Ni No Kuni

[Andromeda]

Well Ni No Kuni came out today and hopefully I'm not the only playing the game. Whoever else is playing speak up so we can talk about how much fun it is and what you're doing. We already knew the game was going to be beautiful, but it still makes me just stop and pause to look at things sometimes. The attention to detail is great, the animations and all the work in each town. It is just fun wandering around the town looking at everything. Plus the Wizards book in game is one of the coolest and most interestingly designed pieces of interface I've seen. I don't think too much about those sorts of things placing, but the work put into it was amazing. It makes me wish more games did something like that.

Combat has been a blast. I hit the first difficulty spike going into the desert. It was actually surprising. I was only taking 1 or 2 damage previously and it jumps dramatically to 5-10. Took a lot more thought to survive when that happened. But once I got my second party member and new equipment it was a lot more manageable. I think getting more health drops in battles from my merit rewards helped out a lot too. There is a lot to play around in there. It's so much like Persona and Pokemon where you collect and decide which monsters will make for a good assortment of fighters. The only downside right now is that it seems that the AI doesn't switch around familiars, not sure why I'll have to figure it out.

Anyway progress!

Time: 11:41
Location: Al Mamoon
Party: Oliver lv 21 (Mighty Mite lv 16, Dumbelmur lv 7, Seed Sprite lv 22)
Esther lv 20 (Drongo lv 22, Sea Naiad lv 13, Lubber Cub)
Stamp Card #5 (8 Stamps)
Merit Awards: Jack Be Nimble, Little Jacker Horner, Jackpot
Money: 5422 Guilder

[che]

Yeah, the AI has some issues. -_- Oh well. Makes it more challenging. I'm 7hours in, Oliver is level 15. I've had no trouble whatsoever with combat other than Esther not knowing when to heal herself sometimes. I'm currently running around outside Al Mamoon doing sidequests.

Spoiler: I just completed the trials, heading for Old Smoky next.

This game is ridiculously fun though. I just hope the combat gets a little more challenging, as I'm already playing on the hard setting.

edit: Okay, I'm a bit past where I was now. On my way to the next part of the main quest (next town/area) and cleaning up the extra hunts around here and they are pretty challenging now. Seems I spoke just too soon (or the game heard me talking about it and wanted to prove me wrong).

[Andromeda]

Yeah, I hit some points where the game likes to remind me that can be a hardcore RPG at times. I'm guessing you're playing on normal difficulty as well?

Glad to see someone else is playing the game, starting to get worried that this great RPG was getting ignored. It is a blast to play. I'm around 65 hours now with the main story completed. I'm working towards the platinum at this point. The primary goals right now are the 120 alchemy and 250 familiars. The rest of the game after will go by very quickly.

Once you get the third character, Che, you'll learn the all out offense and all out defense commands, which help out a lot when you just want them to heal. The all out defense will cause them to start healing if they are in need of it. However, I've seen them be pretty good about it, sometimes unnecessarily so. But it is better than wasting the MP on overkill abilities, that they have a tendency to do.

The game is pretty straightforward, but if you have questions about it I should be able to answer them.

[Fluffy]

I'm just waiting for the game to reach a much lower price point. The demo did little to sway me towards wanting it, but I watched a video of the first 30 mins of gameplay and was finally sold on it.

Glad to see you're enjoying it so much. Every time I see you playing it, it makes me want to get it.

[Andromeda]

Don't worry, I won't torture you for too much longer Fluffy. If I get good drop rates, I should get the platinum this weekend. I think you'll enjoy it, especially since you've been playing White Knight. The combat feels like they took some elements from there when crafting it. Reviewers saying it's Dragon Quest/Pokemon/Tales, but it's more accurate to say White Knight than Tales.

[Angantyr]

I played a bit of the Demo but didn't do much, it looked really good and I love Ghibli so I do plan to get it eventually when it gets a bit cheaper though right now I have a fair bit on my plate.

[Unknown Entity]

I didn't like the demo, but I decided against cancelling my pre-order. Something just told me I'd love it when I finally got my own copy and got to play it at my own pace, and not at some random part of the story. Honestly, if you're waiting on it to get cheaper, you won't be playing it for a long time - I don't think the price is going to budge. It's fairly difficult to pick up on the high street, and some prices online are just extortionate, or at least it is here.

I'm really enjoying it so far. It's ridiculously fun and cute. I didn't get the difficulty spike until I was climbing Old Smokey (my first death), but then I did do pretty much everything I could do before that point. I think the world map is beautifully done, and it's probably the best I've ever seen in a video game. I'm enjoying the story too, and I found it really easy to get into. My only put off was how slow it was for the first four hours or so with all the tutorials, as I'm not a very patient person.

As for progress...

Time: 14:40
Location: Castaway Cove.
Party: Oliver lvl 22 (Mighty Mite lvl 18, Dumbelmur lvl 14, Sprout Sprite lvl 11).
Esther lvl 21 (Strongo lvl 19, Sea Naiad lvl 11, Draggle lvl 13).
Swaine lvl 19 (Hurly lvl 19).
Stamp Card: Card #8 (with 8 Stamps).
Merit Awards: Jumping Jack, Jack Be Nimble, Little Jacker Horner, Jack-in-the-Box, and Jackpot.
Money: 8,956 Guilder.

And I've done all possible side quests and bounty hunts up until before boarding the boat after getting Swaine, I hope. And I've been back to ol' Barkface twice just to see what up, and how often you can go back there to get whatever information or gifts he gives you.

[Andromeda]

Nice, welcome to the club, Entity! The game was a blast for me. I finished the Platinum last night on the game, took me under 90 hours I think, but it'd be very easy to just keep playing it if I didn't have other things I had to do. I'm curious for those that start getting into the later part of the game what sort of party you built. Pretty much every thing I read talks about how Mite becomes underpowered later in the game, but I kept him the entire time and got my Platinum with him still in my party. I finished things with him at lv 99 even and regularly used him in all battles. Admittedly, I started to find the Sapdragon to be pretty awesome once I evolved him and got him leveled, but even still I default to Mite and switch out to the others when I want to do something specific. Swaine is the only one that I didn't kept his original after a while because it did not match with his favorite species, though it still got its final form.

[Unknown Entity]

Honestly, I haven't been paying attention to what their favourite species are. I never worked out how to tell, and I've not had any issues. Most of my familiars are in their final evolution, and they seem to make a nice team. I think my bigger issue is with Esther and her MP, but I might just switch a familiar out or something - it's not proving to be a major issue, but can be frustrating if I've not noticed fast enough that she has no MP to keep the party healthy. ><

I'm trying to do most of the healing myself. I worked out the little trick to platoon, and have over five million chips to use in the casino. I just use them all on Sprite Dew, which has saved my neck a good few times. I just love dodging the dealers predictions and winning on my own, heh. ^^

As for progress, I'm just about to go to the final dungeon. I ran around half of it, and then realised I'm down to my last Phoenix Tear and I have no more coffee for Esther. When back in Ding Dong Dell, I went into Swift Solutions and discovered three more bounties and a quest to find that damned diary again. Just finished them, and I'm currently on my way back to the dungeon.

Time: 56:04
Location:
Party: Oliver lvl 57 (Dynamite lvl 49, Aye-Aye Sir lvl 45, Sugarplum Sprite lvl 41).
Esther lvl 57 (Electrongo lvl 53, Sea Naiad lvl 57, Acee lvl 52).
Swaine lvl 55 (Hurlcules lvl 45, Dragamuffin lvl 29, Flash Fry lvl 40)
Stamp Card: Card #47 (with 7 stamps)
Merit Awards: All but Jack-Amend-All and Jack the Giant Killer.
Money: 279,770 Guilder.

I've cleared every dungeon and found every hidden chest. I've completed 16% of Alchemy. I'm still Rank C in the Solosseum.

I still have a Sea Naiad because I'm unsure what to evolve her into. Also, I don't really use Marcassin. He proves useful, but I want trophies for Esther and Swaine. I like how he actually uses items - something I've never seen Esther or Swaine do.

Also, I never felt the Mite became underpowered. He still kicks ass with a War Cry. There was one time as I'd just evolved him into a Dynamite that I equipped him with a Night Blade and thought he was shit, and I thought evolving him was a big mistake, but that was my fault for not reading the weapon description and only going by stats, heh.

[Andromeda]

You can tell what their favorite species is when you go into the Party & Familiars menu where you assign Familiars. When you select a familiar to place you'll see three icons above each character. If you look on the status of the familiar there will be a match icon. Each species has a different icon and if you see the icon on the character bouncing that means it matches with them. The only benefit you get is a 10% increase in stats.

[Unknown Entity]

You can tell what their favorite species is when you go into the Party & Familiars menu where you assign Familiars. When you select a familiar to place you'll see three icons above each character. If you look on the status of the familiar there will be a match icon. Each species has a different icon and if you see the icon on the character bouncing that means it matches with them. The only benefit you get is a 10% increase in stats.

Ah, is that so? I can see that now. But some of my familiar icons aren't bouncing, no matter who I assign them with. I guess it doesn't work with all?

Btw, just finished the game. Clock reads 59:46, but there's at least two hours of standby time when I left my room earlier, heh. And I still have much, much to do. I don't suppose you remember what your alchemy percentage was when you got the trophy for creating 120 different items? It would help if the game kept track of what I've already made like it does with what I've already tamed, but no matter.

Honestly thought I'd have Glim Reaper and Little Battler Experience by now. >>;

[Andromeda]

Yeah, I thought the same thing about those two trophies. I did not get either of them until I was already working on the Platinum, even though the trophy guide said you'd get them in the course of the story.

I haven't check all familiars with all characters, but I would have thought that there would have been one for it. However, there are only 4 characters and 3 per, so it is only 12 species and there are more than 12 species. So I guess it makes sense.

It does actually keep track of what you made and did not make. Just not with a number. If you look one the recipe in the menu there is an icon that will denote if you have made that recipe or not. So you count those up and you'll know. There are about 130 recipes in game, (136 I think, maybe), so you have to do most of the recipes for the trophy. It is pretty easy, especially if you start early collecting the materials.

[Unknown Entity]

It does actually keep track of what you made and did not make. Just not with a number. If you look one the recipe in the menu there is an icon that will denote if you have made that recipe or not. So you count those up and you'll know. There are about 130 recipes in game, (136 I think, maybe), so you have to do most of the recipes for the trophy. It is pretty easy, especially if you start early collecting the materials.

Ah-hah! Just noticed that. Now I just feel really silly. ^^;

Going down the list now, and most recipes seem fairly straight forward in that I'm only missing one of two items. Every time I saw a glimmer on the world map, I made sure to investigate, so I'm fairly covered. Still reckon it'll be the longest trophy to get, along with the taming one.

[Andromeda]

Yeah, the second to last trophy for me was the familiar one. I did the S Rank Colosseum last only because I was not in a rush on it. The alchemy was before the familiar one for me. Since I got the supplies I needed before I finished leveling and evolving familiars. Made it to lv 99 thanks to the familiars and Tokokocolds, the 30k exp from them was awesome.