I've been pining for a Western release of DS RPG Ni no Kuni for years, praying that a publisher would treat us to a late release à la Summon Night 5. However, it's now been three years since the DS was discontinued and it's becoming painfully obvious that such a miraculous late release will not happen. I thus decided to import at long last a Japanese copy of the game, which was quite the smooth task: even nowadays, finding a cheap brand-new copy of Ni no Kuni is surprisingly easy.
The DS version of Ni no Kuni is famous for sporting a companion book and thus nearly qualifying as a special edition in terms of size and content. From what I've understood, the book is more or less mandatory to enjoy the game to the fullest, which may have played a part in the decision to not bring Ni no Kuni to our shores. It also makes the outer box quite imposing, resulting in the use of cardboard in lieu of plastic. The box is wrapped in a paper sheet similar to a classic videogame cover, which can be peeled to reveal the box underneath and its gorgeous motifs:
The book is a true work of art as well as love. It sports a luxurious gilded hardcover, and the inside is no less beautiful: pages are made of a beautiful ancient-looking brown paper and bristle with splendid illustrations completed with gracious adornments and curlicues. See for yourselves the beauty of that thing:
The variety of subjects covered in this splendid tome seems to be staggering, ranging from spells to a complete bestiary to an exhaustive description of all the game's items—and much, much more. I particularly appreciate the fact that the pronunciation of all kanji is included, which will be of great help for the Japanese beginner I still am.
In a nutshell, Ni no Kuni is a valuable addition to my precious collection and I am utterly delighted by that purchase. I can only encourage players who have even the slightest interest in that game to make their move and order it whilst there are still many cheap copies available. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
I'm not surprised you can find one of the Ni no Kuni's CEs nowadays since the game sold terribly in Japan (both the DS and the PS3 versions). The game's price was slashed in half just the week after releasing. The same thing happened with a lot of games back in the late DS era.
ReplyDeleteStill, a shame CEs aren't as complete as this one. The book is beautiful and very handy and meaty with the game's info. A friend of mine managed to buy the PS3 CE of NnK and I was really surprised how high quality the tome feels.
Even if the game turns out to be mediocre, the book alone is worth the purchase! Heck, it's going to be a perfect source of Japanese gaming vocabulary, now that I think of it. Just what I needed! ^__^
DeleteBy the way, what does "CE" mean?
I honestly wasn't too hot on the game (PS3 version, mind you). It was all around decent but kinda forgettable. It was really pretty though.
DeleteYeah, Furigana is an excellent way to learn kanji. You should have a Kanji dictionary handy anyway, to check each kanji's roots and other meanings and different compounds.
Ah, CE is an abbreviation of Collector's Edition.
Of course! You would have thought I'd have guessed immediately, given how many of these things I own! :P
DeleteYou seem to have a fairly good level in Japanese! How and why did you learn it, if I may ask? ^__^
Ahah, well I have a rather basic understanding Japanese. I'd say I can understand the whole meaning of some conversations and the like but reading kanji is still a nightmare for me since I only know very few of them (comparatively speaking).
DeleteWhy did I learn? That's easy: JP-only games! I actually tryed to start back when I first played Summon Night Swordcraft Story 3 but quickly gave up. After this, I tried again years later, when I hacked my PSP. I started playing some JP games but didn't understood a single thing. Funnily enough, my first real attempt at learning Japanese started with Criminal Girls! I started "linking" the sounds with the kanas while playing and then looked up online the list and understand what the different symbols meant. From there, I started memorizing some kanji here and there as I play other games and slowly been building my japanese vocabulary! I find the whole JP language really fun to learn though! :p it's hard sure, but still pretty fun.
Interesting! I started learning Japanese ten years ago in order to be able to read manga, but gave up because of time constraints. Although I'm now diving back into these long-forsaken Japanese studies first and foremost to be able to play Japanese games, I do agree that Japanese is a fairly interesting language in its own right and that learning it is quite entertaining!
DeleteMust say, this edition is sooo beautiful <3
ReplyDeleteIt is! The book alone make the purchase worthwhile. It's gonna be great training material for my Japanese studies! ;)
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