'Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom' news: Gameplay details revealed, game set for release

Promotional image for "Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom"PlayStation

Fans of the Ghibli-style "Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom" can rejoice as early as today despite the game's release date being still a month away, as the game is ready and has gone gold.

With this in mind, new gameplay details have been revealed so that players can get a sneak peek at what the game will be like during the agonizing one-month wait. It seems "Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom" will be significantly different from its predecessor, this time around, the legendary Studio Ghibli ("Spirited Away," "Howl's Moving Castle") will no longer be directly involved, though one of its former artists are still working with the game.

This means that it will still have a lot of Ghibli movie art styles and trademark eccentricity, but with a completely new gameplay experience as revealed by Siliconera. The website was fortunate enough to get a hold of a demo copy for the game where they had a hands-on with the Kingdom Builder the game's battle system. Gameplay-wise, the sequel is vastly different than the first game released back in 2011, so much so that there was not much in common between the two anymore.

This may be a good or bad thing depending on player taste, but so far, the game proves to be impressive as it is. The gameplay is also heavily tied to the story, perhaps even dependent on it, particularly the Kingdom Builder where players get to raise a castle and town from scratch in what appears to be a castle-building simulator. That makes for a separate gameplay aspect, the other aspect is battling with monsters in which players get to defend the kingdom they built or destroy rival ones and preemptively destroy monstrous oppositions before they pose threats.

The story, meanwhile, follows the tale of Evan Pettiwhisker, a young king dethroned and exiled from his homeland who sets out to reclaim his birthright. Hence the Kingdom Builder aspect of the game. Players will get to see "Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom" once it gets released on March 23 for the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft Windows.