Let me preface this by saying that I went to Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds completely blind – I’ve never played any other Ni No Kuni games and never even heard of the franchise.
Besides, I’m not even one to play mobile games or MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online roleplay games).
The only thing that really caught my eye was that the game bragged about its involvement with Studio Ghibli and Joe Hisaishi.
All of this is to say that if you’ve been a long-time fan of the Ni No Kuni universe, you might be a little triggered by my review of it. Nevertheless, here are my honest thoughts.
An exciting, albeit buggy start
While downloading additional content, there’s a stacking game to play to pass the time, which was honestly really cute, and a better use of your time than staring at the loading bar.
But now, on to the actual game itself.
Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds kicks off with a very Ghibli-esque intro scene that you can’t miss. In fact, it was strangely played about four to five times on my phone. I give it the benefit of the doubt and say it is due to my wifi connection.
Filled with natural landscapes and rural aesthetics, I loved the peaceful vibe of the intro and hoped the rest of the game would go this way.
We are introduced to five characters, which you can click to better understand their archetypes and abilities. They are quite clear and include:
- destroyer
- Engineer
- villain
- swordsman
- Witch
I decided to go for the Howl-looking swordsman as it seemed the most standard. After selecting him, I was taken to the customization screen, where I had a blast personalizing my character.
As much as I liked the blonde, I decided to go for a dark haired avatar.
On screen, I was able to check out some cool outfits, but in the end I was stuck with the rather boring standard uniform. To get more outfits, you have to level up and get recipes to make them.
A unique feature was the ability to change the eye colors individually, which could cause your avatar to have mismatched eyes or heterochromia.
After you customized your character, another scene that cannot be skipped started. We’re shown a futuristic VR-infused city before being taken to a crowded lab where beta testing takes place for a VR game called Soul Divers.
Basically, our character is a tester whose soul or consciousness “dives” into an alternate universe through this program.
As we enter the VR world, a virtual character greets us. She begins to introduce the concept of Soul Divers, but suddenly becomes reality. She’s just as shocked as we are.
She says something vague about us being a soul that doesn’t belong to a world or something like that. But before she can end the conversation, the world comes crashing down and she tells us she’ll find us wherever we go.
And then we are awakened by a small flying creature. I’m getting a déjà vu here. (Paimon, anyone?)
The plot thickens… (spoilers ahead)
By googling the direct translation of Ni No Kuni, we found out that the second means land or the land of two. So I joked that it must have something to do with the Japanese “isekai” trope that appears in many anime and mangas.
It turns out to be somewhat true. Our character is a player in this so-called virtual world, whose original inhabitants have no idea of the ‘real’ reality. It reminds me a bit of Westworld.
We enter at the height of some turmoil where the Queen (who resembles the AI girl we met earlier) is attacked by an evil villain.
We are rescued by our flying creature friend (named Cluu), and in the process we are magically transported to this other nation.
(As you can see, it’s set in the fantasy realm with no obvious rhyme or reason for things to happen, but I’m sure everything will be revealed eventually to create a more complete picture.)
And so that’s the main overarching quest of this game – we have to find our way back to the Queen. Except there are some smaller missions we need to do to get there.
It sounds simple enough, so of course there’s a plot twist: Soul Divers isn’t really just a game anymore, it’s a real reality that you can’t just log out of (similar to Sword Art Online?).
Honestly, I haven’t finished the game yet, so I can’t tell you all the nuances of the plot just yet. But so far it’s quite intriguing. If you like games with a storyline, this might be for you.
What in the auto-play?!
While the art is indeed beautiful, the gameplay itself left a lot to be desired.
The game’s user interface (GUI) was overwhelming. There was just so much happening on the screen at once. But, as with any game, you will eventually get used to the interface the more you play.
Interestingly, Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds has a bit of an idle gameplay element with an auto-play feature.
It is hidden in the settings and you can disable it, but this will affect the difficulty of the game. That is, it makes fighting a bit more difficult because it doesn’t require any assistance from AI.
Still, the rest of the gameplay feels a bit brainless. The battle is nothing to cheer about. It’s a lot of clicking and waiting for skill cooldowns.
While you can do a lot to manage and upgrade your skills and weapons, the actual fighting experience is rather dull and bland.
Basically, there’s room for you to grind if you’re into that sort of thing. But does it make sense? For me the answer is no.
At the end of the day it feels like there isn’t much strategy involved – just get the most out of your player and let it play automatically.
The only thing that made the fight more interesting are the familiars. You control one main character at a time, but you can also have a team of acquaintances to support you. If you’re familiar (pun intended) with the occult term, familiars are basically animal-shaped sidekicks that can help you out.
You can hatch for free while playing the game, you can also use in-game currency to draw for other acquaintances.
Speaking of pulling, there’s a gacha system in play for the familiar as well as for gear and costumes, and that’s where in-app purchases can come in handy.
Ni No NFTs
According to Ni No Kuni’s website, Cross Worlds plans to add blockchain and NFT elements in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, which will happen shortly.
Basically, it sounds like Cross Worlds is planning to add some sort of play-to-earn element to it. There even exists a Territe Token (NKT) on the MARBLEX platform (which I believe refers to the developers, NETMARBLE).
The website says that users can exchange in-game currency from Cross Worlds for Territe Tokens, which can also be used outside of the game.
To summarize, players earn Territe through Familiar Adventure or by hunting monsters in Chaos Fields. Territe can be exchanged for Territe Tokens (NKT) on the MARBLEX wallet, which ideally can be used just like any other cryptocurrency.
The MARBLEX platform will also house the Asterite Token (NKA). The main difference is that Asterite is earned through competitive in-game content. This means that players have to fight against other players to earn NKA.
If you’ve been following Vulcan Post for a while, you know we’re no strangers to NFT, so I’m genuinely excited to see how this all unfolds.
However, many other publications that have talked about the game seem to take this rather negatively, seeing it more as a money grab than anything else.
But as much as it’s a handy (again pun intended) recording, I don’t think it necessarily improves the game.
I especially understand longtime Ni No Kuni fans, who may feel that the crypto gibberish will eventually erode the history and community that the game has nurtured over the years.
Brilliant visuals for the price of good gameplay
It’s not all bad, of course. As mentioned, almost ad nauseum now, the art is as marketed – beautiful and unique in the Studio Ghibli way. Plus, I thought the voice acting was pretty good, even if Cluu sounds a bit annoying.
The game’s character designs are also very appealing. In addition to the playable characters and other key recurring characters, I found the NPC designs in the game adorable. It really reminded me of Studio Ghibli pillars like Spirited Away and Totoro.
The plot is also quite interesting, even if I still don’t feel very involved or connected to any of the characters.
But if I wanted all that, I could settle for a nice anime or manga. The point of playing a game for me is interactivity on top of immersion.
However, the gameplay is just too stagnant and I have too much to wish for to really consider continuing with this game.
For those who enjoy playing with friends, you’d be happy to know that co-op is available, with party sizes ranging from five to 50 depending on the challenges you’re taking on.
I prefer to be a solo player myself and I hadn’t found anything that required co-op, so I can’t comment too much on that experience.
Before I end this review, there is one last thing worth mentioning. This game may not be very friendly to a new player because even though it’s only been out for about two months, there are already several events that new players can’t access.
While that’s common for many games with real-time event systems, it’s still disconcerting to do so much at once, yet not be able to access it.
That said, at least I now know about the world of Ni No Kuni, and I might even check out previous games in the series like Wrath of the White Witch and Revenant Kingdom.
If I had to say who might like Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds best, I’d say, maybe Studio Ghibli fans who are also very casual or new gamers.
- Read more about Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds here.
- Read other game-related articles we’ve written here.
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