Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom will receive a simultaneous PlayStation 4 and PC launch this year, according to publisher Bandai-Namco. At the company’s 2017 showcase held yesterday in San Francisco, this upcoming sequel served as one of the main attractions, and received a hands-off demo for the crowd. Bandai-Namco also announced Ni No Kuni II will see a worldwide launch—a much different scenario than the 14 months separating the Japanese and American launches of Wrath of the White Witch.
Though no one had a chance to play Revenant Kingdom at the event, Bandai-Namco released plenty of details about Ni No Kuni’s next sequel. The game will once again feature the talents of Studio Ghibli’s Joe Hisaishi and Toshihiro Kuriaki, who gave 2013’s Wrath of the White Witch its distinct look and sound. While this aspect isn’t changing, Revenant Kingdom’s battle system looks to be a major improvement for the series, and appears to drop the whole “monster collecting” angle developer Level-5 eventually offloaded into their hit series, Yokai Watch. Now, enemy encounters revolve around “Higgledies,” small, Pikmin-like creatures of different elemental dispositions who attack enemies en masse.
While we don’t yet know the actual release date of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, it’s heartening to see developer Level-5 apparently tackling some of the previous game’s problems, while doubling down on its finer qualities. It also helps that this console sequel stands as an original game, unlike Wrath of the White Witch, which took the form of a somewhat inelegant adaptation of a DS game. In any case, stick with Fandom for more about Revenant Kingdom as we draw closer to its release date.