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  ---Game Description--- Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a collaboration between esteemed developers Level-5 (Dark Cloud, Dragon Quest VIII, Professor Layton) and famed animators Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki's studio, though Miyazaki himself wasn't involved in this game). The game utilizes a semi-active battle mechanic and a Pokemonesque monster collecting/battling mechanic to create a fun fight system with a lot of staying power, and some tough and often drawn-out bosses. Granted this means every fight is composed of real-time menus, but I never got tired of it, just some of the fights themselves. And the characters.. The game is also visually gorgeous with a lot of attention to detail, as per Studio Ghibli's track record. The art style combines a cel-shaded look to the characters with a hand-painted look to the backgrounds, all of which blends very smoothly. Occasional cutscenes are animated directly by Studio Ghibli, and references to their films abound. The music is beautifully orchestrated by Ghibli's collaborative composer Joe Hisaishi, and there isn't a piece of music that isn't a joy to hear. However, fun as the game is to play, it's not exactly fun to sit through. There's a lot of dialogue. A lot of superfluous, unnecessary, idiotic dialogue. By terrible, character-less characters. And most of the voice acting is crap. But hey, that's why Travis and I are here: to mock its brains out. The story is such: Oliver is a young American boy with no personality living in an idyllic 1950's suburb, until his mom dies because a witch wanted to kill him. Seriously. The distraught Oliver holes up in his room and ends up crying over an ugly little doll- his tears turn the doll into Mr. Drippy (Steffan Rhodri), a fairy from another world who was cursed by the evil Shadar (Brian Protheroe). Hyper-Welsh Drippy reveals that Oliver is The Purehearted One: the one destined to defeat Shadar and save Drippy's world. To sweeten the deal, Drippy drops a hint that could lead to reviving Oliver's dead and buried mother. Follow Oliver as he travels to Another World to become a motherfucker wizard and possibly turn his late mom into a zombie. ---LP Description--- This LP is split between roughly 85% video updates and 15% screenshot updates for the main game, with videos being primarily dedicated to continuing the story and screenshots dedicated to optional sidequests. Post-game content is mostly screenshots. Travis (BigTUnit1) joins me as my co-commentator, having beaten the game himself and having more than a few things to say about game design philosophy. ---Additional Links--- Travis' (formerly simultaneous) LPs of Shadow of the Colossus, Sleeping Dogs, and Bioshock Infinite My (formerly simultaneous) LPs of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of PizzaJoe: Majora's Mask, and Survival Kids Brian Protheroe, Shadar's voice actor, at ReverbNation - Why? Because this guy rules. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------           Screenshot Update 1: Post-Well Sidequests     Screenshot Update 2: A Bit of Al and Moonie    Screenshot Update 3: Animal Magnetism    Screenshot Update 4: Raj Wears White Socks                      Screenshot Update 5: Drowning in Density    Screenshot Update 6: Something About Snow     Screenshot Update 7: Ogrrr You rear end in a top hat        Screenshot Update 8: The Frost Unleashed                Screenshot Update 9: Manna Manna       -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Screenshot Missions 1: Monster Mash Screenshot Missions 2: Continent Hopping Screenshot Missions 3: The Conductor's Rifts 1/3 Screenshot Missions 4: Horace Screenshot Missions 5: Fairy Hunting Screenshot Missions 6: Solosseum Ranks E-C --- [Video version] Screenshot Missions 7: Solosseum Ranks B-S --- [Video version] Screenshot Missions 8: The Conductor's Rifts 2/3 Screenshot Missions 9: The Conductor's Rifts 3/3  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  DS version streams These were aired to see some of the differences between our PS3 version and the original Japan-only DS version. We forewent doing a full playthrough because it'd be at least as long as the LP. Stream 1/3 - Intro, Deep Dark Wood, Getting lost in Ding Dong Dell Stream 2/3 - Ding Dong Well, King "Frank" Stream 3/3 - Looking through the real Wizard's Companion, Golden Grove, Ending abruptly ThornBrain fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Mar 18, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2013 07:35
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 (By Douloug, Tumblr)  (By Rahonavis)         (By Princess Futon)    (By Melaneus)  (By an-artist-complex, Tumblr)                      
ThornBrain fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Feb 21, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2013 07:35
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This is still happening? Sweet. Can't wait till things pick up. Not to mention all the stuff I heard about it being insanely hand-holdy.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:13
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Holy crud. I'm a bit surprised to see this but at least now I'll be able to see the game for what it is and decide whether or not I wanna get it. This should be an interesting LP to say the least.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:28
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So this is the game Ghibli had a hand in. I was wondering what game it was and if I should check it out. Now I can see for myself. I must say, at times I forgot it was a video game, and thought I was just watching another Ghibli movie. I'm curious to see how the rest of the game goes. I definitely look forward to hearing the game's music as you described. The kid's voice doesn't sound that bad, but it definitely doesn't sound very good. At least it wasn't bad as Puberty Phil.
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Jun 24, 2013 08:42
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Now this is an LP I can get behind.
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Jun 24, 2013 09:23
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ThornBrain posted:The game is a rare breed of Japanese RPG: it's really fun to play.  Still, I'm psyched to see how this LP goes. Not sure which I liked the design of more, the named cat or the unnamed bird with too many ruffles.  (I suspect we'll only see more of one.)It's certainly got a lot of promise from the looks of things. Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Jun 24, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 09:54
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i guess i can use this thread as guide since i still need to play the game :/ may pick up the game later or today (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 24, 2013 09:54
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Um, isn't there another let's play of this going on right now? Not to say that another is bad, just saying there is one.
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Jun 24, 2013 15:44
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grandalt posted:Um, isn't there another let's play of this going on right now? Not to say that another is bad, just saying there is one. Hey it's not like it's the first time Thorn and co. have done an LP of a game already being done by someone else. When they do it though, their style is fairly different from the other LP going on, so there's that, at least.
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Jun 24, 2013 15:54
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I don't think Oliver's voice acting is that bad. Actually, I rather like all the voice acting in the game--they feel very subdued and natural a lot of the time, which fits the laid back atmosphere. Shadar's got a great voice too. If anything, this game suffers from having not NEARLY enough voice acting. This is a game that could have done with more talking scenes and less reading ones.
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Jun 24, 2013 16:02
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I lost faith in Oliver's VA after he said the line "O-o-okay" as "Oh. Oh. Okay".
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Jun 24, 2013 19:52
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Since the first part was all cutscene, here's Part 2 early, with more of Travis and myself than you can handle. The update schedule from hereon-out will be every Monday.
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Jun 24, 2013 22:20
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That lantern face thing has the worst accent. It sounds like an attempt at a Welsh accent by someone who's never actually heard one and only had it described to them as 'kind of like a Jamaican pirate pretending to be South African'.
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Jun 24, 2013 23:02
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So basically the best accent, is what you're saying?
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Jun 24, 2013 23:07
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Basically yeah I mean I am actually from Wales and as the video went on I just got more and more depressed about how I don't sounds anything like that.
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Jun 24, 2013 23:27
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His voice actor is Welsh. Steffan Rhodri. Never seen anything he's in, but apparently he was in Deathly Hallows part 1.
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Jun 25, 2013 00:45
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I've been looking forward to this. You're going to let us suggest ridiculous names for minions, yes?
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Jun 25, 2013 01:20
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Man, this game. I really want to like this game because it's incredibly charming, looks great, has a nice lighthearted plot... it really feels like a nice old SNES/PSX era JRPG with improved technology. And yet, I can't, because the battle system is just plain not fun and, frankly, kind of a chore. The pseudo kinda-real-time-except-not-entirely system seems interesting on paper, but the execution is clunky. Just the simple fact that the "Defend" and "Evade" options are menu options that you need to scroll to rather than them being bound to a button, and yet they're often required to basically survive boss attacks, would be bad enough, but also: - The menu becomes unavailable while you're executing any attack. - The menu only shows like four options at the same time while you can have more than that, leaving some possibly vital ones off-screen. - And the menu scrolling is done via the D-Pad while the movement is done via the left stick, basically requiring you to either perform some finger acrobatics on the controller or standing still while scolling over to whatever attack you want to use. In addition to that, the party AI is garbage. Not only does it burn through MP at an alarmingly fast rate, but it's also plain suicidal, especially against bosses. It also takes like a second to switch over to a different party member so you're at an even bigger disadvantage if you're trying to micromanage. And last but not least, maybe because of some of the things above, bosses often take 20 or more minutes despite having only perhaps 3 minutes of unique attack patterns. It doesn't help that they often have unskippable combat animations that plain interrupt the battle, dragging them out even longer. Again, I'd really *like* to like this game, but I just simply cannot. I'm sorry, Ni No Kuni. Of course, the JRPG I played last before this game was Tales of Graces f, and you can't really expect any other game to compete with that battle system, but that doesn't excuse any of the battle system flaws which all seem easily fixable (except maybe the party AI) with some playtesting and a couple days of work.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:21
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Okay, apparently Oliver is actually 13!! Also, Someone in the youtube comments is actually saying the welsh is an accurate "valley" area accent. The mun is a real welsh thing that some will use. I can't really vouch for the accuracy of any of this, but I suspect that the accent is real.
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Jun 25, 2013 01:23
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Anoia posted:I've been looking forward to this. You're going to let us suggest ridiculous names for minions, yes? Possibly. My intention was to name them after characters from our older LPs or other videos we've done, but you all can certainly make suggestions. I have the next two familiars named already, though.
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Jun 25, 2013 07:59
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Admiral H. Curtiss posted:- And the menu scrolling is done via the D-Pad while the movement is done via the left stick, basically requiring you to either perform some finger acrobatics on the controller or standing still while scolling over to whatever attack you want to use. They never mention this anywhere, but one set of the shoulder buttons also does that function.
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Jun 25, 2013 10:23
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This marked the first time in a VERY long time that I was genuinely interested in a video game prior to its release because of Ghibli's involvement, and since I don't have a PS3, this'll do. The battle music sounds very much like James Horner's score for "Brainstorm".
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Jun 25, 2013 20:32
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Why are there so many English people in a random place in America? Even Oliver's mom has a British accent.
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Jun 25, 2013 21:48
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Hey there! Welcome to the elite society of Ni No Kuni LPers. Just for the record, I unironically love how often Oliver says "jeepers".
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Jun 27, 2013 22:06
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I'm just going to suggest right now that you find the most frog-like minion you can, name him Sarge or Kero, and then use him the entire game. We haven't seen enough of the battle system to really discuss it in its best detail, but I stand by my support for the system--I think combat is fast and fluid, there's a lot of options you can bring to the table as you go through the game, and I found the importance of timing and rhythm to be engaging. If only the AI wasn't such poo poo.
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Jun 27, 2013 22:10
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Cats, fish, birds, and racism. Welcome to Ding Dong Dell.
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Jul 1, 2013 17:41
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Holy drat this looks a WONDERFUL game, I mean it is just GORGEOUS-looking, that detail in the woods was fantastic. I can't wait to watch more of this later on, this is a game I've wanted to watch an LP of for years.
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Jul 2, 2013 01:11
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You guys are correct that Ding Dong Dell is a nursery rhyme. It's also thematically appropriate, being about a cat: Ding, dong, bell, Pussy’s in the well. Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn. Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout. What a naughty boy was that, To try to drown poor pussy cat, Who ne’er did him any harm, But killed all the mice in the farmer's barn Grimalkin is an old term referring to a cat (it literally means "gray cat"), and became associated with the cats believed to be the familiars of witches. Its first known written use came from a book about talking cats.
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Jul 2, 2013 21:20
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Seriously, gently caress that cat monkey. Just realized I should have named it "Rick". E: Shadar's voice actor is TV/stage actor and musician Brian Protheroe. Turns out he had a minor hit in the 70s with "Pinball", and his music in general is quite good; it's like an oddball Soft Rock. ThornBrain fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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Jul 8, 2013 16:55
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I can't help but hope that Shadar breaks into song at some point.
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Jul 8, 2013 19:18
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ThornBrain posted:
I can't recall the reference so I'll just assume you mean "with a silent P".
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Jul 8, 2013 20:40
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MelvinBison posted:I can't recall the reference so I'll just assume you mean "with a silent P". I'm going all the way back to Bomberman Hero with that one, but I get ya.
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Jul 8, 2013 21:45
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I like Shadar's voice. Who voices him?
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Jul 9, 2013 03:42
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ThornBrain posted:E: Shadar's voice actor is TV/stage actor and musician Brian Protheroe. Turns out he had a minor hit in the 70s with "Pinball", and his music in general is quite good; it's like an oddball Soft Rock.
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Jul 9, 2013 03:52
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Ah I must have missed that
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Jul 9, 2013 15:54
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Just remembered I had this account and it's been lying dormant for years. I'm not exactly big on anime so I've never seen any Ghibli movies, but I have played several Level-5 RPGs and from what I can tell this is pretty consistent with those, gameplay's good enough and as a Brit I appreciate them exploring different regional accents (done particularly well in Inazuma Eleven, when visiting Northern Hokkaido everyone has Yorkshire accents etc.) but the dialogue itself leaves a lot to be desired and, of course, they love using those child actors which results in things getting pretty hilariously bad at times. After that last part Shadar is probably one of my favourite characters I've encountered across all of TheStrawHatNO's LPs. Melon-loving Max, overly-dramatic Dr. Ein and even the creepy bomberfucker that is Pibot are overthrown. Good work lads. Obviously hats off to Brian Protheroe for his original voice work too. Loving Drippy and his ridiculous Welsh accent as well even if he is a useless bastard.
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Jul 9, 2013 19:10
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Well, for all the commotion Oliver's clothes caused in Drippy's world, now no one in Motorville gives a gently caress about his LARP getup.
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Jul 11, 2013 18:22
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Last Transmission posted:Well, for all the commotion Oliver's clothes caused in Drippy's world, now no one in Motorville gives a gently caress about his LARP getup. I just assumed they went with it thinking he was going through a phase of grief.
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Jul 11, 2013 18:53
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Last Transmission posted:Well, for all the commotion Oliver's clothes caused in Drippy's world, now no one in Motorville gives a gently caress about his LARP getup. They probably won't call him out to his face on his new "imaginary friend" and possible crossdressing so soon after his mom's death. But you just know they're keeping one eye on him and the other on the police blotter.
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Jul 11, 2013 19:41
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