5 Things We Learned About Ni No Kuni II’s New and Improved Battle System at E3 2017

More Fast-Paced, Less Micromanaging

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was a gorgeous game with a heartfelt story, but its battle system was certainly its most lacking element. Things just felt far too slow-paced, and you ended up micromanaging your familiars instead of actively using your characters in battle, especially in the later parts of the game. After playing Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom at E3 2017, it’s clear Bandai Namco has made some big changes to combat, completely revamping it and giving it speed that puts the first game to shame. Ni No Kuni II’s battle system probably feels most like a Tales game, in truth, both because of the speed and way that you link attacks together.

Ni No Kuni II casts you as King Evan PettiWhisker trying to reclaim his kingdom after a coup. You control Evan directly in battle, but Bandai Namco has really upped the speed you run at. Evan dashes around the battlefield as you move him, and even has a quick dodge roll assigned to L1. This move lets you speedily duck out of the way as enemies attack, and it’s much easier to get around now. On top of that, things are far more action-oriented, letting you string light and heavy attacks together with the square and triangle buttons, or attack from range as well.

Another important distinction for Ni No Kuni II is the absence of any micromanagement, letting you focus almost entirely on the actions of your characters. There is, however, an interesting new set of allies you’ll gain in battle…

Higgledie Helpers

A big new feature of Ni No Kuni II, that we got to experience ourselves, comes in the form of tiny little creatures known as Higgledies. The sprite-like creatures resemble Pikmin are dotted all around the world and tie into the story, as well as combat. A Bandai Namco representative described the Higgledies as a “4th party member.” These creatures run around the battle independently, sometimes taking action or setting up chances for Evan. Occasionally, you’ll see a group of them come together and a blue area of effect appear, if you move Evan into the ring you can activate a special effect. Higgledies come in different elemental types, like fire, water, and grass.

Each of these types have a different effect in battle; for example in the battle we played against a fiery dragon boss named Longfang, activating the Higgledies nullified the boss’ fire damage. Meanwhile, activating the green Higgledies boosts your parties’ speed. Even past that, Bandai Namco said the creatures will sometimes take action on their own, attacking enemies or healing your party.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t find out just how collecting the Higgledies works in Ni No Kuni II, but you do have icons in battle displaying the amount of each elemental type. This probably means that you’ll need to collect the Higgledies as you adventure out in the world.

Easy to Use Skill System

In order to help streamline the battle system and speed it up in Ni No Kuni II, Bandai Namco has employed a quick, easy to use skill system. Basically, you can equip up to four skills in battle at once, each mapped to a different face button. You activate these by holding down the trigger and then hitting the face button you want. The skills are on cooldowns as you use them, and the four we had access to had wildly different effects.

Two were physical skills that unleashed devastating sword attacks, while another launched a water spell at the enemy. Of course, the most helpful was a healing spell that restored health to both me and surrounding party members, or even Higgledies. We didn’t get access to more than these four skills unfortunately, but it’ll be interesting to see how you can build your combat repertoire. It could end up giving a good amount of variation to battle in Ni No Kuni II, if the skill system is diverse enough and implemented correctly of course.

Allies Consistently Help You

AI wasn’t always the most helpful in the first Ni No Kuni, but it looks like they’ll be a little more useful this time around. The battles we played gave us two allies, the stoic young man Roland and daughter of the Sky Pirates Tani. Allied AI worked fairly well, as the pair dashed around the battlefield, unleashing special attacks and healing you in dire moments. It seemed like they could take care of themselves, and they even gathered together when Evan activated a Higgledie boost.

With Ni No Kuni II opting for a more action-oriented system, good ally AI is going to be imperative. Especially considering some of the fearsome enemies you’ll be going up against.

Difficult Bosses With Plentiful Health

Something that really surprised me about my time with Ni No Kuni II was the sheer amount of health the boss Longfang Lord of Flame had. The battle with this enormous dragon played out on a platform made of lava, where Longfang could attack at both close range and long range. Regular physical attacks did very little damage, but staggering the boss opened it up to unleashing a combo using skills. At the same time Higgledies opened up opportunities to stop the deadly flame attacks that could sap your health in seconds.

The fight itself lasted a good 15-20 minutes, and although it was engaging for the most part, things certainly started to drag after I hit about the 10 minute mark. I’m not sure how this could play out in the full game yet, as I like how difficult the battle was and all of the unique mechanics, but I hope Ni No Kuni II doesn’t just inflate boss’ health to ridiculous numbers just to increase the length of battles.

Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom launches on Nov. 10 for PS4 and PC. For more on the title, make sure to check back in with Twinfinite.