Ni no Kuni 2 Revenant Kingdom

Fanatical has it for 12% off but the SPRING10 code doesn’t work on that like it does Shadow of War. Looks like Humble Bundle Monthly subscribers can get it for 10% off so it looks like Fanatical is the max discount. $70~ CAD.

So they put in…kingdom building. And like Total War stuff…and smacked away the grind?

Hnnnngh.

Fanatical emailed me a 15% off code today – looks to be a unique code so check your emails.

Got one too, but I bought the game elsewhere…

Cant wait to play this game this weekend. Already unlocked. Donald Trump and his furry friend happy adventures

Yikes. Plan ahead - 4.37GB download on PS4 Pro version when I first slipped the disc in.

Ok why is no one talking about this game?

I started playing it today, and spent way more time on it than I thought I would. Turns out it’s a pretty decent game. Plays perfectly on my PC, with no crashes, glitches or slowdowns so far. Sometimes it looks a little washed out, but generally decent. The voice acting that’s there is good. I wish there were more. It’s a bit childish, and acts like the player is dumb sometimes, but the combat is good, and there’s a bunch of fiddly stuff that makes for a decent JRPG. The childish parts are in the overall presentation. Not just the cartoony graphics, but the way everything is named and how it over-explains some of the simplest story parts.
I am just getting to the kingdom building parts now, and have only done 1 “rts” battle, which was passable, but not great.
My only real gripe at this point is why the main character is so… girl-like. They made him look like a girl, and everyone call him sunshine. At times I have to remind myself that this is in fact a boy. A King no doubt! I think the devs really went out of their way to blur the gender lines here, perhaps to make a point. It’s just unnecessary. imo.

Does this have the same Pokemon-esque monster collection thing as the first game? I know the combat changed to real-time, but I’m not sure I can handle another collection-based combat system.

I’ve been too busy playing the last couple nights to post.

Nope. The whole minion system is gone. There are little sprite things that run around your feet during battle and give opportunities to activate a special move like a series of attacks or a heal, but they are a very minor part of the game. There is no real Pokemon-esque monster collecting and raising.

Combat is totally action based. You swap between three equipped weapons to max out the charge on each so when you perform one of your 4 magic attacks you get maximum effectiveness. And if you can dodge and block and time your attacks well you can take on stuff that might otherwise seem too far above your level. That’s a major change from needing to grind out your minion stats in order to even progress through certain fights in the first game.

I’m really loving the game. Like @Spect I’m not a big fan of the boy King’s design, though I think they’ve toned down his Little Lord Fauntleroy qualities since the original reveal. The other characters I’ve met so far have been cool, though.

I am very deep into the game.

Theres a point where it seems the game already have show most basic tools. Until that point the game is refreshing and exhilarating, but from that point is more a normal JRPG.

Theres tons of gimbli feelings everywhere and I am loving it.

Gloomhaven weekend! :)

I did put about 45 minutes in so far and I’m really, really enjoying it thus far!

I have befriended the Higgledy Piggledies.

Cool intro, but somehow nuking New York seems like a bit of a tone mismatch for a game with Higgledy Piggledies and big-eyed character models… The craziest notion of course is that the president is a virtuous person who wouldn’t instantly side with the evil mice given half a chance.

Well damn, this game sounds pretty amazing and I had never heard of it. Wish I had saved my 20% PS4 code for this…bad timing!

Well looks like I am going to be the downer in this topic. I really wanted to like this game. I had a ton of fun with the first one. But after 8 hours, it just isn’t grabbing me. The combat is very simplistic, and it’s nearly impossible to lose battles with anything equal or lesser to your level. You can actually just run around and let your team mates and higgle thingies kill everything and still be successful. The game is ultra linear, and it took until about hour 7 before I was able to even unlock my kingdom.

I don’t think in the 7 hours before that I ever made a conscious game related decision about what to do next outside of what equipment to wear and even that really just boiled down to whatever equipment had bigger numbers. I suppose you could elect to do more open world exploring, but then most of the open map is gated until you finish a story mission, so… yeah.

When I finally did unlock my kingdom, I found out that everything in the kingdom (a kingdom building game!) is also linear! There aren’t any real decisions to be made there either. Every building has a predetermined spot to be built, Every citizen is heavy handedly guided to a certain job, and you are led by the nose to every kingdom upgrade it seems, as the prices for upgrades obviously build out a determined path.

I’m going to give it another play session or two, but so far this isn’t clicking with me.

NNK was the first game my child played. I got him NNK2, but sadly he’s not allowed screens for quite some time. Sucks, because I really want to play it. But then I’d be a bad dad.

As a non-dad, 90% of this post doesn’t make sense to me. :-) You got him a game you won’t let him play? You can’t play because you aren’t letting your kid play?

I bought it for him for Christmas (preordered in like August). It originally had a January release date. Then he got himself in big trouble in late January and lost screens as punishment until he makes amends.

he’s a very skilled procrastinator. Probably gets it from me.

Are you saying your kid has been grounded for around 2 months?

EDIT: Arguably this is spoilers, adding tags…

I’ll be a downer with you. I really liked the first 9 hours but am having trouble motivating myself to keep playing.

I think the biggest issue I have is kinda stupid: I just don’t buy anything that’s happening. This kid just decides he deserves to be a king and all of these people leave their previous lives behind to help him build a kingdom in the wilderness. They mostly don’t even require convincing! The first few times it happened, I shrugged and moved on, but it appears the focal story element of the game is people deciding to start their life all over again in the middle of a wilderness because a 10 year old boy kindly asked them to.

I don’t know why this is beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. I’m totally fine with a television world existing in Persona 4, but for some reason this boy-king is where my brain draws the line.

On the positive side, the dream dungeons are really cool! They’re randomly generated with perma-death (no saving inside them) and get harder over time. They encourage you to rush through them as quickly as possible which forces you to engage with the combat system aggressively (which I think makes it much more interesting and fun). If that was more of the game, I’d love it.

It also looks fantastic. I don’t understand the complaints about the appearance of the main character. I quite like his and all the character’s art direction. They’re very charming.

It always boggles me when someone complains about not buying a premise in a fantasy game. No offense, @porousnapkin. I think the game has done a decent enough job explaining why things are what they are.

Possible spoilers related to just the beginning of the game :

The kid was heir to an established kingdom, so it’s not like he’s just claiming to be a king. He was supposed to receive his kingmaker on the day the coup took place. It’s also been stated by several folks in the game that there is something “special” about him. I liken it to Joan of Arc myself. People are jumping into his idea of a kingdom where every one lives happily ever after. (see my “childish” complaint above),

So while I still feel like it’s pretty childish, it’s solid enough to be passable as a fantasy RPG story line, if not completely cliche’.