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A collaboration between revered film animators Studio Ghibli and the games developer Level-5, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is billed as a joint effort by two of the great populists of Japanese entertainment. It's a significant move from Ghibli in particular, whose leading light Hayao Miyazaki has made his mistrust of video games clear in the past, and whose delightful films - from Laputa: Castle in the Sky to Ponyo - usually have strong moral themes: environmentalism, work ethic, the strength of family and the power of imagination.Does Ni no Kuni - which translates as Second Country, or Another World - feel like a true Ghibli game? Very nearly. It has the wistful look, certainly, and a wonderfully evocative orchestral score by Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi, and a scattering of gorgeous hand-drawn interludes by the animators. The story of an orphan boy called Oliver journeying to a fantasy world after the death of his mother follows a familiar Ghibli theme - a lonely child bravely growing up before his time - and is told with elegant sentiment.
In truth, Ni no Kuni doesn't quite possess the surreal wildness, the passionate message or the delicate intimacy of Ghibli at its best. It gets close on occasion, but it also has some rather workmanlike passages and conventional tropes. You're aware that Level-5 is doing the legwork while putting on its best Ghibli impression. That's not a big problem - the studio has already practised that impression in its work on Dragon Quest and Professor Layton, and it's an accomplished understudy.
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