Return of the Weekly Console Gaming Blog! · 6:16pm May 27th, 2016

Welcome to my Console Gaming Blog!

Yes, this feature is back.

I've been putting gaming on the back burner for far too long, choosing to spend most of my non-writing, non-reading, non-sleeping time on anime (and handheld gaming, so at least I am gaming). But now, it's time for me to start actively getting back to my massive backlog of console games.

And I'm starting with the game I got partway through once, put on hiatus for over a year, restarted, and then put on hiatus AGAIN...

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

...but this time, I'm just picking up where I left off last time. This is, as I said, my second time playing the game, though the first time around I didn't get much farther than recruiting the third party member. This time, I'm going to get past that point (when I get there) and finish the game.

For those who don't know, this game was co-developed by Level-5, simply THE greatest RPG studio of all time (best known for the Dark Cloud series and, more recently and more famously, Yo-Kai Watch) and Studio Ghibli, makers of some of the finest animated movies of all time (such as Nausicaa, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away). At its core, Ni no Kuni is the story of a boy named Oliver, who lives in a 1950s-esque American-esque town and whose mother dies suddenly and unexpectedly. While despairing over her loss, he's chosen by a fairy (with a horrendous Welsh accent) to go on a magical quest to save a magical alternate world where everyone is a duplicate of someone in Oliver's world—including his mother, whose double Alicia is one of the Great Sages. Drippy, Lord High Lord of the Faeries, suggests that if Oliver can save the Sage Alicia, his mother might come back to life.

Yeah that's pretty much bullshit and it's obvious that's bullshit from the outset, but it's all Oliver needs to get started on an adventure to become a great magician. Along the way, he meets lots of colorful characters and forms a ragtag party of adventurers...

Oh, and it's also a Mons game, because you have to tame and raise "Familiars" who do most of the actual fighting for you. But there's also a lot of puzzle solving involved, the most creative use of a wizard's magical spells in any console RPG ever, and sidequests galore (if you've played FF12 or Rogue Galaxy, you know exactly what I'm talking about.)

The only things I dislike about Ni no Kuni:

* The boss battles are brutal.
* I honestly feel like more of the cutscenes could've been voiced than actually are, this being a PS3 game and all. It's especially grating when a VERY IMPORTANT SCENE like Oliver and Esther talking to Rashaad after stopping the volcano is unvoiced, yet a sidequest scene of Oliver, Esther, and Dippy eating fucking curry is fully voiced. -_-
* The familiar befriending rate is abysmally low—a trend Level-5 carried forward into Yo-Kai Watch.
* Interface text where important information is presented in a different color, which is common in RPGs? Here, it's presented in red. It...makes it hard to read most of the time, in all honesty. I wish they'd have put it in yellow or bright blue, anything that would stand out instead of just becoming unreadable over whatever's behind it (since the dialogue boxes are transparent).

The Story So Far...
(Plot spoilers for Ni no Kuni follow.)

Previously...

In the relatively quiet, peaceful town of Motorville, a boy named Oliver lives with his mother. Their life is simple, calm, and ordinary.

One day, Oliver's friend Philip asks Oliver to help him test-drive the go-kart he's built. While driving the kart, Oliver has an accident and ends up in the river and nearly drowns. His mother, Allie, saves him, but because she has a congenital heart problem, she dies shortly after rescuing him.

Oliver cries over his mother for three days. His tears cause a doll his mother gave him to come to life. The doll introduces himself as Drippy, Lord High Lord of the Faeries, and tells Oliver that there's a way to save his mother—if he becomes a wizard and follows him to another world.

After finding the Wizard's Companion hidden in the fireplace and a beginner's magic wand dropped in town by a mysterious girl, Oliver casts the Gateway spell, opening a door to the other world. In short order, Oliver learns about several things:

* The Dark Genie, Shadar, is causing trouble in the other world, mostly by stealing pieces of people's hearts and leaving them "brokenhearted". As a wizard, part of Oliver's responsibility is to find people who have an excess amount of different "pieces of heart"—virtues such as enthusiasm, kindness, etc—and ask their permission to collect their excess virtue so he can share it with the brokenhearted, restoring their hearts and allowing them to live prosperous, happy lives again.
* Pretty much everyone in Oliver's world has a double somewhere in this world, including his mother, whose double, Alicia, is one of the Great Sages, and has been sealed away by Shadar.
* The Wizard's Companion is incomplete, and another part of Oliver's quest is to find missing pages and restore the book.

Oliver's first task is to visit the King of Ding Dong Dell to ask for a magic wand. This leads to a series of adventures that guide Oliver (and the player) through the basics of Familiars, the Take Heart and Give Heart spells, and going back and forth between the two worlds to solve mysteries. After a couple of entry-level dungeon crawls and some early-game boss fights, Oliver finally acquires a proper magic wand from His Meowjesty.

After receiving a wand, Oliver travels through the desert to the kingdom of Al Mamoon to meet the Great Sage Rashaad. When they meet Rashaad, they learn that his daughter, Esther, has become brokenhearted, leading Rashaad to forsake magic. In order to cure Esther, Oliver has to find her counterpart in Motorville.

Her counterpart is "Starey Mary", a girl the kids in town all think is creepy because she just stays in her room all the time and stares out the window. Her real name is Myrtle, and she was sick for a long time, but even after she got better, she thought she was still sick and would never leave the house—mostly because while she was sick, her parents fought constantly, and now hardly ever speak to each other. When Oliver tries to talk to Myrtle's father, he winds up battling a creature called a Nightmare which has possessed him. After that, Oliver is able to patch things up with Myrtle's family and get her to leave the house, since she's no longer too sick to go outside and play after all. With that accomplished, Oliver returns to Al Mamoon and befriends Esther, who is completely recovered and ready to go adventuring!

Rashaad sends Oliver, Esther, and Drippy to the nearby Temple of Trials to take a series of special tests designed to judge the worth of a wizard. After completing the trials, the party is on their way back to Al Mamoon when they discover the nearby volcano, Old Smoky, is erupting! If it erupts, it will destroy Al Mamoon. The volcano is supposed to be sealed off by a giant boulder to prevent exactly this, so Drippy suggests going up the volcano to investigate and save Al Mamoon.

And now, picking up where I left off.

At the top of the volcano, Oliver and Esther find that the boulder which keeps the volcano contained has been removed. Moreover, Shadar is waiting for them...and he has a little trial of his own: the massive magma monster, Moltaan.

After a harrowing battle with Moltaan, Oliver is able to sort out Old Smoky. He and Esther return to Al Mamoon, where the Great Sage Rashaad suggests Oliver seek out the remaining two Great Sages to learn from them. He doesn't know where they are, but he believes one lives in the city of Hamelin, across the sea in Autumna.

They're gonna need a ship, so they head down to Castaway Cove.

Upon arriving in Castaway Cove, the party hears a peddler yelling at a thief, who has stolen a huge, bizarre pot. Oliver and Esther immediately chase the thief down the pier and corner him. He throws the pot at them and escapes. Drippy figures that the man doesn't care what he steals, he's just in it for the thrill of theft.

Go ahead. Get that quote from The Dark Knight out of your system. I'll wait.

Done? Good.

Anyway, Oliver returns the stolen pot, but it turns out the peddler was actually happy to have this particular item stolen, because the pot in question has been an albatross around his neck—it won't open, so it's useless to him. As "thanks" for recovering the pot, the peddler insists on giving it to Oliver and company. They're reluctant to accept, but Oliver relents when he sees the fear and despair on the peddler's face. Esther is still hesitant, thinking there's something fishy about this whole thing. When the peddler mentions occasional spine-chilling rattling coming from inside the pot, Drippy realizes the pot is actually an alchemy cauldron, which is a dead useful thing for a wizard to have.

In order to use it, though, Oliver has to defeat the genie of the cauldron in battle.

One surprise ~~buttsex~~ boss battle later, Oliver now has an alchemy cauldron and can craft items.

After that whole to-do, Oliver's party runs into another oddball situation: they're breaking the law by not wearing bathing suits. Yes, it is an actual law of Castaway Cove that everyone, even visitors, must wear bathing suits at all times.

The governor's a little...odd.

Anyway, it's quickly taken care of, and the quest to find a ship to Autumnia can continue. But it's not going to be that easy, for the captain of the ship refuses to let the party board without a royal letter of passage from Lowlah, the Cowlifah of Al Mamoon.

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeah it's that kind of game.

The party returns to Al Mamoon, unaware that the thief from Castaway Cove is following them. They have more pressing matters, in any case—upon arriving in the city, they're immediately ambushed by a painter who is enamored with Esther's nose, because it has the same regal shape as the Cowlifa's. He asks to study Esther's face so he can complete his portrait, since he can't get an audience with the Cowlifah herself.

I'm not gonna bother with screencaps, folks. Google "ni no kuni esther" then "ni no kuni cowlifa" and you'll join me in a hearty .

At the palace gates, the party is stopped by the guards. The Vizier, Abull, comes along and recognizes Esther. Seeing as her father is an honored patron of the Cowlipha, he asks what their purpose is. When Oliver explains what they need, Abull regretfully says that the Cowlipha is indisposed and unable to grant any of her subjects an audience.

And by "indiposed" he means "she refuses to stop pigging out". It's gotten so bad that not only does she even eat in her sleep, but Abull's entire job now is running around keeping her fed.

Either she's pregnant, or Shadar has done something to Her Moojesty.

It looks like Oliver and Esther can't get an audience with the Cowlipha at all. But Esther wonders if perhaps it would be possible if they can find out what her favorite food is. And the best way to do that is...

...to go to Motorville and look around for the Cowlipha's counterpart! Except they have no idea what she looks like, and they can't find out what she looks like because they can't get into the palace to see her.

(Gee, if only there was someone painting her portrait...)

With no ideas on how to solve this conundrum presenting themselves, Drippy suggests sleeping on it at the Inn.

Oliver and company are about to check in at the Cat's Cradle Inn when that artist from before arrives with his finished portrait, which was commissioned by the purr-prietor of the Cat's Cradle. The purr-prietor is a major fangirl of the Cowlipha, it seems...

When the artist unveils the portrait, Oliver and Esther are shocked at the horribly vast, doughy, hideous visage of Her Fatajesty. If I were Esther, I'd be BEYOND insulted at being told I look like this cow.

And she is. She walks up to the artist and takes him to task for comparing her to that, and rightly so. Oliver, on the other hand, realizes exactly who they need to see in Motorville: Leila, the owner of the local grocery.

Leila, Cowlipha Lowla... *groan* Rather obvious.

Esther's still pissed off about being compared to her Cowjassty, but Oliver's ready to leave, so it's back to Motorville to talk to Leila.

But when they arrive, the door to her shop is closed. While they're standing around outside, Myrtle happens along, feeling much better, and offers to open up the shop for Oliver since she works there now. Esther is surprised at how much Myrtle looks like her, and also realizes that she, like Drippy, is invisible in Oliver's world.

Oliver learns that Leila has recently started running, so she isn't around because she's off training. She isn't trying to lose weight, though...she's trying to burn off calories so she can eat even more.

Jesus.

Anyway, Oliver finds out that Leila's favorite food is cheese, and she's...kind of obsessed. She refuses to let go of ANY of her precious cheese, and acts like a real pain when Oliver tries to ask her for just one piece.

Outside the store, Oliver is dejected at not being able to get any cheese, since Leila is the only grocer in town that sells it. Pea—the mysterious girl only Oliver can see—shows up, and tells Oliver he can make lots of cheese using his magic, then runs off again. Oliver relays Pea's advice to the others, and Esther says that if they use magic, they can turn the milk from Al Mamoon's fountains into cheese!

Using the Secret Ingredient spell on the milk fountains, Oliver creates a wedge of cheese almost as big as he is. O_o;; He also accidentally conjures a bunch of cakes and other random things due to Esther's prattling while he was casting the spell.

Abull gratefully leads the party into the palace to present their offering of cheese to the Cowlifa, who is the size of a house from constantly eating. Even after she scarfs down the giant cheese, she wants more, and when Oliver says he doesn't have any more, she throws a tantrum.

Definitely not normal. Drippy diagnoses Lowla's condition: she's brokenhearted alright—missing her restraint. This is the first time Oliver has needed to draw that virtue into his locket...

Leaving the palace, Oliver and Esther discuss how to go about finding someone with a lot of restraint to go around. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to them, our shifty thief friend is being fed information on the party by one of the palace guards.

After talking to all the shopkeepers, Oliver learns from the Cawtermaster that Abull, the vizier, has a great deal of restraint. The story he tells Oliver, however, sounds far less like a tale of restraint and more one of fanatical devotion. But, whatever.

Spittake-worthy moment: When Abull asks what he must do to give Oliver some of his restraint, Drippy says "just lie back and think of Al Mamoon."

OH MY GOD. X_X;;

With Her Moojesty's heart made whole again, she gets out of bed for the first time in ages—nearly trampling Abull, Oliver, Esther, and Drippy in the process. In addition to writing Oliver a letter of passage, Lowla even has useful information on the Great Sage living in Hamelin—including a picture of him!

But she also describes Hamelin as a despicable and warlike realm. Sounds...fun.

With all this good info, permission to use the Sea Cow, AND new spells on top of everything else, it's time for our party of adventurers to hit the high seas in search of the Great Sage of Hamelin!

Let's hope he doesn't turn out to be a Pied Piper.

As soon as the party arrives in Castaway Cove, Oliver is pickpocketed by that no-good thief! He steals both the letter of passage AND the picture of the Sage!

It seems our thief is in a damned big hurry to get to Autumnia to stop someone precious to him from doing something that could get him hurt or killed. Or jailed. Not sure which of the above applies. Captain Sindbah is having none of it, though—he can tell the letter of passage does not belong to the thief, and refuses to allow him to board the Sea Cow. The captain's argument with the thief gives Oliver time to catch up and call the thief out for his banditry.

The thief isn't just agitated...he's possessed! It's another Nightmare!

Oliver and Esther defeat the Nightmare, but the thief, Swaine, is still brokenhearted—like the Cowlifah, he's missing restraint. After obtaining some from the Governor, Oliver cures Swaine, who introduces himself, but is amused by Oliver's story about seeking the means to defeat Shadar...until he learns that Oliver has already restored Great Sage Rashaad's resolve by healing Esther's broken heart. Hearing this, Swaine comes around and decides to personally escort Oliver to the next Great Sage.

That's right, the party just gained a new member! Yaaaay.

Swaine at least brings a unique ability to the party: with his Pickpocket's Pistol, he can open and plunder treasure chests that are otherwise inaccessible.

After taking care of some errands around the Summerlands and stocking up on provisions, it's finally time to set sail to Autumnia!

To be continued...

FAMILIAR OF THE WEEK: GREEN BUNCHER

In this segment, I'll describe some of the wacky familiars you can meet in Ni no Kuni! Today's featured familiar is Green Buncher: