Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (2024)

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Game Information
Japanese Name	二ノ国 白き聖灰の女王
Romaji	Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joō
Platform(s)	Playstation 3, 4 &5 Nintendo Switch Microsoft Windows Xbox One Xbox Series X
Engine	Havok
Developer(s)	Level-5 Animation: Studio Ghibli
Director(s)	Ken Motomura
Producer(s)	Hiroyuki Watanabe
Artist(s)	Toshihiro Kuriaki
Writer(s)	Akihiro Hino
Composer(s)	Joe Hisaishi Rei Kondoh
Genre	Role-playing
Mode	Single-player
Distribution	Blu-ray Disc, download
Release date	November 17, 2011 (Japan) January 22, 2013 (North America) September 20, 2019 (Switch version only)

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, known in Japan as Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joō, is the second game in the Ni no Kuni Series. It was developed by Level-5 with Studio Ghibli providing the animations. A remaster was released in September 2019 for PlayStation 4, Switch, and Windows, with Xbox One and X|S in 2022.

Studio Ghibli were responsible for the characters and areas of the game, as well as doing almost 20 minutes of the cutscene animation.

Plot[]

Wrath of the White Witchis the story of Oliver, a resident of Motorville. When he and his friend Philip try out their newest car creation, the car falls apart and Oliver almost drowns, and is saved by his mother Allie; however, she faints and becomes bedridden, eventually dying from heart problems. Oliver becomes closed-off following his mothers death, while grieving Oliver comes across a doll his mother gave him and begins to cry. As Oliver cries, his tears cause his doll to come to life and reveal itself as a fairy named Drippy, who informs Oliver that he is from another world where a "Dark Djinn" named Shadar took over. He then teaches Oliver about soulmates between the two worlds, a person that shares a link with someone in Oliver's world. He also says that his mother looks very much like a great sage, Alicia, who was captured by Shadar. Realizing that Alicia must have been Allie's soulmate, Oliver sets out with Drippy to travel to the other world and rescue Alicia in the hope that doing so will bring Allie back in his world.

Localisation Changes[]

There are many, many changes in the English translation.

• Keywords were changed, for example "imagines" became "familiars", "runes" became "spells", and some keywords were "added", for example, the term "soul mate".
• Most names are different, for example, "Mark" became "Phil", "ancient tree" became "Old Father Oak", "The Middle Continent" became "The Summerlands", "Teleport" became "Travel", "Refreshing Coffee" became "Iced Coffee".
• Some names were drastically changed, for example, "Babanasia Kingdom" became "Al Mamoon", however some lines of dialogue and item names were left without changes, such as the name of the fruit "babana" remaining unchanged in the English version. The most notable example of name-changing is that "Goroneeru Kingdom" went through a complete name change in order to force a pun about an English rhyme that wasn't in the original:
  • The first rhyme is "Hickory, dickory, dock / The mouse ran up the clock / The clock struck one / The mouse ran down / Hickory, dickory, dock."
  • The second is "Ding, dong, bell / puss*’s in the well / Who put her in? / Little Johnny Flynn / Who pulled her out? / Little Tommy Stout / What a naughty boy was that / To try to drown poor puss* cat / Who ne’er did him any harm / But killed all the mice in the farmer's barn"
  • Some of the changes to Goroneeru Kingdom were:
    • The kingdom name became "Ding Dong Dell"
    • Goroneeru underground waterway (taken to mean "Goroneeru sewers") became "Ding Dong Well"
    • "King Nyandal" ("nyan" being Japanese for "meow") became "King Tom XIV"
    • The term "his meowjesty" was added in the English translation, whereas in the Japanese original he was almost always simply called "King-sama", and occasionally "King Nyandal".
    • "Miranto" became "Horace", and his title was changed from "magic user" to "The Sage of Ages".
    • The large mouse mini-boss' name went from "チューベル chuuberu / kiss-bell", to "Hickory Dock".
    • "Miruko" became "Tommy Stout".
• Characters' titles or item names were changed or were given extra names/designations not in the original, for example Miranto/Horace went from "magic user" to "The Sage of Ages", Shelly/Myrtle was nicknamed "Starey-Mary", and Solon was given the extra name "Rashaad" along with the extra title "Supreme Sage". In the Japanese, he's called "wizard-sama" or "Solon-sama" ("sama" being a polite suffix used to refer to people vastly superior to you, ex. royalty, although in the past it was a more common title equivalent to "Mister/Misses"). Another example is that Phil/Mark's drag-racing car is known as "The Philmobile" in the English version, whereas in the Japanese version it had no nickname.
• It's possible that some characters' personalities were changed in the translation. However, changing a character's personality and adding lots of puns is extremely common in Japanese to English (American) translations.
• The English version of the Magic Master/Wizard's Companion uses incorrect "old English", whereas the Japanese doesn't.

Differences with the DS game[]

• The overall story is the same, however, there are still some minor differences, this excludes the translation.
  • The Wizard's Companion (or the Magic Master) was a physical book that was necessary to play the DS game, players were required to draw in spells on the screen or solve riddles using clues in the handbook. This is not the case in the PS3 game, the book wasn't necessary for game progression and the spell designs were included as a cosmetic detail.
  • One of the 2D animated cutscenes that plays in the NDS game, one directly after entering the other world, is converted to 3D in Wrath of the White Witch, so as to better fit the layout of the world. The character sprites and hand-drawn backgrounds are also replaced with CG.
  • Some in-game locations were slightly changed, including their layouts. Similarly some quests and events were slightly modified. For example, in the PS3 game the king goes down into the well to fight the rats, but in the NDS game, only Oliver goes.
  • Some of Drippy's actions and dialogue were given to Pea, a new character exclusive to the PS3 version.
  • The dreamworld that Oliver is taken to when sleeping in inns, was removed from the PS3 game.
  • The merit/stamp card was given more possible rewards, but now there are "levels" that need to be unlocked before acquiring better rewards.
  • The layouts of various screens was changed, for example the screen where you care for your familiars.
  • The Fairyground does not exist in the NDS version, instead being replaced story-wise by a city called Del Mocal on the DS-exclusive Caraway Island. Del Mocal also contains the NDS equivalents to both the Crypt Casino and the Solosseum.
  • In the NDS version, there was an internet trade center normal to most Japanese NDS games, in which users traded familiars/imagines with each other.
  • About half of the items (in total, of both normal items and alchemy/cooking items) are different between the two games. See the provisions page for more info.
• Breach Time is used on this PS3 version.

Soundtrack[]

Ni no Kuni's soundtrack was created by Joe Hisaishi, who has made the music for several Studio Ghibli films. All music was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. The soundtrack can be bought in iTunes, among other places.

Gallery[]

Trailers[]

Covers[]

PS3 Special English Edition Items[]

With "Ni no Kuni: Wizard's Edition" the following items were included:

• A hardback copy of the Wizard's Companion/Magic Master, which is the spellbook Oliver uses throughout his journey in the game. The English PS3 edition has been slightly "colourized" (there is more colour than in the Japanese version, or it seems that way). The layout of the English PS3 book is also a little different from the Japanese version, and includes a spell page for "Mornstar", which the original doesn't.
• A plush doll/stuffed animal of Drippy/Shizuku.
• A copy of the game, which includes extra familiar tickets that you are unable to get in any other PS3 version. These tickets are, however, automatically given to you in the Switch port, and the Remastered version on PS4 and PC.

Walkthrough[]

Instead of a proper, all-on-one-page walkthrough, what we do have on our Wiki is information separated into pages. For example, go to the "enemies" category page to see lists of enemies in every section, and go to Horace's page to see answers to the riddles/quests he may give you. For everything else, try searching for a word and seeing on which pages it comes up (including Japanese words from the NDS game). Additionally, please edit or create any pages necessary.

Geography[]

See the "Ni no kuni (world)" article.

Reception[]

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 85/100 on PS3^[1] and 83/100 on Nintendo Switch.^[2]

References[]