Even when the Dragon Quest X Online announcement leads you to believe you’ll never play a regular JRPG again, something like this happens, and it fixes everything. Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation team responsible for films such as Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away, has teamed up with Level-5 to create Ni no Kuni (The Another World). It was a Japan-only release for DS last December, but the HD and (we can now confirm) beautiful PS3 version is expected to launch November 17. Watch the trailer, but be prepared to be let down because there's no word on any plans for an English translation. Maybe we can learn Japanese by November — seriously, we might try.
Ni no Kuni is the first game Studio Ghibli has been involved with, but the majority of their films have been translated and released to Western audiences and Level-5 has a new American office, so there’s the slimmest sliver of hope. Studio Ghibli is also known for a strict "no-edits" policy for film, which — if the time comes — we would like to think will be carried over to their games. What do you think? Obviously, Ni no Kuni beautiful, but how’s the actual gameplay look in that footage?
Sep 6, 2011
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