After being a PC gamer for many years a friend gave me their old PS3 with a couple of games, 'Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch' was among them and was the only title I had never seen or heard of, being a big fan of the JRPG I decided to give it a try...
I have been a massive fan of Studio Ghibli since the early 2000's when channel 4 (here in the UK) had a month long special of showing all of the films and ending on Howls Moving Castle, introducing me to this special Anime world, it felt refreshing to see an Anime that wasn't filled with violence, blood and gore etc. (although I do enjoy that aswell), the story lines were really well written with characters that actually made you feel the joy and sadness they were going through, brilliant cinematic direction and the artwork was beautiful. Ni No Kuni is no different, after around 10 minutes of playing I was drawn into its story and had this strange feeling in my gut that it was either created or inspired by Studio Ghibli, the characters felt old to me, the music sounded like the OST to Spirited Away and the artwork during the non 3D cut scenes felt similar.
Low and behold a quick google search and my gut feeling became a reality, not only did SG inspire level-5 to make it they had a massive part in its production from start to finish. This review is 100% spoiler free so I will not go into anything story wise but after 50+ hours I've finally finished it and if I was to describe it in one word "Beautiful" is the one I would choose.
Whether you're a fan of Ghibli or even just love JRPG's then I recommend this 100%, the 10 stars are well deserved.
Side Note: Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is a PS4 exclusive coming in March 2018, although it had no involvement from Studio Ghibli this time around I will still try to either play it on a friends console or pray that a full playthrough is uploaded to Youtube without commentary.
Side Note: Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom is a PS4 exclusive coming in March 2018, although it had no involvement from Studio Ghibli this time around I will still try to either play it on a friends console or pray that a full playthrough is uploaded to Youtube without commentary.