Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch Remastered’ is finally here for PS4, 6 years since its PS3 launch. So, let’s cast our minds back 6 years to where it all started and for those that have never heard of Ni No Kuni before, your in for a treat.

Ni No Kuni is a JRPG published by Bandai Namco and Level-5, in association with Studio Ghibli. You play as Oliver, a young boy who sets out to save his mother (Allie) after an accident that caused her to pass away. You soon find out that you’re not of this world and there might be a chance to save her, so you venture on out with your new found companion, Drippy, who is a fairy. Drippy, formed from Oliver’s tears fused with doll gifted from his mother, must journey with him to the other world and stop Shadar, an evil wizard who has taken over the lands, making new friends along the way and making connections to how they link to his long lost mother.

Being developed by both Studio Ghibli and Level-5, the game features the traditional art style you would expect; reminiscent of a Japanese anime. With the game’s cinematics created by Studio Ghibli, the Level-5 studio interpreted the other parts of that style and integrated it into gameplay and minor cut scenes quite well.

Being a remaster you would expect the controls to feel improved however they still feel like it’s a PS3 era game, which isn’t a bad thing as the games mechanics were and still are quite solid. It, like its sequel which dropped last year, does raise up to the standards of the PS4 with the higher frame rates and enhanced audio, which I’ll get into in a bit.

Ni No Kuni does takes a while to get into any real combat, as the game is very story driven and explorative rather than the turn based combat you’d expect from a JRPG. Once you get into the whole experience, it’s a pretty fun ride. There isn’t much of a tutorial to start you off though, but you can easily pick most of it up along the way.

The combat is very stock standard to turn based, with each character using skills and different attacks in sequence turns. If I was to compare it to anything for those new it is very similar to that of Pokemon rather than anything too in-depth like Final Fantasy, for example.

The music is beautiful composed by Joe Hisaishi and performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra but unfortunately the dialogue is lost with the dubbing. It always feels like it falls short, being English dubbed, at times, the characters either feel over dramatic or not involved enough. To make up for it though, the beautiful orchestral music quality will always balance it out in the end.

Overall, Ni No Kuni is still as enjoyable as it was when I first played it all those years ago, the enhanced frame rate, up-scaled detail and cleaner music really brought me back into this game, I recommend it to those that are new or old to the series.

Written by: Dale Carter