Ni no Kuni

[TKz]

I wouldn't bother with the regular Toko's on Swan Island or the higher level ones in The Ivory Tower, they're way too rare to bother with (unless you can ONLY reach Swan Island at this point). Best bet is to fly to travel to Perdia early (you can enter the town slightly and put it on your fast travel list), wander down from the city fighting any Toko's you see (they run away really fast, so it's probably worth getting the Veil spell from doing the Horace riddles which makes them unable to see you) until you reach the end of the path, at which point, use Gateway twice and then wander back up, so all the monsters have respawned. I was something like Level 89-99 with my entire party before I was actually even supposed to be at Perdia.

I did the S-Rank tournament fight! God, that may actually be the hardest fight all game. The key is to use the Thunderstorm spell you get eventually, which has a very quick casting animation and always knocks the opponent over. Just keep spamming it over and over, collecting blue glims to restore your MP. The real pain is maintaining MP against the earlier rounds, because they're fucking hard as well. You fight a highest level Whambat which is near impossible to hit, has a ton of HP, hits hard and casts horrible debuffs. There's also a giant Mech monster that hits like a tank that's a pain too.

All I have left is trophy related stuff and the bounty hunts and final errands. Done most of the regular Bounty Hunts now, just got the Bunny head guys fights left. Not looking forward to catching every Familiar and doing all the alchemy.

[Benji]

Note: I haven't fought a Toko even once until post-game. They aren't needed unless you're terrible at games like TK

[TKz]

Of course they're not needed! But then you can beat FF8 without using junctions at all, never stopped me from maxing out my GFs and drawing/refining 100 of the best Magics for Quistis and Squall before I even do the Fire Cavern. >_>

And to be fair I would have grinded anyway, before I found out about the Toko's I pretty much went through each dungeon/overworld area over and over until the enemies ran away from me.

I love the fact they actually added in a way of telling the player "OKAY, YOU'VE LEVELED ENOUGH! STOP THAT!"

[ZJ Penn]

A fourth party member!

[TKz]

A fourth party member!

The only downside is that he's useless - he can only replace Oliver, who's stronger than him anyway. You need Esther for catching familiars and you need Swaine for stealing decent gear. I guess you could train him up and then swap him for Esther during boss battles, but that just seems like a lot of grinding for no real payoff. Besides, Esther has some buffs and cures that're quite helpful.

[ZJ Penn]

Yeah it just came as a shock.

Also, saddest part in the plot so far...

...Phil punching Ollie

[Benji]

It makes me sad that I'm nearing the end of the thing now. There's not a whole lot left for me to do, and trophies are going to start piling in soon. This game is too good to stand alone. I want a sequel, or a spin-off.

[TKz]

It makes me sad that I'm nearing the end of the thing now. There's not a whole lot left for me to do, and trophies are going to start piling in soon. This game is too good to stand alone. I want a sequel, or a spin-off.

When searching for some help on quests I did come across an article from a year ago that said if Ni no Kuni was a hit in the west, it'd almost definitely get a sequel. And it was a pretty big hit, so there's that I guess.

[Benji]

Well, Level 5 produced a sequel to White Knight Chronicles, which didn't do as well as hoped, so there's certainly a good chance.

[TKz]

Completed every quest and bounty, including the "Superboss". I use that term very lightly. Two Dinoceros made short work of him. I don't know if I'll Platinum it because all I've got left is mostly stupid stuff. I wouldn't mind catching 250 Familiars as I'm already at 110... but I'm probably not going to Alchemize 120 things. And I'm sure the Glim trophy must be fucked, I've definitely collected 2000. (And yeah, I know about the restrictions to collecting them). The rest is crap like maximize familiar traits, which is going to take way too much time for nothing cool. Hopefully these carry over onto other saves so I'll get them from Mrs. TKz playing the game.

[Benji]

Just buy loads of glowshrimp, lettuce, and sandwiches, then alchemize a shedload of cheeseburgers.

[TKz]

Just buy loads of glowshrimp, lettuce, and sandwiches, then alchemize a shedload of cheeseburgers.

Isn't it supposed to be 120 unique items?

[Benji]

Eurgh, is it? Fuck that.

[TKz]

Eurgh, is it? Fuck that.

Yeah, exactly. I don't see why they did it, because you don't get a real chance to get all the alchemy stuff you'd need until you don't need it any more. By the time you can make the best Hammer, for example, you're probably already facing the last two or three bosses with barely any problems.

[ZJ Penn]

Yeah a lot of the achievements are just a grind, but to the point its not even fun. Particularly alchemy, its just so slow. Id much rather you needed more of an ingredient to make something, but the ingredient is easier to find, than one or two of an ingredient that you spend hours fighting enemies praying for a a rare drop or steal. At least then you'd feel as though you were getting somewhere.

Also, does anyone know if theres a trophy related to the casino? Because if there is I may as well quit going for the platinum now, I hate RPG casinos.

[Benji]

Yes, but it's easy. You just need enough money to pay for the casino chips and exchange for the cheapest prize.

[TKz]

If you get the trophy for half a million guilders, you can just spend most of that on getting the prizes for trophy. Or just play platoon, there's a bug where the AI almost always place their good cards on the left and their numbered on the right. You can also win big at the Slots if you wait until you get a x3 slow and a x2 bonus then play for 777 at 90 coins a go.

[Your Mom]

Where do you find Flint Daggers? I am trying to do all the sidequests and the only 2 I'm missing is that so I can build the kid a Candle Cutter and for some reason I cant tame the Banana looking guys

[Benji]

You can buy them in Al-Mamoon. The Babana guys are tough to tame unless you get some luck. Hit them with fire hard and fast.

[Clawson]

I grinded the alchemy trophy while leveling up for the S-rank. There are some familiars than can cast revive I just can't recall them off the top of my head.