Been playing Ni no Kuni for about five or six hours over the past week or so. I started out really optimistic for this game. Right at the start I was thinking "oh wow, we get to run around and explore a Ghibli world! Oooh yes!" Then it was charming and endearing for a while. Then I started to find the frquency with which I was pulled into the battle screens (with the pre- and post-battle animations) a bit grating. The respawn rates and the population of enemies is intense!
And then in the third zoned area I wanted to quit out to make some food, but of course I couldn't without losing what I'd been doing as you can't save in those places except at the save stone things. So I was running around for another 40 minutes fighting seemingly endlessly respawning enemies over and over until I found my way to a save point. Just don't think I can push through all that. I like a number of things about the game, but the combat is not one of them - and there is far, far too much of it. The lack of save points might be the final issue that puts me off this game.
Aaanyway, I also noticed Deathloop come up on Gamepass and had a play around with that for a bit. Played through the tutorial and the first loop and finding it, well, intriguing enough to want to play some more. So I will be putting Ni no Kuni aside for this for the next couple of weeks I guess.
