Very little of Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is on par with its predecessor. Just about every element is either slightly better or slightly worse than what came before. When it comes to the visuals, both apply. Certain aspects of its visual execution surpass anything that Wrath of the White Witch delivered, and yet others fail to stack up. The obvious upgrades can be chalked up to the jump forward in processing power afforded by the PlayStation 4. Technically, Revenant Kingdom performs. Some may be put off by the somewhat incongruous overworld visuals, but I personally think that the high-resolution superdeformed aesthetic is pitch perfect for what the game is clearly going for. Artistically, it’s difficult to best Wrath of the White Witch, and I don’t really think Revenant Kingdom is its equal in that regard. The lack of intimate involvement on the part of the legendary Studio Ghibli isn’t as keenly-felt as it could have been, but it’s still on the periphery. So unfortunately we don’t have any lovely 2D animation to accompany the otherwise wonderful visuals, but the style of Hayao Miyazaki is distinctly one-of-a-kind, even if it’s delivered through the skills of different artists.
As much as I appreciate the visuals, the sound has me torn. As far as the soundtrack goes, I have no complaints whatsoever. Joe Hisaishi laid an extremely strong foundation in his score for Wrath of the White Witch, and he builds upon it admirably in Revenant Kingdom. Everything about the soundtrack screams "sequel," and in all the right ways. Familiar cues from the original are revisited and reworked to fit every new tone and direction, and it all works. Hisaishi is a master of his time, and it’s no less apparent here. Voice work is where I have problems, and it’s not so much the quality as it is the quantity. The voice cast is fantastic, rising well beyond the clichés and stand-bys we’re used to seeing from the genre. My problem is that its implementation is very sporadic; not everything is voiced, and there’s a jarring, seemingly-arbitrary disconnect between what is and isn’t voiced. Several major cutscenes are delivered via text boxes with tonal beeps that are supposed to distinguish between characters, but several non-essential cutscenes are fully voiced. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and as a result, the experience isn’t as good as it could be.