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Ninokuni is one of those games I eagerly anticipate. After watching the trailer numerous times, I found myself emotional, attempting to piece together what I could understand of the story. Perhaps this is because Ninokuni is going to be one of those games that focuses on several themes that you only see in Disney movies. I always believed that Sora from Kingdom Hearts was supposed to be the embodiment of the Disney kid – someone who has a sense of wonderment and discovery, but also possess the childlike innocence that many of us who have grown older have long forgotten. Thankfully, this editorial isn't about Kingdom Hearts.
RPGs have the potential to be very imaginative in their storytelling, and yet imaginative plots seem to be few and far between as of late. Perhaps it's because the genre appeals to older gamers, or maybe it's because the genre struggles to reach those of a younger crowd. Whatever the reason, there's something about the lack of imaginative storytelling that keeps me from enjoying many recent RPGs.
What I love about Level-5 is that they know how to tap into the realm of imagination, and they know to create a game that plays with a gamer's senses. They know how to create lovable characters, and the plots of their games are far from complicated, but are always fascinating enough to keep the player interested. What Level-5 has that maybe other developers do not is versatility. They have the ability to create colourful, quirky and lighthearted games like the Professor Layton series, and then shift into something more mature like White Knight Chronicles or Jeanne d'Arc. While versatility is one thing, Level-5 knows who to tap into a person's sense of wonder. Thinking back to Jeanne d'Arc, I always thought is was intriguing how they transformed the Joan of Arc story, and made it into something distinctively their own with the use of talking animals. With Ninokuni, I think Level-5 is attempting to recapture that childlike sense of wonder that most of us adults have long forgotten.
I think as people get older, they forget what it's like to have a sense of innocence and childlike joy. Perhaps it's because as the world changes, we change along with it, for better or worse. Even in the gaming world people seem more drawn to dark gritty worlds, yet they forget the joys of a simpler world. I can think of a few games recently that tapped into my sense of childlike innocence and imagination (Magical Starsign and Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road for example), and I can easily say I found them more enjoyable than a lot of the darker RPGs that I've encountered as of late. The reason for my enjoyment, of course, being that there is a sense of familiarity – a feeling of childhood and comfort. These games, along with the Level-5 titles I have played, have all ignited my imagination and have made me feel incredibly emotional.
I guess you should say that this is my reason for desiring Ninokuni so much. I always seem enticed by games that remind me that it's okay at twenty-three to still have a sense of childlike wonder, and allowing me to connect on a deeper emotional level; something many games do not accomplish for me. At twenty-three I can safely say I still rewatch old Disney movies every so often just to recapture my sense childhood that I've long forgotten. I think that, should Ninokuni be localized, it will do exactly that – help me recapture my sense of imagination.
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