Hugely Improved Combat System
If there was one aspect that was lacking in the original Ni No Kuni, it was combat. Ni No Kuni II fixes that by completing overhauling combat, doing away with Familiars, and bumping up the speed significantly. Gone is the turn-based combat of the first game, replaced by a real-time action system.
You control one of your party members in battle, while the AI controls the others. On its face, the game’s combat resembles something out of a Tales game, with you using a mix of light and heavy attacks as well as ranged magical attacks. You can equip three weapons at any time in combat, and each weapon has what’s called a “Zing” gauge. As this gauge goes up during a battle, the weapon becomes more useful and powerful, and you can swap between your three weapons at any time to maximize damage. Once the gauge is at 100 percent you can use a powerful special move, which will reset it to zero.
The game also has a replacement for Familiars with Higgledies, which almost function like Pikmin in combat. These little creatures follow you in battle and come in different types that can heal you, attack, or do a number of other functions. Finally, a system called Tactic Tweaker lets you edit your party’s tactics in battle and boost certain aspects of combat. You can do things like bump up your strength against certain enemies, or choose whether you want more materials or money from battles.
Ni No Kuni II’s combat is a vast improvement over the first game, and fans of action RPGs should definitely take notice. There’s some interesting tweaks on combat here that make it more tactical, but it’s still a fast-paced system with some sleek animation.
