“Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” is a RPG developed by Studio Ghibli makers of such animated film classics as “Spirited Away,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service,” and “Ponyo.” The game was released for the Nintendo DS (only in Japan) and the PlayStation 3.

The story of “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” follows thirteen-year-old Oliver, whose mother dies from heart problems. When a male fairy named Drippy tells him that there might be a way to save his mother by going to a parallel world called Ni no Kuni, the two set off together. They soon discover that Ni no Kuni is being subjected to corruption by the evil Dark Djinn Shadar. Now they must band together with fellow characters to stop his evil from taking over all of Ni no Kuni with the hope that he will also be able to save his mom.

This game was developed by Studio Ghibli, who designed the characters and settings in the game as well as created the animated cutscenes sprinkled throughout the game. These scenes perfectly set the mood for every new setting and character. The game’s graphics use cel shading (like in “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker”) in order to keep Studio Ghilbi’s traditional animation style intact.

Like many RPGs, you collect more and more characters to the party, who the player can either take control of or allow AI to take over. This AI is very good, often able to take care of the characters in battle as well as help others in the party. However, if the player wants someone to perform a specific move, they will be able to give the AI orders during battle.

Something else that players are certain to enjoy is the Familiar system, in which they will be able to command a creature reminiscent to a Pokémon. They will also be able to evolve when they grow stronger like Pokémon. On top of that, the player will eventually be able to tame some of the monsters they face in battle into Familiars.

Speaking of battle mechanics, the battle system in this game is great. At first one might assume that it was a turn-based battle system (which to an extent it still is), but in fact the player will be able move around the area and even dodge some enemy attacks. This is not to say that battling is simple; in fact, the player will die regularly if they don’t use strategy for nearly every battle. There is also a ton of content in this game with quests and bounty hunts on top of the main story.

A considerable downside is that this game can be pretty hard. The player might even die several times during the beginning tutorial on easy mode, especially if it is their first time playing the game. This does not only apply to the bosses, but even against the regular enemies if the player does not know what they are doing. Then again, when the player does win, there is a great feeling of accomplishment for winning against a powerful boss. The controls are simple to pick up and the camera angle is perfect without much adjustment.

Another possible downside is that this game starts off much slower than other games. The player will be playing for a couple of hours and still be learning new mechanics in the game. This is not to say that it is boring! The game is entertaining throughout this time, and when something new is added it is just the icing to the cake. The voice acting is also exceptional, especially since several of the voice actors have to be able to pull off both a British and American accent. The voice actors do this wonderfully without their accents ever seeming stereotypical.

Rating 4.5/5- Overall “Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” is a very good game with great gameplay, an intriguing plot, entertaining characters, and beautiful graphics. If you love JRPGs or Studio Ghilbi, this is definitely the game for you, but it definitely has enough to appeal to people outside these two groups!

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Studio Ghibli has been responsible for heartwarming movies in Japan since 1985. With legendary animator Hyao Miyzaki at the forefront, Studio Ghibli has produced movies such as “Princess Mononoke,” “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Ponyo,” and most recently “The Secret World of Arrietty.” When they gave Disney their blessing in regards to releasing their movies in a dubbed format within the United States, their fan base grew even larger. So when gamers, Studio Ghibli fans, heard that they were partnering with developer Level-5 and Bandai Namco publishing to create a role-playing video game, it seemed like an obvious match made in heaven.

As a result, “Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch” has become a critical darling with critics and fans alike falling over themselves with the cute, innocent nature of the characters. But however lovable the characters may be, does this marriage of Studio Ghibli and video games work? Studio Ghibli’s stories usually have a theme that is heartwarming, with grown up sentiments tied together with amiable characters, together with fantastical landscapes and environments. No matter how well done a story and environment is, within the confines of a video game the game play has to be in the same league as the visuals to be concise and a success as an entire product.

Studio Ghibli’s contribution to the game is your typical Studio Ghibli fare. You have your hero, Oliver, the chosen one, with a buddy on the side, in this case a sassy fairy named Mr. Drippy. He learns and loves and gains some companions along the way just to even out the cast, as well as give the player different skill sets to fight battles with. The color palate is bright, optimistic pastels, with solid animation to back it up.

However, the player only sees the animation in very limited cut scenes. In the meantime, the game designers decided that cel shading would be the most complementary style to go along with Studio Ghibli’s art style. It was a logical choice but does not flow exactly with Studio Ghibli’s smooth and bright animation. Oftentimes the animation out-shines the cel-shaded gameplay and distracts one from enjoying the play.

It feels as though the designers wanted a “Grandia” type of feel, with both the gameplay and cut scenes coalescing into a whole, unified atmosphere. But cel shading does not marry well with Myzaki’s beloved art style and the result is a disjointed gaming experience. The cel shaded scenes and gameplay gave off an “Eternal Sonata” (also published by Bandai Namco) vibe and atmosphere, with darker tones which do not always match the animated contributions of Studio Ghibli.

An example of this disjointed experience: just before an animated sequence finishes, the scene fades to black a little too quickly and a mini load screen comes up before the cel shaded sequence pops up. It’s almost as though the game wants to speed through Studio Ghibli’s animation to get to the next sequence. This places the player in an uncomfortable place between wanting to be invested in Studio Ghibli’s story or wanting to play the game.

Cut Scenes should add to the experience and create an entire atmosphere in order to tell the gamer a whole story. Throughout the whole game, one continues to see more of the limited scenes Studio Ghibli contributed, which is probably not what the designers had in mind for their game as a whole. In addition, the game does not take full advantage of Studio Ghibli’s talent. A majority of the scenes are that of the cel shaded variety, which would anger a Myizaki fan who bought the game not only to play a role playing game but to play one that featured the talent of a beloved animation studio.

In the end, what the gamer gets is a role-playing game with a few Studio Ghibli scenes thrown in, which is fine for a casual gamer but not for one who truly loves Studio Ghibli and their art style.

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Dark Souls came out in early October of 2011 around the same time that games like ‘Batman: Arkham City’ and ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’ were also releasing. Because of this, there is a good chance that many gamers who otherwise would have picked this game up in a dry season, passed it over in favor of other games better covered by the gaming media and whose names were more familiar.

Many gamers might have missed this title, but there is good reason, now that “Skyrim Fever” is starting to simmer down, to take a closer look at Dark Souls.

What is Dark Souls about?

Who knows? Japanese story-telling can be notoriously opaque, convoluted, and hard to follow, but Dark Souls barely gives you a taste of what’s lying under the game world and why it is happening. It leads you on with vague hints and a few stray references in item descriptions, but that’s really all you’ll get to go on.

However, it doesn’t really matter. What you need to know is that you play as an immortal, undead warrior of sorts, and you’ve got to take down some of the most enormous, horrifying, grotesque bosses you have ever seen in game design. There are more than a few moments during Dark Souls that will freak you out more than any horror movie you have seen in the past year, but the game is also capable of landscapes and light as beautiful as any you will find in the real world.

An RPG or an Action-Adventure?

When you pick up Dark Souls, you will tell yourself, and the box will tell you, that this is a role-playing game. You level up (both your character and your equipment), increase your stats, and replace your old weapons with new, better ones.

But in many ways, this doesn’t matter either. At level 100, you can still be killed by the very first enemies you encounter in the game if you are not careful. At level 100, you are only marginally more death-resistant than you are at level 1. You must be on your toes at all times while playing Dark Souls, because you are not Mario here: you are the Goomba.

Weapons and armor make only a slight difference, when all is said and done. The real changes to battle mechanics come when using rings and other items that have a tangible effect, such as increasing your health bar, making your movements undetectable to enemies, or allowing you to cast more spells. You don’t level up in Super Mario Bros., you grab a Tanuki Suit or Invincibility Star, and that is what it is like in Dark Souls as well.

You can spend 50 hours gaining levels in Dark Souls, but you will often find that a single item would have given you all, or more, of the benefit of that time spent.

Candy and the Whip

There is a saying in Japanese, 飴と鞭–“candy and the whip”–which expresses the mentality behind some of the design elements in Dark Souls. There is an element of motherly care and provision when you do the right thing the right way and also vicious punishment if you mess up.

Powerful items are placed in areas that are accessible early in the game, but are guarded by difficult enemies that will likely kill you in your attempt to retrieve them. NPCs eagerly seek to help the player in whatever way they can. If you are playing online, the help of other players is also available to fight bosses, warn of ambushes and traps, and provide strategies and tips.

However, the game can feel rather unfair. You would be forgiven for thinking that Dark Souls is not a game, more of a death simulator. Levels, bosses, and common enemies seem designed with only one thing in mind: to kill you in many ways as quickly as possible. Everything that is not helpful is unwaveringly set against you, and even if you have acquired certain abilities or strengths, the next area will find a way to render them totally irrelevant. Victory often feels, not like an outcome of effort, but a fluke.

Let’s Get Together

So, why should you play this brutal, unfair game that seems designed by people who want nothing more than to frustrate the hell out of you? For one thing, the sense of accomplishment is tremendous when you finally pull through against a game whose only goal is to make you fail over and over again. However, the real diamond in the rough is co-op.

Joining a friend to romp through the desolate world of Dark Souls is like a breath of fresh air compared to solitary offline play. The difficulty does not scale up, so what seemed impossible as a lone warrior is at most a stout challenge with one or two friends. Online play also lets you read comments from other players (which are often very funny) and re-watch the recent deaths of players in your area. There is something relieving and humorous about watching a stranger unintentionally back off a cliff to his death while trying to fend off an unseen enemy.

All the elements of exploration and character customization that make great games so great are here in Dark Souls; and the music (sparse as it is), graphics, voice acting, and sound design are nothing short of masterful. Dark Souls has a lot to offer.

It is a truly open fantasy world where you can go, be, and do whatever you want, with your friends or on your own, and it has a steep, but very rewarding learning curve. All this amounts to one of the most robust replay value experiences of any game in recent years and is well worth the price tag of $40.

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At a time when entries into the Final Fantasy series are leaving fans disappointed, frustrated, or just apathetic, now might be the time to look back to the series’ roots, to the games that were able to build a 20+ year empire of Japanese RPGs in the first place.

Everyone has their opinions about VII, VIII, and IX, and most gamers out there are familiar with them. However, I-VI are games that you might not have played in a long time, if ever. With recent re-releases for modern platforms, such as the Nintendo DS and the iPhone, it might be time to rediscover where this series came from, and what made it great in the first place.

Final Fantasy

The game that saved Square. ‘Final Fantasy’ was the last hope of a floundering Japanese software company who left it up to their producer, Sakaguchi Hironobu, to save them from bankruptcy. This is the game that did the trick and made Square a powerhouse of JRPGs.

This first entry into the series founded the video game concept of a vast world, protected by a group of rag-tag adventurers, with noticeable use of elements from Dungeons & Dragons. Final Fantasy’s main rival at the time, Dragon Quest, on the other hand, featured a single hero and a less intuitive user interface, which might have led to FF’s initial superior popularity. This title is currently available on the Wii Virtual Console and for iOS.

Final Fantasy II

The second title in the series was never originally released outside of Japan until 2002 for the Playstation and is now available on the Playstation Network and iOS. This one comes highly recommended for its unique leveling system, which is based on how often a certain trait is used–if you use a sword most, your sword skills will go up; if you take a lot of damage, your health goes up.

Sound familiar? The wildly popular RPG Skyrim uses a similar system, and it adds a certain amount of personal customization to the leveling of your character. Final Fantasy II has a great story and is the first game in the series to feature Chocobos and the recurring character, Cid.

Final Fantasy III

First released outside of Japan in 2006 on the Nintendo DS, the original Famicon version is available through the Wii Virtual Console, and a port of the DS version is available with improved graphics for iOS. These first three games all feel like an intentional improvement on their predecessors, with a focus on character customization and control.

FFIII introduces the Job System, allowing players to customize their team of four Onion Knights with 23 different jobs, allowing 279,841 different party configurations to play through the game with. FFIII is a sort of archetypical Final Fantasy game, a touchstone for what “is” Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy IV

A considerably modified and censored version known as Final Fantasy II was released for the SNES in North America in 1991, and various versions are now available for the Nintendo DS, the Wii Virtual Console, and the PSP. Final Fantasy IV is a dramatic tale with twists and turns, a few weird moments, superb music,  and a rotating, but memorable cast of characters with predetermined Jobs.

This is the first FF where story is more important than character customization, but the sense of exploration is maintained, as is the series’ notorious level of difficulty and level grinding, except in the American ‘EasyType’ version. In fact, this is the title that arguably pioneered story-driven RPGs on any console, so for fans of strong plots in games, this is a must-play.

Final Fantasy V

Customization makes an improved return in Final Fantasy V with the Job system, and the Active Time Battle system carries over from FFIV, with an additional visible gauge allowing players to see when their next opportunity for attack is coming up. In this sense, FFV is a good example of a Final Fantasy game taking the best elements of its predecessors and building on them.

Only in November of last year did FFV become available on the Playstation Network in North America, and there are no other current generation systems  for which this title is available, unfortunately. The favorite game of series creator Sakaguchi Hironobu until FFIX, this is a rare gem worth playing if you can get your hands on it.

Final Fantasy VI

The grand poobah of retro Final Fantasy games and considered one of the best video games of all time, this game was originally known as Final Fantasy III in North America. Final Fantasy VI is in some ways a proto-Final Fantasy VII, in that players can swap out characters from a large cast to form a party and equip “magicite” and “relics” to teach and customize abilities, similar to materia in VII.

This game is also the origin of Biggs and Wedge (who, similar to FFVII, die early on), a Limit Break system of sorts, Ultima Weapons, and others. FFVI was just released on the Playstation Network in North America in December 2011, and on the Wii Virtual Console in June 2011.

Judging from these old games, it seems that it was only recently that Square forgot how to use all the best elements of previous FF games to make a new one. I-VI paved the way for the series’ popularity. Yet, in recent entries to the main series, the keystones that made these games great seem to be all, but absent.

The next Final Fantasy should respect its roots beyond just sticking a Chocobo in one of the characters’ hair. Free exploration of a huge world map, fully customizable characters, a deep and gripping plot, and  bits of the best gameplay elements from each game–that’s what the next FF should look like if Squeenix wants to put its main series back on track.

Hopefully, the awesome Final Fantasy Type-0 for PSP will get a release outside of Japan, and the next console entry will look something like it as well.

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