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Dec 29th, 2025 at 12:20:44 - Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) |
Color me surprised!
I probably would have known this had I played the game soon after it came out (which I could not because I bought it a lot later when it was really cheap). But, this game has really surprised me by adding two things unexpectedly to (what I thought was going to be) the "usual" JRPG format...
a. There's sort-of-RTS-battle system! You control 2 (at first, but then you get more people to join, but it's capped at 4) "squads" of soldiers in a battle - there are different types of squads (there's a rock-paper-scissors thing that's color coded red/green/blue) with the yellow squads ranged units. It's weird because your character - young Kind Evan - stands in the middle (chibi!) with the 2 (then 4) squads arranged around him. It's sort of like he stands in the center of a compass, and the squads (I forget how many soldiers they have) are clumped in a circle on the W and E compass sports (and later all 4 cardinal directions, N/S/W/E). Everyone moves as a single unit but you can rotate the squads clock- and counter-clockwise, again, Evan always in the center and acting as the axis of rotation. So, when you move forward you can rotate the squads so, say, the red one is in front and will thus run into the opponent of the (worse-of) color first. And then fighting happens and the units that are killed fly off and disappear. You really have to pay attention to the color matching, squads gain experience and level up (different battles are tougher enemies), and terrain also plays a role. Additionally you have a set number of points that you can spend during battle to do special attacks/effects or re-supply your squads. Timing also matters, you rarely want to rush forward to attack, and I've found that probing and retreating (goading the enemy into rushing forward) can be effective. It's a fun system, and the battles aren't easy! (you often face waves of enemies over the battlefield space - so, enemy has more than 4 squads and they all move separately from each other).
b. Base building!
King Evan decides to start a new kingdom...and so you do (like there was a large swatch of empty unclaimed land? Sure, let's go with it)... At this point it's just a city (well, village) - so more like a City-State than a kingdom? (in size). You build buildings, assign people to work in them, do research to improve your stuff - like better spells - and more. You then have to do sidequests to find people to recruit to your kingdom! (so you can put them to work in the right places). I'm currently stuck unable to level up my Kingdom to level two because I don't have enough citizens (you need 25 I think)... It's also a neat little system, and it's kind of fun to have to wander around meeting NPCs and talking to the ones who are recruitable (indicated by a different color in the map).
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Dec 29th, 2025 at 11:58:01 - Chaosbane (PS4) |
I only picked this up because it seemed like fun AND it 4-player couch co-op. So, a nice diversion of a game I could play with my kids.
The game's essentially a Diablo-style action RPG - very much in the Diablo-style, but set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe - I think it predates Age of Sigmar? - to be honest, I don't think it matters much...
I haven't really gone deep in Diablo IV, but I found this game's deviations from the Diablo III design interesting...
1. There's no real tutorial. We sort of started playing, but had to figure out a bunch of stuff (easy stuff) by experimenting and paying attention. Like, how the different powers work, how to configure them, what the different numbers mean, etc.
2. You always have a healing potion, but it's on a cool down - so you can't spam 'em.
3. There's no item shop (I finished Chapter 1, so maybe there will be? There's 4 chapters to the game). There was a place where donate all your extra loot/gear and get rewards from it. There's also no items other than stuff you can equip. So no messing around with ammo, or herbs, or food, or materials or whatever. I like the simplicity here.
4. When you pick up loot, anything that's not for your character automatically goes to the right character. So, no worries about loot hogging.
5. We've been collecting gold. But have no idea what to spend it on. We both died once - and paid money to resurrect, but that's it.
6. There are these "fragments" (in four colors). Been collecting those and we have no idea what they're for.
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Dec 21st, 2025 at 14:13:17 - BALL x PIT (PC) |
So, I finished it - and there's a new game +, but it is now starting to feel really grindy.
I'm a bit annoyed tbh, but I realize I'm being stupid here. So, there's a trophy for clearing all the levels for each character (1 trophy per character), and when I triggered the "true" end of the game (prior to whatever the true ending of new game + is), it reset the pit - and it takes a lot more clears to get the next level of the pit, which means that I sort of have to play the game all over again, grindier, just to get those trophies if I really want them. And I kind of do, and kind of don't, but I would if I could go back to the regular version - because then it's less of a grind and more like "mopping up".
I did unlock some crazy new ball evolutions that was fun! (according to the in-game encyclopedia, I've now done them all). I might play a bit more, but mostly for "mopping up" - there's some item evolutions I haven't figured out yet, but we'll see how much more patience I have.
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Dec 21st, 2025 at 14:08:07 - Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) |
I've played about three hours at this point, probably in the middle of chapter 2 (I'll see if it's the middle or not because I've just landed in a new area - the valley of something-or-other).
I think that one of the things I've enjoyed most so far has to do with the fact that I played the first game a while ago and I don't remember much about the details, but that it's all slowly coming back, but as a sort of warm fuzzy memory. I need to check details, but the games are pretty different - the combat system here is active, not turn-based, but was the first game turn based? I don't recall, would have to check. But still, the general vibes and wonder of the world is still here in interesting ways. The colors, the art, etc. - BUT, you can tell that it is all now one step removed from the earlier Ghibli collaboration. The style is slightly different - not off, or bad - just different. You wander around an open-world area, avoiding monsters if you want to, picking up loot (shiny glinting sparkles to walk over), and meet interesting characters.
This time around there are "higgledies" - strange creatures that have some sort of elemental assocation, they're like spirits, but not really, they remind me of the Kodama (the little white creatures that rotated their heads) from Princess Mononoke, but also the fire sprite from Howl's Moving castle. They appear in combat and you can trigger them to help out. They can also (if you have the "right one") help with things in the environment - for now a buried clover leaf that, when activated, creates an updraft you can ride to a higher location.
It's all sweet, and nice, and interesting. So, I'll keep playing until it is no longer that.
The only thing that's surprised me negatively is that the camera distance seems weird. Some areas are thirdperson, but kind of close, and the camera moves really fast and I just seem to get a bit dizzy as I run to the next location (they're super linear, tbh). The overworld view seems really pulled back - I like being able to see the scope of the scenery (super cool), but sometimes wish I could bring the camera in closer? I think I might need to figure out if I should play a certain distance from the TV...
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jp has been with GameLog for 23 years, 3 months, and 5 days |
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