Ninokuni (Studio Ghibli) NDS $39.90 @ Play Asia

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Play Asia has Ninokuni, the RPG that Level-5 (the Professor Layton series) made with Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki's animation studio--Miyazaki's usual composer Joe Hisaishi did the music for the game, too), on sale for $39.90, which is basically half price. Shipping is a bummer--the cheapest option for me was $16.40. The reason why shipping is so high though is that this comes with a giant, nice-looking book--check out an unboxing video on YouTube to see what you're in for.

Here's a link to the sale: http://www.play-asia.com/Ninokuni_Shikkoku_no_Madoushi/paOS-13-71-9g-49-en-70-3ylq.html

Yes, this game is in Japanese (though the kanji come with their accompanying furigana, so it's not too treacherous for people who can read some Japanese), no, there is not an option to switch it to English, and yes, it will play on your American DS. This game only came out late last year in Japan, so it is still possible it'll get a U.S. release, but one hasn't officially been announced yet.
 
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Oh damn, i had forgotten aobut this. I remember hearing about it and seeing some videos. It looked fucking awesome. Unfortunatly this is basically worthless if you dont speak Japanese =( It did look really neat though. I think the odds of it coming stateside are next to zilch. Especially considering Nintendo of Americas track record lately

Wasn't there an anime in the works for it too? Damn im tempted to get this just for the book and art.. though it would suck not being able to actually use it >_< Any idea how long the sale is for? I need to think it over
 
For anyone on the fence, the book is pretty cool. There's a lot of art and stories inside, along with the spells and bestiary. It's well made, too; they didn't cheap out on it.
 
[quote name='Kenshindono']Oh damn, i had forgotten aobut this. I remember hearing about it and seeing some videos. It looked fucking awesome. Unfortunatly this is basically worthless if you dont speak Japanese =( It did look really neat though. I think the odds of it coming stateside are next to zilch. Especially considering Nintendo of Americas track record lately

Wasn't there an anime in the works for it too? Damn im tempted to get this just for the book and art.. though it would suck not being able to actually use it >_< Any idea how long the sale is for? I need to think it over[/QUOTE]
There is a PS3 version in the making in which Studio Ghibli has helped with the animation production, but not an actual anime series/movie per se. It will likely be released sometime in 2012.
 
[quote name='Kenshindono']Unfortunatly this is basically worthless if you dont speak Japanese =( It did look really neat though. I think the odds of it coming stateside are next to zilch. Especially considering Nintendo of Americas track record lately[/QUOTE]

Ah, really it isn't. This is the first Ghibli game and it is pretty damn good. 8/10 gameplay, 10/10 presentation. Even if you don't understand what's going on you will still enjoy a lot of it. You can even double-down on the Engrish and machine translate this Thai guide to English and stumble through the game.

Furthermore, Level 5 opened it's own office in The States specifically to publish it's own games. It is not dependent on NOA to decide what it will or will not publish. Considering Layton 4 is still getting released there is a fair chance we will see this game pushed for localization before NNK gets released for PS3.

Great soundtrack, fucking incredible manual and very enjoyable cutscenes. Well worth the price of admission even if you have to stumble through it, IMO. Also it's a dream on the XL.
 
Picked this up in Japan for about 20$ just for the sheer coolness of it. Still haven't opened it but damn is it a big, pretty box.
 
[quote name='midnightexpress']There is a PS3 version in the making in which Studio Ghibli has helped with the animation production, but not an actual anime series/movie per se. It will likely be released sometime in 2012.[/QUOTE]

ah maybe it was the ps3 version i had heard about. I thought i had heard of an OVA in the works or something, musta been mistaken

[quote name='cochesecochese']Ah, really it isn't. This is the first Ghibli game and it is pretty damn good. 8/10 gameplay, 10/10 presentation. Even if you don't understand what's going on you will still enjoy a lot of it. You can even double-down on the Engrish and machine translate this Thai guide to English and stumble through the game.

Furthermore, Level 5 opened it's own office in The States specifically to publish it's own games. It is not dependent on NOA to decide what it will or will not publish. Considering Layton 4 is still getting released there is a fair chance we will see this game pushed for localization before NNK gets released for PS3.

Great soundtrack, fucking incredible manual and very enjoyable cutscenes. Well worth the price of admission even if you have to stumble through it, IMO. Also it's a dream on the XL.[/QUOTE]

hmm that is good to hear.. still, i have serious doubts about this being published stateside. I watched the unboxing and this is a beautiful game set. THe book looks fantastic. However it looks like it would take a LOT of work to localize and do properly. If by some miracle we do get it stateside i highly doubt wed get this awesome special edition.

I really really want to buy this, but your seriously downplaying how hard this will proably be to play through. RPG's are next to impossible to play if you have no understanding of the Japanese written language and next to zero of the spoken. I was actually gonna import the suikoden 1+II psp game since it never came stateside, but thats just because i played them SO MUCH that i can probably do it by memory. I will stil have problems understanding what the hell items are though. This game would be impossible

all that said, Im still considering just buying the damn thing to collect and keep sealed maybe. Id love to know if there was talk of it coming stateside though. It would be a waste to do that then actually get it to come out here
 
I'd be interested in this, but I already own all of the films. I pretty much already know what this game is going to be about. =\
 
At the time of this writing, they're down to their last two copies. This happened last week, too, and when it went out of stock it went back up to full price ($79.90). Then it came back in stock and the price went back down. Shrug. It says the sale is for a limited time, so I don't know how much longer to expect them to keep doing this.

And to echo what a couple of other people have said, I feel like even if this does get localized it will probably be sans the big cool book (like how when Arkanoid DS got brought over they didn't give us the cool paddle accessory--so glad I imported that one), so I doubt I'll regret importing this one way or the other. Besides, I'm in a hurry to play it.
 
I wouldn't hold my breath on localization. It would be costly, and DS games are on the outs.

If you want to own a piece of gaming history (first-and-probably-only Ghibli game, etc) or save it for that rainy day in the far future when you've finally learned a bit of Japanese, you might want to snatch it up.
 
Mine came in the mail today, and while I haven't gotten to actually play the game much yet, man am I happy with it. Specifically the whole package--I don't recall ever being so pleased with just the presentation of the game. The book is gorgeous, and it also comes with a separate index, the usual instruction manual, and all of the normal nonsense (the game's in a regular clamshell inside the giant box, so you can just take that out and put the game on your shelf and have it look normal if you so please), all housed in a nice, big box.

Coincidentally, it's back in stock at play-asia at the time that I'm writing this, and still on sale. I say if you're on the fence go for it--I'm very glad I did.
 
I wish they didn't gouge on shipping so much. I know when dv8 sends a game out, it sure isn't 20 bucks to send it.
 
Level 5 CEO said last yr that for sure its coming stateside for both DS and PS3...with the release of the 3DS i can see them adapting it to that..personally I'm waiting for the PS3 version, ghibli gaming in HD =)

heres a sneak peek! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt8vGFs-14A

i mean really, look how beautiful it looks on PS3. how could u even wanna play it on ds after seeing that? lol.
 
This happened last week, too, and when it went out of stock it went back up to full price ($79.90).
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[quote name='cochesecochese']Furthermore, Level 5 opened it's own office in The States specifically to publish it's own games. It is not dependent on NOA to decide what it will or will not publish. Considering Layton 4 is still getting released there is a fair chance we will see this game pushed for localization before NNK gets released for PS3[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, Level 5 revealed that their US studio is a very small company and will only be creating small games (presumably either XBLA/PSN or iOS games) and won't be doing any publishing or localization. Even though the Level 5 CEO said that they intended to release both Ninokuni DS and Inazuma Eleven in the US, they'll only get released if a publisher picks them up, and it's looking increasingly unlikely that this will happen. Given that someone is willing to localize and publish the almost sure to bomb White Knight Chronicles 2, I can't imagine the PS3 version of Ninokuni not being released in North America, but you never know.
 
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