Ni no Kuni

Birželio 24, 2010

The dream team of Level-5 and Studio Ghibli unveiled the PS3 version of their collaboration, Ni no Kuni, at a press conference in Tokyo today, but there were plenty of other announcements at the event.

The event began with Level-5 CEO, Akihiro Hino, discussing the game developer's other successful franchises, Professor Layton and Inazuma 11. He explained that Professor Layton is targeted towards women, Inazuma 11 at kids, and Ni no Kuni is the first game from the company to target all ages across both genders. The partnership with Ghibli, which is providing the pre-rendered animation for the game, is critical in that effort. The animation studio has displayed and international appeal to those of all ages with movies like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

In order to support all the art (as well as the full orchestral soundtrack) the game will be released on a 4GB DS card. After playing the game, and seeing it running on the DS, it's apparent that such a large storage capacity is absolutely necessary. The art and animation is some of the most detailed ever on the DS.

The DS version will come with an elaborate 350 page book that acts as part tutorial and part strategy guide. The tome is written from the perspective of someone in the world of Ni no Kuni. This is to "give you the sense of being the main character," said Hino.

Part of the book contains a series of runes used to cast magic. Players will need to draw these characters in order to solve certain puzzles. The only way to know what character to write in a given situation is to consult the guide. It will also contain enemy info and weaknesses, item recipes, and maps. Players will be able to decipher runic codes in the book in order to learn the game's most important secrets.

After giving us a rundown of the guide, Hino brought on two other developers to demo the game. The first part of the demo consisted of Professor Layton style talking head cutscenes. The presenters guided Oliver, the game's protagonist, through a pseudo-European village that will look familiar to anyone who has seen a Ghibli film. When Oliver approached a cat-person, Hino pointed out the importance of the book. The guide describes the races of the world and gives hints on how to interact with them. Cat-people, for example, greet by touching noses. In order to learn this and take advantage of it, players will have to study the appropriate entry in the book.

The presenters showed off the game's monsters and dungeon exploring after their adventures with cat-people. "The monsters were designed to be cute," said Hino.

Players will be able to capture and name enemies called "imagine" monsters. The captive beasts can then be used to fill the the third slot in the player's three member party. There are apparently hundreds of huntable monsters in the game. The addition of these 'gotta-catch-em'-all' elements was a huge factor in the game's lengthy development time.

After demoing the DS gameplay, Hino unveiled the the PS3 version of the game while joking about the fact that the big news had been leaked via early copies of this week's Famitsu. The PS3 version looks so much like Studio Ghibli's 2D animation that it's hard to tell the difference between game and movie in screenshots. The distinction becomes easier to discern when you compare moving images. The PS3 versions of scenes sport an uncanny smoothness in animation that can't be replicated with 2D animation techniques.

Hino also revealed the existence a Ni no Kuni prequel for Level-5's mobile game portal Roid. The cell phone game very likely will not be released outside of Japan.

After the show ended we had the chance to go hand-on with the game, book and all. The guide is printed on high quality paper that is rough to the touch in order make it feel like a hand-written tome form another world. Most books in Japan are a little over the size of an iPhone and Ni no Kuni's guide is a little smaller than an iPad and as thick as an American paperback. It's hard to imagine Japanese commuters balancing their extra large DS with the book. Children on the other hand, who play their DS at home, are likely to go crazy for the game and it's guide.

Outside of the mechanics directly related to the guide, Ni no Kuni plays like a fairly standard JRPG. The player's party occupies the bottom screen while the enemies occupy the top screen. The battles use the standard fighting options of attack, special ability, magic, and defence.

The game will be released for the DS in Japan on December 19th and the PS3 game will follow in 2011. There's no indication that Level-5 has even begun to localize the game for other territories, but the company's announcement of the founding of Level-5 International strongly hint that the game will eventually be released in Europe and North America.