Ni no Kuni’s indirect sequel Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is out on Friday for PC and Playstation 4. Taking place hundreds of years after the events of ‘Wrath of the White Witch’, Revenant Kingdom focuses on Roland a President who transfers to the Revenant Kingdom after escaping death, and now he must aide Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum a boy king who fell victim to a coup.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a 2018 RPG, it is developed by Level5 and published by Bandai Namco. It releases on March 23, 2018 on PC and Playstation 4.

Editor’s Note: An advanced Playstation 4 review copy was provided by Bandai Namco in support of this review.

A gorgeous new RPG hits Playstation 4 and PC.

The indirect sequel to the acclaimed Playstation 3 JRPG Ni no Kuni is here and it’s one of the most beautiful, colorful games you’ll ever get your hands on. In this strategy like JRPG you travel across the game map in both normal and chibi style as you help Evan save his kingdom from a treacherous coup.

Ni no Kuni II is a sequel anyone can pick up and play regardless of any experience with the original.

THE GOOD: As I mentioned earlier, Ni no Kuni II’s art direction is a big drawing point for me. The animation done by Level-5 just continues to impress with every title they release. It looks and feels like a playable Studio Ghibli film and it’s quite clear that there was some inspiration in the choice for it’s design. Gameplay is done within the open-world as well as a more condensed space while traversing the chibi style map. There’s also certain times when the game will take an RTS approach of sorts when Evan gets to liberate different areas of the kingdom, this is also done in the chibi style. Often times Ni no Kuni II makes you forget it’s a JRPG due to it feeling like it’s doing a bit too much at once with multiple clashing styles of gameplay, but this oddly ends up working and never feels entirely too out of place or forced to fit into the overall presentation of the game. The previous game had AI issues, but from my experience Ni no Kuni II doesn’t suffer from those thankfully.

Evan with Tani (left) and Roland (right).

THE BAD: The main story isn’t all that impressive upon completion and the storyline feels done to death. Character development also suffers a bit throughout the game.

Though Ni no Kuni II successfully blends together multiple gameplay styles within a core JRPG gameplay hub, it does suffer from writing and story direction.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: While it definitely has it’s problems, Ni no Kuni II is often far too good to ever want to put down. With an impressive and stunning graphic style and multiple different ways to play it’s sure to have one if not multiple reasons to bring a smile to the faces of gamers of all types.