Some fans may not realize this but Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was not the first game in the series. It actually started out as a DS game. It was called Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn and launched exclusively in Japan on December 9, 2010. Both RPGs are very similar, with the PS3 game acting like an expanded remake of sorts when it released in 2011 in Japan and 2013 in North America.
While they share similarities, these games have a lot of differences in their designs as well. As most probably haven’t played the DS game, the differences will primarily focus on what was and wasn’t included in it, with a few nods to the PS3 content as well.
7 The Wizard’s Companion
The DS gamecame with a physical copy of the Wizard’s Companion book which also appears in the PS3 game. Both are filled with helpful facts about the world including monsters. The reason why the DS version came with a physical copy is that players needed to use it as a reference guide.Â
Spells, in other words, needed to be traced on the touchscreen in order to activate them. There is an English patch for a pdf version of this book to coincide with the game patch for those curious.Â
6 The Dark Djinn Vs The White Witch
The stories to both games are almost identical within a 75% radius. The big villain of the DS game is the Dark Djinn, Shadar, as should be obvious by the title. The PS3 still has him in it, but his role is slightly altered.
The game makes room for the White Witch, a completely new character who serves as the one pulling the strings. The PS3 game essentially adds on a new ending to the original, extending the story much further.
5 The Battle Systems
While the battle systems of these games have a similar vibe, they are almost completely different. The DS is turn-based, adding a more classic RPG vibe with an element strategy much like Dragon Quest. The game still features Oliver, Esther, and Swaine as the three main humans in the party although those names are different.Â
Another component that changed is that Familiars were not stand-ins for these heroes. They were instead party members, again, much like Dragon Quest, the fifth game in that series to be precise. In the PS3 game, when Oliver, for example, summons a Familiar, control would convert to that creature. Wrath of the White Witch wasn’t quite an action game like its sequel but something more in-between.Â
4 Other Familiar Content
The very nature of Familiars is very different in the DS game and not just in battle. In the PS3 game, players only had a chance to recruit new Familiars after battles. The DS version made it less randomized and made catching them more like a puzzle. Each creature had its own way of getting them to join.Â
Similar to Pokemon-Amie, which was introduced after this in Pokemon X/Y in 2013, players could also play with Familiars via the touchscreen. The DS version also has 92 creatures that were exclusive to it.Â
3 DS Exclusive Areas
Both games have exclusive areas to them. To focus on the DS first, there are two major areas worth discussing. The first is a tropical island resort that is centered around a casino. This casino is instead implemented in a spooky forest in the PS3 game so that didn’t change for the most part. It was just the theme and location that was altered.Â
The other area is a much bigger deal. Xanadu is mentioned as a lost city in the PS3 game, but it is in the DS version. Overall, the world of the DS game is the same but slightly smaller and altered to fit in these two areas and more. Ultimately, the system itself could only handle so much.Â
2 PS3 Exclusive Areas
As for the PS3 game, there is one big area new to it. For starters, as the game now continues after the Dark Djinn is defeated, everything after that is new in one way or another. It’s more like remixed content but it still counts.Â
The actual new big area in the game is Mr. Drippy’s fairy homeland. On the subject of Mr. Drippy, both he and Swaine are given bigger roles in the PS3 game. It even dives into the past fifteen years before the game takes place to show Swaine as a younger adventurer and how he ties into everything.Â
1 The PS3’s Graphical Touches
The most obvious changes between the DS and PS3 games are the graphical and overall quality improvements between each system. The DS has almost the same score and cutscenes, which all look and sound pretty good for the hardware.
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, of course, sounds and looks better as it is on an HD system like the PS3. On top of that, the PS3 game also features more voice acting than the DS original since it didn’t have to worry about limited memory space as much from a contained cartridge.Â