Yes, for 18 hours up to the point where you get the Djinn.

So you haven't finished it. It took me 6 hours just to get used to the whole, someone else is fighting in your stead.

I finished the game in 70 hours!! After the 30 hour mark i began to see how magical it all is. Reminded me of Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2.

The presentation is outstanding, one of the best looking games of the generation.

The rest wasn´t particularly good by any stretch of the imagination (side quests, characters, the  Pokemon system, the battle system....oh god, the battle system)

I don´t devote more than 18 hours of my time to a game that I don´t enjoy, I gave it a very, very fair chance, but it wasn´t for me .

I expected more from the supposed "JRPG of the generation".

I don't know who would have better sales, but Fire Emblem Awakening is far more deseriving. Ni No Kuni is a bad game in my opinion.

Since were on this subject, I prefer Ni no Kuni myself. Though I love both games. Both definitely in my top 5 of 2013.

He shouldn't have to finish it.  It doesn't magically get better just because you have a third party member, and this comes from someone who has finished it.  Who has had that third character and the fourth character you can switch out.  Playing as Oliver and the girl, he should know exactly how the game plays with an AI or multiple AI characters at your side.  The only difference a third character makes is that there's now three enemies per random battle.

If however he didn't atleast get the second character and only had Oliver, then I'd say, yeah, having only one character feels different than having more than one.  Because it does, but not having all three.

I don't review a game before I beat it, but when you put enough time into the game to know exactly how the rest of the game is going to t urn out gameplaywise, then you've played long enough to judge how the game is going to be and whether you know it's going to be good or not in your opinion.  For most games, an hour will do fine.  JRPGs might take two or three hours to get a good feeling about how the remainder of the game will play.  The whole thing about playing 20 hours of a JRPG to get the feel for it, that the game doesn't get good until that amount of  time is total bs, there's no game that gets magically better to make it go from crappy to amazing just because you passed some point in the game.  

If any game you have to play 20 hours before it starts to get good, then the game sucks ass and it's not even worth playing, but 20 hours into the game is usually not going to change much of the game, if any at all.  So the only people saying it gets better after 20 hours are taking one small minor detail and blowing it out of proportion.  Gran Pulse on Final Fantasy 13 for example.  It's the only dungeon in the game that isn't a straight line and somewhat explorable.  Like I said.  Blowing a minor change out of proportion.

Ni no Kuni def more sales. Also more deserving IMO. Don't get me wrong FE was an enjoyable play through, just don't understand how it's so widely praised when the battle system is so simple.. Characters were well written though

I like the game alot (FE Awakening) which of the franchise has the best mechanics of all imo, but i enjoyed GCN+Wii FE (starring Ike) alot more!

Better Story!

Taking 30 hours to kick in is more a sign of psychological conditioning than great game design.

(Played both games and finished neither.)

I never said it got fun after 30 hours? Selective much?

I meant after that time i realized the game is more than fun, it's amazing, hence the comparison to DQ8.