Studio Ghibli cooperative project gets Western Releases

[nemarious]

Studio Ghibli have worked with Level-5 (makers of the Inazuma Eleven and more recent DragonQuest games) on two games so far, one on DS and one of PS3. Only the PS3 game has been confirmed to have a Western release so far but they both follow the same story up til around half way through anyway.

Titled Ninokuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joou (subtitle translates as Queen Of The White Ashes) the game is an RPG (what else?) that looks a-ma-zing... check out the

but watch it in full screen on 720p and you will die... well not really but it is just that good.

I'd guess (based on the in-combat footage) that it is a action RPG as the people are locking on to enemies and moving around but as there is no subtitles I cant tell, although the phrase action based or turn based combat likely wouldn't come up anyway.

There is no UK date yet so if this doesn't come released as region free (very few PS3 games are anyway but still) then I may just kill myself. Look at how beautiful it looks. I love the scene in the trailer where they're riding this blue dragon-y thing towards a sunset. It looks spectacular...

Alright, story wise you play a 13 year old boy called Oliver who is transported into the titular world of Ninokuni, which is parallel to his own. He is trying to revive his dead mother and is accompanied by a male fairy called Shizuku who appears to have a lantern attached to his nose. Release is planned for early 2012. BUY IT! We need more games like this released outside Japan. BUUUYYY IIITTT OOONNN REEELLLEEEAAASSSEEE!!!!

Okay... I've calmed down now. But seriously buy this, it looks epic so far.

Those wanting the original article, go here, it doesn't seemed to have garnered much attention from the other journalists at TGS.

EDIT - For some reason you have to remove the linkbucks frame in order to view the video on YouTube...

[Kakarotto_7]

Yeah, I saw this trailer a few days ago too, looks very interesting, too bad it's ps3 exclusive, doesn't stop though XD

[nemarious]

Yeah, I saw this trailer a few days ago too, looks very interesting, too bad it's ps3 exclusive, doesn't stop though XD

Well considering its an all Japanese collaboration its not surprising it's not on 360 as they are as popular as turd biscuits over there.

I'm just grateful this brilliant looking game has made it outside of Japan to be honest. So many other great rpgs, like much of the Tales series, don't make it so providing they don't region lock the game for some reason I will definitely be buying this.

I'm actually quite surprised this has received less attention from the community given the praise Studio Ghibli has wrought from the wider anime world. Perhaps, my title has put people off?

Anyway, thanks Kakarotto for sharing your thoughts.

[Vael]

AWESOME man, massive studio ghibli film, and the art, you can really tell it was studio ghibli, that entire game screams ghibli, and really looking forward to it

[idl12]

I knew Square were a bunch of liars, a decent world map is more than possible on the ps3! but this looks amazing, Ghibli art in video game form is too much win for genitals to bear!

[nemarious]

A UK release has been promised for some time in 2012 for this title as Namco Bandai announced they would release the game in Europe. It has also been renamed as Ni No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch (the subtitle literally translates as Queen Of The White Sacred Ash) although whether this is an official English translation or just what Namco Bandai have decided on for the UK/Europe is unclear. I would imagine it would be the same in the US but sometime Japanese games have different subtitles in different territories.

Surprisingly, this wasn't that big of a hit in Japan despite positive reviews and the world reknowned Studio Ghibli involved in both art and sound direction (long time Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi worked on the soundtrack).

The game is still only on PS3 - there were rumour of a third party working on a 360 port but that doesn't seem to be happening anymore - and will now be released worldwide with a US date supposedly in Q1 (January - March) so sometime now.

Once again I'll put up a

which if watched in 720p fullscreen look amazing and is instantly recognisable as Ghibli's work. You'll need to remove the linkbucks frame for the page to load.

This is the Japanese site which has English text for helping with navigation but nothing else.

Footage would appear to suggest a large monster recruitment system (similar to FFXIII-2 or Pokemon presumably) but there are also humans in battle so it may just be an addition option. Combat appear to be action based with the game pausing to change tactics and then carrying on. Like a better version of FFXII then.

I cannot stress enough how much we need to get this game as a hit outside of Japan. So many creative games never see the light of day over here. I hope you join me in pre-ordering it.

[† Apollo]

Oh yeah! I saw an article about this in Game Informer magazine. I'm really looking forward to this game!!!

Level-5 also developed the Dark Cloud games, if I'm not mistaken. I loved those, and I love Studio Ghibli, so I am hella excited about this!

[nemarious]

Oh yeah! I saw an article about this in Game Informer magazine. I'm really looking forward to this game!!!

Level-5 also developed the Dark Cloud games, if I'm not mistaken. I loved those, and I love Studio Ghibli, so I am hella excited about this!

They did indeed make Dark Cloud although Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2 in all but name) was a much better game. They also worked on Dragon Quest 8 and 9, the Professor Layton games as well as the Inazuma Eleven and White Knight Chronicles series.

They have a good RPG pedigree which will undoubtedly show through in Ni No Kuni. Ni No Kuni currently has three games in the series. A DS version subtitled The Jet Black Mage has only been released in Japan. It doesn't look like it will be released over here and doesn't seem to be part of the publishing deal with Namco Bandai. From what I've read the story is pretty much the same - up until about half way through - as Wrath Of The White Witch anyway. A third game called Ni No Kuni: Hotroit Stories was released by Level-5 on their ROID service - a web portal for distribution PC and Mobile games. More info on ROID here.