Ni No Kuni - All that is amazing with the world

[EVILNess]

If you have a PS3 and even remotely enjoy RPGs and you do not have this game then you hate happiness.

This game is amazing. All I can do is gush gush and then gush some more about it. It is hands down the most charming and down right gorgeous game I have played this console generation.

The effort they put into this game blows my mind. The world map makes me cry with joy. Seriously, the spellbook alone is mind boggling, a 200+ page actual book that you can read as you find more pages?

Go play it now.

I can wait.

Why are you still here? I said I would wait.

[Tev]

That's the Studio Ghibli one right? I had a friend pick up the game last week and saw her play through the first hour or so. It's pretty amazing looking. It's like playing an active role in a Miyazaki film that I wish was also released on the big screen.

[Arcanum]

How much JRPG grind is in this game? Like, if I just do every quest and sidequest I come across, and kill every monster I cross paths with, will I avoid the need to grind? Because as much as I love Studio Ghibli, I really hate JRPGs and the grind they often force on the player.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

How much JRPG grind is in this game? Like, if I just do every quest and sidequest I come across, and kill every monster I cross paths with, will I avoid the need to grind? Because as much as I love Studio Ghibli, I really hate JRPGs and the grind they often force on the player.

It depends.

* You can choose to play the game on Easy or Normal difficulty. You won't have to grind nearly as much if you choose Easy. (I don't mind grinding as much as you do, so I chose Normal anyway because lolz E-Z is 4 wimpz.)
And, there's no penalty to choosing 'Easy' in terms of trophies or accessing other content.

* Familiars are like Pokemon. There are a ton of them. As they grow and mature, they can achieve additional forms and abilities. You can choose to collect them all, or you can choose to just work with a few familiars you're exceptionally fond of. If you go the latter route, you won't have as much flexibility in dealing with certain bosses but you'll be able to go through the game much faster.
By contrast, if you're a completionist like I'm sorely tempted to be, you'll waste a shitton of time leveling up familiars, who level up separately from the main characters and who require a fair deal of attention.

* A fair deal of the grinding is actually a result of Sidequests, because those dinky little missions have you running all about the map.
...Here's a tip for you if you're not interested in grinding: Don't do all the sidequests right away. In the beginning of the game you have to walk everywhere, so completing sidequests is a slog. But in this game, there's no time limit on sidequest availability. The same sidequests are available throughout the game.

...The rewards from the early sidequests are decent, but not exceptional. You can save a lot of time by skipping the sidequests that require you to gather miscellaneous items or that require you to run back to dungeons you've already cleared on the map.

If you don't grind much, but you stick with a few well-balanced familiars with decent stats, you'll pretty much be fine until the endgame. (Though there is a bit of that Reverse Difficulty thing going on where the earliest hours of the game can include some of the toughest fights by sheer virtue of Oliver being completely alone on the battlefield.)

EDIT: Also, you can save yourself a lot of time by checking compendiums and learning as much as you can online about which familiars to use. A few familiars are 'early bloomers' but if you rely on those too much you'll find yourself hampered by the endgame, when they become much less effective. You want to make sure you're investing in at least a few 'late bloomer' familiars who you'll keep on the sidelines in early battles, but who can eventually step in and dominate later on.

This is a game that does reward research and planning, so spending a half-hour on the web planning things out can save you several hours of grinding down the road.

TLDR Ni No Kuni rewards grinders but I wouldn't say that's difficult enough to require grinding. It's a game with tremendous depth for those who want to dive in deep, but it's also simple enough that on Easy difficulty, a person playing for the story should be able to just enjoy the story.

[Magus]

Since it basically looks like Dragon Quest VIII (EXCEPT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL) this is a no-brainer for me. I was going to try the demo first, though, but I can already feel my heart of stone melting just looking at the screenshots...

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Magus

Since it basically looks like Dragon Quest VIII (EXCEPT EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL) this is a no-brainer for me. I was going to try the demo first, though, but I can already feel my heart of stone melting just looking at the screenshots...

There are three things that prevent me from being quite as enthusiastic about the game as EVILNess

1: After a really gripping first hour or so the narrative stalls for a bit until it finds its wheels,
2: There isn't quite enough exploration with dungeons, though I'd suppose the counterargument there is that the scenery is so damned beautiful you probably won't care about its linearity, and
3: While the world is beautiful, it's also somewhat empty. Whereas a game like Persona 4 Golden has tons of memorable NPCs to interact with, Ni No Kuni basically has your handful of named characters who are important and then...nothing but background fluff.

The world definitely looks vibrant and alive, but a lot of its beauty is surface-level and it doesn't really feel like there's a world of characters independent from Oliver's agency. Though I personally have a few crackpot story-related theories as to why Studio Ghibli and Level 5 may have intended this effect, it does lead to a strange disconnect at times. It's particularly intriguing that there's this beautiful 200-page in-game Instruction Manual to one of the few RPG worlds that doesn't seem politically or culturally complex enough to need it, though.

Aside from that I have nothing but great things to say. It's probably my second favorite JRPG this-gen behind only Valkyria Chronicles, and there's a still a chance that a later clever plot twist or two might put it on top.

[Magus]

None of that bothers me, DQ8 was the same way. It's not surprising--Level 5 probably has a certain type of thing they do when they make these games.

[Locke cole]

Yet anoher reason why I might end up buying a PS3 a few years down the road...

On a scale of FFXIII to Xenoblade, how free are you to explore in the game?

[EVILNess]

Originally Posted by Locke cole

Yet anoher reason why I might end up buying a PS3 a few years down the road...

Dude, when you do break down and get one: Valkria Chronicles, 3d Dot Game Heroes, Tales of Graces f, and possibly Tales of Xillia (It isn't out yet so I'm just per-emptively saying that.)

Originally Posted by Locke cole

On a scale of FFXIII to Xenoblade, how free are you to explore in the game?

Err... I would rank it at FF12? Maybe? There is a lot of side quests and hidden treasures on the map. Lot's of side content and there is an actual world map.

[Locke cole]

Hm... now that I think about it, the scale should really be FFXIII to FFXII, with Xenoblade somewhere towards the FFXII end of the spectrum.