Journeying into the exciting Ghibli-like world of Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, you'll find numerous changes in this title that wouldn't be understood or recognized if you haven't played the previous entries. With six different titles launched in total — but only two considered main entries and the rest mobile games, many were shocked to find out that the newest game would be mobile-first, PC and console second. And not just that, but being undertaken by a new developer.

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However, despite that, the world of Ni No Kuni is still mostly intact. Some differences come from the world changing, while others deal with the game's overall structure. While it's only normal for a series to adapt and change over time for a new market, Cross Worlds by far has the most in the entire series.

10 Welcome Back Evermore

Evermore Kingdom Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds

After the attempted assassination at the beginning of Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, Evan decides that he's going to build a new kingdom. As the game progresses, Evan learns of the atrocities of Goldpaw, his neighbor, and how to become a proper king.

Only fans of the original series will know that Evermore was founded this way, and wasn't originally a hub for everyone to travel to like it is in Cross Worlds. It seems as though Evan's wish of wanting Evermore to be a uniting front for everyone across the world succeeded, seeing as how Evermore is open to everyone equally.

9 Familiar Hack And Slash

Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds Hack And Slash Fighting

One of the main aspects of Ni No Kuni is its combat system, which has drawn controversy in the past due to its shifting from one title to another. The original game had a sort of Pokemon style to it, where you would use familiars to battle for you. In Ni No Kuni 2, a more in-depth combat system replaced familiars.

On the other hand, Cross Worlds takes a different approach to this, and uses both systems. Some of you will enjoy using familiars again, while attacking with an exciting combat system.

8 Descendant Of A King

Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds Descendant Lucilion And Ancestor Evan

When you're beginning Cross Worlds, you're tasked with killing some monsters in the sewer of the Evermore kingdom. In these sewers, you meet the main enemies of the game, a shrouded bunch of evil criminals that are kidnapping Lucilion Pettiwhisker Tildrum — the current king of Evermore.

This name should spark some interest if you've played the previous game. After you rescue Lucilion, he tells you he's the current king of Evermore, even though he's young and inexperienced. Based on his name, you can infer that he is a direct descendant of Evan Pittiwhisker Tildrum, the first king of Evermore.

7 Competitive Higgledies

A Group Of Higgledies Together

If you played Ni No Kuni 2, you'd most likely remember the Higgledies. These little creatures were a substitute for the familiars in the previous game. They function in a similar way, except that you could unlock new Higgledies by finding them spread throughout the world. You could switch them in and out of combat to perform various tasks, such as healing, regenerating MP, and shielding your party.

However, in Cross Worlds, Higgledies takes a backseat role. They're used as plot elements later in the story, when you speak with the fairies, and as a goal to collect when playing competitive team battles.

6 Ghibli Art Style

Cherry Tree Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds

As many fans of the series will know, Japanese studio Level-5 were the original developers Ni No Kuni. However, for Cross Worlds, Level-5 decided to let South Korean mobile specialist Netmarble take over.

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For Netmarble to make an impact though, they would have to try and replicate the Ghibli art style that the games series had held onto for years. While Cross Worlds does a good job replicating the art style, you may not realize it's Ghibli-inspired due to its mobile-focused 3D art style.

5 Swift Solutions Errands

Swift Solutions Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds

Swift Solutions is back again with more side quests, and if you've played the earlier games you'll remember that this chain of stores was in every town. It offered exciting, high-quality rewards that could make the game easier and more fun to play. Unfortunately, in Cross Worlds, Swift Solutions is stripped of many things that made it great.

Initially, Swift Solutions offered errands and bounties for you to complete, earning Merit Rewards in return. While errands are still available in Cross Worlds, bounties are left to another NPC, which exclusively offers mini-boss hunts. The errands are typically killing requests that offer XP and basic supplies, leaving Swift Solutions fairly useless unless you get a gacha rare errand.

4 New Auto Battling

Auto Battle Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds

In Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, one of the main changes is the switch to mobile-centric gameplay. Because of this, many things you may have loved in the previous games has been removed or adjusted to fit a mobile audience. One of these is battling monsters manually.

Now, while the option to battle manually still exists, by turning off the auto-battle function, it's pointless to do so if you realistically want to progress further in the game. Everything is automated, from you and your monsters attacking to having an AI idle mode to farm EXP and loot for you while you're offline.

3 New Puzzles

Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds Tetro Puzzles

One of the more interesting things you'll probably notice is the absence of challenging puzzles. In Ni No Kuni 2, there were sections of the game where you'd go through trials, and to beat them you'd have to do a bunch of challenging puzzles to prove that you were ready to be the king.

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To replace the puzzling trials, they brought in Tetro puzzles. To complete these, you need to level up your character to unlock them, grind for resources to gacha pull puzzle pieces, and then put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. While these may not be a head-scratcher like in the previous title, they are a way to make your character more powerful.

2 Open World Exploration

Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds Open-World

The most significant and noticeable change is the open world. In the earlier entries, you could freely roam around and fight monsters in encounter-type situations. There were even boats you could use to cross the ocean and visit new areas.

However, the open-world formula has been severely limited in Cross Worlds. There are open areas around the map, but they restrict you in terms of where you can go and what you can find. The most you will find are chests and monuments to gain power and items.

1 Magical Story Formula

Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds - Virtual Reality And Magic

Because of the Ghibli-like feel of the video game and the fantasy-like setting, tons of magic is explored in the previous entry's stories. It's a parallel world you are transported to, like a Japanese isekai. Many of you loved this concept, and it became exceedingly popular.

On the other hand, Cross Worlds has gone down a different path, bringing in virtual reality. The story follows characters who deep dive into virtual reality, and the parallel world is just a game that you either become trapped in, or are transported to. The magical world with hundreds of years of history was suddenly turned upside its head.

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