First post here. I wanted to talk about Ni No Kuni in relation to one of the few game franchises I've been a part of since the beginning in Pokémon. I made a short TLDR at the bottom since this is a long post.
Ni No Kuni was recently on sale on the PSN store, so I picked it up and am now a dozen or so hours in. While it has its flaws, I believe that it provides a solid blueprint for how I think Pokémon as a series can evolve. To do so, I want to go over Ni No Kuni and what makes it a great game.
What makes Ni No Kuni special
First off, I actually played Ni No Kuni 2 when it came out a few years ago not knowing anything about the first game just cause I liked how it looked in a preview. I enjoyed that game quite a bit and learned more about the first game afterwards. I knew it was a monster catching game, but I didn't know much else about it besides that point. Cut to a couple weeks ago where I got the original game on sale and finally experienced it for the first time.
Ni No Kuni is a slow burn of a game evident from the long intro and how slowly the mechanics are rolled out. It's both a good and bad thing as the amount of mechanics the game has can be overwhelming if done all at once, but it also takes hours for you to finally experience what the game offers. The bright side of it being a slower start is that it focuses a lot on world building and immediately tries to make you care about its characters as a good RPG should do. The amazing art style holds up and complements the storytelling quite well too even for a game that technically came out in the ps3 era. The world is already compelling from the jump.
When you finally get a chance to explore the world, it feels great to not have random encounters and I appreciate the fact that the monsters have a variety of behaviours in how they react to you in the over world. Some beeline it towards you at a dodge-able angle, while others simply chase you around with varying speeds. At a certain point, they will eventually flee from your presence based on your strength. While these are simple, they help make the world feel alive. It also feeds into their quest system in that the world offers challenge fights for rewards and resources you can gather to complete errands that provide you with rewards and tools to improve your adventuring.
As for the encounters themselves, it plays more like a kingdom hearts or ff7r (can't remember the name of that type of combat) rather than a traditional turn based game. It's fine as is, but it's a bit janky at times with how the cooldown and cast times are in the game. I'm still early in the game, but it's also difficult to know what enemies are weak to without resorting to consulting the in game encyclopedia and can be annoying at times. Battle information in general is not great. At the end of the day, it's fun enough for me even if I have issues.
Lastly, the monster catching element is quite unique. You cannot catch a monster at this point in the game without luck. You simply fight and wait until one of the monsters is susceptible to being caught which seemingly happens at random. Speaking of which, catching monsters is like 6-8 hours into the game which is kind of crazy. It's cool though how levels and evolution work. Your familiars earn their abilities up until a certain level in their current evolution form and cannot learn more until you evolve them. Evolving them resets their level and thus lowers their stats, but it starts them off at higher base stats so they'll eventually surpass their pre evolved versions. I like their take on the genre quite a bit. I also found out that their 3rd evolution is a branch so you can choose their last form which is pretty cool.
Overall, my time with Ni No Kuni so far has made me realize what exactly I want for Pokémon as a franchise going forward.
What can Pokémon games take away from a game like Ni No Kuni
As for Pokémon, I greatly enjoyed Pokémon Legends Arceus earlier this year. It had its flaws, but it's most time I've spent playing a Pokémon game in a very long time. I typically play a Pokémon game until I catch the post game legendaries. PLA made me want to actually complete my journal and gave me an excuse to catch more than 1 of each Pokémon to gain research points. It was refreshing even if the battles were markedly worse in some ways.
From playing Ni No Kuni, I've realized that what Pokémon needs is more world building. The problem with the traditional formula was how every game started to feel the same with how the plot was pretty simple in how you went about getting badges, stopping the evil organization and beating the elite 4 or elite 4 equivalent. In theory, this is actually perfectly fine. The problem is how we get from point A to point B.
In Ni No Kuni, you get to a town and you kind of do what you can to complete your task in that town while helping those in need along the way. This makes the experience of visiting a town feel worthwhile. They each have their own story to tell and each of its inhabitants have their own lives and stories. The errands, while sometimes a bit basic or can be an annoying fetch quest, flesh out the characters that you meet in each town and gives them a unique identity. They also give you an excuse to revisit old locations compounded with a metroidvania element of creating barriers for places you've been before where you can later come back once you've acquired the tool to access those areas or rewards.
In PLA, there are these sort of side quests too, but the problem with those is that they typically do not push you to explore the world. Every side quest is pretty much from the hub world. You cannot get quests anywhere else. Ni No Kuni quests are also pretty much just in the towns so far, but at least you're not just in one hub world the entire time. In the traditional games, there are very few reasons to ever go revisit old areas unless you want to catch a Pokémon in that area. It feels like a waste to create all these locales and not have players spend ample time in each of them. It sours me in bothering to talk to all the NPCs in towns too unlike how I play other RPGs where I do try to talk to everyone.
I believe that Game Freak can make an amazing Pokémon game simply by letting players experience more of the world they've already built. In many ways, the human characters in these games are merely hollow vessels in your journey to become the champion. The Pokémon themselves are the main characters with the people being afterthoughts. Make quest lines for each town besides just beating the gym leader instead of what they do now. In sword and shield for example, you would meet the gym leader shortly before you enter their city either involving the evil organization or some other random event. You maybe do a battle then that's pretty much it. You go to the gym and do their challenge and beat their team. It feels underdeveloped.
Imagine this instead. You enter a town and see that the gym is closed temporarily. Apparently, some Pokémon nearby are causing a raucous and the gym leader was called in to stop that Pokémon. You end up doing a series of battles against a bunch of wild Pokémon with the help of the gym leader. The gym leader is suddenly attacked by the leader of the wild Pokémon by surprise and is out of commission. You realize you need to beat this Pokémon who happens to be a low level version of an evolved Pokémon that you typically would never see in the wild at this point in the game (kind of like a totem Pokémon or the super powered Pokémon in PLA). You beat the leader of the wild Pokémon and find out that they were acting up because construction nearby started affecting their habitat. You end up working with the gym leader to make changes to the construction and help rebuild their habitat. After all this, you challenge them to that gym battle and get your badge. Basically, I want them to make it feel like an adventure out of the anime rather than just a task to do.
Along the way, there could also be side quests with the people in town. Instead of those trade spots with local trainers, maybe a kid wants to see a rare Pokémon that you need to catch or an up and coming trainer wants to watch you battle using a particular move. I think that this is what's missing from the major step that PLA made to improve upon the traditional formula.
Ultimately, I'm enjoying Ni No Kuni even if it doesn't have some of the elements I enjoy in Pokémon, but at the same time, it provides a foundation for what I believe Pokémon can strive to become.
Summary
TLDR: Ni No Kuni is a breath of fresh air in the monster capture genre even with some hiccups. It provides a direction on how future games of the genre should evolve. With regards to Pokémon, it should build its world and lore more by implementing more quest lines and side stories along the way to becoming the champion to make the world feel more alive and make players feel more invested in its characters rather than just the Pokémon.
Ni No Kuni was recently on sale on the PSN store, so I picked it up and am now a dozen or so hours in. While it has its flaws, I believe that it provides a solid blueprint for how I think Pokémon as a series can evolve. To do so, I want to go over Ni No Kuni and what makes it a great game.
What makes Ni No Kuni special
First off, I actually played Ni No Kuni 2 when it came out a few years ago not knowing anything about the first game just cause I liked how it looked in a preview. I enjoyed that game quite a bit and learned more about the first game afterwards. I knew it was a monster catching game, but I didn't know much else about it besides that point. Cut to a couple weeks ago where I got the original game on sale and finally experienced it for the first time.
Ni No Kuni is a slow burn of a game evident from the long intro and how slowly the mechanics are rolled out. It's both a good and bad thing as the amount of mechanics the game has can be overwhelming if done all at once, but it also takes hours for you to finally experience what the game offers. The bright side of it being a slower start is that it focuses a lot on world building and immediately tries to make you care about its characters as a good RPG should do. The amazing art style holds up and complements the storytelling quite well too even for a game that technically came out in the ps3 era. The world is already compelling from the jump.
When you finally get a chance to explore the world, it feels great to not have random encounters and I appreciate the fact that the monsters have a variety of behaviours in how they react to you in the over world. Some beeline it towards you at a dodge-able angle, while others simply chase you around with varying speeds. At a certain point, they will eventually flee from your presence based on your strength. While these are simple, they help make the world feel alive. It also feeds into their quest system in that the world offers challenge fights for rewards and resources you can gather to complete errands that provide you with rewards and tools to improve your adventuring.
As for the encounters themselves, it plays more like a kingdom hearts or ff7r (can't remember the name of that type of combat) rather than a traditional turn based game. It's fine as is, but it's a bit janky at times with how the cooldown and cast times are in the game. I'm still early in the game, but it's also difficult to know what enemies are weak to without resorting to consulting the in game encyclopedia and can be annoying at times. Battle information in general is not great. At the end of the day, it's fun enough for me even if I have issues.
Lastly, the monster catching element is quite unique. You cannot catch a monster at this point in the game without luck. You simply fight and wait until one of the monsters is susceptible to being caught which seemingly happens at random. Speaking of which, catching monsters is like 6-8 hours into the game which is kind of crazy. It's cool though how levels and evolution work. Your familiars earn their abilities up until a certain level in their current evolution form and cannot learn more until you evolve them. Evolving them resets their level and thus lowers their stats, but it starts them off at higher base stats so they'll eventually surpass their pre evolved versions. I like their take on the genre quite a bit. I also found out that their 3rd evolution is a branch so you can choose their last form which is pretty cool.
Overall, my time with Ni No Kuni so far has made me realize what exactly I want for Pokémon as a franchise going forward.
What can Pokémon games take away from a game like Ni No Kuni
As for Pokémon, I greatly enjoyed Pokémon Legends Arceus earlier this year. It had its flaws, but it's most time I've spent playing a Pokémon game in a very long time. I typically play a Pokémon game until I catch the post game legendaries. PLA made me want to actually complete my journal and gave me an excuse to catch more than 1 of each Pokémon to gain research points. It was refreshing even if the battles were markedly worse in some ways.
From playing Ni No Kuni, I've realized that what Pokémon needs is more world building. The problem with the traditional formula was how every game started to feel the same with how the plot was pretty simple in how you went about getting badges, stopping the evil organization and beating the elite 4 or elite 4 equivalent. In theory, this is actually perfectly fine. The problem is how we get from point A to point B.
In Ni No Kuni, you get to a town and you kind of do what you can to complete your task in that town while helping those in need along the way. This makes the experience of visiting a town feel worthwhile. They each have their own story to tell and each of its inhabitants have their own lives and stories. The errands, while sometimes a bit basic or can be an annoying fetch quest, flesh out the characters that you meet in each town and gives them a unique identity. They also give you an excuse to revisit old locations compounded with a metroidvania element of creating barriers for places you've been before where you can later come back once you've acquired the tool to access those areas or rewards.
In PLA, there are these sort of side quests too, but the problem with those is that they typically do not push you to explore the world. Every side quest is pretty much from the hub world. You cannot get quests anywhere else. Ni No Kuni quests are also pretty much just in the towns so far, but at least you're not just in one hub world the entire time. In the traditional games, there are very few reasons to ever go revisit old areas unless you want to catch a Pokémon in that area. It feels like a waste to create all these locales and not have players spend ample time in each of them. It sours me in bothering to talk to all the NPCs in towns too unlike how I play other RPGs where I do try to talk to everyone.
I believe that Game Freak can make an amazing Pokémon game simply by letting players experience more of the world they've already built. In many ways, the human characters in these games are merely hollow vessels in your journey to become the champion. The Pokémon themselves are the main characters with the people being afterthoughts. Make quest lines for each town besides just beating the gym leader instead of what they do now. In sword and shield for example, you would meet the gym leader shortly before you enter their city either involving the evil organization or some other random event. You maybe do a battle then that's pretty much it. You go to the gym and do their challenge and beat their team. It feels underdeveloped.
Imagine this instead. You enter a town and see that the gym is closed temporarily. Apparently, some Pokémon nearby are causing a raucous and the gym leader was called in to stop that Pokémon. You end up doing a series of battles against a bunch of wild Pokémon with the help of the gym leader. The gym leader is suddenly attacked by the leader of the wild Pokémon by surprise and is out of commission. You realize you need to beat this Pokémon who happens to be a low level version of an evolved Pokémon that you typically would never see in the wild at this point in the game (kind of like a totem Pokémon or the super powered Pokémon in PLA). You beat the leader of the wild Pokémon and find out that they were acting up because construction nearby started affecting their habitat. You end up working with the gym leader to make changes to the construction and help rebuild their habitat. After all this, you challenge them to that gym battle and get your badge. Basically, I want them to make it feel like an adventure out of the anime rather than just a task to do.
Along the way, there could also be side quests with the people in town. Instead of those trade spots with local trainers, maybe a kid wants to see a rare Pokémon that you need to catch or an up and coming trainer wants to watch you battle using a particular move. I think that this is what's missing from the major step that PLA made to improve upon the traditional formula.
Ultimately, I'm enjoying Ni No Kuni even if it doesn't have some of the elements I enjoy in Pokémon, but at the same time, it provides a foundation for what I believe Pokémon can strive to become.
Summary
TLDR: Ni No Kuni is a breath of fresh air in the monster capture genre even with some hiccups. It provides a direction on how future games of the genre should evolve. With regards to Pokémon, it should build its world and lore more by implementing more quest lines and side stories along the way to becoming the champion to make the world feel more alive and make players feel more invested in its characters rather than just the Pokémon.
