History VideoGame / NiNoKuni

** Several overworld locations in Ni No Kuni are named or associated with characters from various FairyTales and famous classic novels.

* AlternateUniverse: The other world, to a degree; but what really fits this trope is [[spoiler: the alternate Motorville that The Conductor takes Oliver to after you beat the BonusBoss; 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.]]

* AmbitionIsEvil: 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 been 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 [[LeeroyJenkins 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.

** In the controversial BettingMiniGame, 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.

* BigDamnHeroes: Oliver has this when he finally wakes up after learning that [[spoiler: 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.

* CatchAFallingStar: In ''Jet-Black Mage'', [[spoiler: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]].

* CheckPointStarvation: 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.

* AChildShallLeadThem: Massively [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]]. [[spoiler: 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 a kingdom effectively, that ended up making her the perfect [[PuppetKing 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.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Oliver.

* SeasonalBaggage: 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 is home to a town that must only wear swimsuits, Autumnia is darker with many areas with 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 fairyground's japanese festival theme.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: If the White Witch didn't try to assassinate Oliver because he's the ChosenOne, his mom might not have tried to save him, might not have died because of a weak heart being strained, then Oliver might not have awakened Drippy, Drippy might not have told him about the Sage that's his mom's soulmate, and Oliver might not have his motivation to enter the other world.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: [[spoiler: It's not Oliver who did this, it's his mother.]]

** The names of King Tom and Timmy are a refference to the brittish folk tale 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 [[spoiler: King Tom turned into a monster. The boss subtitle reads "King Tom Tildrum is Undead"]].

* SkyPirates: An entire army of them!

* YouCanSeeMe: Drippy calls Myrtle "Starey Mary" because of her tendency to look outside her window for long periods of time, unless someone looks back at her. He tells Oliver only he can see and hear him, until Myrtle confirms that her nickname was "Starey Mary".

* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: Oliver must spend a merit stamp card in order to learn how to jump.

On our journey through [[TitleDrop another world.]]"''

* CutsceneViewer: After completing the story, visiting the Crypt Casino allows Oliver to access a theatre room to re-watch some of the game's cutscenes.

* OrcusOnHisThrone: [[spoiler: 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.]]

* {{Pun}}: Almost too many to mention, but one of the [[ShownTheirWork 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!"
* PunnyName: Most of the monsters/familiars.
** Examples include 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...

** In the ''Jet-Black Mage'', there is also a DreamWorld you get to as Oliver alone, when you check in the inns. You can solve some riddles there using the book. [[spoiler:There is also a BonusBoss there, on-par with late Moya Tower bosses]].

* DummiedOut: A close inspection of ''Jet-Black Mage'' reveals the book was once planned to be included in the game, as there is a button for the "Rune Book" in the beta.
** Many graphics for scenes that were included only in ''White Witch'' went unused as well. In turn, the (animated!) cutscene for when Oliver first enters Ninokuni is left out, though it can be still be viewed in the casino's theater with the rest of the games cutscenes.
** If one views the animations for certain Nobilia type creatures (starting with Mandragorer up to the Guardian of the Woods), one will notice that they all share the same amount of animations with the other familiars, ''including eating animations'', suggesting that they were probably meant to be catchable at some point[[note]]That, or it's just light foreshadowing of something reveal late in the post-game.[[/note]]. Once this is noticed, it also becomes obvious that each of these Nobilia creatures also only have four forms, much like regular familiars.

* AccentAdaptation: Characters from Oliver's world (loosely based on America in TheFifties) speak with applicable UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents, but most characters from Drippy's world (including Drippy himself, who is voiced with a boisterous Welsh accent) speak with UsefulNotes/BritishAccents, undoubtedly to enhance the [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy fairy-tale, medieval setting]]. The exception is Allie, Oliver's mum, who also has an English accent in Oliver's world. [[spoiler: Who isn't an exception.]]

* DubNameChange: Drippy for Shizaku, Esther for Maru, and Motorville for Hotroit. Among other monster and town names. In short, ''anyone'' who isn't named [[TheHero Oliver]] gets subjected into this.

** This name change adds a BilingualBonus, though. [[spoiler:Myrtle is Esther's alternate self, and the biblical queen Esther's alternate name was Hadassah, which is Hebrew for... myrtle.]]

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: You eventually gain the ability to fly across TheOverworld atop a ''dragon.''

* YouWouldMakeAGreatModel: One of the quests involves Con the Artist asking Oliver to find a WildChild and invite her to pose for one of his paintings. Despite Con's PunnyName, nothing untoward comes out of this.

*** Ding Dong Dell, NPC Tommy Stout, and the plot scenario that surrounds him is based on a British Nursery Rhyme (Alternately called DingDongBell), with the lines, "Ding, dong, bell, Pussy’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 pussy cat, Who ne’er did him any harm, But killed all the mice in the farmer's barn"

* BilingualBonus: 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 ... [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar "shit"]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: While the humor remains particularly kid-friendly, there's quite a few things that only an adult would understand.
** During the Old Smoky segment (see ExactTimeToFailure), Drippy drops what is clearly a [[GoshDarnItToHeck G-Rated]] ClusterFBomb.
** After you clear The Vault of Tears and reunite [[spoiler: Prince Ali and Princess Yasmina]], Swaine mentions the two would probably like some time alone. Oliver obviously doesn't get it, but the implication is clear. And for bonus points, where do you find the two of them after the dungeon is cleared? In Al-Mamoon's hotel.
** Drippy at one point tells a Piece of Heart donator to "[[LieBackAndThinkOfEngland lie back and think of Al-Mamoon.]]"
** When the party meets Horace the ghost in the ice continent, he complains that even he can feel the cold. Drippy replies that it's "cold enough to freeze yer ghoulies off." Even with it being a ghost pun, there's ''still'' little else it could mean in context besides "testicles." It's barely hidden.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Zig-zagged. The Zoadiarch council were established as the villains at the start of the game. However, nearing the end of the game, it was revealed that [[spoiler: they were actually hard-light illusions by the White Witch and have not existed for thousands of years]][[note]]except that one of them is actually her father as a ghost[[/note]]. Then after you battle the White Witch herself and she has a HeelFaceTurn, they suddenly manifest [[spoiler:with the excuse that they were around for so long that the magic has made them real and refuse to cease existence... And you have to fight them anyway]].

* CheckPointStarvation: 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, it's a restart. It gets extremely frustrating after you fail at the Zodiarch battles twice straight.

* 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]] Perhaps it was bad timing, coming out too soon after the Japanese fans felt like they got burnt upon the release of ''White Witch''[[/Note]]

* 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.

* There is also ''Hotroit Stories'', a prequel for cell phones released through Level-5's ROID service. Sadly, TheOtherWiki reported that this would turn out to be a StillbornFranchise for reasons unknown, with no further episodes added after the initial one on release.

* There is also ''Hotroit Stories'', a prequel for cell phones released through Level-5's ROID service.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The BigBad determines by prophecy that Oliver will save their world from said BigBad, so they send a curse at Oliver while he's still on Earth. The results of this gives him the motivation to go to said world and try to save it.

An animated film adaptation of ''Anime/NiNoKuni'' produced by OLM and Creator/WarnerBros 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. BoxOfficeBomb, and Creator/{{Netflix}} picked the film up as an 'Original' and streamed it worldwide on January 16, 2020.

An animated film adaptation of ''Anime/NiNoKuni'' produced by OLM and Creator/WarnerBros 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. Box Office Bomb, and Creator/{{Netflix}} picked the film up as an 'Original' and streamed it worldwide on January 16, 2020.

An animated film adaptation of ''Anime/NiNoKuni'' produced by OLM and Creator/WarnerBros has been announced and was released in Japan on August 23, 2019. It will be an original story, heavily inspired on the premise of the original, instead of a direct or close adaptation. Creator/{{Netflix}} picked the film up as an 'Original' and streamed it on January 16, 2020.