Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (Review)

By: Nik S


Developer: Level-5

Publishers: Bandai Namco Entertainment, Level-5

Directors: Yoshiaki Kusuda, Takafumi Koukami

Designers: Kengo Shibata, Yuichi Murase

Platforms: Playstation 4, Microsoft Windows

Release Date: March 23, 2018

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a JRPG developed by Level-5 (known for their Dark Cloud games in the PS2 era) and published by Bandai Namco for countries outside of Japan. Where the first game in the series was essentially a playable Studio Ghibli game (as they had the studio develop animated cutscenes), the second instead takes inspiration from the Dark Cloud and Suikoden series. The game was announced at the Playstation Experience event in December of 2015. During the event they announced Studio Ghibli was not involved in the development of the sequel, though character designer Yoshiyuki Momose and composer Joe Hisaishi return to reprise their roles. The game was delayed twice prior to its initial release, eventually seeing a quarter one release.

The game starts with a convoy leading the pseudo-president of the United States, Roland, to a city for reasons unbeknownst to the audience. As he approaches, a missile is soars past and destroys everything in site. An impaired Roland is being crushed under a car when a blue light comes and teleports him away. He rematerializes in a younger body in a kingdom called Ding Dong Dell that is media res in a coup against its new king. A young Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum--who is about to become king from his father's untimely death--is rescued by the sword-wielding president and escapes a tragic death. Inspired by Evan's ambitions, Roland decides to help the royal teen to establish a new kingdom and bring peace to the world. Their adventures will have them going up against sky pirates, visit magical kingdoms, and fight world destroying King Makers.

Unlike 2013's Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Revenant Kingdom takes place primarily in a fantasy realm. The narrative is something that everyone can expect from a traditional JRPG, heroes set out on a journey to save the world. 

The thing that really sets Revenant Kingdom apart from its predecessor is dropping the Pokemon-style gameplay in favor for a more hack-and-slash style. Similar to the first, your party consists of three party members, but instead of each having their own monsters they can summon into battle they rely on getting boosts from small entities known has Higgledies that run about the battle area. The controls are surprisingly tight as you can maneuver around with ease, do plenty of fast and heavy attacks, use a wide range of unique skills, block and dodge. It only takes a few battles before you master the basics, which allows you to take on more enemies as opposed to one-on-one fights like a traditional JRPG.

Your characters can have three melee weapons, which has a zing gauge, and one ranged weapon. As your zing gauge fills up to one hundred percent you're able to do a stronger form of a skill. You can also use Higgledies to do a zinged skill by charging your skill before attacking. The Higgledies, as mentioned earlier, can give small boosts and do a little damage to your enemies. Every once in a while a Higgledie can do a powerful attack or spell when prompted (like using a cannon, healing, or blasting your enemy with a giant ball of dark energy). If you want to alter your gameplay even further you can use the game's tatic tweaker, which allows you to choose what kind of elements you can be more resistant to, what kind of monsters you can deal more damage too, what you get more of from battles (what kind of loot, experience, etc.).

Revenant Kingdom also introduces a kingdom building function that works similar to a free-to-play game, but takes some serious notes from Dark Cloud and Suikoden. Evan's new kingdom, Evermore, doesn't just happen as the story progresses. The player is able to take direct control of the population, construction of new building, and can do research to give themselves an edge. While your kingdom grows, your military has to as well to defend its land. During a military battle Evan is allowed four troops to go against the aggressors. The troops rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise and use them to fight in a rock-paper-scissor battle (sword > hammer > lance).  As your kingdom grows you're able to bring in unique troops with various skills and stats.

The game's story is nowhere near as good as the first's, but it really doesn't have to be. The game is overall enjoyable and you can easily get lost in how much there is to do. Even if you're not a fan of JRPGs, you can still find something to do or enjoy. I've found myself either grinding ahead of time just to be over-powered against the next boss, or managing my kingdom to get all the research done I could.

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