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"Each and every heart will be healed
On our journey through another world."

After all the comments calling both the animation and art style of the Professor Layton games "Ghibliesque", Level-5 decided to one-up the peanut gallery by actually teaming up with Studio Ghibli on a game. The result was Ni no Kuni (literally - "Another World"), though it's actually two games:

  • Dominion of the Dark Djinn - Released for Nintendo DS in December 2010, this is a turn-based RPG where you draw magic spells on the touchscreen. Each copy includes a complete Wizard's Companion book.
  • Wrath of the White Witch - Released for PlayStation 3 in Japan in 2011 and worldwide in 2013, this was developed separately, but is essentially the same story as the original up to the mid point. Combat is real-time and menu-based. A HD remastered version for the PlayStation 4, PC, and Nintendo Switch were released on September 20th, 2019, and on the XBox One and XBox One Series-S/X on September 15th, 2022.
  • There is also Hotroit Stories, a prequel for cell phones released through Level-5's ROID service. Sadly, Wikipedia reported that the concept was quickly abandoned for reasons unknown, with no further episodes added after the initial one on release. note 
  • There is also Ni no Kuni: Daibouken Monsters, a card collecting mobile game, which was released through the Japan-only GREE phone service in 2012. Again, it did not do well and was quickly abandoned.

While the gameplay is designed by Level-5, all the character designs, lushly animated cutscenes, and even the soundtrack (composed by the legendary Joe Hisaishi) are all pure Ghibli. Needless to say, this made a lot of people very excited about it from the get-go.

Oliver is a young boy living a tiny, picturesque town loosely based on America in The '50s. He lives with his mother Allie. He and his best friend have been working on making the best racing kart ever—it's already looking pretty snazzy. To try it out, Oliver sneaks out in the middle of the night for a test drive—unfortunately, he plunges straight into the river. His mother leaps in to save him and pulls him to the shore. The physical exertion is sadly too much for her, and she swiftly dies of a heart attack. Yes, it's that kind of game.

For weeks, the grief-stricken Oliver holes up in his room and cries. His tears fall on a crude yet lovable doll his mother gave him, and set the spirit inside free! The spirit, named Drippy (Shizuku in the Japanese version), reveals to Oliver that he's from another world — a place closely linked to Oliver's town. There, an evil sorcerer has taken a sage named Alicia hostage. Alicia and Allie are linked, and if Alicia is saved, then there's a chance Allie will be, too. Drippy gives Oliver a magic book, the Wizard's Companion, and Oliver sets out into the other world in order to save his mother.

The most notable feature of Dominion of the Dark Djinn was that the Wizard's Companion was an actual hardbound 392-page book that shipped with the game and was required to progress through the game. The localization and printing cost of the book is widely blamed for the lack of an international release of that version of the game. When White Witch was created, the book was included in digital format. However, a limited "Wizard's Edition" release of the title did include the book as part of a luxury collection, as well as a stuffed doll of Drippy.

The English dub was done by Side UK (Professor Layton) featuring the vocal talents of 10-year-old Adam Wilson as Oliver and Steffan Rhodri (from Gavin & Stacey) as Drippy.

A sequel to the game, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, was released on March 23, 2018. English trailer is here.

An animated film adaptation of Ni no Kuni produced by OLM and Warner Bros. has been announced and was released in Japan on August 23, 2019. It is an original story, heavily inspired on the premise of the original, instead of a direct or close adaptation. Unfortunately, it was a Box Office Bomb, and WB opted to not release the film internationally, instead Netflix picked the film up as an 'Original' and streamed it worldwide on January 16, 2020.

A Manga, Ni no Kuni: Hikari no Kōkeisha to Neko no Ōji (The Successor of Light and the Cat Prince) ran in 2019 issues of Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine.

It was followed in 2020 by a MMO for mobile devices, Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, where you play as a beta tester for an upcoming VR game called "Soul Divers" who discover that they are actually being sent to the alternate world of Ni no Kuni. The game launched in mid-2021 for Far-East Asia, with a worldwide launch not announced until April 2022 with pre-registration opening, and with the worldwide launch date was set for mid-2022.


This game provides examples of:

  • Accent Adaptation: Characters from Oliver's world (loosely based on America in The '50s) speak with applicable American Accents, but most characters from Drippy's world (including Drippy himself, who is voiced with a boisterous Welsh accent) speak with British Accents, undoubtedly to enhance the fairy-tale, medieval setting. The exception is Allie, Oliver's mum, who also has an English accent in Oliver's world. This foreshadows her real origins.
  • Adaptation Expansion: White Witch extends the plot-line of Dark Djinn, adding characters, locations, spells and mechanics (not only by virtue of the differences between DS and PS3 controls) and removing others and changing certain points.
  • Adipose Rex: Ding Dong Dell is ruled by a literal fat cat. Curiously enough, his Motorville counterpart is a normal housecat. Then Al-mamoon is ruled by a huge cow-woman (both in that she's both overweight AND incredibly tall). Ironically averted in the pig-themed city of Hamelin.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Both Shadar and the White Witch seem like they are unrelentingly evil for no reason, at first. Eventually, you learn more about them.
  • All Deaths Final: Much to Oliver's dismay.
  • All There in the Manual: The Wizard's Companion has an absurd amount of detail and lore even when it's first obtained. Reading it is sometimes the only way you'll learn the history of some characters and places.
  • Alternate Universe:
    • The other world, to a degree; but what really fits this trope is the alternate Motorville that The Conductor takes Oliver to after you beat the Optional Boss; a Motorville with talking animals and other major differences that Alicia did not go to; therefore, Oliver's soul was never reborn and became a spirit being instead, ie the Conductor.
    • The story in Dark Djinn and the one in the White Witch play in different parallel universes. Basic elements are the same, but they diverge in story elements pretty early on.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Inverted. Ambition is one of the eight Pieces of Heart, and a lack of it makes people evil. However, it is also explained in the Wizard Companion that an excess of certain emotions can turn people evil as well, or at least can be self-destructive. This can actually be seen in the game proper: a man in Hamelin's excess restraint is causing him to ignore his hunger and continue researching obsessively, a guard in Al Mamoon's excess courage nearly sends him back to fight a monster that nearly killed him earlier, and a peddler's excess confidence is causing him to take dangerous business risks.
  • Anatomy of the Soul: Shadar takes the virtue out of people's heart via Mind Rape; Oliver gets permission from people with excess virtue and gathers that (a spell that doesn't alter their personality, and feels pleasant) to fix said Brokenhearted.
    • Souls are shared by other world counterparts; what happens to one; something similar happens to their "Soul-Mate."
  • Animal Stereotypes: Each of the main kingdoms has an appropriate animal theme: the friendly and laidback Ding Dong Dell has cats, the plentiful oasis Al MaMoon has cows, and the bold and industrious Hamelin has pigs.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: When Oliver first refuses to help Drippy, the latter then asks for a picture of his mother. He then mentions that she looks exactly like one of the sages from their world who's been trapped and if Oliver frees her from Shadar, he may be able to save his mother in his world.
  • "Arabian Nights" Days: Al-Mamoon. Its name even means something like "a safe place" in Arabic (and doubles as a pun on the fact that its ruler is a cow woman).
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Even after unlocking the 4th party member, you still may only take 3 into battle.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The oath that all wizards implicitly agree to follow by signing the Wizard's Companion is a list of things they must and/or must not do. The last item on the list is to never put on one's left shoe before their right shoe.
  • Artificial Stupidity:
    • AI-controlled party members tend to send out whoever has the highest level into battle. That's swell unless said party member is a fragile White Mage who only knows one healing spell and one buff, can only do one point of damage with her harp, has no MP, and so only uses her harp. Or any other Squishy Wizard or Glass Cannon reliant on MP.
    • Casting buffs immobilises both the caster and target, leaving them both sitting ducks. AI-controlled party members never seem to take into account whether it's safe to be out in the open or not.
    • AI controlled party members have no concept of survival and will ignore things like getting out of the AOE of an attack or defending against an enemy's special attack (which heavily reduces damage). And they'll happily chew through their MP on healing whenever they take damage.
    • Wandering enemy NPCs have no routing, so they tend to walk into walls and attempt to chase you over rivers of lava. Your companions also tend to get stuck in ledges and walls.
    • In the controversial Betting Mini-Game, the "Platoon" card game's AI has a very rigid structure on how it sets up the cards. It is relatively easy to learn the patterns and max out every game; thus, allowing to get all the casino items; including unique high-level familiars, high-level alchemy ingredients, hp/mp restores, and equipment. Which can be sold outside the casino for a lot of money.
    • While you're serenading an enemy that has stood up so it can be tamed, your companions are still perfectly capable of casting field-wide magic, even though doing so will defeat the enemy and you'll lose the chance to tame it.
  • Badass Cape: Part of Oliver's new outfit when he gets to the other world.
  • Bag of Holding: The Bottomless Bag.
  • Barrier Change Boss: Gallus switches up what elements he uses and what he is weak to. You can tell by the aura that surrounds him.
  • Beef Gate: When the world opens up, you can go anywhere you want. However, this means that enemies will slaughter you easily.
  • Big Bad: The White Witch.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Oliver has this when he finally wakes up after learning that Alicia was Allie, and she cannot be brought back. While he was in a comatose state, Vileheart reappeared and Swaine and Esther tried to fend him off but end up almost dying in the process. Then Oliver comes out of nowhere, and curbstomps Vileheart with the Mornstar spell that Pea gave him.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Old Smokey alternate name, "Jabal Al-Dukhan", is Arabic for "Smoke Mountain". Same goes for "Al-Mamoon" ("Safe Place"). Averted with the Japanese names. The French version on the other hand named Old Smokey "Le Kraa", which is Arabic for ... "shit".
    • Ara Memoriae is Latin for "altar of memory". Perdida is Spanish for "lost", most likely a shortening of "la ciudad perdida", meaning "the lost city".
    • "Tomte" is the Swedish name for a Scandinavian gnome-like fairytale creature. This goes well together with the locals having names like "Åke", which are common in the Scandinavian area.
    • The Magmoiselle creatures have an attack called "Palava". This is actually Finnish for "Burning".
    • In the Wizard's Companion, the "My Other Self" story features a girl whose blue-eyed mother is sick, and whose soulmate in the other world has lost her pet blue bird. In keeping with the mirrored nature of reality in the game, the blue bird is named Chichi, Japanese for "father".
  • Bittersweet Ending: Oliver defeats both Shadar and the White Witch and saves the other world, but his mother is fated to remain dead.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: The fairies in the game revolve around this for their comedy, making it into a substantial part of their culture.
  • Boss Remix: The music for Cassiopeia's first form is a remix of the game's main theme. And yes, it's awesome.
  • Boss Subtitles: Every boss gets subtitles under their name right before they're fought.
  • Bonus Dungeon: Moya Island in Dark Djinn had a 100-floor tower accessed with Item Crafting of all things, with all-new more powerful enemies and Palette Swap of bosses that will mop the floor with your Lv.99 party if you aren't careful enough. Shazar (Gallus in the English version) is awaiting you at the last floor, and he is on-par with Optional Bosses from the Persona series, a welcome change from the easy main quest. There is another pirate Bonus Dungeon hidden in a star-shaped island.
    • It was replaced in White Witch with a portal to the Final Dungeon, but its monsters were reused at various points, like many other Optional Bosses from Dark Djinn. Gallus himself was reused as The Dragon for the White Witch, but was considerably Nerfed (he no longer has two phases): another Optional Boss (who can be faced after clearing all other boss rematches) replaced him as the ultimate challenge.
  • Boss Rush: The final three battles against Cassiopeia and the Zodiarchs are technically this, as is the fight against Shadar, since you don't get to save between the fights.
  • Bragging Rights Reward:
    • The One-Hit Kill ultimate light spell in Dark Djinn: You get it when you defeat Shazar (Gallus in English), but there is nothing else left to do in the game.
    • After doing the post-game Conductor sidequest in White Witch, you gain access to the Philmobile. It's... really not all that great, especially when you have a Dragon to fly around in.
    • The strongest Mon in the game, Mandragorer, rewarded for beating the Rank S tournament in the Solosseum. Since the S rank is only unlocked in Endgame+, there's not a lot you can do with it, besides using it against the Optional Bosses in the Conductor sidequest.
  • Breather Episode: The Fairygrounds chapter comes between nearly getting killed by Shadar in combat and exploring Hamelin along with Swaine's tragic backstory.
  • Broken Bridge: You can't climb Old Smokey and continue the plot until you get the spell to create bridges.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Babanas (Bananas)
    • Llapacas look like real-world llamas, but they could also be a cross between a llama and a creature native to South America called the alpaca. It is possible that they could be huarizos, which are real-world sterile crosses of male llamas and female alpacas.
  • Can't Drop the Hero: Oliver has to remain in the party even after getting the 4th party member.
  • Catch a Falling Star: In Dark Djinn, Kublai accidentally knocks Tengri unconscious with his Cloud Sweeper's weapon. Since he is in the sky to battle with Oliver whom Tengri was chasing, the dragon falls from several hundred meters down onto the ground. Oliver can't stop his drop, as Tengri is too heavy for his own Cloud Sweeper. But by using the in-built grappling hook, he changes their trajectory, so they land in the sea instead.
  • Cel Shading: Probably one of the best examples of its usage. Coupled with the art style used in the backgrounds, at first glance, you might be fooled into thinking you were watching a traditionally animated movie.
  • Checkpoint Starvation: usually averted but played straight between the very difficult battles between the White Witch and the Zodiarch. You don't get the chance to save between those battles. If you fail even the last one, you need to plow through all three battles again. It gets extremely frustrating after you fail at the Zodiarch battles several tries straight.
  • Child Mage: Oliver and young Marcassin.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Massively deconstructed. Cassiopeia ended up having to take her father's role as leader after his death at an age that could be considered anywhere between 5 to 10. Since she was way too young to know anything about running the kingdom effectively, that ended up making her the perfect puppet for her counsel to do whatever they pleased with the kingdom. The resulting manipulation, especially after she found out what they were doing, ended up seriously messing her up mentally; and is a big reason she ended up becoming the White Witch in the first place.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Oliver is blue, Drippy is sky blue, Esther is pink, Swaine is green, and Marcassin is purple.
  • Contrived Coincidence: All of the story-relevant characters (plus a couple of side characters), living in all corners of the vast world that most of the game takes place in, have soulmates living in Oliver’s small hometown of Motorville.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: There is no problem getting right next to the lava on Old Smokey. The characters do suffer damage, however, while climbing along the narrow parts of the trail upward if they get hit by the fire being ejected from the holes in the rock there.
  • Copy Protection: A rather old-school variation, via the included feely with Dark Djinn. To do certain things in the game, you need to refer to the book included with the game and see the corresponding page for the current situation. Without it, you can't proceed normally, and if you try to use Oliver's book, it says that you need to see the physical book instead.
  • Crapsaccharine World: Hoo boy, the other world might look bright and colorful, but there are a lot of dark things going on behind the scenes.
  • Crutch Character: Oliver's starting familiar, the Mite, is agreed upon to be this. It's a great DPS dealer and tank for the early and mid-game but by the late to post game, the Mite's stats start to fall behind the other familiars the player can get for Oliver, usually meaning the player would only consider using the Mite when their other familiars are running low on stamina.
  • Cynicism Catalyst:
    • Lucien's little sister's dead (Natius in the Japanese version). He eventually abandons all hope in humanity and, under the influence of the White Witch, becomes Shadar.
    • Cassiopeia originally wanted to use the Ashes of Resurrection spell to help the people of Nascaä after discovering the Council of Twelve were running it into the ground, only to realize too late that it came at a terrible price. Believing that the world was wicked to the core and that there was nothing she could do about it was what led her to become the White Witch.
  • Cypher Language: Nazcaän is a simple substitution cypher, although the language's I and V analogs pull extra duty doubling for J, U and W (two "V" symbols), as they did in the classical Latin alphabet.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Shadar/Lucien, and The White Witch/Cassiopeia have one.
  • Dark World: The other world is one for Earth, or at least, Oliver's town. Affecting one will affect another—early demos describe an angry cat-king, who gets less grumpy when a similarly-patterned cat in town gets taken care of.
    • A literal Dark World appears shortly after the White Witch-exclusive arc begins due to a dark crystal in all three major cities, and everyone there (aside from children, oddly missing) is turned into zombies you fight.
      • Actually only male children seem to be missing. While the compendium lists them as "women" some of the fish zombies are infact little girls. One is even listed as "sickly child"
    • In the Dark Djinn, there is also a Dream Land you get to as Oliver alone, when you check in the inns. You can solve some riddles there using the book. There is also an Optional Boss there, on-par with late Moya Tower bosses.
  • Dead All Along: Alicia, since she is Allie. Cue Heroic BSoD from Oliver.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Swaine and Mr. Drippy.
  • Death by Adaptation: White Witch has the Xanadu Kingdom (Haven in the Japanese version) destroyed with most of its denizens killed. Dark Djinn on the other hand has it alive and well, as an airborne kingdom, much like Laputa, and you even meet the sage there. The sames goes for the Dragon's Lair, Kublai's previous center of operation.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Lucien and Cassiopeia. Given what they turn into as a result, eerily similar to one of the twists in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
  • Detectives Follow Footprints: An late game Ding Dong Dell quest involved following footsteps of a familiar that stole something from a town guard.
  • Disappeared Dad: Nothing much is known about Oliver’s father.
  • Disc-One Final Dungeon: Inevitably, since White Witch added a story arc, this was the case with Nevermore Castle, Shadar's lair, which was The Very Definitely Final Dungeon in Dark Djinn.
  • Dismantled MacGuffin: Mornstar and it's 3 power stones.
  • DLC: The American version will automatically get the Japanese re-release ones. However; preordering from Amazon gives one the "Griffy" familiar, and its level-ups; and pre-ordering the Strategy Guide gives the Gold Hurly familiar. Getting the Wizard's Edition gives the Golden Mite and the Golden Drongo. ("Gold" in this case means like the normal familiars, but Palette Swapped and higher stats.) There's also a free Draggle familiar available through the PSN (which is the only way to obtain a non-gold version of said familiar. In Ni No Kuni Remastered, tickets for all of these are instead provided by default upon completing the Temple of Trials.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": When not a Punny Name, the default name provided by the game for a familiar is generally either this or A Lizard Named "Liz".
  • The Dragon: Shadar, to The White Witch.
  • Dramatic Irony: In Wrath of the White Witch, Shadar is played up as the Big Bad of the game as a whole, but it's pretty clear from the get-go that he's just a medium-sized fish in a massive pond.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: The party dresses up in Hamelin guard pig armor to infiltrate Hamelin's palace.
  • Dual Wielding: Not done in game, but Horace mentions that the Wizard King of legend dual wielded magic wands. The Wizard King's ghost confirms this when he appears in the Ivory Tower: he wielded both Astra and Mornstar who are 'twins'.
  • Dub Name Change: Everywhere in the English version. For characters, Drippy for Shizuku, Esther for Maru, and Motorville for Hotroit. Among other monster and town names. In short, anyone or thing that isn't named Oliver or Allie/Alicia gets subjected to this.
    • To give an idea of how jarring this can be: Sherry's name was changed to...Myrtle. This despite Sherry being a perfectly good name on its own.
      • This name change adds a Bilingual Bonus, though. Myrtle is Esther's alternate self, and the biblical queen Esther's alternate name was Hadassah, which is Hebrew for... myrtle.
  • Dubtitle: While the Japanese dialog track is included, the dialog is all based on the English dub - including the numerous name changes. To the point where it's almost pointless to play the Japanese track considering how very different it is.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Brokenhearted NPCs have these. For those who've gone far enough over the Despair Event Horizon to spawn a Nightmare, this is upgraded to Red Eyes, Take Warning.
  • Eagle Land: Oliver's hometown seems to be 1950s-era America; judging by the highway signs, style of cars, and them eating breakfasts like bacon and eggs with silverware.
    • According to Word of God; Motorville (aka "Hotroit") is based on early Detroit. (This is even seen in the dub, as "Motor City" is Detroit's old nickname.)
  • Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Bosses tend to be the hardest part of the game (due to how numerous they are), though enemies acquire instant death spells later on.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Prince Ali and Princess Yasmina in the Vault of Tears subplot. Their curse is finally broken after thousands of years.
  • Easing into the Adventure: We get to start the game with Oliver at home and working on a car with Phillip before the adventure begins.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: In the Platoon minigame, the cards in a standard deck are divided into four categories: Kings, Bishops (Aces), Wizards (Jokers) and Regular cards (everything else) which the player and AI organize into five units. Units with Kings beat any unit with only Regular cards, Bishops beat Kings and units with only Regular cards beat Bishops. Wizards are outside the rock-paper-scissors relationships and instead forces the player and AI to switch units, essentially reversing the usual outcomes.
  • Emergency Weapon: Or character. If your familiars stamina runs out and you don't have another familiar to use, you can have the familiar summoner take part in the battle themselves. However, the characters usually have vastly weaker stats than their familiars. The only exception is Oliver, who slowly gets more and more powerful spells to offset his slow stat growth.
  • Endgame+: Beating the Final Boss allows you to reload from the last save. There are now extra sidequests and Optional Bosses available.
  • Epic Fail: It's possible for Drippy to use Tidy Tears, an emergency group heal that triggers randomly at low health, after a Total Party Kill. This... does nothing to help your situation.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: Due to the corrupting influence of a dark crystal. Marcassin, the Emperor of Hamelin Empire, joins your party to try to reverse this.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Shadar, but not initially, as we learn in his backstory.
  • Evil Twin: Oliver has one, Shadar.
  • Exact Time to Failure: Subverted, halfway up the Volcano; Drippy says you have 3 minutes until it erupts; get to the top, he stops the timer and says it was a guess, and that it got you to hurry.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Subverted and then Averted. Ollie and Co. are quite clearly freezing their tails off the first time they visit Winter Wonderland, and are quick to grab some heavy coats and gear from the nearest town. Afterwords they'll automatically change outfits should you choose to revisit.
  • Exposition Fairy: Drippy. Understandable, of course, since he is Oliver's only speaking companion in the other world and Oliver is The Watson.
  • Fake Difficulty: The mandatory Double Play in the Trial of Friendship.
  • Fetch Quest: What the brokenhearted side quests boil down to, although there are traditional ones.
  • Fighter, Mage, Thief: An interesting variation: While Oliver is a mage his first familiars are fighters (as well as having the warrior familiar affinity), then he gets Ester who is also a mage but has more focus on healing, and then Swaine joins the group as the only possible thief in the game. Marcassin just ends up being another mage but comes with a weapon better suited to attacking than magic.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Drippy explains that the monsters you fight don't die when defeated, but go "elsewhere" and then eventually come back. "Hopefully they'll learn not to fight others the next time. Eventually."
  • Fighting Clown: Al-Khemi, to a small extent, is a rare RPG boss example, thanks to his main special attack, "Alakaz...um...", being able to hilariously backfire.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: The final two bosses are fought on a platform out in space that The White Witch teleported you too.
  • First-Episode Twist: Oliver's Mother's death.
  • Fling a Light into the Future: Alicia traveled forward in time in order to find the soul of Shadar's soulmate, which had become lost in limbo thanks to the Dark Djinn's severing of the ties between him and his soulmate. When she discovers it, she uses it give birth to Oliver, allowing one final chance to save the other world from Shadar's reign.
  • Forced Transformation: The party has to navigate the Vault of Tears as frogs. This also happens to all of the townspeople (and two kingdom leaders... and a tank) in the three main kingdoms during the beginning of the White Witch portion of the game. The townspeople become various zombie-esque animal hybrids (like a horse-man and fish-woman), while the kingdom leaders turn into more monstrous versions of their original species.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Drippy and other NPCs note that he was with Alicia the whole time. He really meant that literally.
    • In an early game event, Drippy notes how Fairies are good liars. This should clue the player in that he's not being entirely honest about Alicia's fate.
    • Why can Oliver cast magic when nobody else from Earth can? .....why is there a book of spells hidden in his fireplace?
    • If you pay attention to Phil during the first few scenes before Oliver travels to another world, it becomes real easy to tell that indirectly causing Allie's death weighed down heavily on him. It also shows that he's less of a jerkass than one would first believe, given his attitude prior to her death.
    • Look at Mornstar. Now look at Gallus's staff. The Wizard King's wand, eh?
    • "Swaine" sounds like it has one letter more than "swine", doesn't it? Considering he's one of the princes of Hamelin, which has a pig Animal Motif, that might not be an accident.
  • Forest of Perpetual Autumn: The in the Golden Grove is always in the season of autumn. The trees have gold and orange leaves, and there are large mushrooms throughout the forest.
  • Free Rotating Camera: Even while talking to NPCs. Basically, in any non-voiced cutscene, the camera is freely rotatable.
  • Friendly Fire Proof: Area of effect attacks don't harm your party members.
  • Funetik Aksent: Drippy. In English, he has a Welsh accent; and this is transcribed in the subtitles. This can be confusing for people playing with the Japanese audio since it appears as if Drippy's dialogue is full of typos instead.
  • Fungus Humongous: The mushrooms in the golden grove which you must use magic to grow to massive size. They get used as stairs to advance deeper into the forest.
  • Funny Animal: Cat people live in the other world.
  • Funny Background Event: When Myrtle and her Father are reconnecting, Drippy can be seen in the background trying on and modeling an over sized hat.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Oliver's locket only detects an overabundance of heart when the writers want it to.
    • In the beginning of the game, Drippy states that you need a large amount of space to cast Gateway. Makes sense. Except for the rest of the game, you can cast it anywhere you want, even in tight corridors. Though he insists that it's to make the Gateway look majestic - essentially, style over substance, as when Oliver casts Gateway in a cutscene, the cast is limited to a small area in front of him instead of the huge doorway.
    • Ashes of Resurrection turns those that are afflicted by it into monsters. However, during the final battle, Cassiopeia is able too use it on your party members with the only drawback being its long activation period.
  • Gang of Hats: In the dub, all fairies are apparently Welsh-accented amateur comedians.
  • Genius Loci: The familiars (including all Nobilia types, minus specific non-familiars such as Shadar and Hickory) are all manifestations of "anything that has a soul" which includes people, animals, trees, elements, objects, places, etc. (They're kami, essentially; some of them bordering on Yōkai.)
  • Get on the Boat: But you'll need a Letter of Passage first.
  • Ghibli Hills: What did you honestly expect?
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Zig-zagged. The Zoadiarch council were established as the council of villains at the start of the game. However, nearing the end of the game, it was revealed that they were actually hard-light illusions by the White Witch and have not existed for thousands of yearsnote . Then after you battle the White Witch herself and she has a Heel–Face Turn, they suddenly manifest with the excuse that they were around for so long that the magic has made them real and refuse to cease existence, like there is something Ambiguously Alien keeping their consciousness from fading to beyond the grave... And you have to fight them anyway.
  • Girly Run: Esther.
  • Global Dragon: Tengri, the dragon.
  • Global Currency: Guilders are accepted in every town in the other world.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The familiars. Thankfully in the optional variety of this trope, due to the low catch rate of some familiars. (Though if you're going for all the Trophies, you'll eventually need 250. Fortunately, this can be achieved not just from catching, but also from evolving lower-level forms.)
  • Great Big Book of Everything: The Wizard's Companion. A beastiary, alchemical recipe book, lore book, and more all rolled into one. If you know what you're looking for, you can even obtain certain alchemy items and treasures long before you technically get the ability to find them.
  • Grimy Water: The purple water of the Miasma Marshes poisons the party if it is touched.
  • Grew Beyond Their Programming: The Zodiarchy (minus Gallus) were initially made to serve as Yes-Men to Cassiopeia. After her defeat and reversion, however, they manifested as an Eldritch Abomination with the White Witch's mask as its face.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: Cassiopeia will join you for the final battle.
  • Guide Dang It!: Without looking up where to find certain items and how to attain them, reaching 100% completion is nearly impossible, because of the low drop rates. The same goes for certain familiars.
  • Hard Truth Aesop: If your loved ones die, they can't be brought back, and there's nothing you can do about it, so you have to accept it.note 
  • Hate Sink: This is essentially a story where there are no true villains as both Shadar and the White Witch are revealed to be broken-hearted in their own ways, having been pushed beyond the Despair Event Horizon from the trauma they suffered. However, there are two big exceptions who are both detestable and simply evil just because - the appropriately named Vileheart and the Council of Twelve, reborn in Cassiopeia's imagination as the Zodiarchy.
  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first fight against Shadar is this. Even if you were doing pretty well against him, the battle ends as soon as you take out 1/4 of his HP.
  • Healing Checkpoint: Waystones are mystical save points that can fully restore your HP and MP.
  • Healing Potion: Food items tend to heal a single person, while the actual potions provide party wide healing.
  • The Heartless: Downplayed, thanks to the wild familiars not being as malevolent as the trope implies; however the Nightmares that possess certain broken-hearted (some even in Oliver's World!) play it straight.
  • Heroic BSoD: Oliver gets one when he learns out that Alicia and Allie, his deceased mother, were in fact the same person. He continues nonetheless his quest to Save the World from Shadar (and the White Witch in the PS3 version).
    • His best friend Phil also suffers one after his experimental car caused Oliver's mother's death. You don't actually find out until quite late in the game, surprisingly.
  • Heroic Lineage: Every single playable party member is the child of a Great Sage. Oliver is the son of Alicia, Esther is the daughter of Rashaad, and Swaine and Marcassin are the sons of the emperor-mage of Hamelin.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Oliver continues to fight Shadar knowing that he will die if he defeats him, due to them being soul mates. The only reason he survives is because Shadar severs the link between their souls so Oliver can go on living.
  • Hermetic Magic: Wizards in this setting cast spells by tracing runes in the air with their wands.
  • High-Altitude Battle: Kublai and Oliver engage on this on Cloud Sweepers in the DS version. Tengri enters at one point to chase after Oliver.
  • Hikikomori: Myrtle, due to her father's abuse and strictness, stays in her room even after she gets well until you get the quest to help her.
  • Hong Kong Dub: The English dub. Not as extreme as some examples, but definitely noticeable in some spots, such as in some of the animated cutscenes. However, the dub seems to be much better for it, as certain characters (like Drippy) benefit from not forcing themselves to precisely match their character's lip sync for their dialogue.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight:
    • In Dark Djinn: the lava female monster, if you go directly to the Volcano Summit before going first to the Cave of Trials.
    • The first fight with Shadar after getting the boat in Wrath of the White Witch. Oddly enough, losing this fight still results in a game over.
  • Horned Humanoid: The Cowlipha, a... giant cow woman.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Shadar tore himself apart from his soul-mate; casting their soul into the void. Alicia got it back.
  • Inexplicably Identical Individuals: The Purrprietors, Hootenannies, and Cawtermasters of the inns, item shops, and weaponshops as well as the shopkeepers at Swift Solutions look and act exactly the same no matter where you go. The exception is the Fairyground, where the shops are run by fairies dressed up to look like them. They even try to make the same cat and bird-related puns.
  • In-Game Novel: The Wizard's Companion is available to read in game.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: The Astra wand, and the Sky Tree Wand.
  • Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: As open as the game seems at times, you're pretty restricted on where you can actually go.
  • Internal Reveal: There's quite a bit that is revealed to the player, who is waiting to see how the heroes react when the other shoe drops.
  • Invisible to Normals: Humans on Earth without magic can't see people from the other world, although some can sense them or magic (like Myrtle seeing a Nightmare.) Drippy can't see Pea. (He can see ghosts...)
  • Item Crafting: You can do it anytime after battling the genie. Needed to get better items for a reasonable price. Later, you'll have to do this to create dungeon floors, in the original, anyway. In White Witch you barely have to touch it if you don't want to, though you'll have to if you want to obtain certain Trophies.
  • It's Not You, It's Me: A husband in Ding Dong Dell states this as the reason why he can't be with his wife anymore; it turns out that he's brokenhearted and needs some Love.
  • It Was with You All Along: The last Piece of Heart, Ambition, is obtained from Oliver himself.
  • Jiggle Physics: The Cowlipha, but only in the in-game cutscenes.
  • Kid Hero: Oliver, of course.
  • Last Disc Magic: Evenstar and Astra.
  • Law of Cartographical Elegance
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority: Golden versions of some familiars start popping up in certain dungeons during the Endgame+, being stronger than the dungeons' regular mobs and usually have the best high-alchemy ingredients on their person.
  • Lens Flare: The Billy Boat's Bluff area has a prominent lens flare effect in one area, as well as on a randomly used battle background.
  • Level Grinding: Easily done if you are having trouble with a dungeon or boss.
  • Level-Map Display: The mini-map in the top right of the screen. You can also see the maps of previous dungeons through the Telling Stone.
  • Level-Up Fill-Up: Your HP and MP get restored completely after you level up. However, this only happens when a player character levels up, not any of the character's familiars.
  • Limit Break: Picking up a golden glim in battle gives that character/familiar access to their special move.
  • Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The other world, naturally. The standout is probably the cat king.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: The Prince Marcassin is frequently described as a pretty boy, with the long hair for it too.
  • Loss of Inhibitions: The brokenhearted who have lost their restraint start to indulge in their desires until Oliver restores them.
  • Magical Land
  • Magic Cauldron: The appropriately named genie Al-Khemi, after being defeated, uses a cauldron to help with Item Crafting.
  • Magic Music: How Esther's song abilities work.
  • Magitek: The Magimech enemies. Automata familiars can also qualify given their nature.
  • Mana Potion: Coffee items restore some MP, while the actual potions restore a lot.
  • Manual Leader, A.I. Party
  • Mass Monster-Slaughter Sidequest: Some of the errands you can run. Of course, if they require you to defeat an enemy under a particular condition and you don't fulfill it, then it won't count.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • "Shizuku" is Japanese for "drop", as in the teardrop that brought him to life. Not to mention his general shape is reminiscent of a teardrop. And also his backstory in the Wizard's Companion. This was maintained with his English name, "Drippy".
    • "Oliver" is also the name of a certain other famous orphan.
    • In the English version of the game, Esther is the soul mate of Myrtle in the other world. "Esther" is derived from the heroine of Old Testament lore, an orphan Jewish girl who became queen of Persia and saved her people. Esther was born "Hassadah", which means myrtle in Hebrew. Note that their Japanese names, Maru and Shelley, have no apparent connection, outside of a possible, reaching, reference to Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.
    • The mechanic in Motorville is named "Rusty Cartwright."
    • The fireworks experts who show up in a cutscene in Ding Dong Dell (and as opponents in the Soliseum) are named Roman and Catherine.
    • Tying in with Stellar Name below, the Order of Illusion is made up of three knights named Caph, Segin, and Achird. Fitting, as they are the honor guard of Queen Cassiopeia.
  • Metal Slime: The Toko species. And due to the Mons system, you can actually recruit and play as them. Fittingly, they're Lethal Joke Characters: they (ironically enough) level up incredibly slowly, but their Magic Defence and Evasion spike exponentially at each level.
  • Metamorphosis: Your familiars can go through this to their advanced forms.
  • Mighty Glacier: Shadar's familiar. Exploiting this trope via kiting/hit and run tactics is actually the easiest way to beat it.
  • Missing Mom: Ripped right out from under our noses! Ouch.
  • Money Spider: The enemy familiars are always nice enough to leave guilders behind for you.
  • Mons: The Familiars.
  • Monster Allies: Thanks to the fact that familiars make up almost all the normal enemies in the game, most of them can be defeated and potentially tamed as a familiar.
  • Monster Compendium: Available through the Telling Stone and the Wizard's Companion.
  • Mood Whiplash: Quite a few times, whether humorous or things taking a turn for the worse.
  • Mr. Exposition: Drippy usually fills this role, giving you hints in combat and some basic details on new areas.
  • Multiple Endings: Dark Djinn has a hard-to-get extra ending for clearing the Moya Tower Bonus Dungeon.
  • Mysterious Waif: Pea. She's a phantom created by Cassiopeia after turning into the White Witch.
  • Mystical Plague: Manna, which causes ash to fall like snow, turning all who come in contact with it into violent monsters. It's also considered a Forbidden Spell, for good reason... at least among those who know about it.
  • Never Work with Children or Animals: invoked When Oliver at first refuses to come and save Drippy's world, Drippy grouses that this why they say never work with children.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Big Bad determines by prophecy that Oliver will save their world from said Big Bad, so they send a curse at Oliver while he's still on Earth. The results of this allows him to (accidentally) free Drippy from an earlier curse, who in turn gives him the motivation to go to said world and try to save it.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: To a small extent with the mechanics of the Mandragorer familiar, the only Nobilia type the party can obtain. Unlike the other familiars, it progresses through three metamorphs rather than two, with no choice for a final form coming up after the first. It also appears to lose detail as it morphs, essentially going backwards from a somewhat mean-looking base form (the Wizard's Companion picture of this form makes it look rather ominous) to its baby-looking final form. Finally, it lacks any sort of secondary command (Defend!, Psyche Up!, and Evade!), so it has Flame Fan (a standard, small AOE fire spell) in that place that cannot be switched out. To alleviate this, the species has very high defensive stats and is of the Planet sign, meaning only Double Planet enemies (which are rare to encounter) have a type advantage over it.
  • Notice This: Pots and containers that have items or guilders in them sparkle. As well as the various item find locations on the world map.
  • NPC Roadblock: The Tomte guarding the Glittering Grotto and the guard blocking access to Perdida.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: The Ivory Tower, the final dungeon.
  • Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The White Witch and her meetings with the Zodiarch Council often have trappings of this. For the majority of the game, it's never made clear who or what they are or what they, as a council, actually do, but they're generally seen discussing and deliberating amongst themselves as they watch over Oliver's progress from their lofty council chamber. In the end, it's revealed that the council members are just manifestations of the White Witch's memories and imagination, meaning that for all the airs they put up as being shadowy overseers in an Ancient Conspiracy, it's basically one sad, lonely sorceress with a cadre of imaginary friends.
  • One Game for the Price of Two: The developers originally intended the DS and PS3 versions to be different enough that playing both would be necessary to get the "whole" story. However, this ends up being averted, as the PS3 game is more of an Updated Re-release than one of two similar-but-different gamesnote . There's also a cell phone prequel.
  • One-Gender Race: All fairies, except for the Fairy Godmother, are male.
  • One-Winged Angel: Both Shadar and The White Witch do this.
  • Optional Boss:
    • The Guardian of the World, as well as rematches with stronger versions of bosses from the storyline.
    • Averted in White Witch, where Shazar (Gallus) and many more bonus bosses from Dark Djinn were integrated into the main story and considerably nerfed.
  • Orcus on His Throne:
    • Shadar averts this early in the game, by coming after the party personally and causing them to get into a shipwreck. He then plays it straight by sitting in Nevermore for most of the rest of the game.
    • The White Witch plays it mostly straight by sitting in the Ivory Tower for the entire game, though in the prologue she sabotages the Philmobile to make Oliver fall into a river and assists Shadar in his task to defeat Oliver by giving him the ability to control storms.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: Drippy and his mother look more like Humpty Dumpty than a traditional fairy. However, the Seed Sprite (among other familiars) encountered in the Golden Grove generally averts this.
  • Our Souls Are Different: Everyone in the other world shares their soul with someone in Motorville and vice versa. Drippy calls them "soul mates".
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: Two of them become available after each mode of transportation is acquired for the first time: Ugly Duckling Island, accessible by boat, and Billy Goat's Bluff South, accessible by air. Both house the game's Metal Slimes, and taking the time to grind in these locations makes much of the rest of the game into a cakewalk.
  • Pet Interface: In Dark Djinn, the Familiars can be taken care of in a special screen which allows you to feed, pet, and play with them. White Witch only has the 'feeding' option left.
  • Pig Man: There's a whole army of them. Though they aren't actually pigs. They're men with pig helmets. Does that remind you of anything?
  • Port Town: Castaway Cove.
  • Pun:
    • Almost too many to mention, but one of the cleverest examples occurs in the Vault of Tears — when the party are turned into frogs, Drippy croaks "rarebit, rarebit!" (as opposed to "ribbit") in reference to his Welsh characterization and the national dish. And Swaine, the party thief, croaks "Robbit, robbit!"
    • One that's very easy to miss. When in Motorville, trying to get into the house of Mary, Alicia's soulmate, Oliver and Drippy find themselves repelled by a malignant force. As they start to go elsewhere to try to investigate, Pea, the little girl who keeps mysteriously showing up (and whom Drippy can't see), appears and heads to Mary's house. Oliver reports this to Drippy. If you talk with him again, he might randomly say...
      Drippy: Pea? But you just went, didn't you?
  • Punny Name:
    • The names of the presumed owners of some shops in Motorville:
      • Julie, of Julie's Jewels.
      • Paige Turner of Paige Turner's Books.
    • Most of the monsters/familiars, such as:
      • A sheep-like familiar called Baatender, who can later metamorphose into a Baabarian
      • A thief cat called Cutpurrse (later Purrloiner)
      • A sunshine familiar that can turn into a Wayward Sun.
  • Rainbow Speak: At least in White Witch anyway, just about any important location or object is highlighted in red.
  • Random Drop: Most enemies drop items. Some rare drops are needed for late game alchemy recipes.
  • Random Effect Spell: The Fortune's Fool spell.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Both Shadar and The White Witch appear to have been around for a long, long time.
  • Recurring Traveller: The gentleman that keeps losing his diary, the merchant couple that keeps getting broken hearted and Horace.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: A severely brokenhearted person (enough to spawn a Nightmare) have red irises.
  • Refusal of the Call: Oliver actually refuses to help Drippy at first. Then Drippy makes him An Offer You Can't Refuse...
  • Replay Mode: After completing the story, visiting the Crypt Casino allows Oliver to access a theatre room to re-watch some of the game's cutscenes.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Said word for word by Drippy, because Oliver isn't saving his world for the sake of it, but to save his mother.
  • Rousseau Was Right: Most people's problems can just be cured by undoing Shadar's curses.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The nobility that rules the three major kingdoms of the other world all take an active part in driving the plot and are all accomplished wizards that hand Oliver spells once he helps them with their problems. Two of your party members are even princes of Hamelin.
  • Rummage Fail: During one of his attacks, Al-Khemi searches for a weapon that he can use against Oliver and Esther. Sometimes he pulls out a flaming sword (which is naturally better than his usual one)...other times he pulls out a parasol and gives Oliver a decent opportunity to strike.
  • Save Point: Generally located at the beginning and near the end of a dungeon. They helpfully restore your HP and MP as well as save the game.
  • Scenery Porn: This is the trailer for White Witch. Note especially at around 0:45. There are two frames: the upper one shows the pre-rendered form, and the lower one shows the real time form. They are practically the same. In other words, you will be walking through a Ghibli movie. Not that Dark Djinn is any slouch—the DS does cell-shading well, and it features the same sort of hand-painted look for its maps.
  • Seasonal Baggage: Not quite in the traditional sense since seasons are never seen changing but most of the major islands/countries has a distinct season motif: The areas in Summerlands tend to be bright and hot and one region is home to a town whose inhabitants only wear swimsuits, Autumnia is darker with many areas sporting a death theme, Winter Wonderland is constantly cold and has many snow covered islands, and the fun and lighthearted Teheeti may represent spring with the Fairy God Mother's birth based mission and the fairy ground's Japanese festival theme.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: If the White Witch didn't try to assassinate Oliver (because he's the Chosen One), his mom would not have to save him from a car accident and then die from a heart attack. Thus, Oliver would not have awakened Drippy. Drippy would not have told him about the Sage who's his mom's soulmate. And, therefore, Oliver would not have gone to the other world.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: It's not Oliver who did this. It was his mother.
  • Sequential Boss: Most of the late game bosses either have multiple forms or another boss right afterward.
  • Shout-Out: Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of shout outs to various Studio Ghibli films...
    • The plot itself bears a few similarities to Spirited Away.
    • One of the bosses is a pig-tank called Porco Grosso.
    • In White Witch only, the cutscenes where everyone attack the Final Dungeon are oddly reminiscent of Laputa. Also, some NPCs refer to it as "A Castle In The Sky."
    • A popular charm among the Cloud Reaper riders looks like the robot from Castle in the Sky.
    • There is an NPC called My Neighbor Tomtoro. Also see Metal Slime.
    • The Dark Djinn's One-Winged Angel form's face (and especially mouth) looks like the degraded God Soldier from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Also, the lost kingdom of Nazcaa's pronunciation sounds similar to Nausicaa.
    • Ding Dong Dell isn't Ghibli's first cat based kingdom.
    • The ending has Oliver flying on a broom over his hometown of Motorville, similar to Kiki's Delivery Service.
      • In addition, when you get the errand to deliver curry from Al Mamoon, Drippy refers to Oliver's Delivery Service being in business.
    • Whenever a piece of heart enters or leaves a person, the resulting light bursts look very similar to the falling stars in Howl's Moving Castle.
    • One of the NPCs you obtain ambition from is a boy who dreams of becoming king of the pirates and going on a voyage with friends in search of treasure.
    • The events in the Vault of Tears involve a subplot with characters named Prince Ali and Princess Yasmina.
    • The "Broom Broom" spell sounds like what Mickey used in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
    • Old Father Oak gives Oliver his first familiar and spells to assist him on his journey. Regarding his name, does that sound familiar?
    • "People of the world—come, spice up your lives!" - Sheik of Spice, Al Mamoon.
    • One of the opponents in the Tournament Arc is a guy called Poncho Sanza, likely a reference to the sidekick of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza.
    • Familiars can learn a poison spell called Dark Cloud.
    • Also, there's an attack called the Incredible Ulk.
      • Similarly, one default name for a Spike Tike is "Tyke Myson". In fact, there a few familiars whose default nicknames result in Shout Outs, such as the Naja having "Minaj" for a suggested name.
    • Several overworld locations in Ni No Kuni are named or associated with characters from various Fairy Tales and famous classic novels.
    • Additionally, continuing with the literary theme, one of the possible default names for a tamed Rabbot familiar is "Peter", with another one being "Roger".
    • Other familiar default names also count. For example, Fuddy-Daddy can be called Elmer.
    • When King Tom XIV goes missing, Oliver seeks out his Motorville soul-mate, a cat named Timmy. Finding Timmy leads to the conclusion that Timmy('s alternate universe counterpart) is in the well.
    • The names of King Tom and Timmy are a reference to the British folktale of the King of the Cats, where a traveler passing by a graveyard sees cats holding a funerary procession while carrying a little crown and one of them tells the traveler to "Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum is dead". When he tells the story back home, his cat stands up, declares "Then that means I'm the new king of the cats!" and runs away from home. This gets another shout out during the fight with King Tom turned into a monster. The boss subtitle reads "King Tom Tildrum is Undead".
    • The localization of Wrath of the White Witch has the one who gives Oliver his first real magic wand refer to the dark sorcerer as "You-Know-Who".
    • One of the possessed King Tom's attacks is called "Itchy Scratchy."
    • The late game armor Armor of Justice is said to have belonged to a knight who fought for his friends.
    • Several Non Player Characters in the Fairyground reference British pop culture, including popular sitcom "Only Fools and Horses" and the entertainer Bruce Forsyth.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: The White Witch's cutscenes, while understandably serious, have Apus, and he can be kind of funny at times. Shadar, on the other hand, kills humor dead.
  • Sky Pirates: An entire army (or air force) of them!
  • Soft Reset: An option from the pause menu. Can make it easier to catch elusive enemies like the Tokos, or help with creatures that have long respawn timers (like the Lumberwood) appear more frequently.
  • Starter Mon: Mite, Oliver's first familiar, is explicitly the spirit of his own soul. Each of the party members also brings their own starter with them, though there's no word on whether or not they have the same connection as Oliver and Mite do.
  • Stealth-Based Mission: You have to sneak into the Hamelin palace without being spotted by the guards.
  • Stellar Name: Seems to be a Nazcään thing. The titular White Witch is named Cassiopeia after the constellation, and her honor guard is made up the knights Caph, Segin and Achird, named after three stars within said constellation. along with Queen's deceased magic teacher Horace, true name Horologium, the Sage of Ages.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: Oh no, that volcano is about to erupt! Instead of warning all the townspeople to evacuate, let's go to the volcano and stop it from erupting!
    • Granted, Oliver is the only one capable of doing anything to stop the eruption. Shadar had started the mess in the first place, expecting Oliver to show up. If Oliver had tried to evacuate an entire city on his own, well, that probably would have ended badly anyway.
  • Summon Magic: Oliver's Unleash spells.
  • Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: If you encounter a save point (which also heals your HP/MP) and a Familiar Retreat in a dungeon, expect there to be a boss nearby. (Unless it's the halfway point.)
  • Swamps Are Evil: Literally, in the case of Miasma Marsh.
  • Swiss-Army Tears: They bring Drippy the doll back to life.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: The Mornstar wand.
  • Synchronization: Any person and their soul-mate in the other world with a few exceptions. Also, wizards share Hit Points with their familiars.
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Celestial Star Signs. Sun gives more damage to Moon, which gives more damage to Star, which gives more damage to Sun. Planet is neutral, except against double-Planet; which has bonuses against everything else. (There exists double-signs, which have more of these features.)
  • The Three Trials: The Friendship, Strength, and Wits trials in the appropriately named Temple of Trials. Subverted that there are actually four trials that a wizard must go through if they want to seriously be considered a sage by Solomon, the fourth being purposely unmentioned (except for a small hint in the Wizard's Companion) as a Secret Test for wizards. This last trial is the Solesseum.
  • Time Travel: The "Breach Time" spell; it can only be cast once in a person's lifetime. Only in the PS3 version.
  • Title Drop: Early in the game, Drippy explains to Oliver that there's "another world"note , where he hails from. It becomes somewhat Lost in Translation, as half of the game's title was left untranslated and the world is always called "the other world" in the English text and dub. Only players listening to the Japanese track will actually hear the words "Ni no Kuni", though the subtitles always translate it.
  • Tribal Face Paint: The Forest Folk.
  • Turns Red: The bosses of the three manna-infested kingdoms all have second phases that activate after their HP is depleted the first time.
  • 20 Bear Asses: Some of the errands you can run.
  • Unmoving Plaid: The inside of the White Witch's cloak is space and stars.
  • Untranslated Title: A variant. Ni No Kuni means "Another World", and supposedly wasn't translated for trademark reasons. However, the game's subtitle, Wrath of the White Witch, was translated.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Fairy Godmother swallows the Royal Jelly after believing it to be seafood. It proceeds to attack the littlies and prevent them from being born.
  • Updated Re-release: The 'All-in-one edition' of White Witch includes a bunch of new critters and an extra difficulty setting.
  • Useless Useful Spell: In the DS version's main game, status effects (like poisoning and confusion) tend to be rather useless by virtue of enemies not being as strong as you are (thus not cost-effective) and most bosses being immune. However, there's also Familiar-based PVP as well as a few more challenging sidequests where they come in handy.
  • The Watson: Oliver.
  • Verbal Tic: All the animal people tend to make puns related to their animal. For instance, whenever a cat says a word starting "pr", they pronounce it as "purr".
  • Video Game Stealing: Swaine steals from enemies using his gun, with the Mugshot ability.
  • Voice of the Legion: The White Witch and the council.
  • Warmup Boss: The Guardian Of The Woods. Drippy himself lampshades it, telling Oliver that the Guardian Of The Woods is far stronger than a typical beastie, but he still shouldn't be something that he can't handle.
  • Wham Episode: Oliver learning the truth about his mother.
  • Womb Level: Mummy's Tummy is possibly one of the most bright and cheery examples in existence, in that it also doubles as a preschool.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Both Shadar and the White Witch suffer from this. Both originally people with good intentions, but certain events pushed them over the edge.
  • World of Pun: King Tom of Ding Dong Dell (the cat), to Hickory Dock (a giant mouse, who lives in Ding Dong Well), there's a lot of puns going around.
  • Worthless Treasure Twist: The result of the The Greatest Treasure of All quest is a tombstone stating that the greatest treasure is "a life spent with friends." Drippy comments that this is a bit pretentious, and later that it's "a load of old rubbish."
  • You ALL Look Familiar: A lot of the NPC models are reused.
  • You Can See Me?: Drippy is invisible to the non-magical people in Motorville. Animals can see him, however.
    • One side quest has a girl from the Other World seeing her Other Self in a vision and wanting flowers. Said other self is JUST magical enough to sense Drippy's presence; Drippy naturally does this and then starts shouting at her to get her to react; Oliver scoots away.
  • You Have Researched Breathing: Oliver must spend a merit stamp card in order to learn how to jump. At first it looks like a useless ability, but try it with really slow familiars in battle...
  • You Need to Get Laid: Drippy does a G-rated version after one of the many Derwin sidequests: "This fellow needs to find a girlfriend."
  • You No Take Candle: The Forest Folk speak like this.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Not necessarily for the player, thanks to in-game cutscenes explaining things throughout the game, but the heroes of the story believe that they have saved the world with Shadar's defeat only for the White Witch, the game's real Big Bad, to make herself known. Then it is played fully straight after the White Witch's Heel–Face Turn, when the Zodiarchy reveals itself to have developed its own independent and malevolent will.
  • You Shouldn't Know This Already: Oliver explicitly requires both the correct stroke pattern and knowledge of the spell in order to cast. In Dominion of the Dark Djinn, this meant that even if you had the physical copy of the Wizard's Companion with you, you couldn't cast anything Oliver didn't have in his own copy.

"Let us see how this story unfolds. I'm sure the ending will be... engaging."

 
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I Can't Do It

In "Ni no Kuni," when Drippy asks Oliver to come with in to the world of Ni no Kuni to help him fight the dark mage Shadar, Oliver refuses him outright at first.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

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Main / RefusalOfTheCall

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