Though I stopped playing Ni No Kuni shortly after writing my review, I've been keeping up with comments and discussion threads about Level-5's deliberately old-fashioned RPG. And in this supplementary reading, I've witnessed otherwise intelligent people subscribe to what strikes me as a dishonest narrative about this game's place in the industry: namely, that Ni no Kuni stands as the Great White Hope of Japanese RPGs -- or maybe it's more of a Miracle on ice situation.

Regardless of your preferred analogy, the perfect storm of Studio Ghibli plus retro RPG design has made Ni no Kuni the ideal game for fanatics to rally around; even if you dislike the its mechanics, it takes a heart of stone to deny Ni no Kuni's initial charms. But some of the support I've seen for Ni no Kuni stems from a place of deliberate ignorance, predicated on the false notion that this specific brand of RPG has gone missing for more than a decade, only to make a glorious return on the PlayStation 3 -- and we should thank all that's good and holy that Level-5 decided to bestow their gift upon the world.

Okay, that could be a little hyperbolic on my part, but in my extracirricular research on Ni no Kuni, it's hard to avoid stumbling across messages like "After all these years... a real JRPG!" "We have to support Ni no Kuni so JRPGs don't die off!" "Grinding and a world map? It's just like the RPGs I loved so long ago!" Have you seen my childhoooood!!" And so on.

Putting aside the obvious fact that, as critics, it's our responsibility to analyze rather than cheerlead, I have to wonder just what these so-called RPG fans have been doing for the past few years. Because you'd have to be in a full-on soap opera-style coma to have missed out on the continued success of Japanese RPGs across multiple platforms -- a feat achieved without the assistance of Ni no Kuni.

It's true that some publishers need a nudge in the right direction. Operation Rainfall shored up Japanese RPG support in the United States, and while these devoted fans can't claim full responsibility, their efforts undoubtedly assisted with bringing three in-demand Wii RPGs to this side of the world. And these gambles definitely paid off; Xenoblade currently goes for a tidy sum on Amazon and eBay (and is practically begging for a second printing), and The Last Story has gone on to hold the title of XSEED's most popular release to date. Even Pandora's Tower the least notable of the Operation Rainfall Three -- will be coming to the States this spring in an astoundingly late Wii release.

But you don't need a Wii to see how Japanese-developed RPGs have been thriving; Persona 4 Golden just might be the best game on the Vita, and, since its release, I've seen message boards and Twitter come alive with discussions from those who missed out on this great RPG the first time around. The 3DS will soon see Fire Emblem: Awakening -- which I've heard nothing but glowing praise for -- and has highly anticipated RPGs like Soul Hackers, Etrian Odyssey IV and Shin Megami Tensei IV arriving in the near future. And if you're looking for something a little more traditional, the PlayStation 3 will soon be home to the American release of Tales of Xillia.

As an Earthbound fan and a follower of the fan translation scene, I know the sting of seeing a game you'd love to play in English go unpublished in North America. But despite a few unfortunate oversights, publishers have treated we Japanese-challenged gamers very well, and I really don't see the need to enlist in a game's personal pep squad on principle alone. Though a few of my recent reviews may hint at the opposite, Japanese-developed RPGs occupy the majority of my free time, and, as of this writing, I still have several recently released games to catch up on. Of course, we should demand more when the situation calls for it, but in 2013, RPG fans shouldn't have much to complain about -- even if they don't believe in miracles.

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So what do you guys think? Personaly i love Ni No Kuni, but i kinda agree with the author. I mean i don't see Square-Enix for exmaple going "hey let's go back to our roots with Final Fantasy 15" :(

Agree. Might be an amazing game but until the more mainstream franchises get it right, the Jrpg genre is dying.

The guy gave the game C+...of course he doesn't think highly of it.

I think Ni No Kuni's commercial success will send a strong message to Japanese developers that JRPG can be popular outside of Japan if done right. That's why it can be considered the savior of JRPGs. Not because it's the only good one out there (which is indeed false).

That is the exact opposite of what he said.

Putting aside the obvious fact that, as critics, it's our responsibility to analyze rather than cheerlead, I have to wonder just what these so-called RPG fans have been doing for the past few years. Because you'd have to be in a full-on soap opera-style coma to have missed out on the continued success of Japanese RPGs across multiple platforms -- a feat achieved without the assistance of Ni no Kuni.

I have to agree with the author here.

Yet none of those "continued success" Rpg's were named Final Fantasy. So what is your point?

Final Fantasy is dead and the JRPG is alive.

Final Fantasy has gone total crap after FFX, but it certainly isn't dead man. It still sells enough.

I agree, it's a silly thing to say and annoyed me immensely when Xenoblade Chronicles got that sentiment as well.

It presumes that JRPGs are just dead other than the game you're extolling, but that's simply not true.  Not as popular as they once were, sure, but they aren't so dead that a single game is going to act as the "savior" of the genre.  

So Xenoblade and P4G came out, but that does'nt mean NinoKuni can't be the savior of JRPG. Its one of the trio, and the only one on an HD console so ofcourse people will rave about it.