rain!!!!!!

This is a basic review on a game called rain. It's supposed to be spelled in lowercase by the way. That is how it is stylized.





My previous post is a guide on the first five bosses of Ni no Kuni, but this game is so amazing that I had to put up a post on it.


In rain, you play as a boy who is completely invisible unless he stands out in the rain (and it rains constantly in the game. It is the only thing about this game that never changes). He is even invisible to the player, as the only way to keep track of him is by watching for footsteps or footprints (depending on the environment). The "invisible when dry" mechanic is often used to solve puzzles.


This game is often known for making the player feel "lonely". Not sure what that means because it never had that kind of effect on me.



The puzzles are somewhat simple and you can probably figure them fairly easily. Plus there is a hint button.


The game also has minor stealth elements, as the boy and later the girl (who is also invisible unless in the rain) must sneak past what look like skeletal dog monsters, a weird rhino like beast, and the major villain, the unknown. Literally. That is what it is called. The unknown. Who is downright terrifying once it notices the boy. It has a very long finger too. Making it even creepier.



If you look closely you can see the unknown on
the far left of the image.


But this is a puzzle game, so don't expect epic jump-scares. Oh and the unknown can kill the boy and the girl in one hit. Also it is invisible unless wet or covered in mud. And no, you cannot fight the unknown. Why? It can instant-kill you, it can smash apart cover from the rain, and it can climb walls (albeit very slowly). Also the world of rain is the world of the unknown. Nothing can escape the unknown. NOTHING. AT ALL. Or maybe something CAN stop it. Or not. You have to play the game to find out if one can stop the unknown.


But anyway, no location in this game outstays it's welcome. Soon enough the boy finds himself in a admittedly spooky factory, an abandoned church, a sewer, a circus, a France inspired town, and very late in the game a stone maze-like facility. All the while the unknown is in hot pursuit.


The game also has a very vague but interesting story. Even the very first quote is confusing: "Perhaps if he has not become lost in the night, maybe he would still be there". There are theories over what the story (and more importantly, the unknown itself) symbolize/represent.


This is what I know of the story. Both the boy and the girl are suffering from a fever, as explained by the text that appears to narrate the events of the game. The girl is obviously in the more severe stages of the fever, as she frequently stops to cough or pant. A popular theory is that the unknown IS the fever itself. But it is nothing more than a theory. I don't have a theory, because I am not one to theorize. BUT another important detail is that there is a door to light (a.k.a. the real world) and Light appears to be the only thing that can harm the unknown, for when the unknown looks at the light it suddenly starts "burning" (shown by trails of smoke and a sizzling noise)


Then ending leaves a ton to perspective by the way. Oh and I should mention that you cannot control the camera in any sort of way. It is fixed and automatically changes angle as you progress. Which to me is alright as it creates a cinematic experience. In fact one might say that this very video game is like a silent French film due to the French type architecture and music (save for when the unknown appears, in which case the music becomes ominous like in a very well made horror film. Not that I like horror films. I prefer a classic family friendly comedy)



Another thing I should mention is that the boy and the girl will still be visible no matter what if they step in mud. (mud makes there feet visible).


And that is about it. Relatively short. This is a short but sweet game. And rain is available for purchase on the PS3 (in fact it was published BY Sony themselves) and is currently download only. For more info please go to Wikipedia or the official site.

Ni no Kuni tips and tricks (for beginners)!!!!! Part 1

This post is my second Ni no Kuni post, but it is a guide/tutorial/walk-through/tips and tricks kind of thing. And this guide only teaches you about The First Five bosses (because the game is long-ish) and how to build a decent end-game team of Familiars. Also I have forgotten some bits of the story here and there so I apologize if I leave anything out. NOTE: ALL IMAGES ARE EITHER FOUND ON GOOGLE.


                        DISCLAIMER 
This post may contain spoilers. Don't throw away hours of epic playtime just because YOU wanted to know the ending (which is epic).




Okay now for those of you that don't know what Ni no Kuni is it is basically Studio Ghibli's masterpiece of a video game. Studio Ghibli is famous for making really good movies (Spirited Away, Ponyo, etc) but this is the first time they helped make a video game. The story? Well basically you play as Oliver, a young well mannered 12-ish year old boy whose mother died of a heart attack. So sad!!!!!!!! Anyway, while crying for his mother, Oliver's tears bring his favorite doll to life (meet Mr. Drippy!). Mr. Drippy says that he is from a alternate dimension in which everyone from the real world has a counterpart or "soul mate" in the Other World. As luck would have it, Oliver's mother's soul mate is a wizard named Alicia (Oliver's mother is also named Alicia) that has been trapped in a crystal called the Soul-snare by a evil wizard named Shadar (spoiler alert! Shadar is actually Oliver's soul mate!).


Oliver, thinking that by releasing Alicia (wizard) from the Soul-Snare will bring his mother back, heads off into a grand adventure.


Now the guide really begins. After a few tutorials on how to play the game, Oliver begins to become a wizard himself (it's nice to see the main hero is NOT a tank or a damage-per-second like in most RPG's). Soon enough he gains the power to summon Familiars (called ImaJins in the Japanese version). Familiars are little pet/minion dudes that you can control. Word of advice, don't use Oliver himself once you get a Familiar because Oliver has REALLY low hp and defense at the start so Use the default familiar a lot (it's called a Mite.)



Mite!


The first boss of the game is Guardian of the Woods who is fought when Oliver and Mr. Drippy visit Old Father Oak to learn how to fix broken hearts (Shadar has been stealing emotions from humans, causing them to act bizarre. The victims are often called "heartbroken" or sometimes "brokenhearted"). The Guardian has gone berserk when Shadar started breaking hearts .




Here is my guide.

1. He is a fairly easy boss. The only advice I have is to just send out your Mite familiar and spam the attack button, healing when necessary (at this point Oliver can heal himself. The Familiars HP will match Oliver's, by the way.). And don't forget to use Mite's special ability: Cut Loose, where Mite slashes randomly hitting every enemy (or boss) on screen. All Mites carry daggers and shields by the way.
2. Don't forget to block his Windfall attack. It's crazy deadly at this point in the game.
3. The Guardian of the Woods, like all bosses, will sometimes drop a Gold Glim that enables Oliver or the Mite (by the way you can name him) to use a super attack.

After defeating the Guardian, he returns to normal, and drops a spirit orb thing. It will become very important in the future.

After getting into the first city, Ding Dong Dell, the citizens mock Oliver's outfit as being strange. So Mr. Drippy takes Oliver to the Hootique, a store selling provisions, clothes, and snacks for your Familiars (Familiars live off of chocolate, pie, cake, bonbons, flans, bananas, and ice cream. All of which makes them more powerful but is a very questionable diet). Anyway, the Hootique staff gives Oliver a outfit for free but tells Oliver he has to wait at least one day because the staff must re size the outfit. After staying the night at the local hotel, Oliver gets a Middle-Ages themed outfit. Oliver is now ready to visit the ruler of Ding Dong Dell. A giant cat named King Tom (the XIV) who has lost all enthusiasm for his kingdom. Because Shadar stole it all. At this point Oliver can borrow emotion from someone feeling too much of said emotion and refills King Tom's enthusiasm.

 King Tom promises to give Oliver a wand (up until now Oliver was using a wooden stick to use magic) but quickly goes missing. Drippy and Oliver find Tom's soul-mate, a cat named Timmy Toldrum. Timmy has been chasing mice (despite the fact that he is too old to do so) and King Tom has been fighting his arch-nemesis, King Hickory Dock the Mouse.

 

Hickory is the second boss so here is my guide

1. My advice is to repeat the Guardian of the Woods strategy because Hickory is slightly tougher but the same tricks work.
2. Block his Tailwind attack because unless you did some grinding in Ding Dong Well (the lair of Hickory) in advance it is a instant kill.
3. Take advantage of the Dumbelemur Familiar the kid guarding Ding Dong Well gave you ahead of time.

 

Dumbelemur!

I can't remember what happens past that point but do remember that Drippy said something about going to Al Mamoon to see one of the Sages (really strong wizards). To do that you need to go through Golden Grove and you get yet another Familiar but I forgot what it was called. Oh yeah! It was called Seed Sprite. Now Seed Sprite is not a good choice for combat because it has literally no defense whatsoever. That is why you need Evade. Evade guarantees you won't take ANY damage at all if you time it right. Personally I never click the Evade button ever. I clicked it once out of the entire game which was during a later boss.

Speaking of bosses, you have to fight the Guardian of Golden Grove to get to the other side.

  

This is the first hard boss of the game. Here are some tricks

1. Gladiataur as he is called can absolutely wreck you if you aren't careful. Block his attacks and try to use long range attacks (Cut Loose, Pebble Pelt etc).
2. When his health is halfway down, he throws away his weapons and gains the ram attack (forgot what it's called).
3. Drippy actually helps the player in this fight. He throws Gladiataur's shield at him, stunning him briefly. How he could lift it is beyond me.
4. Heal often

I completely forgot everything past that save the Great Sage in Al Mamoon refuses to teach Oliver more magics. So Oliver returns to the real world to fix The Great Sage's soul-mate's heart (Shadar can break hearts in both worlds). After that I forgot what happens save that at some point The Great Sage takes Oliver and a girl named Esther (she is the Great Sage's daughter) to his sensei, the Supreme Sage (spoiler alert! He hosts a mini-game where you have to battle optional bosses one after the other). Why? Because Oliver needs to know how to get his Familiars to their full potential. Oh and Esther has a Familiar, the penguin-in-a-wizard-costume Familiar that is Drongo (the default name is Go-go)

Anyway The Supreme Sage has set some puzzles for you in advance, one of which is a boss battle that is so easy you don't need a real strategy to beat it. Even though the boss is a epic six armed robot thing. The puzzles are simple once you realize what you are doing but LOOK tough.

Afterwards you learn how to catch (or tame as it is called) wild Familiars as well as how to make low tier Familiars become stronger through Morphing. Here I will put a guide to make a decent mid game team.

1. Keep your Mite.
2. Get a Bone Head (they are the skeleton dudes roaming around the desert regions)
3. Maybe a Little Bighorn from the upcoming dungeon.
4. Keep Go-Go (because he casts some decent magic spells)
5. Maybe a Rhinosaur 
6. One of the three Familiars the Supreme Sage gives you (your choice. I recommend the Boggly-Boo Familiar because when it is fully Morphed it can learn instant kill moves Like Final Curtain or Evil Embrace as well as electrical attacks like Thunder-Storm.).

And the final part of this guide is on the Old Smoky Dungeon. Oliver and friends have to stop a nearby volcano from exploding and around the time you are halfway up the mountain Mr. Drippy says that you have only THREE minutes to stop the eruption. Once you get to the top however, Drippy reveals that he lied so that Oliver and Esther would rush up the mountain. I forgot to mention that Mr. Drippy speaks with a Welsh/Scottish accent.

But when you get to the very top Oliver comes face to face with Shadar (this whole time Shadar and the White Witch have been discussing how to destroy Oliver, because he alone can ruin their plan to create a new world by destroying the old one. By this time they decided on sending the Guardian of the Volcano to do it for them). Shadar summons the Guardian of the Volcano, Moltaan, to fight Oliver and friends.

 

Moltaan is a decently powerful boss. Here are the tricks I like using when fighting him.

1. Always use Oliver's Frostbite Spell. It's SUPER EFFECTIVE against him (Pokemon reference!)
2. Always block when he uses Volcanic Roar and Tail Flail. You can avoid his third special, Blazing Breath, simply by running out of the way.
3. Heal Often or stock up on Healing Items.
4. Ignore Esther at this point because unless you grind for XP ahead of time she is too under-leveled to help at all.
5. Only use regular attacks if you run out of magic.

Stay tuned to PART 2 of my Ni no Kuni Guide. I am doing this guide in parts because the game is very long and doing it in one post would take ages.