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The worlds of gaming and movies rarely join together with any kind of success. Rushed tie-ins, lacklustre big-screen conversions, that not-so super Mario Bros. movie. No, the spheres of gaming and film should be kept apart. Except, that is, when something truly magical happens, like the genius of the world's greatest 2D animation studio meeting the brains behind a much-loved gaming series. Like when Studio Ghibli met Level-5 and Ni no Kuni was born.Awkwardly named and quietly released, the PlayStation 3 role-player was easily overlooked when it turned up back in January of this year. Reports of the game selling out were more due to limited stock supplies, and its brief victory at the top of the UK charts was simply a product of it being the only new release in one of the quietest periods of the year.
Ni no Kuni was billed as a playable Studio Ghibli film, another of the Japanese animation house's wonderful fantasy worlds now stretched out for you to explore at will. It was never quite that, despite its warped picture book villains and cackling impish companions. It was still very much a game, a structured world with some rather traditional JRPG tropes - but never less than a shining example of the genre, even without Ghibli's involvement.
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