My 6yo tried combat (she’s done it in BotW but had some problems) and was very pleased with how efficiently she won the first couple fights. She told me she had an extra special skill. Then we got to the part where it says “those are elites, let’s sneak around them” and sneaked a couple steps and then ran into the middle of them and started chopping, and that didn’t go so well.
Lol, yes, I did that part for us. We got to the overworld part, fought a few groups, then quit for the night. I think I’ll let her run things though, and help when needed. When we first got to the map, my “must get everything” instincts kicked in and I was worried we’d miss stuff. But I’m going to try just letting her have free reign and see how it goes.
Yeah. He’s going to be 9 this year. I think he was 5 or 6 when we did the first game
Just finished. 55 hours.
What a great game. Bravo!
Small spoiler:
When you get Leander in your team, try it, is a good fighter.
are the RTS battles mandatory in this game? Ni no kuni 1 was a perfect RPG for me, but I don’t want to play an RTS in my RPG … and how many of them are in the game?
Some story missions and side quests require them, but they’re mostly optional.
But they’re not actually RTS. It’s a bit hard to define, but there’s more of an “RPG” feel to it than anything RTS. And, while simple, it’s pretty fun.
Like @rhamorim indicated, they aren’t really RTS fights - you only control one single “unit” with up to four groups of different unit types attached to the center. You use the L and R buttons to rotate them and in order to fight you literally use the Left stick to “steer” the giant blob of units into other units and sometimes press buttons for special effects, like moving faster or reinforcing lost units. It’s super, super simple and easy from what I’ve seen (like the rest of the game).
Yeah. The army combats are somewhat annoying, but not because of involved or lengthy gameplay. They are quick and small-scale and you only have one unit to move. They annoy more because you have to grind them a little to advance your army level. If you ignore them as much as possible you will occasionally get a quest that says “min level 25” that you can’t do at level 40 because you blew off the mechanic…
Speaking of which there are so many mechanics to mess with it can get a bit wearing at times. I haven’t done much with the higgles either, but presumably there’s a reason to do so.
I think the game assume that you will grind one or two battles many times. Because by the hour 50 of the game all my squad units where lower than level 17, and the game was throwing at me subquest with combat level 45, and in this game levels matter.
The reason I did not liked these army combats is because is hard to see how much of the combat is left. Since units appear in waves, you could be in your last foot and the game will pull a “but lets wait a minute, heres more enemy units!”. And If you lose the battle you get nothing (or maybe you only get XP?).
Is a big game, with many mechanism and subgames. Not everything can be perfect.
Ever see Bladestorm? It’s like that, not RTS-like in the slightest. If that doesn’t help, picture an rpg where a leader runs around with packs of soldiers of different types. There’s a rock/paper/scissors advantage/disadvantage, so you have to manage the units a little bit as you run around to try and keep the advantage.
Yeah, go to your Higgle hut and feed them mats to level them up, or cook up new ones. I’ve got some that do nice damage so it was great to realise you can make them more powerful by feeding them junk you’ve been collecting.
Still playing this - about 15 hours in now. I’ve done some work on my own w/o the 6yo, just to keep the pace up. But we still really like it and look forward to finding new higglies and characters. Good game!
bought it for PS4 because they patched difficulty levels into the game. Which one is recommended, one above default?
Played for 2 hours, and on the hard difficult setting it feels challenging enough to me. Also I like the battle system enough to play on. I wondered why they changed it from the last game that much, I liked that one too …
The orchestral score is great, also some reprises from the last game … not sure about the story, though, I think the first one was better (in collaboration with Studio Ghibli, where this is not, I feel)
I am a slow player ;( but after 5 hours, I still enjoy the game, playing usually on expert difficulty, dropping to hard occasionally. I even enjoy the real time battles, but they don’t quite fit into the game. I don’t even know who am I fighting … guess, THEY stand in the way where I am building MY kingdom and so I have to bully them.
I started this game three days ago, I’m 6 hours in and right now I’m in ‘Goldorado’ (that’s the name in my language-version of the gambling city)… well, first, uff, this game’s slow progress; still not seen the empire-management part of it.
But I do like the narration and the presentation of it, so I’m still involved. Besides sometimes, like Goldorado, it’s one of the visually most engaging games I’ve played. Such a great art direction.
There’s lot of little things I like about the game, but I’m struggleing with the ever repeating combat. Although there is a certain flow to the grind, combat after combat, …in the end it feels too much like killing time. There is too much of it and it’s too meaningsless (and maybe still too easy or something else…).
I’m playing on expert diffculty. So my main complaint with the game’s combat is: I’m winning most of my fights while I actually don’t understand how most things work. For example there are combos, which I don’t fully understand in terms of their impact and I still wonder if there is any tactics involved. It seems the best to win a fight is widly hitting as much enemies as possible so their attacks are interrupted? I end up button smashing mostly, winning mostly.
One more thing: Expert difficulty is stupid for boss fights because it makes them last for forever and a test of patience rather than anything else. At least in those boss fights I really know what I’m doing: roll, hit, roll, hit, roll…
Well, I really like the game and I want to like it even more but the whole combat aspect feels inconsistent. Any tips to make it more enjoyable?
I came to understand them as typical RPG combat fodder, meaning they are of course meant to be won, on expert difficulty I have to use more healing herbs, which play into the economy, at least at the moment I do not have enough money.
Also, I think the point of the combat is to win it most efficiently and fast, and for that I think I need to look more into those element types and how to fight them best … I enjoy the effects and the frantic pace of the combat
These are good points!
I already enjoy the combat a lot more by now. The video guide above helped rethinking it. What I do now is charging all three weapons, unleash skills three times, maybe activate Gnuffis, fast-combo all weapons again to 100%, unleash, repeat plus some positioning to avoid special attacks; it’s more fun now after I have started doing things consciously : )
I love the fake facebook stuff somehow … they nailed some of the comments imitating real world FB “culture”
My 7yo and I are getting close to wrapping this one up finally. She’s absolutely loved it and it’s great seeing her get into a game like this. Anyone have recommendations for something similar? Maybe an RPG with similar type combat? Thanks!