Fanciful RPG with weaknesses

I have Ni no Kuni bought mainly because I am a big fan of Japanese RPGs and in spite of the child's looks have me intrigued but the positive reviews. After more than 50 hours of play I think it is yet time for an assessment that is not so positive turn out like most. I would like to be awarded 3.5 points, for 4 it is not enough in my opinion.

The game is visually seen really beautiful and at first I ran wide-eyed through the game world, have imbibed every loving detail, and looked forward to the imaginative setting. The whole area is designed very detail and everything looks like an anime from the house of Ghibli. Really fantastic! The music is very fitting and playful and so everything looks very harmonious and of a piece.

The story of the little Oliver has me at the beginning still intrigued and I somehow still hoped for a character development, but this does not take place. Oliver is and remains the little boy who still wondering what spell he has to apply, Drippy is the annoying sidekick to comment on anything, Esther the cheerful girl and Swaine of some twilight thief with good heart. Shadar is the evil shadow that must be defeated, and in the meantime we must look again sequences of a queen and her council. Unfortunately, the plot remains are at this point, because even after more than 50 hours, nothing has evolved, there were no surprises and I wonder what for example the mysterious queen and the Council motivated or why Shadar -so immensely mächtig- but only individual steals your heart. So far, you get no indication called and can only speculate. In between, I would have liked to have been there some food for thought. Unfortunately develops between the characters also no real relationship, except that they are fighting together against Shadar. That's a bit boring.

Compared to the child's appearance are the battles in stark contrast. They are quite heavy and without the proper Tatik and stupid level up you just at the Boss opponents little chance (and I really like to play each Side Quest, but slowly it gets boring always the same cities to visit, always the same people of her broken heart to heal, etc.). At least this is the game you get comfortable and quickly different travel options, especially once you get the Travel spell has. Then the Umherreiserei works really fast!

While fighting the AI ​​really behaves so rarely stupid and unfortunately it is not possible to curb the excessive and often pointless use of magic attacks the allies. After 3-4 fights so their MPs are often exhausted even to 50% and more. They also do not always use the Familiars who would be best suited for the fight. So fighting over time is always frustrating because it annoying animal, frequently the MPs of the Party replenish. It remains a mystery to me how one can selectively trigger the special attacks. This usually works when you attacked the weak point of the enemy, but is also no guarantee. Then the fellow in the way or Esther grabs the fireball and cures all, even though the HP and MPs are to 100% - great. So the fighting remain a big frustration factor that increasingly annoys me. Furthermore, I find the idea with the Familiars really nice, but the game failed to give the player clues here which Familiars you should train. There are so many, and if you're unlucky, you invest its time in the level up the wrong. You simply can not tell if a Familiar finally has good attack and defense values. Only the magic attacks because elementgebunden- at least give me a few clues on which I focus Familiars.

I would say the first 30 hours make really a lot of fun. One enjoys the setting and is curious to see how the story will develop. Thanks to the bad AI and boring fights taking this steep upward curve continuous motivation but unfortunately more and more from. The game lacks in time more and more power and it is developing more and more towards the average.