WHEN A SEQUEL LOSES A STAN: "REVENANT KINGDOM" VS. "WRATH OF THE WHITE WITCH"

Have you ever fallen in love with a game so obscure, so off-the-beat, so absolutely unheard-of in gaming circles that you meet with confused stares whenever you bring it up? Have you gone wildly out of your way to introduce that game to a stranger, walking through the rain to lend them the disc even though you know there’s no chance they might finish it? Have you had your heart broken when, three days later, they hand you the disc back saying “I dunno, I just couldn’t commit to the game right now” with a look of pity in their eyes?

… No? It’s just me, then? Figures.

It's fine. I've moved on. I'm fine... Really.

That game, for me, was Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. This game was a masterpiece on every level: artistically, in terms of the gameplay, in every single frame of its joyfully cutesy and pun-filled world. This was a game that reveled in being a game: there were references to the clichés of RPG mechanics, a monster-collecting system that shamelessly stole from Pokemon, and an entire casino of post-game challenges. It was designed, from the ground up, to be absurdly charming. And this makes sense, because all of it was made by the legendary Studio Ghibli.

To say Ghibli is the Disney of Japan is an understatement. In their many films, they’ve successfully captured the whimsy of childhood and the terrors of adulthood, wandering into gory territory Disney wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole, and building an army of die-hard fans who now circle the globe. Ghibli helping to make a video game was an odd choice, a step out of their usual wheelhouse.

But what’s even more unusual was how deep it was. I’m not talking Karl Marx vs. Stirner deep, or "beatnik" deep—I’m talking “kid teleports to a magical land because his mom died from a heart attack while saving him from drowning.” THAT kind of deep. You literally take this kid through every stage of the grieving process, all while catching monsters with a magic harp and befriending dragons. Oh, and picking up random hobos for DPS purposes.

"Yes, this man sure looks trustworthy. Let's add him to our party." "Oliver, he's clearly a crackhead."

When Ni No Kuni 2 came out, my wallet never stood a chance.   

Revenant Kingdom picks up several thousand years after White Witch, and for good reason. The creative team wanted to distance themselves from the first game, partly because they were changing the mechanics a bunch, and partly to just get out of Hayao Miyazaki’s shadow a bit. This is understandable given how closely Ghibli watched the development of the second game: they were hyper-focused on making sure the game matched the “reputation” of Ghibli’s movies. This had mixed results, as we’ll soon see.

So, how did #2 compare to #1? Let’s count the ways.

ONE: STORY

As far as plot lines go, “orphaned boy goes to anime Narnia” is pretty hard to beat. Yet Ni No Kuni 2 almost does it, by taking the crazy levels and pushing them all the way to max. In a now-infamous cutscene, you start off as the President of “The Union,” a USA-analogue we never saw in #1. Possibly because it looks to be a future fascist state, but we’ll get into that later.

Behold… Ni No Kuni is become Death, destroyer of worlds.

I'm feeling a lot of feelings about that nuke, and none of them are childish joy.

 From the moment the voice-over hits, you know this ain’t your grandpa’s Ni No Kuni. We’ve decided to tackle bigger themes this time, it seems—not childhood, but adulthood. Not playground skirmishes, but—nuclear war?? Woah, Ni No Kuni, slow the fuck down! Where are the brakes, oh God the brakes on this Ni no Kuni train, where are they?!!

There are no brakes, child. Ni No Kuni is your God, now.

So, uh… Anyway, now that the MC’s country has been fucking nuked to ashes, he’s randomly teleported into Anime Narnia. “President Roland Crane” immediately proceeds to shoot a Mouse-Folk native in the back, saving the tiny blonde prince of this realm. Together, they escape the castle and become an inter-dimensional “bad cop, good cop” team. (Hint: Roland is the bad cop. Anytime diplomacy fails, he pulls out his future gun and uses that instead. It’s all very Mark Twain.)

With this… questionable dynamic in place, the story plods through a long and elaborate arc where Boy-King Evan decides to unite the world under one world government. Does this sound creepy? Because it should, and the other characters openly tell him so. It’s a while before he can make realistic, practical legislation out of his dream. Eventually [spoilers ahead] he succeeds, and future peace is insured! Oh, and his son contacts him in dreams from the future to tell him everything’s great and he’s a hero. Did we mention Ni No Kuni is weirdly fond of time travel? It just keeps coming up—and it’s never explained why the heroes can’t use it to solve problems. If Evan II can telepathically time-travel, what stops him from influencing past events? Hell, what happens if he turns out to be a dick and oppresses his people? How do you stop a psychic God-Emperor who can read your mind in the past? Maybe I should stop thinking about it so much.

 Pictured: Me trying to decipher the Ni No Kuni wiki at 3AM on a Monday morning.

Overall, the story of #2 is fun and engaging, but it never quite reaches the heights of #1. We still get a fairy sidekick, a gang of scoundrels and a plucky young hero, but… it all feels a little formulaic. The game never seems to truly challenge its protagonists, outside a few brief scenes where Roland flashes back to his broken world and a scene where Evan’s ninja babysitter gets fridged (killed off) for drama purposes. A shame, since she seemed like a cool character, but I guess something has to fuel Evan's lack of a character arc, so...

WINNER: White Witch, by a wide margin.

TWO: GAMEPLAY

"I cast NAPALM!" "Oliver, no!"

Back when White Witch came out, they got a lot of flak for stealing the formula of Pokemon. And rightly so: the creatures (while adorable) are all designed for battle, and they even go into 3 stages of evolution, with a split path at the 3^rd where you can decide between 2 (murderous) final forms. But the shameless move of stealing this formula actually worked, so well that I remember White Witch more fondly than any Pokemon game I’ve ever played. Pokemon might have collectible critters, but it can’t make you laugh or cry during cutscenes.

Revenant Kingdom abandons the Pokemon system, which is a little sad given how much work I put into it in #1. It replaces it with nearly 100 collectible “Higgledies,” basically the Kodamas from Princess Mononoke but more endearing. These guys are… not very fun to collect. They’re visually adorable, their names are sickeningly cute and they help out in combat, but they don’t have much story behind them. White Witch had an actual bestiary—an eBook the player could page through for hours when they got bored with the main game. Keep your Higgledies, just give me back my ripoff Charmander, dammit.

Pictured: Plagiarism. Delicious, delicious plagiarism.

The rest of the gameplay is propped up by hack-and-slash combat, mana-meter management and a fun but messy mini-game where you direct armies in battle. These armies are “chibi” shaped, which means you’ve got entire squads of adorable big-headed soldiers slaughtering each other for sport. It’s cute, and has a great role in the climax, but lacks the serious drama you’d expect from the title screen. Also, um, is anyone going to tell King Evan what happens to all his lost squads? Maybe we should keep it quiet, the poor kid’s been through a lot. Wouldn’t want him to snap and start drinking milk from a saucer.

The final cornerstone in our triple-fudge-cake of nested mechanics (did I say mechanics? You like mechanics, right? Because Revenant has DOZENS of them!) is a kingdom management screen. It’s a bit dull, until you realize you can chain research facilities into an endless Ouroboros of state-funded think-tanks, which make your Higgledies stronger, which makes your combat easier, which makes your magic recover faster, which—

If I can somehow work this clip into every blog post, I will die happy.

I’ll stop there, but it gets way more complex. All the stuff your citizens produce in the Kingdom goes into your personal inventory (I don’t know how Evan carries 5,000 Radiant Radishes in his bag, but whatever, it’s magic, I ain’t gotta explain shit) and you use it for crafting. The crafting mechanic is… not terrible. I usually hate the post-Minecraft trend of “EVERYTHING MUST BE CRAFTED, EVEN A SHARP STICK” but here, it works well. Because once again the mechanics feed into each other, and the weapons you craft allow you to kill monsters who drop items to build weapons with, to kill more monsters, who drop more items…

"This game mechanic is being bled like a STUCK PIG, MAC! And I got the 5,000 Radiant Radishes to prove it!!"

I could go on. It’s pretty impressive, mechanically. But I miss the simple, straight-forward combat in #1 where a “familiar” (Pokemon) could attack or be drawn back by Plucky Protagonist in order to charge a magical smackdown. Narrowly, though, #2 beats out #1 by the sheer options it provides to beat enemies with. Want to shoot fireballs and lightning? There’s a research topic for that. Want to swarm your foes with Higgledies instead? Recruit a citizen who can train them for that.

That’s another thing—the citizen recruitment is the most addicting game mechanic I’ve ever seen, because every citizen has a story you need to pursue to recruit them. It’s like a dozen Ghibli movies, all wedged into one game.

WINNER: Revenant Kingdom, by a cat’s whisker.

THREE: ART!!!

This is it: the reason people flock to Ghibli movies. The reason they keep coming back to the old ones, and seeking out the new. In the big-mouthed doodles of Hayao Miyazaki, the studio found an iconic style that never grew old, though it rarely gels with American voice-acting dubs. (Looking at you, Christian Bale.) But the art, the beautiful backdrops and comfy interiors and zany bright characters… These simple watercolors and smooth animation sequences are the true moneymaker behind Ghibli, especially when coupled with Joe Hisaishi's amazing music. White Witch contained animated scenes made specifically for the game, and when #2 dropped, I couldn’t wait to see more of them.

Revenant Kingdom, I’m sad to report, doesn’t have a single one.

Throughout the entire game, I played earnestly and obsessively, waiting to be lavished with that uniquely cozy visual cartoon style that Ghibli is world-famous for. No such luck. It appears the studio,having divorced themselves from involvement with Revenant’s story, also didn’t see it as worthy of their artistic brilliance. Which is… Kind of insulting. Revenant Kingdom is a game I sunk over 60 hours into, a game that I chased across a dozen sleepless nights. And the guys currently running Studio Ghibli just couldn’t be fucked to bestow the treasures of their studio on us unworthy gamer-peasants.

Why, Studio Ghibli? Why you gotta do me like this? I’ve been your Stan for so long. I have a DVD of Whisper of the Heart, for God’s sake—NOBODY liked Whisper of the Heart!! (Okay, maybe a few people.) And yet, here I am with over 60 (let’s be real, closer to 80) hours of gameplay in Ni No Kuni, and not one scene of the flawless glimmering retro style the studio is famous for. Not even a loading screen animation. Instead they have a Higgledie mockingly shake its ass at you. Yes, Level 5, that’s why I shelled out $60 for your game: so I could watch Higgledies twerk at me. Thanks a lot for that.

So sexy.

And let me be clear: This is false advertising. The makers of the game knew these sequences were a big draw back in White Witch, and to their credit they do their best to ape the style, in every 3D sequence. But it’s just not the same. What made #1’s characters so precious to the player, what captured our hearts, were the moments where these video game characters went back in time from 3D to 2D and showed us the beating emotional heart of the game itself. And Revenant Kingdom takes all that potential and pours it down the drain.

What were you busy with, Ghibli? (I'm sorry, it's Studio Ponoc these days.) Were you busy with… I don’t know, that fucking Magic Flower movie? Aka the rip-off of Little Witch Academia based on a 30-year-old children’s book that you shat out because you need to stay relevant in a changing world? I know animation is expensive to produce—I’ve seen the budgets on these films, and they’re absurd. But Ghibli, old buddy… This game was preordered by thousands of fans, solely for the privilege of marinating their eyeballs in your beautiful art. And you fucked us over, all to save a few yen.

No, I’m not going to give this one to Revenant Kingdom. White Witch was limited by the hardware of the time, and it could be annoying at times to have to re-tread familiar levels. But at least it didn’t seduce you with glimmering nostalgia, and then deliver microwaved Machinima. What duplicity. What absolute… cheapness. It’s a word I never expected to associate with any of Ghibli’s projects, but yet, here we are.

They do throw you a bone right at the end: after you do away with the final boss, and save the world, the credits scene is overlaid by beautiful concept-art frames showing everyday life in the game’s world. Polymorphed heroes being chased by a frog, flashbacks to better days of young Evan toddling around the castle—these are gorgeous pieces, and I would pay money to have any of them as a print. But as a peace offering, it doesn’t do much to make up for the lack of animation in the game. It reminds me of Bioshock Infinite, another project crippled by missing elements cut at the last minute.

WINNER: With less executive meddling and actual goddamn cartoons in their game about cartoon characters, W.W. wins.

And that’s the verdict! W.W. on story, R.K. on gameplay, and W.W. on art. Really, even after all my ranting on Revenant’s problems, you should still play it. It’s an adorably hyper-focused RPG that pushes themes of peace, cooperation and kindness in a world where we have less and less every day. Also, the anime engineer lady with pink hair is super cute. I’m just saying…

Don't judge me.

See you next time!