Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom

I played this game just after the first Ni No Kuni, and it was a really nice change of pace. You still get the beautiful art-style and the amazing soundtracks still made by Joe Hisaishi.
You go from a tactical pocket monster gameplay to a more.. regular JRPG combat style, which is not bad.
What I really loved about this game is the Kingdom building, you actually build your own place from scratch, upgrading it, bringing more people in it, and it felt nice having this sense of side progression.
As I always do, I played this game on the hardest difficulty, and it was hard at first, but it really pushes you to learn all the mechanics of the game and to use all the tools it's giving to you.
Steam shows 130~ but I played a lot during the weekends at work where my pc didn't have network, so it did not count those hours, you can easily play for 200+ hours to get all achievements if you are a completionist.
The game goes pretty smoothly, gameplay and story wise, then you get at the end a pretty challenging and grindy end-game. Which was great, really gets you to take your time crafting gear, leveling ect..
Overall, between the first and second game, I think Ni No Kuni is kind of a must play. Not because it is great (of course it is, but it's not the reason), it's this peaceful feeling you get when playing it. Get yourself immersed in the world by the colorful scenery and soundtracks, you won't regret it.
I am genuinly hoping that we will get a Ni No Kuni III one day.

Prefacing this review by saying that I:
Got the full game + DLC for $12
Got it years after issues/bugs were patched and QOL features were added
Never played the first one
Recommend playing on a harder than normal difficulty
As with any JRPG, it holds your hand in the beginning, and that first hour or two can be a slog. Once the world opens up though, you start to see its bright spots. The characters, locations and magic system are simple and familiar, which can make it easy to get immersed into for beginner JRPG players, but not as complex and in-depth for veterans.
The Kingdom building can be addictive and rewarding, without becoming overwhelming. But once you have most citizens and pretty good gear, it can feel like an after thought.
Ni No Kuni 2's music is memorable and catchy, though I read that it reuses music from the first, which, if you've played, can make moments from it feel cheapened by how and when it is used in this game.
The companion system is just engaging enough to not be forgettable, but it doesn't go much further than that. Higgledies are fun and cute enough, but if you've played the first game, they don't hold a candle to Familiars.
Part of why I recommend Ni No Kuni 2 is because I have never played Ni No Kuni 1, or many JRPGs at all, so to a newcomer with fresh eyes, there is a lot to like about the game.
🐱 Like this review? Follow our curator page for more small games that shine. STILL Gaming

A beautiful game with a charming visual style and a colorful, fairy-tale world that’s a joy to explore.
On the downside, the story feels a bit too childish. From the very beginning you can tell exactly how it’s going to play out, and that’s pretty much what happens.
Still, that didn’t stop me from having a good time with it. I just have to admit that toward the end it started to feel a little boring. My final score would be 7/10.

Picked this up on sale for the steamdeck; complete edition adds some nice little post game content; looks great and plays very well on the deck; thumbs up from me.

I wish I could give this a middling score. It's not a bad game by any means, but what its is, is complicated. Below, I'll be posting a spoiler-filled rundown of what my issues and loves for this game were.
For a Tl;dr, I'd give this game a 7/10. Fun, but not as good at the 1st game.
This sequel abandons a lot of what made the original so unique - gone is the Familiar system, as well as the heavy lean into hands-on learning. One of my big, early complaints was the loss of the Wizard's Companion; the first game's spellbook, full of creative flavor text, lore about the world, folklore, and ancient legends that reflect on current events. This added in a very fun system - making people read. To finish some puzzles, you would need to scour the compendium, read the stories, learn the history for yourself, and grow alongside Oliver. It wasn't some pop-up on screen that narrated the story at you, but an account written by the holders of the book, telling their story. It was far more immersive and engaging. The gameplay is a bit more hands-on than the first game; the original had a very click-and-go style to it. Attacking, for instance, was automatic once you hit the "attack" button, giving you some degree of control over NPCs. One of my big gripes of the 1st game was how the NPCs would actively chase down recovery items, denying the player the ability to restore mana or health with anything but items. The sequel fixes this by having less of an emphasis on pick-up items, but also by leaning more into recoverable mana through attacks and equipment. The "auto-attack" aspect was removed, making the game feel more hands on, with active combos to use unique attacks.
One thing I genuinely missed were runes. It's a small thing in the original, but every spell had an accompanying rune, which had neat lore implications. For instance, the spell to summon powerful monsters is a combination of two different runes, which shows the living aspect of the world - it feels like mages genuinely experimented with magic to discover these new things. The way spellcasting felt in the original was more snappy, too. It's hard to explain, but in the first game, I felt like a mage, whereas with the sequel, it feels like I'm playing a mage in an RPG. This isn't bad, but it lacks that oomph of the original.
Lastly, there are the cutscenes, and this is at no fault of the game devs. Ni No Kuni 2 lacked the touch of Studio Ghibli, at least in full. They kept the art style consistent, which was a good idea, but the loss of fully animated cutscenes could be felt. The still images or 3d cutscenes lacked the whimsy and charm Ghibli's animations brought to the original. This is at no fault of the developers; Ghibli is not a video game company and were too busy to be a part of the sequel.
However, my biggest issues come with the writing. My first complaint is on missed opportunities. Ni No Kuni 1 was a gem, a wonderful game with a rich, vibrant lore, fleshed out through in-game storytelling and the supplementary reading in the Wizard's Compendium. There were loads of untold stories: where would the world be generations later? Would we walk through the shoes of the Wizard King? Perhaps we'd play as the Sage of Ages? Maybe put in in Nazcaä? So many options. And yet, Ni No Kuni 2 completely throws the story of the original to the wayside. Not only is it set in an alternate dimension, they made it clear that the events of Ni No Kuni 1 happened, but happened in a way that was different to the original. The familiar characters were there to tug at your nostalgia, but the story had almost no relevance to the events of the first game. When I started in Ding Dong Dell, I was excited. I thought this surely must be a continuation, since the Tildrum line was still standing and it's freakin' Ding Dong Dell. But rapidly, it became clear this wasn't the case - from the map being wholly different to nations being entirely unfamiliar, to core lore being entirely absent, replaced with new supplements - such as Kingmakers instead of Familiars.
One of the key points in the 1st game's story was the cyclical nature of the world - how history repeated itself. Oliver was just one in a long line of people who lost everything they loved. But unlike the other people in the story, he embraced the pain, and didn't walk the road of vengeance instead. He broke the cycle. The nature of Oliver and Shaddar was not overt - there were clues there that one could follow, inconsistencies in the narrative that, if you looked closely enough, showed you the twist before it got close to it. The Doloran/Roland reveal was ham-handed in comparison. Not only was it retreading that same plot point - a Soulbound villain, tied to the hero, with a "if you wish to kill me, you must kill yourself" narrative. I understand the cyclical nature narrative, but come on. In the original, Oliver was confronted with this reality, then followed through, still destroying Shaddar and almost being erased himself. This was far more poignant in comparison to Roland, who simply beats his double up, then doesn't need to deal with that conflict again. It goes to show the vast gap between the two, in terms of emotional weight. I wasn't so bothered by the story sharing similar beats - a boy coming to bring all the nations of the world together, under one banner - that fit the nature of cyclical storytelling far better. But it was those key moments, where they skipped on the chance to do something different or unique, that really hit me.
Now, some good; I really enjoyed the Kingdom Building mechanics. It was oddly rewarding, and felt nice to upgrade things slowly, watching the progress as you grow from a wooden palace with only a few huts, to a thriving capital. Recruiting the key villagers was a really neat idea - having to actively go out and hire people who were knowledgeable felt right; personal.
A bit more bad. Much like Shaddar and Oliver, the reveal of Pea and her role in the story was something you could figure out early on, without being spoon-fed the truth. However, Ferdinand was absolutely uninteresting. His name only comes up a few times: once from Boddy, then from Evan in a speech, and maybe one more time. But ultimately, he wasn't a major or interesting character. But surprise: he is a pseudo-time traveler who created a Bootstrap Paradox, and he is actually Evan's son. Boddy is a seer, somehow. Time Magic in Ni No Kuni 1 was extremely fickle and dangerous; you could only leap through time once. Now, a character is randomly born who can just send their mind through time from birth, because reasons. It all lacked the punch of Pea being the "inner child" of the game's Big Bad.
Now, some more good. I did love most of the game's writing. Was it cheesy and cliche? Sure, but no more than the original. One must remember, this is a game geared for younger audiences. With that in mind, there is a clear throughline in the narrative that remains strong. But I do think some things could have been better touched upon. In fact...
How the flippin' heck did Roland end up in another Dimension? In Ni No Kuni 1, Oliver needs to open the gate himself - nobody is just brought across dimensions with no rhyme or reason. And yet, here's Roland, being scooped across dimensions, just because. And did they seriously open the game up with New York City being nuked? Excuse me? Could you, like... explain that a bit? Why the heck was NYC getting bombed? It's massive tonal whiplash, and not in a good way.
I enjoyed Ni No Kuni 2. I played through the whole game - writing this while the credits are paused on the other screen - and am now about to start tackling post-game content. But if someone asked me whether the first or second was best, I would very clearly tell them: "Play the first. It's the far superior game."

Played this on the Switch and it was an horrible experience with lowres texture and dubious framerate.
Luckily the Steam version is there to save the day...
bad point, no idea why Level 5 tought it was a good idea to encrypt the save file, so if you extract this game save from your Switch you won't be able to continue it on the PC contrary to a lot of other games ! BEWARE.
The entire experience feels like a gentle fairy tale — very pure, very kind, almost like King’s Ranking. The story follows a classic isekai setup, with simple dialogue (lots of kana, few kanji), so even playing in English feels like reading comprehension practice. It’s childlike in tone, filled with animated cutscenes, but that’s also part of its charm.
The art style is what attracts most people — that “Miyazaki-but-not-quite” look. Compared to the first game, the Ghibli feeling is a bit weaker (mostly due to how some 3D elements are rendered differently from the characters), yet it’s still gorgeous overall. Screenshots from this game should honestly be printable posters.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a huge improvement over the first game.
Combat went from slow, turn-based to fluid real-time action — it’s like jumping from classic Final Fantasy to something closer to Monster Hunter-lite. Town-building and a small real-time strategy mode were added too. They aren’t mandatory unless you're aiming for all achievements, but developing your kingdom early helps a lot with side quests.
Speaking of side quests: there are many. Most are just “collect this” or “go talk to that person,” but midgame fast-travel makes them painless. The DLC introduces Dream Dungeon, a roguelike mode that’s actually fun… until you forget the game doesn’t let you save inside and lose hours of progress. (Yes, it happened to me. Twice. On Expert.)
In general:
Beautiful visuals and music ✅
Easy to get into, great for JRPG newcomers ✅
Adults should start on at least Hard, otherwise the combat becomes too easy ✅
Even if the story doesn’t leave a deep emotional scar the way other JRPGs might, the overall package — visuals, music, combat, town building, exploration — makes it a delightful and well-rounded game, especially at a discount.
Also: after finishing the main story, don’t quit.
Load the save with the asterisk — extra content awaits.

Just another Level 5 game, the same as all the others. Did you like Dark Cloud? or Rogue Galaxy? This one is not any worse (or better) than those. Random dungeons, long empty hallways, lots of weapons that all do the same but have different numbers, a very wide array of time sinkers and little depth anywhere.
I played on hard and had a quite relaxed experience, I even ignored mechanics like the elements on battle and yet had no problems with the fights. The game expects you to abuse items since you get way too much money anyway.
I saw some complaints about the AI of your party members (since you can only control one of them at a time) but honestly they don't play worse than me. At some points I dedicated myself to only dodge the boss attacks and they defeated the boss by themselves so... they are just fine.
My main complaint would be that there are hundreds of items (for crafting, for eating, to give to your higgledy, etc) and you pick them up constantly. I never knew what I was picking up where, I don't recognize 1/10 of the items I have in my inventory and they just keep coming. You walk around the maps picking up these bright lights that are completely meaningless. Then you use them in your town/city/empire for different mechanics or to finish quests but you never know what you have.
And then there is the side quests! Far from fun but expected too. The king is actually just the delivery guy or the exterminator, depending on the quest. I started caring about my newly found citizens but they just kept appearing and they kept talking and after the first dozen or so I just stopped caring, skip all the dialog and tell me what you want sir, I have things to do.
The soundtrack is not bad but it's badly used, it gets annoying pretty quickly. It tries to maintain some kind of artificial tension when there is actually none and it keeps at it for hours, non-stop. I don't know what they were thinking but it's Level 5, what do you expect.
At the end of the day I had fun because I have been led to believe that Level 5 makes good games. If you share that illness you will enjoy the game too.