Recent reviews by arthera

Awesome game, I didn't bought it at launch because of all the news surrounding it. But really their redemption arc made me want to try when it was on discount. Now, if only I knew beforehand how passionate the team behind this game is and how far the game has gone, I would've bought it at full price.

After 149 hours together, I had to uninstall bc my old HDD was failing. Bought new ones, installed again and it decided to not run again. Ever. Error on launch. No matter what I did, updated steam client, verify game files, updated drivers, still nothing. Sent a ticket to devs, but from what I see in other discussions it's a long shot that they would reply ever. I really2 wanted to play this game again :/

[EDIT]
Found the problem, I've been installing games in my HDD drive while Steam and the rest of my system is on my SSD. I tried deleting everything, and then installing on SSD on voila I can play this game again! Not sure why though.. the other games were just fine installed where they are. I hope no one has to ever get this kinda error because fortunately they are very rare but on the other side means there are very few information about these error on launch.

I really wanted to like this game. I do. I picked it up without playing the first one, only hearing good things about it, with people defending against anyone who dare say bad things about this game. NNK2 got all the great ratings from reviewers. Most of all, I played the hell out of Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle) and it was the number one JRPG for me. I thought, "Level-5 developed this, it has to have at least a similar charm and a lot of thought into it". Boy I was wrong.

This game is probably the most disappointing game I have ever played in my entire life. Not to take anything away from those who like it though, this probably has more to do with my expectations.

What I liked

1. The battle system is reaally fun. This one kinda reminds me of Dark Cloud 2 battle system where you can see the enemies and not be transported to an instanced battle area so that's good. It has a fast pace as well, and some enemies really put my blood rushing trying to dodge and learn their attack patterns. I usually play games on normal but it was too easy for me, so I played on hard and it makes me utilize everything in the game to give me an edge from higgledies to cooking.
   
2. The atmosphere and the art design is beautiful! I don't think I need to elaborate this much further. It's ghibli styled, it runs smoothly on my mid tier laptop. But this actually makes some aspects in this game worse for me.

What I disliked (hate is such a strong word)

1. The story. I really don't get what people say when they keep saying "It has a fairytale story". I don't think that means anything. I get that maybe this game is targeted towards younger audience (the director said otherwise though in an interview with IGN, look it up). To say that it is shallow is an understatement. I believe that children nowadays is not that dumb that they can't fathom just a little bit complexity. Just look at Avatar: The Last Airbender.
   
   I'm fine with stories that are bright and simple, and almost childish. But it also need a strong storytelling method which NNK2 doesn't IMO. Too many instances of deus ex machina or revelations that don't have enough build up to have an impact on me. oh surprise doloran is actually a sweet lover boy that is connected to roland. unreadable magical 300 yo ancient writing? get a small puppy and some sand . They way they handled the conclusions and the end game is just lazy writing from the start.
   
   
2. Storytelling: Characters. The characters are really one dimensional. There are only 3 people in this game that were given some kind of reasonable development or depth. Evan, Fai Do the armorer, and Roland (barely). Even Fai Do ranks higher than Roland. We learn where he comes from, his start, his relationship with his grandfather, his motives and insecurities. Which is more than all the characters whether playable or NPC have combined! Tani and Batu are daughter and father but it rarely shows, I keep having to remember that they are related because the story rarely explores that. Bracken and Leander is almost basically the same person. While at the start it seems that there's more to them, by the end they are reduced to know-it-all goodies loyal to their monarch.
   
   You recruit 100 citizens (I'm at 95 but I really don't see why I should complete this) but you can barely remember them through the fetch quests and other mundane things you do to recruit most of them. I would rather have 20 citizens that I need to recruit manually, but have quests through out the kingdom's progression to improve them while knowing them better. It really is a chore. in the end most of the more interesting ones finishes their research and you just put them in fish markets and mining camps like some depressing internment policy
   
   
3. Storytelling: Voice acting
   I get that they're trying to cut budget. I play trails in the sky too and I enjoyed it with minimal voice acting. But NNK2 is incredibly annoying. What are they doing?? I haven't done the math but they make it feel like the voice acting doesn't even reach 20% of all the cutscenes. It's empty grunts and catchphrases all the way. I swear there was one time I thought to myself "If i heard Lofty's crikey one more time I'm done". So many epic moments and important plot points are minimized with grunts and "IF I MAYBE SO BOLD"s.
   
   
4. Game mechanic: Kingdom Building
   Like I said, I played Dark Cloud 2 and I went in this game with that mindset. It makes the kingdom building in this game feel like a mobile game. You don't move things around, you can't even chose what gets build where. Even clash of clans has more in that respect. It's a chore, it's not fun, and YOU'RE IN THE TOP DOWN WORLD MAP MODE WITHIN YOUR OWN KINGDOM. Why do we have a great art direction when you can't enjoy it in the place you spend the most with. You can see how big your kingdom is getting but can't feel it. With all citizens are now chibis walking around, I can't even remember their faces or how I recruited them.
   
   The journey of making your kingdom from the ground up could have been a gold mine to support storytelling and making the world feel much bigger and deep but no. It's an idle game.

TLDR
Battle and art good.
Story character kingdom building disappointing.
I played all the way wishing it would get better,
I wish I have bought something else.
I expected more from Level-5 and Akihiro Hino

That's my opinion anyway.

So sad that I decided to uninstall this,but somehow I can't play without a VPN, and that resulted in unfavorable ping numbers. I saw that this problem occurs not only for me but also a handful of others, and no solution in sight. Zenimax isn't doing enough IMO, or maybe a handful of player just aren't worth it for them. It's a good game, but sadly I can't play it nor can I recommend it based on my experience.