Ni No Kuni out January 22, 2013

Really enjoying this game so far, turned in my DLC to get my extra characters from the guide and my preorder bonus.

I did find something interesting when I was checking out the wizards companion book in the game and when you zoom in on the pictures of the familiars something happens, so feel free to check it out. Not sure if it has already been mentioned or not, but was a nice surprise for me.

At any rate time to play.
 
[quote name='IanKazimer']I loaded him up on chocolate when I saw that friggin' animation. It's so good.

Love your avatar, by the way. Every day IS great at your Junes![/QUOTE]

Haha, yeah same here. I shove chocolate to my mite every chance I get.

Thanks ;) That damn jingle has been stuck in my head for weeks. I also think you'll get a kick out of this. Unfortunately, it isn't a department store but rather a love hotel :cry:
 
[quote name='IanKazimer']I loaded him up on chocolate when I saw that friggin' animation. It's so good.

Love your avatar, by the way. Every day IS great at your Junes![/QUOTE]

Haha, yeah same here. I shove chocolate to my mite every chance I get.

Thanks ;) That damn jingle has been stuck in my head for weeks. I also think you'll get a kick out of this. Unfortunately, it isn't a department store but rather a love hotel :cry:
 
[quote name='Loonknight']Really enjoying this game so far, turned in my DLC to get my extra characters from the guide and my preorder bonus.

I did find something interesting when I was checking out the wizards companion book in the game and when you zoom in on the pictures of the familiars something happens, so feel free to check it out. Not sure if it has already been mentioned or not, but was a nice surprise for me.

At any rate time to play.[/QUOTE]

Oohhh i might check that out later.
 
I just finished the trails at the temple and about to go on to the next event.

And sonofabitch, having to morph Mite sucks. My other familiars are level 17/18, but Mite had to go back to level 1. Granted, after a few battles, he's already up to level 9 but he's still way too weak to be used in battle. I hate having to level familiars... it goes nicely for the first few levels, but then slows down greatly. It's going to take a while before he can be useful again.

I also wish there were better tactics options for non-controller character. If I tell Esther to do what she wants, she depletes her MP after 3-4 fights. If I tell her not to use abilities, she sometimes uses magic users (instead of attackers) and takes on a lot of damage (and no, it's not because of stamina). If I tell her to act as support, she's basically useless unless I need to be healed
.
 
Yea, my biggest pet Peeve with Esther is that rather than using her own character's 4mp heal spell, she'll use one of the familiar's 11mp spell whenever she's down 13 health.

I havent really messed with the tactics menu, hopefully theres an option for "Dont recover until you're down to X health"
 
So this is going to be a theorycrafting post with regards to familiars and min/maxing stats. If you're down with that and want some tips, read on. I will try to keep this spoiler free as possible and will use a DLC familiar for my tests, as they're incredibly overpowered. :D

To start, each familiar is part of a genus and each character has three select synergies with those classifications. For Oliver, they're Milites, Vermes, and Dracones. The importance of matching familiars with the character is a flat 10% all stats boost. While this isn't very important early in the game, it will scale up as you level and towards endgame be the difference between 5 points and 50.

Next, I'll cover how celestial signs work in the field and provide tips that most people aren't aware of. Signs are the proverbial rock, paper, scissors mechanics of the game but also have a chance to roll a double-sign whenever a familiar is obtained. For example, Star has a natural boon of 5% resistance to storm and poison; double-star has 10%. Additionally, Star is strong versus Sun and gains 20% boosted damage with double-star gaining 30%! Star is considered one of the more favorable signs as well, given nearly all bounty hunts are sun signs (bosses have no sign). Pro-tip: when redeeming your DLC ticket (roughly 5-6 hours in) Griffy can roll double-star, so save before redeeming and reload if he's not! It took me only three tries to get it, so the rate is fairly high. As for the other two DLC characters (Golden Hurly and Flutterby), it is the community consensus that they cannot roll double-sign after hours of testing and none sighted.

As you may have guessed, my test familiar is Griffy (Amazon pre-order bonus) and is a real beast both literally and figuratively. He is of the Aves genus, so pairing him with the first character to join your party is best for synergy. Next I'll provide a stat growth chart for his first generation and then cover some basics.

Code: 
[U]LvL | 01 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11[/U]
Atk | 25 | 39 | 46 | 52 | 60 | 67 | 73 | 80 | 86 | 93
Def | 23 | 36 | 41 | 48 | 55 | 60 | 67 | 72 | 78 | 84
M.A | 22 | 34 | 39 | 45 | 50 | 56 | 61 | 67 | 72 | 78
M.D | 17 | 26 | 30 | 35 | 39 | 44 | 48 | 51 | 56 | 60
Acc | 18 | 28 | 34 | 38 | 42 | 48 | 52 | 57 | 61 | 67
Evs | 19 | 30 | 36 | 41 | 47 | 51 | 57 | 62 | 67 | 72

*Stats captured with 10% boost from character synergy
The first thing I want to go over is that familiars can evolve once they learn all the tricks of that generation. In Griffy's case, this is achieved at level seven for first gen and level 15 for second gen, keeping in mind that evolution resets their level to zero and a % of stats carry over to the next. This means that while you could evolve Griffy at level seven, it is wiser to gain four more levels first to maximize the stat carry over since his base stats grow incredibly fast and at an average rate (meaning you gain roughly the same amount of stats for each level; he is not an early or late bloomer). Ultimately it is your decision, as the difference in stats is about 5-7% at absolute cap.

Lastly, Griffy loves Ice Cream, a food that boosts evasion. While this will increase his familiarity faster than other foods you have options to consider. Griffy's PD (pre-determined) command is psyche-up, meaning he can't defend or evade strong attacks. This makes him very much a glass cannon versus magic attacks since his magic defense is low. As far as I know, you can't evade magic attacks (direct or AOE) making this a useless stat to boost (after extensive testing, evasion only factors physical attacks) on a low evasion familiar. Instead, consider feeding him chocolate to boost his physical attacks. The best defense is a strong offense after all. You do not need to worry about waiting to feed your familiar until the last generation, because these stats are added as a bonus and not factored into the paper doll when evolving. Also, the maximum for points gained from feeding is 50 total once all five hearts have been filled. Keep in mind that when your familiar is paired with the proper character, this also scales with the 10% bonus so increasing Griffy's main stat (attack) is in your best interest as you will squeeze out a few more points than if you were boosting a lesser stat to round him out.

A note on Griffy's final evolution:
His Ice form will have higher attack, affinity towards water, but weakness to fire. His Fire form will have higher defense, affinity towards fire, but weakness to water. I very much recommend evolving to the latter because fire will help immensely near the end of the game.
 
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Games starting to piss me off lol

15 hours in and not 1 of my characters or familiars have a revive type spell or even a spell to replenish MP, this is my only pet peeve with this game so far!!
 
[quote name='Vinny']It there a way to make the non-controller player defend? This is a huge issue during with boss fights...[/QUOTE]

Eventually. Just used it in my first boss fight and man did those miracle moves shit from the boss like candy.
 
[quote name='Souljah']Games starting to piss me off lol

15 hours in and not 1 of my characters or familiars have a revive type spell or even a spell to replenish MP, this is my only pet peeve with this game so far!![/QUOTE]

Are you specifically

[quote name='Draekon']Eventually. Just used it in my first boss fight and man did those miracle moves shit from the boss like candy.[/QUOTE]

If I'm at
the town where you fight the alchemy genie, how far away am I (roughly) from that ability? I'm guessing it's one of those perks of completing quests, right?

And man, that genie is kicking my ass... well, Esther's ass actually.
.
 
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[quote name='argyle']While this gen has definitely been a lot dryer for JRPGs than last gen, there have still been some great ones released (with the two best being Xenoblade and Vesperia imo). So I wouldn't really call this a return to form for the genre, but it IS a return to form for Level-5 on consoles. This game feels like the natural follow-up to their best PS2 games, Dragon Quest 8 & Dark Cloud 2. I'm extremely glad to see them back in action, since they were one of my favorite developers on the PS2.[/QUOTE]

The Mount Rushmore of JRPG's this gen to me are:

Tales of Vesperia
Valkyria Chronicles
Lost Odyssey
Ys Seven

Honorable Mentions
Eternal Sonata
Tales of Graces f
Blue Dragon
White Knight Chronicles 1/2 (1 from the remastered version on the 2nd game's disc.)

We'll see if this can crack my top 4 once I get it.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Are you specifically



If I'm at
the town where you fight the alchemy genie, how far away am I (roughly) from that ability? I'm guessing it's one of those perks of completing quests, right?

And man, that genie is kicking my ass... well, Esther's ass actually.
.[/QUOTE]

Are you askin Where am i?

I'm a bit further than you going by that other comment you posted so don't want to mention much ;)
 
[quote name='Vinny']If I'm at
the town where you fight the alchemy genie, how far away am I (roughly) from that ability? I'm guessing it's one of those perks of completing quests, right?

And man, that genie is kicking my ass... well, Esther's ass actually.
.[/QUOTE]


If you're there, then you have a few more hours until you get to the point where you acquire it. More specifically (While still being vague), it's a little bit after you acquire
the boat
. More specifically (yet still vague) after the
boss fight on the boat on your way to the next destination
 
As awesome as Griffy looked I had to sell him on ebay, I mean he sold for $49! Who in the fuck pays that much for a dlc character I have no idea but fuck it I'm not complaining!

Just a side note, I'm only like 3 hrs in but I really love this game so far. I just want to go exploring, the world feels really vibrant and alive. I can't wait to play more and really sink my teeth into this game.
 
[quote name='Souljah']Are you askin Where am i?

I'm a bit further than you going by that other comment you posted so don't want to mention much ;)[/QUOTE]

Sorry, my bad... I started to write something then... I spaced out and forgot to finish writing.:lol:

But you answered what I was going to ask anyway... sucks that there's no revive spells (so far, anyway).

[quote name='Draekon']If you're there, then you have a few more hours until you get to the point where you acquire it. More specifically (While still being vague), it's a little bit after you acquire
the boat
. More specifically (yet still vague) after the
boss fight on the boat on your way to the next destination
[/QUOTE]

Thank god. Can't wait to get that.
 
I need to start weening out familiars without defensive skills. I'm sure the game will pick up at some point where you can't simply overpower enemies.
 
[quote name='cgarb84']As awesome as Griffy looked I had to sell him on ebay, I mean he sold for $49! Who in the fuck pays that much for a dlc character I have no idea but fuck it I'm not complaining![/QUOTE]
Griffy is quite possibly the most broken familiar in the game at this point. Extremely high, well-rounded stats with low level caps for first and second gen. I'm very close to capping him a second time and choosing his final evolution and I can tell you for a fact he makes boss fights much, much easier.
[quote name='Vinny']It there a way to make the non-controller player defend? This is a huge issue during with boss fights...[/QUOTE]
It's stupid but you don't get it until about halfway through the game. I thought I had missed something in the tactics training at first, but once they gave me the ability I was like are you fucking kidding me? Luckily it's square to defend, triangle to resume attacks so no menus to navigate. If I had one complaint about this game it would definitely be the flow of combat because I'm so used to hotkeys on PC heh. Some attacks come super fast, so it's impossible to cancel out of your attack and navigate to defend in time. It just feels like this game babies you a bit too much in slowly unlocking new abilities, but then expects you to perform in combat with a gimpy UI. I like twitch gameplay and the combat feels like it should be fast paced, but the system just feels unrewarding at times.
 
Hope they sell the golden familiars in psn soon! Missed out the preorders bonus. got my game in ganestop for thw steelbook. Take my money now please psn!
 
If they do sell them as DLC, don't waste your money on Flutterby as I've heard he's garbage. Not sure about Golden Hurly because I didn't redeem my ticket since I have bigger plans for my tank. Dinoceros is supposed to be the shit.
 
[quote name='Jodou']If they do sell them as DLC, don't waste your money on Flutterby as I've heard he's garbage. Not sure about Golden Hurly because I didn't redeem my ticket since I have bigger plans for my tank. Dinoceros is supposed to be the shit.[/QUOTE]

Hey, I like Flutterby so far, but there are so many familiars out there you really don't need any of the DLC to truly enjoy this game.
 
[quote name='Loonknight']Hey, I like Flutterby so far, but there are so many familiars out there you really don't need any of the DLC to truly enjoy this game.[/QUOTE]

Its just me and the "collect them all mentality". Hehe!
 
[quote name='CAGkrazy']Hope they sell the golden familiars in psn soon! Missed out the preorders bonus. got my game in ganestop for thw steelbook. Take my money now please psn![/QUOTE]


I'm sorry but no. Preorder DLC should never be sold.
 
[quote name='Romeo']I'm sorry but no. Preorder DLC should never be sold.[/QUOTE]

I believe alot of games nowaways that have preorder dlc have been doing this. they release the dlc sometime after release with a fee. Dlcs are part of the game and should be provided to all players. the priviledge of those that preorder is that they get them for free and ahead of everyone else. Plus if people are paying for dlc to get them after, why would publisher say no to that.
 
[quote name='CAGkrazy']I believe alot of games nowaways that have preorder dlc have been doing this. they release the dlc sometime after release with a fee. Dlcs are part of the game and should be provided to all players. the priviledge of those that preorder is that they get them for free and ahead of everyone else. Plus if people are paying for dlc to get them after, why would publisher say no to that.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I see no problem with that at all. People who take the time to preorder get it for free and ahead of everyone else. People who really want it have to wait but not pay that hefty ebay price. I mean it doesn't affect you (romeo) at all unless you plan on selling the dlc at a "premium" price. People are happy and developers get more money.
 
[quote name='Jodou']
It's stupid but you don't get it until about halfway through the game. I thought I had missed something in the tactics training at first, but once they gave me the ability I was like are you fucking kidding me? Luckily it's square to defend, triangle to resume attacks so no menus to navigate. If I had one complaint about this game it would definitely be the flow of combat because I'm so used to hotkeys on PC heh. Some attacks come super fast, so it's impossible to cancel out of your attack and navigate to defend in time. It just feels like this game babies you a bit too much in slowly unlocking new abilities, but then expects you to perform in combat with a gimpy UI. I like twitch gameplay and the combat feels like it should be fast paced, but the system just feels unrewarding at times.[/QUOTE]

Oh my god, they should have included that from the start even if your NPC can't defend. That sounds so much better than canceling your attack, defending, waiting, canceling defend, and resuming attack.

And halfway through? Based on IGN's guide... I have only finished the two Summerlands (and already clocked in 13 hours), leaving 7 more regions. Unless these next few areas go by quick, I've got a long way to go...

[quote name='PancakesAreLove']Yeah I see no problem with that at all. People who take the time to preorder get it for free and ahead of everyone else. People who really want it have to wait but not pay that hefty ebay price. I mean it doesn't affect you (romeo) at all unless you plan on selling the dlc at a "premium" price. People are happy and developers get more money.[/QUOTE]

If they advertise it as pre-order exclusive or special edition exclusive DLC, then I think it's kind of a dick move to open it up to everyone later on. But if they word it like "pre-order now and get xyz DLC" (which pretty much all publishers are) then that's another thing since they never said it was exclusive.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Oh my god, they should have included that from the start even if your NPC can't defend. That sounds so much better than canceling your attack, defending, waiting, canceling defend, and resuming attack.

And halfway through? Based on IGN's guide... I have only finished the two Summerlands (and already clocked in 13 hours), leaving 7 more regions. Unless these next few areas go by quick, I've got a long way to go...[/QUOTE]
To be clear, it's an order to ALL defend and ALL go out, meaning you still need to navigate their messy UI to defend with only one character. I really wish they had tuned the combat system more because I feel like it's 20% skill and 80% familiar match-up/tactics. That should really be reversed.

And I say halfway because I'm just going by chapters and when you get it, you're about 3.5 of 7 chapters done. I think much of the game is left to exploration after you get a certain something hehe.
 
[quote name='Jodou']To be clear, it's an order to ALL defend and ALL go out, meaning you still need to navigate their messy UI to defend with only one character. I really wish they had tuned the combat system more because I feel like it's 20% skill and 80% familiar match-up/tactics. That should really be reversed.

And I say halfway because I'm just going by chapters and when you get it, you're about 3.5 of 7 chapters done. I think much of the game is left to exploration after you get a certain something hehe.[/QUOTE]

Oh poo... oh well, I guess I'll keep chugging along.

And I don't know why, but it seems like all the familiars from battle suck. I've only been using the familiars that were given to me or came with my my allies. There's this goat that might prove to be useful, but he's only level 13 while the others are level 20-ish.
 
played for about 6 hours so far, just got to the desert place. i have two questions:
1)where do i redeem my Griffy ticket i got from preordering at amazon?
2)-VERY LIGHT SPOILERS- so I found out that the guardians are also familiars, so my question for anyone that has either finished/deep into the game, do you eventually get to use guardians as your own familiar?
 
23 Hours in
just got the mornstar wand and free to travel the world
and still no one in my party has a revive spell or even an MP heal?

anyone that is further know if you do get these or do you just have to use items the whole game??

Also think im just going to
grind the toko's on the small island to the north east for a while now, you get 2000xp each one you kill
 
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A little off topic I imagine but I love the fact that the standard version of the game has been sold out at Amazon for a couple days now. Really interested to hear what sales have been like vs expectations.
 
[quote name='ShockandAww']A little off topic I imagine but I love the fact that the standard version of the game has been sold out at Amazon for a couple days now. Really interested to hear what sales have been like vs expectations.[/QUOTE]
i truly hope it sells well so it can prove people still care for jrpgs if done right. also, i want studio ghibli to work on another game :p
 
Ok, I got the triangle to defend thing. Yay!

And is Swaine retarded or something? Half-way through every fight, he pulls his familiar and starts attacking himself... doing 1 damage and taking 20 in the process.:roll:

[quote name='Souljah']23 Hours in
just got the mornstar wand and free to travel the world
and still no one in my party has a revive spell or even an MP heal?
[/QUOTE]

I'm not gonna read your spoiler since I'm no where near where you are, but AFAIK, no game has ever had an "MP heal" spell. The idea of using MP to restore MP doesn't really make sense... If you could use MP to restore MP, then you'd a huge and unfair advantage since you theoretically have an unlimited supply of MP. You'll just have drink before before/during/after battles.:p

Speaking of MP, Oliver and Esther are fairly close in level but for some reason, Oliver has nearly 100 MP while Esther only has 65 MP. Is that normal? I guess Oliver is the magic user... but it seems like a such a huge gap.

[quote name='ShockandAww']A little off topic I imagine but I love the fact that the standard version of the game has been sold out at Amazon for a couple days now. Really interested to hear what sales have been like vs expectations.[/QUOTE]

The fact that the game sold out at Amazon is a very good indication of sales and will help build hype (in addition to the hype from the WE fiasco). I doubt we'll see any numbers until February though but I think Namco's probably pretty happy.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Ok, I got the triangle to defend thing. Yay!

And is Swaine retarded or something? Half-way through every fight, he pulls his familiar and starts attacking himself... doing 1 damage and taking 20 in the process.:roll:



I'm not gonna read your spoiler since I'm no where near where you are, but AFAIK, no game has ever had an "MP heal" spell. The idea of using MP to restore MP doesn't really make sense... If you could use MP to restore MP, then you'd a huge and unfair advantage since you theoretically have an unlimited supply of MP. You'll just have drink before before/during/after battles.:p

Speaking of MP, Oliver and Esther are fairly close in level but for some reason, Oliver has nearly 100 MP while Esther only has 65 MP. Is that normal? I guess Oliver is the magic user... but it seems like a such a huge gap.

[/QUOTE]

Well games have had abilities that restore mp but it is more common in Jrpgs just to use a MP potion.
 
I love the pokemon aspect of catching the various creatures, the thing thats annoying is the % chance of being able to serenade. I'm currently on a quest where you have to capture a small robot familiar and after 30 battles, i've yet to get the serenade popup

*EDIT*

Hoooray! Finally got the serenade popup on attempt #37.
 
[quote name='PancakesAreLove']Well games have had abilities that restore mp but it is more common in Jrpgs just to use a MP potion.[/QUOTE]

Well, he said "MP heal" I figured he was talking about a spell.

[quote name='Dead of Knight']This game has so many things wrong with it. And yet I am really, really enjoying it. It's basically Dragon Quest VIII-2 with real time combat.[/QUOTE]

This is basically how I feel about this game. There's a lot of small issues but I'm been addicted to this game.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Well, he said "MP heal" I figured he was talking about a spell.



This is basically how I feel about this game. There's a lot of small issues but I'm been addicted to this game.[/QUOTE]

i saw the MP heal comment and just let it slide
 
I just want a warp spell already! T_T I'm at
(Disguised as a PIG and infiltrating)
and certain errands have you back tracking fairly far.
Like back to Golden Grove

Do any older cities pop up with a Take Heart option after you've left them?
I ask because a fairy vender in FairyGrounds needs Kindness. So I went to Pig city, found Kindness, but gave it to someone in Pig City, now I see no new Take Heart options and I'm left with an Errand incomplete!

The DLC issue, I do not agree that pre-order DLC should not be sold on PSN at a later date, UNLESS any pre-order came with ALL the options. The fact that we'd have to buy 2+ copies, at multiple retailers to get all the DLC is just dumb.
 
I just reached Al Mamoon, must say I'm loving the game so far. I feel like I'm underleveled though(currently 12) and on my way to Al Mamoon I had a hard time killing all the desert beasties.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Oh poo... oh well, I guess I'll keep chugging along.

And I don't know why, but it seems like all the familiars from battle suck. I've only been using the familiars that were given to me or came with my my allies. There's this goat that might prove to be useful, but he's only level 13 while the others are level 20-ish.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, but at least you no longer have to manually switch to each character to defend lol.

The only two original familiars I've kept were Mite and Drongo. They both have synergy with their original master and are a strong tank/healer line-up. Other than that, I use a purrloiner (Milite synergy) on Oliver when I want to burst an add down or 'now's your chance' burst and Griffy (Aves synergy) on Esther to obliterate whatever I'm tanking. Outside of that, I gave Swaine a bonehead that he never switches out of unless he's out of stamina lol. Seems like having three familiars each is pointless because I've never swapped to the third slot creature, ever. I just put in placeholder creatures so at least they're leveling in case the game ever gets hard.

It hasn't. : \
[quote name='Kazaganthi']Do any older cities pop up with a Take Heart option after you've left them?
I ask because a fairy vender in FairyGrounds needs Kindness. So I went to Pig city, found Kindness, but gave it to someone in Pig City, now I see no new Take Heart options and I'm left with an Errand incomplete!
[/QUOTE]
Good news, you made the right decision. You get way better items from that chain than you do completing the shitty quest on the other island. You will get a chance to finish it later anyway.
 
My Wizard's Edition is scheduled to arrive by the end of the day this Wednesday... I've been super anxious to play!
 
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Game came with the Steelbook (which is good because GS kept their promise and I didn't waste money). My guide is apparently sitting at my fucking post office waiting to be delivered. This sucks because my post office is shit and I am worried about leaving a 3.5 lb guide on my mailbox for 3-4 hours. Plus it's supposed to be bad weather tomorrow so I am really hoping it comes here in one piece.

I am also waiting for my damn guide to play the game. I mean yeah I probably don't need the guide to start but it would be helpful for me. A good JRPG I often times buy the guide for.
 
[quote name='Brainberry']I just reached Al Mamoon, must say I'm loving the game so far. I feel like I'm underleveled though(currently 12) and on my way to Al Mamoon I had a hard time killing all the desert beasties.[/QUOTE]


Stick to the sun guys floating around. They're easy to get from behind and do the least damage. I leveled up to 16 with them.


Right now I'm 9.5 hours in and doing the trials. I'm not sure how I feel about the AI controlling my second character and familiar. I have a feeling they'll get aggro'd over Mitey and get killed.
 
Can you feed a familiar infinitely? I'm afraid to feed any one anything right until I know. And also, are the gold DLC characters skins that override the current characters or entirely different familiars? I have the gold Mitey and don't know if he will start at lv1 or not.


Finally, I'm looking for the amazon Griffy code! I have a flutterby to trade!
 
[quote name='Brainberry']I just reached Al Mamoon, must say I'm loving the game so far. I feel like I'm underleveled though(currently 12) and on my way to Al Mamoon I had a hard time killing all the desert beasties.[/QUOTE]

That will be taken care of soon enough when you take care of business at Al Mamoon.
 
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