This helps lead into the tutorial on how battle system works. No longer turn based, it is now action based and you can equip up to three melee weapons which you can swap in and out. You can also equip one ranged weapon. The items menu is easy to navigate and this is also where you can equip armor and accessories.
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| Roland and Evan escaping Ding Dong Dell. |
Another thing that is different with the battle is that there are no more familiars. You now have adorable elemental beings called Higgeldies. Higgeldies can help you in battles. You can have 3 different groups of Higgeldies with you and you can direct them to use their attacks on enemies. There are a variety of Higgeldies to choose from with powers ranging from water based attacks to dark based attacks. You can also recruit Higgeldies when you come upon Higgeldy stones. If you give the correct item that a Higgeldy wants they will join you.
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| Recruit Higgeldies from these stones. |
The battle system is not the only thing that has changed. On the world map, your characters are in chibi form as they run around exploring everything. It is very cute and does make exploring a lot of fun. You also have fast travel via trip doors. When you unlock a trip door you can fast travel to that area. It is a good idea to find all the trip doors to make traveling a little easier because there is a lot of back and forth between areas.
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| Explore the world in chibi form. |
As the story progresses, you also get introduced to skirmish battles. Skirmish battles are a fun distraction from the main story because you plan out tactics with up to four units and have a mini battle that lasts from 3-7 minutes. Evan can lead his army in these battles and give commands to use abilities specific to them. My personal favorite was a unit that could build siege towers because those came in handy in some more difficult battles. You can enhance your army's abilities before battles start by buying power ups like enhanced might. There are skirmishes all over the world map, some are story based and others are fun little side quests. Even if you lose a skirmish, your army still gains experience and levels. This does encourage repeating a lot of the same skirmishes, but it is worth it.
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| Skirmish battles are a fun distraction. |
As the story progresses, Evan and Roland meet new allies and Even tells them his dream of building a kingdom where everyone can be happy and live happily. This is a great lead in to introducing the kingdom building function. Throughout your travels, you can request that people move to the kingdom of Evermore and each citizen has an ability that they're good at such as farming so you can put them in a building suited to their abilities in order to grow your kingdom. You can recruit citizens with the Swift Solutions side quest guy or doing specific quests for citizens and when you complete them they move to your kingdom. This is another fun aspect of the game as you level up your kingdom and add more buildings.
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| Have fun building your kingdom. |
One thing that amused me was Leafbook. I thought this was a fun nod to social media because Leafbook shows pictures of your adventures and citizens you can recruit for your kingdom with commentary from the people in your kingdom and all over the world. There are also hints for various treasure hunts and elite monsters you can fight. There are also a ton of side quests you can do that offer rewards like rare weapons and armor.
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| Take a look at Leafbook. |
As for the story itself, I liked it a lot. It was interesting and it felt nostalgic visiting the towns while discovering some new areas as well. I liked Evan, but I did not feel the same emotional connection to him that I did to Oliver in the first game. I did take issue with some of the skirmishes as well because they aren't as balanced as they should be. Some can be easy while others are ridiculously hard. I also did not like the fact that there are story driven skirmishes especially with the final leg of the journey so if you fail the skirmish you have to try again until you actually beat it in order to progress. That is really frustrating. In some parts of the story the characters felt a little underdeveloped, but everyone is charming and the game play is good so it is forgivable.The artwork is beautiful and the music for the game is great as well. Ni No Kuni II is a fun fantasy adventure and I had a good time exploring all of it.
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| The artwork in the game is great. |
*Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is available to play on the following platforms: PC and Playstation 4
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