and I should be ready for this game when it arrives on Tuesday!
 

DatDude

Banned
What makes Ni No Kuni so OMGOMGOGMOGMOGM

Is it the art style, the narrative? What makes it stand apart that makes it so jizz worthy>?
 

Eusis

Member
Knowing about the recipes I kinda hope the strategy guide is actually the book but fleshed out more with a walkthrough bolted on.
What makes Ni No Kuni so OMGOMGOGMOGMOGM

Is it the art style, the narrative? What makes it stand apart that makes it so jizz worthy>?
Either a special charm, or the fact it's a pretty good JRPG fed to masses starving for a good one on the HD systems.
 
Here comes the bandwagon. I liked it when it sucked.

But seriously, I'm totally down for more love for JRPGs. Bring it main stream media.
 
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