EarthBound
It wasn't long after I had heard about EarthBound that I ended up falling in love with it. I had seen glimpses of things from it in the Super Smash Bros series but I had no further knowledge of what Fourside was in Melee or why it mattered that a blonde kid named Jeff was shooting rockets at me in Brawl. I'm not really sure when I decided to play EarthBound but I know I bought a WiiU for it specifically. I sat there one night at a friends house drinking and hatching chicken eggs in Twoson and I think that's when it really clicked for me. It's been said to death but the entire vibe and setting of the game is something special. I often get tired of sword & sorcery games and EarthBound is always a breath of fresh air. I love the characters even though I don't find them that special. But that's kind of the nice part, I feel like I'm using them as a vessel to experience a world that feels like it could be lived it...minus that stop signs coming to life and the threat of an alien on the verge of destroying the world. I experienced so many emotions in my playthrouh. From the jaunty tunes of Onett that I hum to myself at least 3 times a day to the legit feeling of uneasiness and dread in the final battle with Gygas. And yet...after it was all done, I felt like I had joined a club of the only people that can truly know what EarthBound is. It has a "cult classic" attached to every conversation about it and to understand why it's so great is a reward in it's own.
Dragon Quest XI
I'm writing this post on a Dragon Quest keyboard I just got off Ebay. Dragon Quest has been a weird series for me. One of the fist games I got for my teal Gameboy Color was Dragon Warrior III. I somehow lost it after a character said "damn" and I asked my mom what that meant. It wasn't until later in life when one day I decided to buy Dragon Quest IV, V, VI, IX, and Rocket Slime for the DS but I never played any of them. I now own all the main line games (besides X which, quite frankly, I don't ever see getting localized). I've finished I, VIII, IX, XI, and I'm playing through III currently. Dragon Quest XI is what really solidified my love for the series. Everything about the game is fun and comforting. With all the complex games nowadays it's so nice to have a game as cozy as Dragon Quest XI. The role playing genre and some of my favorite games owes themselves to Dragon Quest. XI is my favorite out of the few games in the series I've finished simply because of how fun it is. I got the platinum trophy on PS4 for it and enjoyed every second of it. The world, characters, and story are all fantastic. The monsters are my favorite part of any Dragon Quest game and they're at their best in this game. I loved every single character in my party and as I connected with them, they ended up kind of feeling like family to me. A lot of games end up so great to me because of their endings and Dragon Quest XI is the most satisfying ending I've ever experienced. Without spoilers, it connects to the first few games in ways and having played them recently, it's that much more special and awesome to me.
Runescape (specifically 2006-2012)
As I start this paragraph I'm also listening to the classic Runescape main theme. Every time I hear this song or any song from the early years of Runescape I begin to tear up. I spent over 4000 hours and 9 years of my life with this game. No game means more to me than this. The amount of time I spent playing this I will never get back but I wish I could go back and experience it all again. Some of my best friends I've never met because I met them on Runescape. This games devoured my life. I would get home from school and play it until bed on week days and play all day on weekends. This game got me through my teenage years. This game was more then a game for me, it was a lifestyle. People wouldn't start conversations with me with a hello, they would ask if I had done anything cool in Runescape lately. All of the people I played with throughout the years felt like family to me. I could do whatever I wanted either by myself or with friends. I felt like I was actually living in the world because I spent so much time in it. I never did max out my character but that's okay because I played the way I wanted to and did things my way. I was never the most efficient or richest I just wanted to have fun. I log into the game every now and then for a few minutes now but it's just not the same. That sense of wonder is lost on my older, more worn down mind. None of my real life friends play anymore so I can't have conversations with them about it. I'll always cherish the times I had with Runescape in my youth and I feel a little sad every time I think about the good old days.
Ni no Kuni
I'm just going to put my original review in here since it was the first thing I wrote for this blog and my feelings for the game remain the same. It is the greatest game ever made.
Original review
Ni No Kuni is now my favorite game. I think what really makes this game so special for me was just how magical the world was. I was always looking forward to what the next area would look like, what it would sound like, and what part of the story was ahead. The character animations and design were great and the overall art of the game being done by Studio Ghibli had me knowing this was going to be a special game for me.Ni No Kuni is a JRPG but the one trope of the genre that wasn’t present, at least for me, was grinding. I only died maybe four times in my playthrough while playing on Normal difficulty, the highest difficulty available, but that’s fine with me. Games that are needlessly hard tend to not click with me so it was nice to have such a colorful and friendly world not be hindered by insane difficulty spikes.
Let’s talk about that colorful world for a little bit. The game gets it’s art from the famous Studio Ghibli which has always held a special place in my heart and whose art always cheers me up. Whether it be from the first town you enter in Ding Dong Dell, a town ruled but King Tom the cat, to the eerie Nevermore Castle the game oozes atmosphere and stunning visuals. The colors pop on the overworld and even in an ice dungeon later in the game everything just looks so perfect.
I feel the best aspect of the game is the characters, though. Mr Drippy is one of your companions throughout the game and everything about him is just perfect. He has some kind of British accent and a sassy attitude which is always a winning combination for me. Esther and Swaine are your other companions and to me only Esther felt kind of flat to me with no real reason for me to really care for her or her motivations, if there were any that I missed. Swaine on the other hand had a great story and without spoiling much gets reunited with someone close to him and you can actually feel the emotion between the two in the scenes that unfold. The game has a theme of emotion throughout the whole story and it always feels genuine.
So when you’re not following the main story what else is there to do? Each area has an errand board to pick up side quests and bounty hunts to be completed to fill out stamp cards for passive bonuses. There’s something so satisfying about filling your log up with side quests and seeing them get crossed off after completing one after another. The quests might seem boring to some though as they can be very straightforward but a few make you think for a minute as to where exactly to go or what to do.
The other thing to do is capture and evolve monsters. Since the art is done by Studio Ghibli the monsters are absolutely the best enemies I’ve ever seen in a video game. Each monster is unique and with a creature compendium there’s that “gotta catch them all” feeling. You can also feed familiars special treats to boost their stats and when they reach a certain level you can feed them an item to evolve them to their next stage where they can go from looking like one thing to a totally different thing which is awesome, again I couldn’t wait to see what was next.
So why is Ni No Kuni, in my opinion, such an amazing game? It just makes you so happy while playing it. The characters, the world, the gameplay, just work so well and create a sense of joy. Sure the AI isn’t perfect and things can seem a little simple and easy at times but that didn’t take away from my experience. If you enjoy RPGs you owe it to yourself to give this game a try even if it’s just to experience the world, put the game on easy and experience a gripping and heartfelt story. For the first time in an RPG I’m looking forward to doing the post-clear content because it all goes back to that question for me...what’s next?
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