Ni No Kuni II: Crown of Retribution Review of the switch: not fit for the throne
Our Verdict
Ni No Kuni II looks incredible on Switch, but the price it pays in terms of poor performance is too high, resulting in an experience that you're better off having on any other platform.
It's likely that you already know whether or not you'd want to play Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom on Switch. Since its initial release in 2018, the highly anticipated follow-up to the fantastic first installment, which saw RPG seasoned Level 5 collaborate with the highly regarded Japanese animators at Studio Ghibli, has been accessible on PS4 and PC.
It should be noted that this review will be more on the Switch version of the game than it will be about Ni No Kuni II as a game. It's truly a mixed bag, to give you an early impression. Though it requires some significant compromise, Ni No Kuni II's visuals do a great job of maintaining its amazing graphic style on the Switch.
To put it another way, performance is a problem. I never fully able to immerse myself in its universe since it's such a continual distraction—never to the point where it breaks the game. Uncapped framerates, which seem to vacillate between 40 frames per second and 20 frames per second, are the source of the issue and make for tedious watching. It is sorely in need of a 30 frames per second limit and tweaks to make sure it maintains this more reliably.
I'm not Digital Foundry, in case you haven't noticed, and I don't have access to the same technological know-how as those really bright people. Rather, I am depending on anecdotal evidence to highlight the problems with Ni No Kuni II. It's also important to note that I've mostly played it portable since I can't bring myself to use Switch for TV in 2021. Apologies.
However, I contend that more might be done to solve these problems. It looks amazing on Switch, as I said at the beginning of the review. The resolution is the only really obvious difference between the Switch and console versions. When compared side by side, the image seems somewhat blurrier but else looks the same.
However, this is more of a problem than a benefit. Ni No Kuni II on Switch might very well withstand some graphic setbacks and still look fantastic on the little screen. Are HD shadows necessary? Is it really essential to have the same draw distance on the smaller screen? Could we reduce the resolution just a little bit more?
Even while the choppiness is always noticeable, it's most annoying when exploring the vast environment. These areas are a complete disaster, which made me want to stop travelling. To cut down on the amount of time I had to endure the subpar performance, I would just take a quick look at the map and move on to the next explorable area.
When you contrast it with games like Dragon Quest XI, from which Ni No Kuni II ought to have truly drawn its porting inspirations, it becomes even more disappointing. Both have a vast globe to explore and cartoonish artwork, but DQXI does a much better job at adapting the experience for a smaller screen.
The fact that Ni No Kuni II's performance and graphics are really its most crucial components exacerbates the issue. If you want to go through the game's long journey, you really need the rest of the experience to shine since the plot is one of the least interesting parts of a JRPG.
In the game, you take on the role of Evan, the prince of Ding Dong Dell, a country that was overthrown lately and sent into exile. Get assistance to regain your kingdom and become its king, with the aid of Roland, the president of the actual world—presumably the United States—who is inexplicably carried away to the kingdom of Ding Dong Dell in the wake of a missile explosion.
But the majority of this takes place in the background, and its main purpose is to transport you to a multitude of breathtakingly beautiful settings where you may meet new people to include in your group, do side missions, and find treasures. In this regard, it's a fairly typical JRPG, but with a settlement-building system tossed in for good measure.
The battle system in Ni No Kuni II, which largely draws from the Tales series, is where the game really excels. With its mix of powerful and light strikes, dazzling abilities, blocks, and dodge rolls, it's an action-packed adventure that keeps things interesting for hours on end. If there are any criticisms of the battle system, it is that, even on the hardest difficulty level, it is always much too simple. I will, however, give it some leeway since the intended demographic is younger than that of a typical JRPG.
I'll stop talking about Ni No Kuni II on Switch there. In summary, I would suggest playing it on any other platform instead than the Switch version if you can. That should be evident given the Switch's restricted technological capabilities, as it is with most cross-platform games, but the frame rate's frequent stuttering is too annoying. That becomes even more troublesome when the main pulls are the gameplay and graphic design; Ni No Kuni II's mediocre story cannot carry the whole experience.