The next entry in the well-regarded Ni no Kuni series has been announced for a 2020 release, but unfortunately, it will be an MMORPG for mobile from Netmarble and Level-5. That's not tidy, is it?
The game is called Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds and will be releasing in Japan for iOS and Android, according to Gematsu. Right now, we haven't heard a confirmation for a Western launch of the game.
Like Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, this will be an action-RPG, but this time, it is being developed by the staff behind Lineage 2: Revolution. Regardless of the new team behind the game, it will be bringing back the series' signature cel-shaded graphics that the legendary Studio Ghibli helped formulate. According to the developers, it will have "high-quality cutscenes," and it will bring back the songs by the wonderful composer Joe Hisaishi that we know and love from the series so far.
In this adventure, you play as a beta tester for a VR game called Soul Divers, but as your character progresses through the world, they realize that they've been transported to an actual place, Evermore (Ni no Kuni 2's setting). And in true J-RPG fashion, you realize you have to save both your world and this one from darkness and ruin.
Despite being a mobile release, Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds will be running on Unreal Engine 4 and will have a fully-featured combat system with five different classes to choose from. The Destroyer deals blows with their big hammer and acts as a tank with defense abilities. The Witch casts debuff attacks on enemies and invincibility skills, while wielding a spear. The Rogue uses the bow and can buff their friends in the party. The Engineer shoots targets at long range with a rifle and can heal their allies. And lastly, the Swordsman is a tank and can debuff enemies to reduce their damage output.
The MMO will have both PvP and PvE across a variety of different modes like Kingdom Battles, which has you and another player in a siege. You can build your own kingdom in Cross Worlds, similarly to Revenant Kingdom. It was actually one of the highlights of the sequel, which lets you get the dopamine of seeing your kingdom grow from the missions you complete. The end goal of Cross Worlds is to have a capital city by winning PvP throne battles and other players will fight for dominance over the area. Sounds interesting!
You'll also be able to collect over 100 familiars like Oliver in the first Ni no Kuni. It seems like this MMO is trying to bring all the fantastic gameplay elements of the series into one game, and that sounds incredible. It's too bad this is stuck on Japanese mobile phones for the time being. Fingers crossed we'll see a console release published by Bandai Namco!