I wanted to like Ni No Kuni more than I did. The art was gorgeous, the music a cut above, and the story oozed charm. I genuinely loved the familiar design, and the puns in the names frequently made me smile. The games environments were consistently gorgeous and interesting.
Unfortunately, most of the gameplay just didn't work for me. It felt like I was fighting the game more than I was fighting the on-screen enemies. The basic combat UI was frustrating -- I don't want to be navigating a clunky ring to select an ability in real time! Allied AI was completely brain dead. It wasn't uncommon to issue an attack order to my currently controlled familiar only for that familiar to walk brainlessly into an ally who happened to walk between him and the enemy.
I found most of the progression systems to be tedious. Catching a new familiar was entirely down to luck and could take upwards of an hour when I was looking for a specific one. Evolving a familiar required resetting to level one, and then waiting for a few hours of gameplay until it caught back up with its previous stats. Loot pinata enemies did some to allay that issue, but it was too late for my enjoyment. The food system for boosting a familiars stats was straight up frustratingly slow to make use of. It was still beneficial to make partial use of and avoid some of the tedium, but left me feeling like I wasn't doing what I could to improve my team.
The take heart and give heart mechanic was overused and struck me as lazy. It felt like the majority of the emotional conflicts in the game were just handled with magic, rather than the characters having to grow. That said, there were a few scenes end game that showed true growth in the characters outside of just using magic to solve problems.
The pacing was absolutely terrible. I almost quit the game multiple times at the start because I just wanted to be let loose. I think it took around 10 hours of play time to finally be able to even capture new familiars. The story failed to really capture my interest until the last couple of acts: almost 30 hours in for my pace. Part of this is probably my own fault: I did the vast majority of side quests as they became available. I usually enjoy playing a game that way, but it only increases frustration with pacing. It didn't help that the sidequests were frequently tedious (collect familiar or kill familiar with certain moves) or just uninspired fetch quests.
I think that wraps up most of my stronger feelings on why the game just didn't quite work for me. In the end, I don't regret playing it. The positives I mentioned at the start certainly carried me through the litany of issues I encountered along the way. That said, I don't plan to replay the game at any point.
Unfortunately, most of the gameplay just didn't work for me. It felt like I was fighting the game more than I was fighting the on-screen enemies. The basic combat UI was frustrating -- I don't want to be navigating a clunky ring to select an ability in real time! Allied AI was completely brain dead. It wasn't uncommon to issue an attack order to my currently controlled familiar only for that familiar to walk brainlessly into an ally who happened to walk between him and the enemy.
I found most of the progression systems to be tedious. Catching a new familiar was entirely down to luck and could take upwards of an hour when I was looking for a specific one. Evolving a familiar required resetting to level one, and then waiting for a few hours of gameplay until it caught back up with its previous stats. Loot pinata enemies did some to allay that issue, but it was too late for my enjoyment. The food system for boosting a familiars stats was straight up frustratingly slow to make use of. It was still beneficial to make partial use of and avoid some of the tedium, but left me feeling like I wasn't doing what I could to improve my team.
The take heart and give heart mechanic was overused and struck me as lazy. It felt like the majority of the emotional conflicts in the game were just handled with magic, rather than the characters having to grow. That said, there were a few scenes end game that showed true growth in the characters outside of just using magic to solve problems.
The pacing was absolutely terrible. I almost quit the game multiple times at the start because I just wanted to be let loose. I think it took around 10 hours of play time to finally be able to even capture new familiars. The story failed to really capture my interest until the last couple of acts: almost 30 hours in for my pace. Part of this is probably my own fault: I did the vast majority of side quests as they became available. I usually enjoy playing a game that way, but it only increases frustration with pacing. It didn't help that the sidequests were frequently tedious (collect familiar or kill familiar with certain moves) or just uninspired fetch quests.
I think that wraps up most of my stronger feelings on why the game just didn't quite work for me. In the end, I don't regret playing it. The positives I mentioned at the start certainly carried me through the litany of issues I encountered along the way. That said, I don't plan to replay the game at any point.