After months of silence, Level-5 is finally ready to tell us more about Ninokuni, the lead title for the company’s 10th anniversary’s celebration this year. A recent Weekly Famitsu article, of which this report is based on, says this is a “Dream RPG” and it surely looks like one. Read on if you want to know about what has been revealed so far.

What is Ninokuni?

Armed with a magic book (which will be bundled together with the game), players venture between real and alternate worlds, making spells, create potion and solve puzzles to help 13 years old Oliver revives his mother, who died suddenly in the real world. The two worlds move in parallel, which mean life goes on in another world if you decide to switch to a different world.

Character: Oliver

There are two versions of every character in the game, one in real world and another for Ninokuni. Some characters look the same while others may look very different from their real world counterparts. Oliver is seen with a red cape in the alternate world (more pics in the official website). He lives in a town called Hotroit, is pretty pessimistic but always full of energy.

Character: Ally

Oliver’s mum, she died in an accident. One of the memories Oliver have of her is when she told him to pretend a doll to be her when she is not around. That doll turn out to be a little fairy called Shizuku, who would tell him to go to Ninokuni if he want to see his mum again.

Character: Shizuku

Weekly Famitsu Taiwan also calls the little fairy “Tear Drop”. He was turned into a doll by the Dark Mage and sent to the real world. Oliver’s tear drops return him to his original form and wanting to defeat Dark Mage, he guides Oliver to the alternate world.

Character: Layla (Real World) / Cowra (Ninokuni)

A milk seller in the real world, Layla is a queen for Babanashia Kingdom in the alternate world, where she grows fatter everyday as a result of non-stop eating.

Character: Frank / Nyandaru 14th

Frank is a cat of Oliver’s neighbor in the real world but is the lazy king of Goroneru Kingdom in Ninokuni.

Character: Sherry / Maru

Oliver’s partner in Ninokuni is a sick girl that will never go out in the real world. When adventuring with Oliver, she loves to sing and is said to be a brave girl.

Character: Mark / Makur

Another character who looks completely different in both world. Mark is Oliver’s best friend in the real world, they would go around pulling pranks on other people. He is one year older than Oliver. However, in Ninokuni, Mark becomes a talking rat.

Hotroit

The city where players start the game in. It’s an industrial area with many car manufacturers. Weekly Famitsu says it looks like 1950s US.

Goroneru Kingdom

Players can look for news and rumors in Ninokuni by talking to the people in Goroneru Kingdom. The place looks gorgeous with its highly detailed and colorful environment. Solving problems for these people will also earn you special gift.

Interview

A 2-page interview was included at the end of the report. Level-5 president Akihiro Hino (2nd from left), who is the planner, script writer and director of Ninokuni, is joined by Studio Ghibli’s president Toshio Suzuki (3rd from left) and musician Naoya Fujimaki (left) for a short discussion on the story behind the collaboration. Suzuki is the host of a popular radio show for Tokyo FM and the trio was preparing for an upcoming episode when the interview takes place.

Suzuki begins by introducing Fujimaki, who is working at ad agency Hakuhodo DY Media Partners and contributed the theme song for Studio Ghibli’s last year’s animated film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. When everyone was celebrating the completion of the film, Suzuki says Fujimaki already asking about what’s next for the studio and said: “You guys must be quite free now? Would you like to do Ninokuni?”.

Famitsu asks if this is where the project begins. Suzuki says Fujimaki told him there is a guy from a game company who really loves Studio Ghibli’s works that he would like to introduce to him. Just when he said: “Eh, what?”, he found himself having dinner with Hino already (Laugh). Fujimaki recalls himself telling Hino: “It’s now or never”, referring to Studio Ghibli’s staff are free from any project after Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.

Hino says actually Ninokuni wasn’t even mentioned on that first dinner. Suzuki adds that there was no mentioning of work process too. Fujimaki thinks Hino is a very lucky person as the studio was completely free of any project at that time. Although Hayao Miyazaki has said he hated games before, Suzuki says that’s because as a businessman, he can’t allow his staff to play games. He is in awe with Fujimaki’s timing again as he was also trying to come up with something for the staff to do at that time.

Asked if the studio has worked on games before or been approached by others to do so, Suzuki says the studio hasn’t really work any games before and while there has been approaches, they came at the wrong time. One of the most important reason for him to agree at Ninokuni is Hino’s honesty and the passion he showed while talking about his works. After sorting out the details, he decided to work on the project.

Although the game was announced in September last year, production for the animation actually began two months prior, which means at the point of the interview, the studio has spent 10 months on the game. Suzuki says he actually told Hino they already have plans for their own new project and can’t spend that much time on Ninokuni but since they can’t compromise on quality, they ended up spending that much time. Famitsu asks if this means Ninokuni will be the studio’s best work yet. To which Suzuki only replies that something extra ordinary is happening at Studio Ghibli right now, they have spent more than 10 months on a project.

Hino heard the musics (produced by Joe Hisaishi, who has worked on countless music for Studio Ghibli’s films) of the game for the first time on the day of the interview and says he really like it. Suzuki says that’s also another thing that takes longer than expected. The project should really takes around three months to complete but since they insist on movie quality output, the project is extended and apparently Miyazaki is not very happy with it and asked: “What happened?”.

Fujimaki pointed out that the game actually wasn’t called Ninokuni initially. Hino doesn’t want to reveal what was the initial name but it was rejected by Suzuki and he thought it wasn’t appropriate too and have to think really hard to come up with Ninokuni. A name Studio Ghibli says can expand their imagination considerably.

Ninokuni looks like it’s coming together nicely and every screen (see them at Famitsu or the official webiste) does seems like a labor of love. The game will be out later this year in Japan.

Posted in News on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 2:30 am | Tags art famitsu interview level-5 ninokuni rpg studio ghibli
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