Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

I started playing this earlier in the week – I recently grabbed it at the crazy sales price of $10 on the PSN Store – and boy am I loving it. I do still enjoy getting into a good JRPG every once in a while, and this feels like it’s going to scratch that itch perfectly. Ghibli fan that I am, I’m of course digging the Ghibli touches in this, from the character designs all the way to the lovely animated cut scenes that pop up every once in a while. The combat is also interesting – a bit more involved than simple menu selections – and some of the boss battles so far have already been challenging. As for the graphics, sure, it’s not what I now want from PS4-era games, but for something on the PS3 it looks lovely, and I especially love the way the world is rendered, with an almost painted quality. I also love the way your magic tome is presented, with beautifully designed and illustrated pages that you zoom in to read, giving you info on all aspects of the world, as well as offering up some fun fables. I’m only about 5 hours in, but so far this feels like it should have gotten way more attention that it did.