2011 video game
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is an action role-playing game, developed by Level-5. The game is a significantly enhanced version of Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn, which originally released for the Nintendo DS in Japan in December 2010. It was released for the PlayStation 3 in Japan in November 2011, and published in Western regions by Namco Bandai Games in January 2013. It was also released for Nintendo Switch in September 2019. A remastered version was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in September 2019, and for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in September 2022.
Players control Oliver, a young boy who sets out on a journey in search of a way to resurrect his recently deceased mother. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot, by boat, or on a dragon. While players navigate Oliver throughout the game's world, other characters can be controlled during battles against enemies; during these battles, players use magic abilities and creatures known as "familiars", which can be captured and tamed.
Development began in 2008, simultaneous to Dominion of the Dark Djinn. The game's animated sequences were produced by Studio Ghibli, while the original score was co-composed by Joe Hisaishi. The art style was also inspired by Studio Ghibli's other productions. The character development of Oliver was a large focus of the game, intending to make children empathize with the character and for adults to relive their adolescence. The developers used the power of the PlayStation 3 to its full potential to render the world with great detail not possible in Dominion of the Dark Djinn.
Following its announcement, Ni no Kuni was widely anticipated. It was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at its story, graphic design and gameplay. Wrath of the White Witch became one of the best-selling PlayStation 3 games, selling over 170,000 units within a week of its Japanese release, and over one million units within fourteen months of its Western release. The game was nominated for and won awards from several gaming publications. A sequel, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, was released in March 2018.
Source: Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA.
