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Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds has launched for PC and mobile platforms globally, following an East Asia launch in 2021. Unfortunately for some players interested in the game, developer NetMarble has opted to include crypto and blockchain integration into Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds. NetMarble also aims to bring NFT functionality to the game later in 2022. [Thanks, Noisy Pixel!]

Text on the game's official website states that Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds "employs a gameplay-based blockchain system," enabling players "to play to earn tokens through gameplay." The team promises to "do [its] best to preserve the token values."

The Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds crypto tokens take the form of "Territe" and "Asterite." Territe is earned through regular activity, while Asterite is earned through PVP activity in the game's arena mode. These currencies also function as resources used for character progression. They can be traded for the crypto tokens (NKT and NKA) that reside on Marblex, the blockchain operated by NetMarble across its games. Players can then trade and sell them to each other or to third parties. They can also trade for MBX, a NetMarble-exclusive cryptocurrency.

According to a content roap, NetMarble plans to add NFT functionality to Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds by "Q4 2022."

NetMarble stated in a post from April 2022 that it intends blockchain and crypto integration for more than Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds. Games like A3: Still Alive and others already feature blockchain functions and MBX trading. These include the generation, sale, and trade of NFT assets and similar items.

NFT, blockchain, and cryptocurrency functions have become hot-button issues in the gaming space as companies jump on the crypto bandwagon. Meanwhile, attempts to cash in on the trend of "play-to-earn" games and NFT sales have generally met with disinterest or even hostility from audiences not already enthusiastic about crypto. Larger players like Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco have also expressed interest in blockchain integration, though, for the most part, those efforts are still in development, such as the Gundam Metaverse.

Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds is available on Android, iOS, and PC. Previous Ni no Kuni titles have no crypto integration and are available on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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Netmarble recently shared a batch of new screenshots for its smartphone MMORPG Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds. The images show more from the game's story and characters set in the alternate world of Ni no Kuni.

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="851606,851605"]

In Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds, you will get to select out of several character classes. However, the five starting character classes are actually players from their world who are beta testing a virtual reality game called "Soul Divers." As the players progress through the game, they begin to realize that they've in fact been sent to an alternate world of Ni no Kuni, where they meet a mysterious woman known as Lania.

Lania talks to the players about fulfilling their destiny of rebuilding a fallen kingdom in order to face off against a menacing foe. This foe not only threatens Ni no Kuni but our world as well, as the two worlds are linked together.

Here's a look at the five characters that you can play as, plus one mascot character:

Swordsman

Witch

Destroyer

Rogue

Engineer

Kuu

You can read more details on the Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds characters here.

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="851598,851611,851610,851609"]

While the game is a smartphone title, the developers are putting work into bringing in the charm of the Ni no Kuni series through its beautifully depicted world and breathtaking sceneries. However, the developers also mention that the appearance isn't the only thing that is in the works, as plenty of other content is being prepared for the title as well. We'll learn more about those in a future update, including a special program at TGS 2020 on September 26, 2020.

Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds is set to launch for iOS and Android devices in 2020. Check here for the game's first details on its story, characters, kingdom-building, and more from its announcement in November 2019.

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Netflix is bumping up its anime offerings in January 2020. It turns out the Ni no Kuni movie is among its latest acquisitions. People will be able to begin watching it as of January 16, 2020.

The Ni no Kuni movie launched in Japan on August 23, 2019 and tells an original story. Yuu and Haru, played by Kento Yamazaki and Mackenyu Arata, are two high schoolers who find themselves going between our world and Ni no Kuni, another fantasy world after their childhood friend Kotona, who is Haru’s girlfriend, is attacked. Once in the other world, they realize she has a counterpart named Asya. In order for one of the women to live, the other must die. However, Yuu, who has always had feelings for Kotona, develops feelings for Asya.

In addition to Ni no Kuni, two other anime series will Netflix next month. On January 10, 2020, people will be able to watch Scissor Seven. The second part of Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac’s first season will show up on January 23, 2020.

As far as Ni no Kuni games go, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch recently appeared on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC. (It originally appeared on the PlayStation 3.) Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is available for the PlayStation 4 and PC.

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Warner Bros. Japan and Level-5 released another batch of character introduction trailers for the animated film Ni no Kuni. We’re introduced to the protagonist Yuu, his friends Haru, Kotona, and Princess Asya.

Yuu

Yuu is a paraplegic who is bound to a wheelchair but has a brilliant mind that puts him on the top of his class in high school. He’s always had feelings for Kotona, who is dating his childhood freind Haru.

Haru

Haru is Yuu’s best friend. He’s popular in high school and is the ace of the basketball club. He’s in a relationship with Kotona.

Kotona & Princess Asya (CV: Mei Nagano)

Kotona is Yuu and Haru’s childhood friend. She’s innocent and adorable high school girl. She’s in a relationship with Haru. Princes Asya, on the other hand, is the princess of Ni no Kuni who happens to look exactly like Kotona.

Check our previous report for a look at the previous three character introduction trailers for Yoki, Danpa, and Gabaras.

Ni no Kuni’s animated film is set to debut in Japan on August 23, 2019. You can check out its first trailer here, and more info on a couple new characters here.

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Warner Bros. Japan and Level-5 released three new character trailers for their animated film for Ni no Kuni. The trailers introduce Yoki, Danpa, and Gabaras.

Yoki (CV: Mamoru Miyano)

Evermore Kingdom’s minister of magic and the king’s trusted advisor.

Danpa (CV: Yuuki Kaji)

A fairy creature that has patterns like a panda. He’s in charge of taking care of Evermore’s princess.

Gabaras (CV: Kenjiro Tsuda)

The absolute leader of the “Black Banner Army” that aims to take out Evermore.

Ni no Kuni’s animated film is set to debut in Japan on August 23, 2019. You can check out its first trailer here, and more info on a couple new characters here.

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The Ni no Kuni movie produced by Level-5 and Warner Bros. Japan has been announced for an August 23, 2019 release date in Japan.

The story revolves around the three childhood friends Yuu, Haru, and Kotona. When Kotona gets into some trouble, the three of them end up getting whisked away to the mysterious Ni no Kuni, where their parallel selves exist. It turns out that the princess of Ni no Kuni is Kotona's parallel self, and Haru grows closer to her, but when Kotona and the princess are thrust into danger, Yuu and Haru must now make the ultimate choice.

Additionally, Warner Bros. Japan has shared info on two other characters:

Ojii-san (CV: Tsuyoshi Muro): An mysterious old man who stays at the same hospital as Yuu, and has always helped cheer Yuu up. While he looks like just some noisy old man, he's harboring a very important secret. Warner Bros. also mentions that he seems to be related to the Ni no Kuni video games as well.

King Flounder (CV: Masatou Ibu): The King of Evermore in Ni no Kuni.

The Ni no Kuni movie is set to come out on August 23, 2019 in Japan.

The post The Ni no Kuni Movie Journeys Into Japan On August 23, 2019 appeared first on Siliconera.

The Ni no Kuni series has a big anime film coming this summer, and while we’ve yet to see much of the movie Level-5 and Warner Bros shared a good look with its first trailer.

The movie revolves around the protagonist Yu and his best friend Haru who travel between Ni no Kuni and the real world after a certain incident that occurred involving their childhood friend named Kotona. However, all three face their own danger in the other world, and the “ultimate choice” must be made for them and the world of Ni no Kuni.

Ni no Kuni’s animated film is set to debut in Summer 2019 in Japan. You can learn more about voice cast in our previous report. A manga for the Ni no Kuni series has also been confirmed.

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The Ni no Kuni series is getting a lot of love these days, from the announcement of Ni no Kuni II’s second major DLC coming out this Winter, as well as an anime film set for Summer 2019, and now a manga series has also been confirmed as well. [Thanks, Ryokutya2089!]

The series will be serialized in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine’s May issue, and will be drawn by mangaka Kuzeran. The manga will have its own story separate from all of the others, and features a protagonist wearing modern clothing.

Previously in Ni no Kuni related news, more info was released on the characters of the animated film, which you can read more about here.

The post Ni No Kuni Manga To Dive Into Magical Lands As Well appeared first on Siliconera.

Level-5 and Warner Bros. Japan surprised us earlier this month with the announcement of a Ni no Kuni anime film for this summer. Here’s a look at some of its new characters and their voice talents.

Yoki (CV: Mamoru Miyano)

Evermore Kingdom’s minister of magic and the king’s trusted advisor.

Gabaras (CV: Kenjiro Tsuda)

The absolute leader of the “Black Banner Army” that aims to take out Evermore.

Saki & Versa (CV: Maaya Sakamoto)

Saki (Ichi no Kuni) is a childhood friend who is an older sister figure to Yu and Haru, who’ve always called her “Saki-nee” since they were younger. Versa (Ni no Kuni) is a female knight that protects Evermore’s princess.

Balton (CV: Koichi Yamadera)

The commander of the Evermore knights. He’s a strict knight and also the best swordsman of the kingdom.

Danpa (CV: Yuuki Kaji)

A fairy creature that has patterns like a panda. He’s in charge of taking care of Evermore’s princess.

Ni no Kuni’s animated film is set to debut in Summer 2019 in Japan.

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Level-5 and Warner Bros. Japan announced that Ni no Kuni is getting an anime film this summer in Japan. It’ll feature character designs by Yoshiyuki Momose and music by Joe Hisaishi.

The announcement was made during a press conference today, where it was also announced that Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino is taking the role of executive producer and scriptwriter of the film. Hino is credited as the writer of all the Ni no Kuni games released so far.

Yoshiyuki Momose is a veteran in the animation department with work on many of Studio Ghibli’s titles such as Porco Rosso and Spirited Away. He previously worked with Level-5 as the animation director of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and as the character designer for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.

Composer Joe Hisaishi is known for over 100 film scores, many associated with Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, and has composed scores for all but one of his films. He was the composer for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.

Actor and model Kento Yamazaki, known for his role as L in the live-action Death Note series, will voice the Ni no Kuni film protagonist named Yu, who travels between Ni no Kuni and the real-world with his childhood friend Kotona.

As for the animation, it'll be handled by OLM, best known as the studio behind Pokémon, Inazuma Eleven, Yo-kai Watch, and many others.

Ni no Kuni’s animated film is set to debut in Summer 2019 in Japan.

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Back in 2010, Level-5 released the first Ni no Kuni game on DS, which was never brought over to Western regions. Instead, the West received the enhanced remake for PS3. Flashforward to December 2018, and now the game has received a full English fan translation by ZKarts, Anjiera, and their team.

One of the major factors to the game not coming over to the West was the heavy reliance on a 352-page tome that came with the game which was meant to be used to solve the game’s various puzzles. Alongside the game, the tome has also been translated into a 372-page PDF. The fan translation translates the title of the game as Ni no Kuni: The Jet-Black Mage.

Check out some screenshots below:

You can find the translation patch here.

Ni no Kuni: Shikkoku no Madoushi released in 2010 for Nintendo DS in Japan.

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Level-5 announced today that Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom has sured 900,000 units in total shipments and digital s. The Ni no Kuni series has now reached 2.3 million in worldwide shipments.

The original soundtrack for Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom was also announced in Level-5’s press release:

The OST featuring various tracks from the game composed by Joe Hisashi releases in Japan on June 6, 2018 for 3,300 yen. It’s a single-disc album with 31 tracks.

Additionally, first-print copies come with one of two special stickers (at random).

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is available on PlayStation 4 and PC.

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While Level 5 fans will get to play Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on PlayStation 3 in English next year, what they may never get the chance to see is the original Ni no Kuni on the Nintendo DS. The “lost” Ni no Kuni game, if you will. This is the final part of our series of playtests for Ni no Kuni: The Jet Black Sorcerer. Developed by Level 5 and the famed Studio Ghibli, it was released late last year in Japan.

Ni no Kuni is a game of exploration and discovery. Every step of the way, there are quests posted in the Shibakuro Co., an international company that exists in every city and has requests from people in cities all around the world posting on their billboards.

These appear the moment they’re unlocked, so the only thing you have to do is find the person and talk to him or her.

Quests usually span three types. The first is item quests; these are actually the rarest of the lot. The second is heart fragment quests, where you have to find people across the world who have a certain fragment for people who are lacking that same fragment.

The second involves those called Nukegara People (anything I translate this into will sound like a ripoff from another game, so I’m leaving it in Japanese) who have had parts of their heart stolen by the evil magician. The different kinds of fragments include Motivation, Kindness, Courage, Restraint, Confidence, Love, Faith, and Dreams -- which are very unusual categories. Basically, Oliver has a bottle that can store one of each kind of fragment using the Heart Piece spell, and so it’s best to give out the fragments as quickly as possible.

Luckily, you can accept as many quests as you want without worrying about a deadline.

At first, I didn’t have much trouble with these quests since most of them can be done as you’re traveling around the world for story’s sake anyway. However, towards the second half of the game, the quests require more back-and-forth traveling and the story takes a breather before the grand finale. Thankfully, by then you have the Teleportation spell, which makes this a little easier. That said, even with spells and a flying dragon, merely traveling through the overworld and the cities takes a long time and I found myself spending more time than I would have liked for relatively little reward on the quests.

The third kind of quest is bounty hunting, where certain monsters appear on the overworld. Usually, monsters chase after you, but these stay put and wait for you to approach them and talk to them. This doesn’t really matter for most the game, where the enemies are Imagens you’d find in the wild, but towards the, they start to get very, very strong.

There are 100 quests in the game, but you can unlock more by connected your DS to the Internet. There are new Imagen, and new alchemic recipes as well.  Completing quests gives you quest points, which are used to fill up a Hero Stamp Card.

Each card has room for 10 stamps. Completed cards are used to get abilities, such as easier avoidance of enemies, easier befriending of Imagens, automatically obtaining money as you walk, etc. Usually, quest completion will also net you an item, some of which can be used for alchemy.

Ni no Kuni is ultimately a game-and-book, rather than just a DS game. The Magic Master book that comes with it is indispensible, and not just because some quests require it. Or because all the runes are drawn in it and that’s the only way to learn new spells. The Magic Master is organized very clearly, and even comes with a removable index to help you find specific items or Imagen. Each chapter is interspersed with trivia, as well, such as background about the shops or lore about certain areas. There are pages on the transportation systems in the world, complete with illustrations, ancient drawings that look inspired from Mayan art, as well as cultural customs.

The first chapter has everything you need to know about spells and runes. In the game, you’re prompted to “look up the rune in the Magic Master and draw it on the touch screen!” at which point you find the spell that matches the provided description or name using the information from the book. Interestingly, some of the spells that are provided don’t even appear in the game, and there are even spells blacked out, to “prevent you from using life-threatening black magic.”

The second chapter contains recipes. So long as you have the items necessary, you can create anything from the book without the recipes found in the game. The third chapter has a list of all the items, as well as a simple drawing, a description, and where to find them. I haven’t checked, but I believe all items are listed, although some are found in nice locations such as “unknown” or “fusion only.”

Fourth is the enormous chapter on Imagen, including information on how to catch and raise them. Imagen come in groups of four – each type of monster can evolve twice, with the third form being a choice between two different ones.

Each Imagen (not just the species, but each form) is provided with a small description, their weaknesses and resistances, where they’re found, what items they drop when defeated, and what special skill they have. I often use this information, especially the last, to figure out which evolution I want to try and get a balanced team. The pictures are really cute, too.

The sixth chapter contains popular myths from the world of Ni no Kuni. Aside from providing some interesting reading material, most of the tales tie into the story in some way or another. For example, one is a tale about four brothers and their flute, which is a key item in the story. Another talks about the creation of the dragonfly-like flying machine they have. Perhaps the most important of these is about a man and his legendary treasure hunt. Accompanying the myth are illustrations of the area, including a map that shows all the hidden routes, traps, and answers to the puzzle dungeons that you have to travel to at a certain point in the story.

Finally, the last chapter is about geography. There are plenty of maps showing where the cities are, as well as their customs, history, trade, and information about their leaders. In addition, there is a world map, dotted with cities as well as Xs and stars. These are the locations for hidden treasure chests and hidden medals, both of which unlock hidden special quests that are spoken of only by a handful of townspeople and in the book itself.

In addition to the ones mentioned above, secrets are hidden throughout the Magic Master. Scattered throughout the book are scribbles, writings in another language. There’s a deciphering key in the back, and understanding the Astram language is one of the keys to one of the longer quests in the game. Each cover page to a chapter contains these Astram letters, and when they’re linked in a certain way, they spell a message. There are two pages in the book that contain only an illustration of green land, blue skies, waterfalls … and flying fish, lit candles, open treasure chests, and other such odd things.

This is a depiction of the Dream World, which you can visit every so often when you visit an inn (it’s determined randomly) and get Imagen and items not found elsewhere. The Dream World is basically a conglomeration of riddles and small puzzles, and the only way to solve the majority of them is by studying that picture.

The Magic Master is an indispensible accompaniment to the game and serves as a guidebook as well as an instrument to move the story along. It provides a background to the world, as well as a certain atmosphere of its own (even just by the look of its cover. So many of Ni no Kuni’s secrets are revealed in the book in such a way as to not decrease any of the fun of playing the game, which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Food for thought:

1. After you finish the game, you gain access to the Moya’s Tower dungeon, an 100-level, randomized dungeon. It contains Imagen not found anywhere else, and at the tippity-top is a legendary beast for you to defeat.

2. In the game, there is a casino city, complete with a golden pyramid like in Las Vegas. There, you can play minigames, like slots and a card game. After completion of the game, though, you are given access to a theater where you can watch events and movies that you’ve seen through the course of the game. Unfortunately, to do so, you have to have a certain rank in the casino, gotten only by getting “777” in the slots, so good luck.

3. Other online goodies include the ability to trade eggs with other Ni no Kuni owners via a Tag mode/Street-like feature, and the ability to battle others’ Imagens.

The post The Lost Ni no Kuni Game And The Book That Came With It appeared first on Siliconera.

This is Part 2 of our short series of playtests for Ni no Kuni on the Nintendo DS. Developed by Level 5 and the famed Studio Ghibli, it was released late last year in Japan, and is a turn-based role-playing game. In this article, we discuss exploration.

Ni no Kuni sticks to its RPG roots with the “town and dungeon” formula as a foundation and some quests as a topping.  However, it does plenty of other things to make its journey a unique one. 

There’s not much to be said about running around towns.  I’ve already gone into the beauty of the scenery and the splendor of the music, and the towns are fairly extensive, although each follows the same approximate layout.  People fill the streets and you can talk to everyone you see, although their conversation may not be the most interesting to read about.  However, it’s still advised you talk to everyone since they often give you quests (symbolized by a yellow smiley face over their head when you approach them) and alchemy recipes.

In general, towns contain a few residential homes with a person or two inside, an item shop, an equipment shop, an inn, and a place where you can pick up quests.  The first two are self-explanatory, although you can always find better items from monsters or through your own creation.  The quest shop has a billboard that posts all the quests available to you at your point in the game.  They list a simple description of the person and where they are in the world.  For you to actually find out what sort of quest they want, you’ll have to find them yourself.  You don’t have to read the billboard to activate the quest and find the people, but it’s a helpful tool to help you on your adventure.  You can also talk to the man (or half-man thing, rather) behind the counter and he’ll give you bounty quests, where you’ll have to defeat a monster and report back to him to get your cash reward.  This is actually quite an exception, since most of your rewards come in the form of rare items.

Dungeons are interspersed among your adventure, and each is a veritable maze.  The later ones come with some puzzles too, which require either your brain, your Magic Master -- the book that comes along with Ni no Kuni -- or a magic spell to solve. 

Most of the labyrinths are fairly long and are split into two sections. 

Because you can’t save in dungeons, this is the perfect spot to rest because the interval between two sections always has a save point and a manhole (more on those later) for your perusal.  Save points always heal your HP and MP as well, so they eliminate most of the need for items.

Magic pervades through the game.  You can use spells any time by pressing the Y button, although they usually don’t do anything unless you’re in a specific situation.  Of course, there are exceptions, such as Treasure Search, which shows you hidden treasure chests on the field whenever you use it, and Levitate, which hovers you a foot above the ground and allows you to avoid poison and forgetfulness traps. Otherwise, when you come to a certain situation in the story or when you see an exclamation point over your head, you are brought to the drawing screen, where you can draw the necessary runes for the spell.  

The most common ones you’ll be using are Heart Piece and Heart Cure, which take and give heart fragments to people, which is essential for most quests and the main story.  You can also use any spell you’ve learned previously in battle, such as Fireball, Tempest, or Summon (you learn spells by just drawing them once, whenever you want).

Battles perpetuate through the dungeons, although all of them, with the exception of a single location, are avoidable.  Enemies appear as a single monster on the map -- dungeon or overworld -- and you can either choose to run into it or run away from it.  It actually takes a bit of practice to successfully avoid a monster, especially the faster ones, but usually a quick turn will shake them off your tail. 

These enemies respawn frequently (as soon as you’ve moved to a different screen) so I was sometimes at my wit’s end to avoid as many battles as possible.  The only time they are completely random is when you’re sailing in the ocean.

Battles are pretty quick and simple.  They’re turn-based, with you giving orders to the entire party at the beginning of a turn and letting speed and luck decide the way the battle plays out.  You can tell your to attack, use a special attack (or magic), use an item, or defend.  You can also switch a member out (once per turn), check status (like status enhancers and how many Nice! points you have), set an AI, or run.

You can also press the Y button to arrange your three battle however you wish on a 3x3 grid, with the front row having the highest attack bonus and the back row having the highest defense bonus.  This can be done as many times as you want within a turn.

Nice! points are accumulated by striking at an opponent’s weakness, dodging an attack, or successfully defending your party from an attack by taking advantage of the party arrangements.  For example, most bosses have an attack that engulfs the entire battle field, but stops at the first character in each column.  If you have your characters arranged in an “L” shape, then one of the characters in the back row will be protected from the attack.  This would grant the character in front of it, in the front row, a point.  Once you have the maximum number of points – which you can check in the status screen – you can activate a special attack that does massive damage.

Now, your party are formed from a motley gang that you can pick and choose with the exception of three .  One is Oliver himself, who can use any of the attack spells you’ve previously drawn the rune of, and the two others through the game.  Maru can play songs on the lyre to befriend monsters, while Jairo can steal items. The rest of the party is formed by the Imagen you have with you.

Imagen are monsters that roam the field, but they are also “creatures formed from the heart,” so if you can befriend any, they’ll gladly fight for you.  You do this with almost any monster – the only exception being evil beings called Nightmares and any of the bosses.  Capturing and raising Imagen are such a huge part of the game that I’d even call them a third division of the game, in addition to town and dungeon exploring. 

First, you encounter an Imagen in battle.  You whack it a bit over the head and, if Maru is in the party and the enemy has been successfully damaged, a heart symbol will appear over the monster’s head.  This means that it’s willing to listen to a tune or two.  After a certain point in the game, Maru has three songs to choose from.  Basically, you have to play the right songs in the right order, and once that’s done, the Imagen will automatically you.  This is easier than it sounds because after you’ve played a song, a note will appear telling you a hint of what to play next.  What’s more, there’s no penalty for playing the wrong song other than losing a turn.

After you’ve managed to drag the monster to your side, you give it a name (because apparently they feel more attached to you once you’ve named them) and it stays in your cage.  Later on, you get another cage.  Each cage can store nine monsters, although only the ones in your first cage can be switched in and out of battle, and only those can gain EXP (every monster in the first cage as well as your current party gain EXP after a battle.  Of course, the ones in the battle party on the last turn of the battle are the ones who get the most points).  If both cages are full, they automatically move to the manhole, which is a “dimension between worlds.”  You can switch your monsters in and out of the manhole, which usually appear near save points in dungeons (which always appear before a boss battle), and in every town.

Imagen each have a single spell when you first befriend them.  The only way to learn more techniques is to evolve the monster, which happens at regular intervals.  Once evolved, the Imagen learns a new technique. 

At its second evolution (each monster has three stages), you get a choice between two forms, with each form having its own specialty and its own spell. 

For example, if you have a Seiryuu and have to evolve it, would you prefer a Honryuu, which has an extremely damaging water attack that hits all the enemies, or a Tenryuu, with a healing move that completely restores an ally’s HP?

Different evolutions also have different weaknesses.  While you don’t have to worry about the enemy getting Nice! points, hitting a weakness nets a 1.5x bonus in damage.  Resistances cut the damage to approximately 0.5x.

Raising Imagen is more than simply leveling them up, though.  You have to constantly go to the cage (from the main menu) and check up on them.  There, you can pet them, brush them, and play with them regularly.  Every monster likes the attention, and they show it by a shower of hearts.  Having the Imagen like you serves two purposes.  I believe that the more a monster likes you, the faster they level up.  Also, it prevents them from being lonely.  A lonely Imagen will sulk during battle and ignore your orders, and the only way to cure the condition is by using an item.  You can also feed your Imagen foods, although all the monsters are very picky about what they like.  It’s worth it, though, because some foods you feed will give the Imagen an extra Nice! point to start the next battle with, which is handy in a boss fight.

While the battles did grate on me after a while, I really enjoyed raising the Imagen.  One of my favorite moments in the game is playing with the monsters.  When you tease them with a cat toy, they run around chasing it until they’re exhausted and appear punch-drunk with love, tongue-lolling included.  It’s so adorable.

This is just everything on the surface, though.  There are plenty of quests, side quests, hidden treasures, and other such goodies present in the game.  These will be discussed in the next article.

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This is Part 1 of our short series of playtests for Ni no Kuni on the Nintendo DS. Developed by Level 5 and the famed Studio Ghibli, it was released late last year in Japan, and is a turn-based role-playing game. In this article, we touch upon its story.

In Hotroit, there lives a boy named Oliver. He has a mother named Allie who loves him and a best friend named Mark who claims to be an inventor, and dreams that he will one day make the best and fastest race car ever. Oliver has a wonderful life.

And then one day, late at night, Mark invites Oliver over to test drive his new car. Excited at the opportunity, Oliver sneaks out of the house and meets Mark by the river. The two decide that Oliver goes first (on that Mark made the seat too small and only the smaller Oliver can fit). The car zooms down the riverside, but then, it sputters out of control and crashes into the river.

Mark rushes down to help, but he twists his ankle. The one who saves Oliver is his mother, who was walking by on the bridge, searching for her son. Allie leaps in, saves Oliver from drowning, and all is well...until she comes down with a sudden mysterious pain. Within the next few days, wracked with fever and illness, she’s gone.

Filled with grief and guilt, Oliver stays cooped up in his room for a while. One day, he hugs a doll Allie had once given him and his teardrops happen to fall on it. Suddenly, it comes to life, with a lantern dangling from its long nose and a water-droplet shaped body. In an accented voice, he says his name is Shizuku, the great fairy, and he’s come to bring Oliver to “Ni no Kuni,” a world parallel to our own.

At first, Oliver refuses. His mother just died. He’s disinclined to go on any adventure even if it sounds wonderful. But then, upon seeing Allie’s picture, Shizuku exclaims, “Oh, what a coincidence, that’s the great sorceress Alicia, and she’s currently fighting the evil wizard Jabo in Ni no Kuni!” Because every person in Ichi no Kuni (the real world) has a soul counterpart in Ni no Kuni that is intricately linked, if something happens to one, the other will likely be affected, too. Oliver has to hurry over and defeat Jabo to save his mother.

Hearing this, Oliver can’t say no. So, on a quest to save his mother and to save the world, Oliver agrees to the task. Traveling along with him and Shizuku are Maru, the daughter of one of the Great Sages, and Jairo, a pickpocket who later s your party.

The story is something you’d imagine from a children’s book. There’s just something heartwarming about a boy going up against what is probably the evilest being in the world in order to save his mother’s soul.

And after the first twenty minutes, with the sudden way Oliver lost his mother, I felt personally motivated to work towards his goal to save her.

In addition, a lot of the story revolves around fragments of people’s hearts being stolen and returning those fragments to them. The world of Ni no Kuni is fascinating. Sometimes, you’ll have to find allies among your enemies. So touched are they by Oliver’s efforts that they actually decide to help you. Other times, you’ll come across flying machines that have wings that flap like dragonflies, and a dragon carries you on his back as you sail around the world.

The entire atmosphere is ed by the art which is drawn by Studio Ghibli, known for similarly simple-yet-complex stories such as Spirited Away or Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Entire scenes in the game are animated as though in a movie, and the transition back to 3D is surprisingly smooth.

It could be the vivid, yet soft color  palette, but sometimes, when I’m running through the alleyways of a town, I have to remind myself I’m not watching an anime and actually playing a game. The visuals are incredibly beautiful, even in the overworld and during battles.

Complimenting this is the music by Joe Hisaishi, with a wonderful range of pieces. Not only are all of them well-matched to the situation at hand -- a drumming march at an industrial city, a light yet mysterious piece reminiscent of something from Professor Layton whenever you have a particularly hard puzzle to solve, an upbeat track that hypes you up when you take care of your little army of monsters. It’s been a while since I’ve paused a game to listen to the soundtrack. There isn’t a large selection of tracks, but you don’t usually notice it because they’re used wisely.

The sound quality of the game in general is very impressive as well. There’s not a hint of static or low quality in either the voiced lines or the soundtrack.

While the story is certainly one of the main attractions, it’s creating an atmosphere that Ni no Kuni excels in. This isn’t conveyed just through the background designs or the music and art style. It’s also incorporated into how the game plays. There are magical monsters of all sorts of shapes and sizes that are spawned from the heart and fight alongside you through your entire journey. These are befriended using songs played from a lyre during battles. During the game, you get the opportunity to draw runes onto the touchscreen to activate magic spells.

The book that comes with every copy of the game, the Magic Master, is a major part of the enjoyment  too, with its complete encyclopedia of alchemic combinations, weapons and shields, bestiary, and even a whole compendium of myths from Ni no Kuni. Reading it won’t spoil your journey. In fact, it’s downright encouraged, despite the fact that part of the book isn’t even written in English or Japanese, but rather in a fictional language called Astram (there’s a translator at the end of the book).

There are very few problems I can actually pinpoint with regard to the game. One is that the number of voiced lines and animated scenes decreases towards the latter half of the experience, but that’s because you tend to spend more time on the quests and dungeons than before. Despite this, there’s still a fair amount of both, enough to pull you in like a storybook.

The other is that sometimes using the Magic Master in conjunction with the game can be a little awkward because a sheer lack of hands (two -- too few!).

That said, the book doesn’t hinder the game and offers so much information in a novel way that I was willing to do the “put DS down, pick book up, put book down, pick DS up” routine a few times. Heck, I’ve even used the book as a bit of side reading.

I love playing Ni no Kuni because of a combination of wonderful art and music, and the entire atmosphere of the game. I also love the monsters, the Imagen -- raising them and battling them and evolving them -- which is something I’ll go into in a follow-up article.

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