Never Ending Realm

Video game reviews, fan fiction, gaming news, and more! Since 2003. We especially love JRPGs, RPGs and the best of the rest. Never Ending Realm: Where your favorite games live forever!

Menu
  • News
    • PlayStation
    • Nintendo
    • Xbox
    • PC
    • Mobile
  • Fan Fiction
  • Opinion
    • Throwback Bit Thursday
    • Games Costing A Kidney
    • Thank God It’s Friday
  • Lists
  • Reviews
  • Humor
  • About
Menu
Ni No Kuni

Level-5 Leaves North America, Is This the End for Ni No Kuni?

Posted on October 13, 2020January 9, 2021 by Samuel Rivera

After the 90s – early 2000s the Japanese Role-Playing Game golden age ended, we saw many a great series go the way of the Dinosaur. Suikoden, Grandia, and Wild Arms, to name a few are some of the more beloved series that just went under.  Unfortunately, it now seems that Ni No Kuni is likely to join that group.

According to a report from Gameindustry.biz, Level-5 has virtually stopped all of its North American operations at this point. Last August (2019) the company laid off most of its employees leaving only a few to complete essential operations while the company consolidated its business between its Japanese office and international advertising and branding company Dentsu.

A source in the report stated that there are no plans for future Level-5 titles to be released outside of Japan.

Why Level-5 Will Be Missed…

Ni No Kuni 2
Ni No Kuni II might have been the last big AAA game that Level-5 made for home consoles out side of Japan.

True turn based traditional Japanese Role-Playing games are hard to find these days on home consoles. These games instead, have been relegated to handhelds, and mobile platforms as game development costs have risen, and JRPG sales have slowed down.

Apart from some SquareEnix’s titles, Atlus/Sega’s Persona, and Namco’s habitual Tales game, there isn’t a lot happening for the genre right now at the big stage on home consoles.

Level-5 was one of the few companies producing true AAA JRPG experiences for our home systems. As recently as 2018, we received Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (84 Metacritic) on our shores.

The game has struggled to break the 1 million sales mark, as only 900,000 units had been counted as sold in its last sales update. NamcoBandai published that title, and its predecessor outside of Japan.

Still, the company seemed somewhat healthy, as Ni No Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch arrived on Switch last year. That title, prior to its Switch and PS4 Remasters, had sold 1.1 Million units on the PlayStation 3. Quite a success for both Namco/Bandai, and Level-5.

However, Ni No Kuni II didn’t do as well as hoped, and thus the series seems fated to meet the same end as other ‘once upon a time’ popular JRPG franchises.

Level-5’s history includes games such as the Dark Cloud series (PS2), and  Rogue Galaxy (PS2). Perhaps their greatest work ever came in form of Dragon Quest VIII (PS2), as the company was subcontracted by Enix in order to modernize the series.

It seems that the company’s most commercially successful work is the Profesor Layton Series (Nintendo DS/3DS/Android) which has gone on to sell millions of units as a series during its lifespan. The company made many other games, most which targeted Mobile/Handheld platforms.

Level-5 is likely to continue making handheld experiences as the genre remains profitable in that market. Sadly, its big time – home console – releases like Ni No Kuni, and ambitious projects like Dark Cloud and White Knight Chronicles (PS3) will be missed if the report’s source is right about the company turning into a Japan only developer/publisher.

Why This Saddens Me…

The J-RPG genre is a ‘niche’ genre these days, but that niche when tapped right can yield some success (Persona 5 sold 5 million units).  Apart from Dragon Quest XI, I can’t really think of another big AAA budget ‘old school’ turn based game that continues to appear on home consoles.

Thus, I will truly miss the occasional Level-5 big time entry. Playing through Ni No Kuni last year provided a refreshing break from the Witchers, Zeldas, and Skyrims that dominate today’s market. At times Ni No Kuni felt like a return to the good old days in the 90s, and all of the good and bad that such a statement implies.

Let’s hope that Sony at some point buys, or hires the studio for the development of another big time traditional RPG project. A project that in all likelihood will not do Horizon Zero Dawn numbers, but one that can attract those of us left thirsting for a AAA traditional JRPG experience. As Persona 5 has shown, if it is the right game, the genre can still be profitable.

Category: Opinion
Tags: JRPG, Ni No Kuni Series, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, RPG

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow us on social media!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Must Reads

  • 2023 is Here and The Never Ending Realm Turns 20 Years Old
  • Throwback Bit Thursday: Remembering a Merry 1998 Christmas 
  • A Mid 2022 PlayStation 5 vs Xbox Series X Comparison
  • TBT: Five Critically Underrated 32-Bit Era JRPGs
  • The Rise and Fall of Japanese Role-Playing Games (JRPGs)
  • Yoshida: Final Fantasy is Struggling to Keep Up With Industry Trends
  • The Top Ten Greatest Final Fantasy Games of All-Time
  • Top Ten Greatest ‘The Legend of Zelda’ Games of All Time
  • 5 Of The Best JRPG Heroes
  • The Top 10 Best Selling PlayStation 2 JRPGs (All Time Sales)

Action-Adventure Action-RPG Bandai/Namco Bethesda CD PROJEKT RED Chrono Cross Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy (Series) Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII Remake Final Fantasy XVI First-Person RPG First Person Shooter Halo: Infinite Halo Series JRPG Microsoft Nintendo Nintendo 64 Nintendo Switch PC PlayStation PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 RPG SEGA Sega Saturn Sony Square Enix Tales Series The Legend of Dragoon The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time The Legend of Zelda Series XBOX Xbox 360 Xbox Game Pass Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X Xenogears

  • Legend of Dragoon
    Masayuki Kasebe: The Legend of Dragoon Could Have Saved FFVII Remake
  • Wukong cover
    Wukong Dev: No ‘Black Myth’ Version for Xbox Thanks to Difficulties on Underpowered Series S
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    2024 Recap: Xbox Launches its Best Games, Xbox Gets out of the Race Against Sony, Astro GotY, and More!
  • Intergalactic protagonist
    Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet the Most Hated New Game Reveal? Concord 2.0?
  • Astro Bot Water Effects
    Astro Bot Review (PS5)
  • FFVII Rebirth
    Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: Welcome to the Multiverse! Review (PS5)
  • Echoes of Wisdom Raises Zelda To New Heights Through Brilliance, Grace and Elegance – My Review and Verdict
  • Legend of Zelda Fanfiction: The Plane of Masked Yearning – Part Seven
  • PS5 Pro
    PlayStation 5 Pro’s $700 Tag: A Peek at a Future Without Xbox?
  • Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
    Final Fantasy Should be “Political”: Has Sakaguchi Been Misunderstood By News Outlets?
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright 2022 by Never Ending Realm, Mont Cessna & Samuel Rivera