Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review

Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1
Playtime: 40 hours (Includes beating the game and completing a good portion of side quests and kingdom building)


The original Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch marked an ambitious RPG developed through the collaborative efforts of game company Level-5 Inc and animation film-makers Studio Ghibli.  The result was quite impressive and incredibly charming, like being able to walk inside and interact with one of Studio Ghibli's beloved movies.  Five years later, we now see a return to this magical kingdom with its sequel Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.  While Studio Ghibli is no longer part of this project, the developers of Level-5 still strive to carry the same polish and charm of its aesthetic wonder, while expanding upon the gameplay in bold new ways to tell a whole new story.  Is this ambitious sequel able to find the same success again though?  Let's gather our Higgledies and jump into the fro of the pros and cons to be found.

Art Direction / Animation

While the lack animated cut-scenes that the legendary Studio Ghibli once provided are surely missed, the artistic aesthetics and animation are as sharp as ever (other than maybe the chibi-look of the overworld).  Every character and set piece in the world is so vibrant and full of rich, colorful detail.  And the creativity and imagination on display here is just awe-inspiring to behold.  There is also much delight to be found in the charming little animation touches found scattered about still, such as the flutter of King Evan's cape or the unique animations characters have when running down stairs.  Adorable.

A gorgeous shot of King Evan and crew starting their new kingdom of Evermore.

Character Design

An impressive aspect when you're building up your kingdom and recruiting citizens is that you do in fact recruit every single citizen, and with that, every single citizen is a unique and personable character with a personality, various traits, and backstory all their own.  Every character has a distinctive appearance and useful purpose, to which you have the fun of figuring out how they best fit and serve your kingdom.  It certainly must have taken a lot of work to create so many colorful characters and stands worth noting of this extensive accomplishment.

So many varied and interesting characters to be found in this game, many of which can be recruited to your kingdom.

World Building

Much of the joy and wonder to be found in this game comes from visiting the many creative and fantastical locations, both the new and familiar alike.  Each kingdom features such a distinctive theme and attention to detail that makes for a captivating experience to poke around and explore.  And the layout of each kingdom, though not terribly complex, still incorporates enough variety in shape, form, and elevation to make each location a memorable destination.

So many beautiful and imaginative sights to behold in the many realms of this magical world.

Shallow Gameplay

If you've played the original Ni No Kuni, players will quickly notice that the combat system is a bit different.  Rather than battle with Familiars in Pokemon-like fashion, players now take a direct roll in combat that is much engaged and fast-paced.  I quite enjoyed this change actually, but as you get deeper into that game, there is little variety to be found in the combat system and it slowly devolves into a repetitive affair that frankly becomes less memorable than the slower, but quirkier battles of the original.

Get ready to dodge, attack, retreat, and repeat.  There is little change to the process the entire game.

The same can be said for the many other various types of gameplay mechanics to be found in this game, of which there are a surprisingly large amount.  From top-down, large-scale military fights to dungeon crawling to micro-managing kingdom building and more, there is a welcome amount of variety to be enjoyed here.  But sadly, the ambitious amount of different modes result in what is an oversimplified and ultimately unsatisfying experience across the board in the long run.  It's sadly a case where the developers went with quantity over quality.

Kingdom Grind

Speaking of quantity, there is an absurd amount of micromanaging to be found in the kingdom building aspect of this game.  There are 65 structures to build and over 100 citizens to recruit, of which most all of these can be leveled-up multiple times.  Every citizen should have a considered assignment in which they can gather resources, earn experience, and aid in research, of which there is also an extensive amount to be found.  Add on top of all this that both money and research requires real-world time to progress, players can never hope to create a complete kingdom, a troubling thought for completionists or those who just like this particular portion of the game.  Even if you focus all your time and resources to increased productivity to build your kingdom faster, it just isn't feasible.  You'll eventually run out of post-game content and what remains to be built in your kingdom will become a chore to be grind out if desired.  It would have been nice if there had been options for appointed aids to help micromanage and more quickly develop this kingdom so players could actually see a fully-fleshed kingdom by the end of the game, because it is rather fun to see your kingdom expand and flourish.

Your impressive, sprawling kingdom will require constant attention to never complete.

Tiny Text

While exploring certain areas / dungeons or during army battles, your party will quip and offer bits of dialog.  But they might as well not have been included the way they were implemented.  The text is so tiny and disappears so quickly, players hardly have the capability to comprehend what pops on screen.  Rubbish.

Uneven Story / Ending

The narrative of this game shows initial promise with an intriguing sudden cross of two worlds during a coup to overthrow the king.  Unfortunately what follows is a bit of a drab, idealistic mess of a plot with nonsensical plights spread across every kingdom.  Should you continue to press forward hoping for a more captivating ending, well, you'll find that it just takes an unexpected and ultimately unsatisfying twist.  All in all, this sequel fails to capture the narrative magic of the original that was a young boy dealing with heartbreak by escaping into a world of fantasy.  Now that was a memorable journey.  This, not so much.

While I may sound pretty negative on this game, I can't deny that I spent a hefty 40-hours with the game, and for the most part, it was a relaxing and enjoyable affair.  And if that's all you're looking for, this game can certainly deliver.  But at the end of the day, this game fails to deliver any sort of deep or interesting gameplay mechanics, or story for that matter.  With a little more polish or considered direction, I'd be more keen on recommending this game.  As is though, there are many other more memorable RPG's and adventures to embark on.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this game, please feel free to comment and discuss below.  Thanks.  And happy gaming!