Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
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  1. TheSixthAxis
    Sep 16, 2019
    Half a decade later, Ni no Kuni is still a must-play adventure for fans of JRPGs and Studio Ghibli films. That we get to play it once more without having to plug the PlayStation 3 in again is a treat in its own right, but seeing it remastered in 4K is simply magical.

Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best PS4 Game of 2019
61
#61 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 222 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 168 out of 222
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 222
  3. Negative: 23 out of 222
  1. smeglord
    Jul 25, 2020
    6
    (DISCLAIMER: I did not finish the game. I got roughly ten hours in before I decided to call it quits.)

    An endearing premise and Ghibli    (DISCLAIMER: I did not finish the game. I got roughly ten hours in before I decided to call it quits.)

    An endearing premise and Ghibli visuals do a lot to carry this JRPG, but not enough to save it from clunky combat mechanics that ultimately drag this game into the murky waters of mediocrity.

    Like many modern JRPGs, NNK has walked away from the clean precision of turn based combat, opting instead for clumsy action-rpg system where your party and a handful of monsters run around a little combat area in real time.

    Despite this, commands such as "attack" and "defend" still require you to flip through a menu, which can become an issue when enemy attacks are time sensitive, leading to a lot of frustration when big attacks you saw coming hit you anyway as you fumble with the controls.

    You can only control one party member at any given time, so there isn't much in the way of teamwork. Your other party members can have certain behaviors set if you don't want them burning through mana, but you can only change behaviors if you're in control of a human character.

    You see, you aren't just having to shuffle through a single party of characters, but each character has a sub-party in the form of monster familiars who all share health and mana with their user.

    The designs of the familiars are mostly forgettable, which is an issue because the game emphasizes you use them in combat over the more endearing human characters.

    I quit once the game introduced monster capturing and evolving (think pokemon), finally burying my already waning interest under a even more pet management mechanics.    … Full Review »
  2. Chimaera623
    Oct 31, 2019
    7
    The story and world are beautiful and charming, but the combat system really killed the enjoyment i had with this game. This could have beenThe story and world are beautiful and charming, but the combat system really killed the enjoyment i had with this game. This could have been an amazing experience, what a shame.… Full Review »
  3. HappySpaceInvad
    Jun 29, 2022
    5
    Well... it's mostly the battle system that lets this down. It's a real-time button-mashing festival. There is more to it, explained at theWell... it's mostly the battle system that lets this down. It's a real-time button-mashing festival. There is more to it, explained at the start of the game and then never again.

    You steer your character/familiar around the battle arena with the left thumbstick, and you switch actions with the... what? The left d-pad? Well there's a massive design flaw right there.

    I played on easy, and during the bit where you look for the cat king in the sewers, the difficult suddenly ramped up severely. My character or familiar could easily be taken out in a few hits. The only way through was to pick just one familiar each time and mash the attack action repeatedly and hope for the best. When I tried anything more tactical, I was decimated... and I quickly ran out of MP trying to heal myself in-between each fight. So, after only 2 hours game time, I quit in disgust.

    I expect what I did wrong was not grinding to level up my character in some easier area first... well pffft. Any game that requires a grind is, by definition, poorly balanced.

    What's hilarious is that if you watch any YouTube video explaining the battle system... the narrator commonly apologises for how confusing it all looks. In fact, I haven't yet found one that explains it clearly.

    But it's not just the battles... there's far too much back-and-forth fetch quests, the text speed is too slow (even on the fastest setting) and the text makes a super-irritating noise as it displays which will drive anyone else in the room up the wall.

    And the music, although lovely at first, quickly gets repetitive, as they're pretty short audio loops.

    It's a real shame as the voice work and graphics are absolutely top notch. With a turn-based battle mechanic, this would have been unmissable.    … Full Review »
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