Studio Ghibli’s DS game, Ni No Kuni, not coming to the West.
Quite possibly the most depressing news to come out of today – the much awaited and revered collaboration between developers Level-5 and animation group Studio Ghibli, Ni No Kuni, will not be coming to the west any time soon. In an interview with AndriaSang, Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has said that the main reason is quite a big one – the “Magic Master” spell book that comes bundled with the game will prevent the game from being released and localised for overseas distribution.
Blame this.
We should note that the PS3 version, which is being localised, is using a digital version of the Magic Master book, and as such it doesn’t face the same problems – could cartridge size be holding Level-5 back?
Either way, it’s nice to speculate, but it’s a huge shame we won’t be seeing Ni No Kuni on our DS consoles any time soon. Were you looking forward to Ni No Kuni? Do your plans change with this announcement – will you buy the PS3 version instead or just import it?
This makes me very sad 🙁 I watched the first 30min posted on YouTube and the game looks amazing on the DS (secretly hoping for 3DS version??!!).
I’m very likely to pick up the ps3 version as I love the Studio Ghibli art and the wonderful music.
I wonder tho if they released a 3DS version could the magic book be integrated in similar way to how you can view game manuals like with Mario 3D Land?
I am going to end up importing and relying on the Kanji to roughly understand the story
Don’t see why they are not looking at a 3DS release unless Level-5 is scared that the install base is too small
Can’t see why they would be “scared” for a 3DS release? 3DS is selling well now and because of the pokemon-like aspect of this game, I can’t see there being much of a problem to get released on the 3DS. I hope it does 🙂
I’ll probably buy it on the PS3 now, but a physical version of that book would’ve been AWESOME 🙁