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On Feb 6th, on behalf of GBAtemp, I attended a private, behind closed doors Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom press event hosted by Namco Bandai[prebreak]1[/prebreak] at Hever Castle - a beautiful 13th-century structure that was once home to Anne Boleyn:

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As we entered Hever Castle, there was a huge, pretty cool statue of Evan sitting on a throne with Roland standing next to him. The amount of detail that was on the statue perfectly captures the art style of Ni No Kuni, which uses a pseudo 2D/3D cell-shaded look with beautiful smooth animation like a Studio Ghibli movie. I got to see design stills from the creators of the game and talk to the voice actors and learn about the translation process from Japanese to English. We got to have a Q&A session with the voice acting team who have done an amazing job with various American and regional British accents for the NPCs. My favourite voice by far has to be Lofty Evan’s King Maker; he says “Flippin' eck” in a broad Welsh accent and it really made me chuckle!

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From what I've played so far of Level 5's brand new JRPG, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, I've really enjoyed. I got to play 30 minutes of chapter 3 of the Goldpaw Scandal, a place the designers told me they had created to resemble parts of Taiwan. Overworld map movement is fun, and battles have the perfect balance of difficulty. As well as having the usual stuff you would find in a JRPG, there is also a portion of the game where you can build things, which feels very reminiscent of the Dark Cloud games, a series that was also developed by Level 5.

Ni No Kuni 2's world is full of life, with lots of different creatures, like the tribes of cats and mice. The overworld has tons of different things to encounter, as you explore all the different locations in the game with your cute chibi party members, which never failed to put a smile on my face.
If I had to pick out something I didn't like about the game, though, it would be the way that the character models clash in terms of art style, as in battle, they have a very anime-esque Studio Ghibli look to them, but on the overworld map they look very different and appear to be weirdly over shiny.

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Instead of being a turned based JRPG like the first title back on PS3, Ni No Kuni II is all about real-time action battles. As a party team of 3, you carry out attacks at the press of a button and have multiple magic spells to play around with for extra damage. Higgledies, a new creature to NNK2 can also help you out by providing a shield.
I fought a mythical dragon boss called Longfang, his design is inspired by Chinese mythology and he used fire based attacks smashing my party with meteors and geysers of flame. Check out a snippet of how a battle flows in the video below:

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I want to say thanks very much to Bandai Namco for inviting us along to the event, I had a great time meeting the team and seeing behind the scenes of how the game was created. They put on a spectacular fireworks display at the castle which was completely unexpected. I got some cool NNKII swag which has me even more hyped to finally play Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom when it releases next month!

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Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Trailer

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom releases March 23rd

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Ni No Kuni II Official Site

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[supercarotte]

I loved the first episode and can't wait to play this one. The only thing I'm questioning is on which platform I'm going to buy it, as I'd like to get the platinum trophy but only my parents own a PS4 and I don't see myself do all the grinding (assuming it is as tedious as ot was for the first title) if I can only play for a couple hours at a time.

If the Switch had trophies I'd totally go for it, sadly there isn't and the game won't be released on Switch anyway ^^

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Glad this won't be exclusive to PlayStation this time around! Don't have any PlayStation hardware to speak of, and am happy that Ni No Kuni 2 will be on PC. Excited to play it! Hope you had fun, Rei!

 

[DinohScene]

I'm sooooo jealous ;-;

 

[chartube12]

nvm

 

[Meteor7]

I'm glad to see the battle system of this game looking promising. The combat of the first was a bore at best, and it's what made me drop the game like a hot potato so early on.

 

[TobiasAmaranth]

Person A: Come up with something to make the game interesting.
Person B: Let's include furry people!
Person A: Okay cool, that's a big thumbs up, go for it.
Person C: Oh, I know, let's make one into one of the main characters.
Person B: Yeah, totally!
Person A: Idea accepted, but... let's make them a nekomimi instead of full kemono.
Person B/C: Not... really what we meant. But... Okay boss. ((

 

[DarthDub]

I hope the AI of party members isn't terrible.

 

[anhminh]

I hope Switch can get the first game.

 

[BvanBart]

I really hope that this game and its previous chapter will be released on switch.

 

[Stephano]

Does anyone know if Hayao Miyazaki will have at least a hand in this?

 

[chartube12]

Does anyone know if Hayao Miyazaki will have at least a hand in this?

He doesn't.

 

[AyanamiRei0]

I very much doubt this will be coming to the switch in the near future.

 

[google]

Looked like a great time, also game is shaping up nicely, can't wait for it be released

 

[Xandrid]

I have never heard of this game before, but this is looking very very nice, if only this were going on the Switch, Man I need to get a PS4 lol