Bandai Namco announced that Ni no Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM will be postponed and released in January of 2018 according to a tweet from Bandai Namco US.
In a video posted in the tweet, Akihiro Hino, CEO and president of LEVEL-5 Inc. announced that Ni No Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM‘s delay had to do with perfecting the game through further development.
“Today we are announcing that the release of Ni no Kuni II on PlayStation 4 and PC has been delayed until January 19th, 2018,” said Hino. “We have decided that more development time is required in order to deliver the full Ni no Kuni II experience to our fans.”
Ni no Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM was announced at PlayStation Experience in 2015, according to Polygon. It was further teased with another trailer at PlayStation Experience 2016 and made an appearance at E3 2017, which focused on the gameplay of the game.
Also, Hino clarified what he meant when he discussed a possible multiplayer feature for Ni No Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM‘s during an E3 interview.
“During a recent E3 interview session, I may have caused a misunderstanding with my comments regarding Ni no Kuni II’s multiplayer content,” said Hino. “I misunderstood the question, thinking that it was asking about online content in general, and my answer referred to online announcements of in-game events. As a result of this, I wrongly gave the impression that the game features multiplayer content.”
Although Ni no Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM won’t have multiplayer content, Japanese RPGs are usually meant to be played as a single player game anyway, so the lack of a multiplayer feature isn’t surprising.
“Finally, I would like to mention that we received 8 upcoming game awards and 9 nominations from the North American, Latin American and European media at this year’s E3,” said Hino. “Please allow me to express the gratitude we all feel towards our players and fans for your constant support. As a team, we will continue to work hard to improve the quality of the game.”
It seems that LEVEL-5 Inc. wants to surpass the standards of the first game of the Ni no Kuni franchise, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS game received an 85 on Metacritic and sold 1.1 million units in 2014, according to VG24/7. One reviewer from Armchair Empire gave the game a score of 85.
“Despite the delayed journey to the West, Ni No Kuni is definitely a title you should at least give a chance. There is a demo up on PSN that you can go ahead and download, and once you get used to the combat system and mechanics of the game, you’ll be treated to an adventure like no other,” said the reviewer from Armchair Empire. The full review of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch can be found here.
Ni no Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM takes place after the events of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and is the story of a young cat-hybrid king who is ejected from his thrown following a coup d’état from the opposing mouse kingdom. Evan, the young king, decides to start his own kingdom to defeat the mouse kingdom, according to Gematsu.
Ni no Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM would have been released in November of this year, so the two month delay for the game isn’t too long. Any game delay will always suck for fans, but considering that this game will be developed only by LEVEL-5 Inc. (Studio Ghibli will not be helping develop Ni No Kuni II: REVENANT KINGDOM), there is more pressure for the game to be better than the original.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.
