Ni no Kuni: Wrath of All Y'All Niggas That Got Swindled
 

Ok, so I know I've been going on about this game a bunch lately, but it deserves its own thread.

Developed by Level-5 and animated by the people at Studio Ghibli, this jRPG is probably one of my (as well as many others) most anticipated RPG titles to be announced.

The story is about a boy named Oliver, who tries to save his mother in a different realm, which ends up taking him into an epic journey to save that land.

Here's some trailers:

Ni no Kuni: Innocent Strength

YouTube Video
Error; are you sure that's a YouTube link?

The game will also be dual audio! Where you can play it in English voice overs, or original Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Namco also announced a collector's edition available only from ordering from them.

http://oi49.tinypic.com/a2t6w0.jpg

$100 for:

The Game

Plushy of Drippy

300+ Hardcover beastiary/artbook

2 exclusive DLC characters.

Sad that there's no soundtrack to it, but hey, can't have it all.

If you enjoyed Dragon Quest 8 and 9, Dark Cloud and any other of Level-5's titles as well as Studio Ghibli's works, then you'll love this game.

So let the discussion on this games hopes and interests begin!

The demo has been on the PSN for about a week. It comes in two parts. I played the first part and I'm really enjoying what I've played so far. The game drops in about a month and I know it is going to be one of those titles that will eat a ton of my time.

I expect nothing but great things from this game, anyone else play the demo or have been keeping up with this title?

I loved the Dark Cloud games so I'll take a look at the demo, assuming it's available over here of course.

I played the demo and I was surprised at how difficult the combat was. I don't think the demo explained the combat mechanics too well, hopefully that will change with the main game. Other than that I thought the game was very charming and loved the art direction and graphics. I'll definitely pick this one up.

It took me a while to figure it out, also. Once I did though, I was able to fare a bit better during it.

Here's a video from IGN going into the details of Battle Mechanics (they did a few days ago)

Ni no Kuni Battle System

The girlfriend preordered it last night on Amazon. She was a little disappointed that the Wizard Edition was sold out on Namco-Bandai's website, but ultimately she decided it's not all that important.

Strangely, I still haven't tried the demo. Will do so soon.

The Wizard Edition is not worth it. $69-79 sure, but $99 is much too steep.

Played the demo as well, like the flow of combat and the game as a whole. Artwork is beautiful, and dual audio doesn't hurt either. Easily a day one purchase.

It was only available for about a month, but they originally said that they'd add more content to the CE based on preorders.....then cut it off when they had sold out of their quantity. Even worse, I randomly got an email last month saying my order was canceled and when I called and asked why, they couldn't explain, but were certain that they could not put it back in place as they were sold out. -_-

I'm a little disappointed in missing out on the DLC if anything.

Hmmm, that's very interesting. I may have to check my pre-order from them to make sure they didn't cancel mine either. I know I ordered as soon as it was announced (even paid the $17 for next day shipping) so if they are starting to cancel orders, I'm sure a lot of people will end up being pissed.

They got to about halfway into goal 3 with their Ni no Starter program. The Wizard's Edition will have 5 art cards, a golden coin and a soundtrack sampler. ( I would have loved a full soundtrack but meh)

Cancelling POs even AFTER charging you beforehand for the product?

God damn, Namco. What a fucking joke.

It isn't the first time either. Namco cancelled many Dark Souls CE pre-order copies from their own store AND didn't send enough to retailers to cover their pre-order quota. Looks like they haven't learned much from that experience.

And this is why you let the retailers sell the product to consumers. If I didn't want the game so damn bad, I'd just wait for a used copy to come into a GameStop.

At least they were fast about giving me a refund.

Namco announced that the Wizard's Edition will be back in stock tomorrow from their website, so if anyone's interested in it or missed that window of opportunity, you can snag it.

Shop Namco Bandai Games Online Store

lmao

Why did they close that preorder thermometer = new shit thing then?

oh yeah because they didn't want to actually include any extra shit.

fuckin' namco. After cancelling people's shit too. God.

That's probably what these "new stock" are. The people who pre-ordered but then for whatever reason, was cancelled (invalid cards, addresses, etc...)

If it means anything, Digital River handles their shipping and I've heard tales of Digital River being god-awful.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Unboxing Video - YouTube

the unboxing of the Wizard's Edition

Considering they took the money up front, there really shouldn't have been any transaction failures leading to freed up stock, though.

So who knows.

Maybe they overproduced for demand again and are expecting ridiculous sales for it. ANd then will complain about bad sales are later when it's not a 4M plus mover.

Still not available to buy. :(

That video just made me want it more.

They only took the money upfront if you used PayPal. If you had to change your credit card information or address you had to call Digital River's CS and from everything I've seen from people's complaints, their CS is horrendous.

10 AM PST... so in an hour, get your trigger finger ready :P

Damn. This is actually the first I'm seeing of this game (I've seen the title tossed around but didn't know what it was) and I have to say this is probably going on my instant-buy list.

Or at least my buy-as-soon-as-you-have-money list. This looks pretty damn awesome.

(Sidenote: Just pre-ordered through the site. Didn't see an option on the product page, but you can click pre-order on the PS3 game list page.)

Yeah sousuke, I was sweating it out when I kept refreshing the page and nothing happened.

Dag told me you have to go to the main page and it'll be listed as a pre-order item. Click on the pre-order button and then it'll go into your shopping cart.

Shop Namco Bandai Games Online Store


Got mine pre-ordered. Glad they decided to allow for more orders as I was kind of bummed out that I'd missed it the first time.

Over here Amazon are offering a couple of in-game monsters as DLC, some Griffon thing and a Butterfly. Anyone know if these are paid for DLC jobbies or available later in the game? I'm pretty tempted to pre-order this but I do have other things to play at the moment and thos'll probably drop in price pretty quickly so if it's just get the things early I might hold off on pre-ordering.

For what it's worth, Namco has a history of NOT offering pre-order DLC for sale later, so if you're big on those DLC monsters, that's a thing.

There are a few retailer specific DLC monsters, though, and that's all stupid. Imma just gonna go with whatever the Wizard's Edition contains and call it there.

Looks like it sold out again? So one day of quietly taking new orders and that's it. Fortunately the gf nabbed it and canceled her regular edition order on Amazon. As of last night they had still not sent a confirmation email, but she took screenshots of the confirmation on the page.

We'll see how Digital River's legendarily bad customer service handles this if she doesn't get her order. I remember having to deal with them a few times for my copy of Windows 7 from the Microsoft Student website. Jesus Christ.

EDIT: Just spoke with her and the email came this morning. That instills a tiny bit more confidence.

Every time I say "Ni No Kuni" I end up thinking... :I

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34761/BA9mGh7CIAAvDI6.jpg

I called and threw a shitfit about my other cancel. No dice. Blah blah I have the regular edition they can go fuck themselves great game yadda yadda.

Yeah, there were a pile of cancellations going on yesterday. I'd say a nice chunk of people were getting told their CCs didn't go through. Some people had to go higher up the chain and finally get someone who would replace the order and everything went fine after that.

Hopefully Namco decides to drop Digital River in the future. I know I've been told before, but this launch has been a big headache. Of course Amazon isn't helping either with me having had the guide pre-ordered since the first day it was announced, only to be left with my thumbs twiddling because I don't have Prime and having to hope that a new shipment comes in.

You could always, you know, play the game yourself rather than reading someone else telling you how to play it then if you're worried about missing stuff, come back and get the bits you missed once someone has copy-pasted the official guide into gamefaqs next week (Along with a "legal" section that tells you you're not allowed to copy the stuff they've copied from somewhere else, lol).

Something hit my credit card on Monday and I hadn't noticed, and it ended up being like, $2 short... And my WE preorder was canceled. Needless to say, I am not impressed.

That said... I'll pick up a regular edition next week on payday (assuming I can find one), and that's good ENOUGH, I guess. Sucks though that I miss out on the extra content.

I don't play games by the guides on the first playthrough, but I'd like to have it in just incase I get stuck, or something to look at while I get sleepy and ready for bed. It's a non-spoiler guide anyway.

Call Digital River up, and ask to speak to a manager/supervisor. They've been fixing cancelled orders for the past couple of days.

I've got a pending charge on my credit card and I haven't gotten an email if it's been cancelled or not. I'm hoping I got lucky and they're just really shit at shipping things out.

Just got my shipping confirmation, so it should be here sometime tomorrow. Like I said earlier, people HAVE been able to get their cancellations re-ordered by going a little bit higher up the chain at Digital River. Their systems are the one that massively dropped the ball on this release.

More like ebay scalpers placed orders in mass and are now selling it for 300 to 400 bucks.

My order got fucking cancelled. I called up Digital River to see if I could get it put back in place but no dice. They fucked up and I get 20% off anything else they sell. Why should I trust that potential discount product to ever ship when they can't do this properly? I really hope Namco how much they fucked up with this and print more copies of the Wizard's Edition. I'm so mad I might just not buy the game period until I get what I want.

Yup, the gf's order got canceled this morning too. Did they offer you 20%? Because they offered her $20 (in credit, which expires in March).

She was more sad than mad, and that really pissed me off about Digital River. I would throw their credit in their face if, you know, it were in physical form.

20% ?

$20 ?

whatever

point is the only time i'll even spend it is when they open up orders for the wizard's edition again and if it won't go towards that then nope fuck their shitty business practice of enticing and goading victims of their shitty store into giving them any money

you may think its an over-reaction but if they don't fix this then complaints should be lodged against them at the better business bureau

https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complai...nt/get-started

fucking bullshit

i mad

Ahahaha. Nope. That's pretty damn unlikely. They are ignoring, shutting down, and otherwise not paying attention to anything for this release.

Namco doesn't give a fuck. They couldn't give LESS of a fuck if they tried. It's embarrassing.

But no, I doubt there will be additional copies. At this point my primary concern is that the people who paid via paypal but didn't get anything out of it are actually going to get their money back. I'm betting no.

A common sentiment, I'm finding. This will hurt this game a lot. What a fucking joke.

And to think that some people used the coupon to reorder the wizard edition last night when it went up for mystery sale again and they HAVE gotten their fucking shipment confirmations.

Blows my MIND. I haven't seen a fuck up of this caliber in years. They deserve to mauled to death by bears.

You know what I'm angry enough to take it a step further.

I will no longer be buying any Namco Bandai games. At the least not unless they become super cheap and second hand that the publisher gets zero dollars of my money. And that sucks because I hate fucking over the developers this way but I am this mad.

So here are the game franchises that I was interested in or have supported in the past that will receive no more future funding from me as a vote of confidence to make more titles or any title published by Namco Bandai: Ace Combat, Tales of, .hack, Klonoa (truly heartbreaking), Katamari Damacy, Soulcalibur, The Idolmaster (like it would ever make it over here but hey you never know), Project X Zone, various One Piece games, Dark Souls, and potentially the next Super Smash Bros.


Also fuck any pre-order-only DLC bullshit that Namco Bandai is pulling. Exclusive DLC should be fucking illegal. It's entirely anti-consumer.


Here's what Namco Bandai would like you to believe:

YouTube Video

I am having none of it and neither is Percy.

http://i.imgur.com/z1htbK5.png

I'd decided to pick up Ni no Kuni from Best Buy since I've got quite a few $5 off coupons, but it looks like that won't be happening. All week it's been available at no more than 2-3 locations within 100 miles at any given time, and those locations shift daily. As of right now I'd have to drive over an hour and hope their website is correct, which is a big if. I guess I'll probably end up borrowing Nutty's copy once he's done with it after all.

The best part about this is how Namco is going to cite low sales when they're literally refusing to sell us their product.

You probably won't be missing much from most of those series anyway. I was honestly surprised that they released the last volume of .Hack//GU, even if it did take them a year longer than it should have. Project X Zone and that card game that's sort of based on .Hack will probably be the only things we'll ever see in the west. We usually only get one Tales of game per decade too.

This pisser of all this is, last night a "backdoor link" popped up, when clicked it auto added the Wizard Edition to your cart. That was the ONLY way to do it, however it was never meant to be open to the public, it was a CS only link. So people would order 1, 2, 3 or more copies through that link and it went through and shipped, because it had "CS Order" written on it. That was supposed to only be for customers trying to get their cancelled orders back. But it got leaked somehow and a lot of people are insanely pissed over it.

*some* people who have cancellation emails have also received shipping confirmation (if their order still read In process and not Cancelled) hours later.

This has been a giant clusterfuck and places like IGN and Kotaku have already been reporting on it. It doesn't help matters that some people have called DR's CS and were hung up on and in some cases, point-blank laughed at over this. It's a shame that some game companies still rely on them for their distribution.

Also, PlayCanada has pretty much admitted they made a deal with namco to buy like 400 copies of the Wizard Edition first run and are now charging $400-500+ because of the shitstorm Digital River caused.

People also got to use the coupon they were given for their refund to get that CS Order in, so they not only nabbed a copy despite losing earlier, it was also cheaper.

Which is so hilariously shitbrained it's painful.

I think this is pretty fucking funny (in a I'm laughing but I want to strangle these asshole's necks funny) that everyone who got an order in through the Customer Service link feel justified for doing so. Trying to make everyone believe that they didn't steal anyone else's orders, but only those people who were "stupid enough to get their order cancelled".

This is seriously one of the most fucked up launches I've ever seen.

This whole thing is just crazy.

It's no surprise that they didn't magically acquire any new stock for the 17th. They used the copies that were from orders that got canceled due to invalid addresses or payment information.

PlayCanada ordered their 400-500 copies during the Ni No Starter campaign since at the time there was no limit to how much could be ordered. They've been selling it since August and people who bought it are getting a "promise" that once Namco ships them they will be sent out. Not even going to comment on how stupid it is to allow a known scalper to get so many at once, even if at the time they were being made to cover pre-orders and they were copies that wouldn't have existed if the order wasn't placed.

They screwed up horribly on their second round on the 17th and ended up letting more pre-orders go through than they had stock for (The Digital River response to this at first was that Namco had lied to them and never gave them any copies, so no order from the 17th would be filled period). Even while limiting you to a quantity of one (the secret link to do this later also was limited to one) you could just make another order and still get more copies. To make it worse, their system managed to screw up the orders and were canceling some of them instead of letting them become shipped. To attempt to fix this, they sent some people e-mails saying that because they had originally ordered before the supply was exhausted they would be given a chance to re-order and be placed in front of everyone else. This is the "backdoor link" as it is called because it was intended for employee use only to help get orders to those who were wronged.

The problem? They gave it out to people. Once you have given it out to someone they are not going to keep it to themselves. So it went around to all the various forums and websites talking about it and for about one hour anyone could have placed an order for it and they will retain priority over everyone else. While those orders were being filled the other orders placed on the 17th are being canceled.

The sad thing is that some people receiving their orders are missing things from it. Pretty shitty that you get past one hurdle and get met with another.

Digital River sadly is used by many companies. Everyone from Square-Enix to Kodak to even Mattel uses them. Something needs to be done so other companies can know that if they use Digital River they will lose the business of many people.

Yes I logged in after seven months of inactivity just to post this. See you in 2014 lololololol

I almost feel worse for people who got the shipping confirmation as opposed to being dicked over in August, then again pissed that people got to wait until the week before to place an order and get it.

And its a shame that many of you (justifiably) will get it second-hand to ensure lesser profits for Namco as a statement because its a great game. All I can say is that I feel for you and would consider lending someone my copy after I beat it if you otherwise don't have a copy and don't want to support them.

I got the regular edition because I assumed that when they told me in September that I was fucked: that I was actually completely fucked. Even if someone wanted to trade me a steam game I want for the shipping costs to mail my copy around, I don't mind.

<3

A coworker was telling me that he couldn't find any copies around here. Guess I'm lucky Mo0 preordered a normal edition from Amazon.

We sold out at the store real quick, but to be fair we only got two copies.

Still utter bullshit that most of the people who ordered the 17th didn't get their copies of the wizard edition. What's the use of faking it and making people pay for things they weren't going to get?

After I heard it was going to take upwards to seven days to get my refund, I opened up a paypal dispute and got my cash back within eight hours. I urge others to do the same, or call up your credit card company and call it a fraudulent charge. Anything to get fucking Digital River to give your money back -now-. Because its bullshit that they'd hold onto it that long.

;-; seriously, what the fuck.

The thing is, the orders on the 17th shouldn't have happened anyway. It's a huge debate what the true nature is. Some say that those were held for the people who ordered during the Ni no Starter promotion and had their orders cancelled the week before due to whatever reason and Namco saw that there was a "surplus" and decided to open pre-orders back up, or that PlayCanada made a deal with Digital River to order how ever many they did and Namco wasn't told and held the pre-orders anyway.

No one knows for sure, but the actual final nail was when that backdoor order link was leaked. Since that was the one that held the most weight (with it being pre-approved since it was company use only), it screwed a lot of people out of their orders from the June-Sept order period trying to get it back after Digital River acknowledged the screw up was there and was trying to help get their orders back.

Oh hey so that better business bureau thing

Digital River, Inc. Business Review in Minnetonka, MN - Minnesota and North Dakota BBB

Digital River is currently sitting happy with an A+

while Namco Bandai is sitting with an F

NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. Business Review in Santa Clara, CA - Serving the Silicon Valley BBB

Gentlemen...

If you do feel inclined this link will take you to file a complaint against Digital River.

And this one for Namco Bandai.

Additional Spam:
Also here's a petition to sign on change.org.

https://www.change.org/petitions/nam...re_before_sign

I signed it and put my words and my name out in public.

Additional Spam:
Also, for those that would like to have the book on something other than your TV screen when playing the game someone put book online.

Ni no Kuni Wizard's Companion - Imgur

Sorry, but expecting an Internet petition to change anything makes me laugh very hard.

Yes, I know. But at least change.org is slightly better than the old way of doing it. Feel free to ignore it if that's how you feel. I figure it can't hurt.

Additional Spam:
[10:47] * Roflfox (~Roflfox@FF36B2D4.47D14F5F.BFF75C94.IP) has joined #gfchat
[10:47] * ChanServ sets mode: +o Roflfox
[10:47] <Roflfox> woot
[10:47] <Roflfox> updated the NnK thread to reflect current affairs
[10:49] <Q-chan> dat final scene
[10:50] <AcerBandit> tails was there
[10:50] <nuttyturnip> Tails is always there
[10:50] <AcerBandit> WRATH OF ALL Y'ALL NIGGAS THAT GOT SWINDLED
[10:50] <AcerBandit> nice
[10:50] <Roflfox> 8)
[10:51] <Roflfox> I've been not paying attention forever so all I know is that there's apparently not enough of some game where the main character looks like that little boy from Howl's Moving Castle
[10:51] <Roflfox> and everyone is mad
[10:51] <nuttyturnip> all the copies were spirited away
[10:52] <Roflfox> looks like you'll have to go get them back from that... castle... in the sky
[10:52] <Roflfox> yeah you can leave forever
[10:55] <AcerBandit> stop with all the puns, yo
[10:55] <nuttyturnip> nice
[10:56] <Q-chan> guess acer won't get a package from.. kiki's delivery.. service
[10:57] <nuttyturnip> Maybe it was delivered to his neighbor, Totoro
[10:57] <Roflfox> ahahahaha\
[10:57] <Roflfox> You are the worst
[10:58] <AcerBandit> or maybe my neighbors the yamadas
[10:58] <Roflfox> or intercepted by the crimson...pig...
[10:58] <Roflfox> real shit this is groanworthy though
[10:58] <AcerBandit> my sides.gif
[10:59] <Q-chan> whoever started this is a real la puta
[10:59] <AcerBandit> q
[10:59] <AcerBandit> q
[10:59] <AcerBandit> dear god
[10:59] <Q-chan> hi
[11:00] <AcerBandit> dying
[11:00] <Q-chan> we killed acer
[11:00] <AcerBandit> perhaps i'll have to be buried
[11:00] <Q-chan> he will be buried at a grave of the fireflies
[11:01] <Roflfox> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Apparently Amazon over here have sold out of even the normal version for pre-orders (It's out on the 1st of Feb here) so at this point I'll probably be waiting for more stock and a price drop before I pick it up. At least with it available as a direct download from the PS Store there's no danger of not getting it at all, although it is £45 on there the cheeky bastards (£35 on Amazon).

The other news this morning is that some dipshit on eBay has sold over 200 copies of the Wizard edition for 400 bucks a pop. Not providing a link because

a) the seller has made the listings private
b) Acer is likely to seizure in his chair from rage

In any case, this shit is fucked, and Bandai Namco should probably say something if this outcry continues on for much longer.

If you're talking about PlayCanada then I am very aware. They played the Digital River's shitty online ordering system back in the summer by placing 200+ individual orders. It's complete horseshit.

One would question what kind of completely crazy motherfuckers would pay $360 for a book and a cuddly toy, given the game itself is worth $40.

People are stupid. But stupid people don't give scumbags the right to hoard and gouge for enormous profit.

Anyway, I was under the impression that it was an individual seller, but it may have been PlayCanada. I'll find the link and look again.

I like how you have to go to page three of the official forum on the Namco website to find a thread that isn't bitching about the release of the WE. By all accounts, those Play Canada people haven't actually got their hands on the stock yet so a lot of those $400 orders might come back to bite them in the arse if they don't get shipped and with the minor shitstorm brewing over this, I'd be surprised if Digital River are retarded enough to ship 200+ copies to a scalper rather than filling other orders. I would suggest that anyone who got charged for a limited edition before it shipped might want to ring their card provider and report a fraudulent transaction. Getting crap from banks will fuck over DR far quicker than any number of internet petitions.

Namco have spoken up at last:

So Play Canada were bullshitting when the said they actually had the copies they'd ordered, people get some DLC and a book, albeit a different book to the one they wanted and Namco probably sue this piss out of Digital River.

Yeah, no more WEs sounds about as expected. Load of shit though.

Glad PlayCanada is going to have to refund a chunk of those orders. Mmm. Delicious.

Also this:

[01/25/13 - 19:01:14] <+Diss> lol giving everyone a free guide
[01/25/13 - 19:01:18] <+Diss> Thanks a lot assholes
[01/25/13 - 19:01:22] <+Diss> I'll use it when I play WAIT LOL

And to think they fucked up and shipped me multiples. Good lord.

I suspect a company the size of Namco probably could chuck out a few more WEs if they really wanted to and I'm surprised they don't just do that. Unless of course, in our little gamers bubble we're over-judging the number of people this has actually affected. I mean, people are getting pissed about this but how many WE pre-orders actually got taken before anyone realised they didn't have that many to sell? If it's only a couple of hundred missed orders I can see why they wouldn't bother making more, if it's thousands how hard would it really be to churn out a few more?

That Amazon UK can't ship any more on release day due to lack of stock suggests a wider issue in the supply chain somewhere, that or it's selling like nobody's business. Not a great PR exercise all round though really.

Wow. That's... fucked up. SailorDaravon mentioned there was the exact same amount of shit that happened with Marvel VS Capcom back then and knew not to order from them again. But yeah if we weren't so broke, we'd be hard pressed to get the WE too. I guess we're lucky to miss the boat on this one, but man, my condolences to everyone who lost to this mess.

Only 7000 copies were created to be distributed in the North Americas (according to Namco UK), all other regions have their own allotment of units which has not been stated.

The CS-only order process that was meant for anyone who had been wrongly canceled during last year or the early orders on the 17th was only meant for 200, 300 people at most. Factoring in all that, they probably aren't going to bother with contracting the factory to pop out another thousand or so.

PlayCanada most likely is still going to sell all of their orders to people who don't care and will stick with it, since from the beginning they mentioned you were buying a pre-order that will be shipped out a week after release. The only thing they lied about was that they were partnered with Namco and receiving everything directly when in fact they just did a large order last year (that will probably be honored since they paid it off).

Digital River is good for things that already exist and can be pushed out immediately. They suck at handling any type of pre-order (I still remember it took an eternity for me to get MvC3 CE and PW3 from them). They pretty much fit that overused Seinfeld clip to a T.

I don't know, I'm not going to punish Level-5 or Studio Ghibli for this gargantuan fuckup, so I'll pick up the game. If their statement is truthful, Namco Bandai were blindsided with this since Digital River hosts the storefront themselves. I thought they only processed and fulfilled orders, but I suppose that's not the case. Simply purchasing the game offline deprives Digital River of its cut (if they're being paid per product sold), and you can still file your BBB complaint with them and not feel disingenuous.

While hardly enough to say "they did good," it was good enough to disarm me of what little anger I had about it. Kim will appreciate the nice hard bound book, and I'm sure a game of this scope will make it useful as she trudges through.

That's exactly why they pushed the guide, so you'd pick up the game anyway, despite the immense fuckup.

If they were truly sorry they'd offer a free download code on PSN or something as well. This 400 page spoiler-free guide is as easily printable for Namco Bandai as it is for them to give Sony some extra cash to appease fans with some form of the game. They have fucked up that badly. They still aren't off my shit list. You can talk me down if you'd like and I'm glad they made some sort of formal apology but it just isn't quite enough in my opinion. The $20 voucher is still dangling there like some sort of worm on a hook for wronged consumers to give Namco Bandai and Digital River money they do not deserve. If they actually gave a shit they would bite this bullet as I've described if it's actually not within their power to make more Wizard Edition packages.

Additional Spam:
Yup, I don't care anymore and don't want to wait for Namco Bandai to correct this shit. Just ordered a second-hand copy from some ebay friend from Maine for 63 bucks including free shipping expecting to get here by February 1st at the latest.

Sorry Level-5 and Studio Ghibli. I'd really like to give you money directly but your publisher is complete trash and deserves nothing.

Yes. Exactly. You see it as outwitting or something?

I'm glad there are the crusaders like Acer, as it's important for these companies to feel the heat when they do something so outrageous to their customers. But I'm not outraged. A little mad on my girlfriend's behalf, but she seems to find this to be an acceptable resolution. And so do I. They fucked up, they refunded us, offered a trinket of apology (one that has use, since Namco Bandai knows we want the game and would very much like for us to still buy it despite their fuckup), and we accepted. Avoided Digital River and hawkers, ensuring the guiltiest parties gained nothing, and we're ready to enjoy what I've been told is a very good game.

Skills is just saying how by giving out free guides and not the game itself plus other bonuses like maybe all the dlc plus who knows what else groveling things that might have gotten us to trust Namco Bandai again they're just making it so people will definitely want to buy a copy from them. The 20 dollar coupon is even worse since it's them asking you to buy from their shit store once more.

So sure you could look at it as outwitting the customer in both scenarios which is why if you're in this situation and must have the game you really ought to buy second-hand (at a reasonable price) so they don't get any further money. Or just rent the game like Taco.

At the end of the day I miss the art, the music, and the book that would have come with the Wizard's Edition the most. The plush doll isn't exactly the greatest thing and while I'd love a color manual (this shouldn't even be a bonus in 2013 come on guys) and the coin is sorta neat it's just stuff. The book is the neatest thing out of all this and from what I understand came standard with the game in Japan or was at least in large supply. However, I do have scans of the book and bar that the book is in the game. It's just really disappointing that this even happened at all.

The guide is an IMMENSE fuck you of the highest order.

"Here, have this book who's only use is supplementing the thing you can't play because we fucked you out of it".

And a 20 dollar coupon for a store where you can't buy the game, because the regular edition is also sold out. Also it expires in March. Preorder Naruto!

Correct response would have been a voucher for money off the PSN download edition.

They're making it easiest to buy a copy from them, but they just want me to buy a copy. That's not a bad thing. I want the game. They're a business wanting to still make money, and so they want me to buy the game. They're giving me a shiny thing and hoping that I'll buy it, but I get the gift regardless of what I decide. The people primarily responsible for fucking up aren't being rewarded if I buy elsewhere, and I get my apology and apology accessory.

I'm sorry if you're disappointed, Skills, that I won't pick up the standard and fight the good fight or think that I am falling for some corporate scheme by picking a mutually beneficial ending over one that leaves both sides unhappy, but I don't like staying angry and keeping my blood pressure up.

Additional Spam:
I'm not sure if the PSN thing is so great. If you're getting the Wizard Edition, you like physical trinkets and objects. A digital download doesn't sound so great in comparison. The best conclusion would have been a discount for the regular edition. Which they did offer in their store with the credit, before selling out of the regular edition. Haha, so much fucking up

Are you retarded or just on jungle juice?

Of course they still want you to buy shit. And of course they're going to the minimum effort possible to appease you.

The thing is what they're appeasing you with is actually a bit insulting. The fact that it's working is ridiculous.

Yeah. Minimal effort for minimal inconvenience. I'm not sure if being a belligerent douche is what's giving you tunnel vision, but I said that already. If you feel more inconvenienced than I, feel free to reject their offer and continue to express your dissatisfaction. Like I said, I'll applaud you for doing so.

It only becomes more satisfying when I see how annoyed it makes you. I want to play a game, and I'm not that angry. End of story.

Do you know how to read? Honest question. Do they teach that in Barista 101?

I'm not inconvenienced at all. They accidentally sent me EXTRA COPIES because they are fucking incompetent.

They are giving you a book that is useless unless you have a copy of NNK.

They are giving you a coupon that expires shortly, so you spend money on their shop.
A shop that doesn't have the regular edition either. A shop that's already proven they can't be trusted with your money, since they take paypal dollars and hold them for a week instead of issuing refunds.

So now you've got a coupon that's no good for what you wanted and a book that's useless.

The only thing they have to replace what you wanted is the digital edition. That's why it's the best bet.

I don't know why you have trouble with this, but hey. Bending over for corporate gain is sort of your thing, isn't it?

That was a generalized "you."

You sound like a fucking hippy. Sorry I'm such a corporate shill, man!

The book is out of stock on amazon.

Have you considered selling it and then buying it again for a net loss at some point?

Since you have your extra copies of the Wizard Edition, have you thought about what you're going to do with the extras?

Now, I know custom framing it is obviously out of the question, but have you thought about casting it in bronze?

This seems like a good time to mention that stores around here finally got their Ni no Shipments today, so I'm probably going to buy it tomorrow. If anyone doesn't want their insulting guide feel free to send it my way.

I'll cast my foot so far up your ass your children will be born with Down's and your girlfriend will get Hepatitis.

Tonnes of people who already bought the guide are getting duplicates now, so ask around. There are a few in chat.

And Tande's already called dibs on it. So eat my shit.

Is... is your foot covered in Hepatitis or something

It is made of 100% solid Hepatitis. As dense as lead and as solid as steel.

It'll give you A through E if you're not careful.

Or it would, but PlayCanada already sniped the last four so all I can deliver is the first one.

YouTube Video

Leaving aside the ethics of Namco's response, what do you intend to do with the extras?

I'm selling it to Tande at cost + shipping, since she asked first. I feel bad not being able to help out Acer, Term, and everyone else, but there's no real democratic way of doing that after the fact.

Okay so correct me if I'm wrong, but the way the message worded it seemed like the guide they're offering as a consolation prize was some special thing and not the same as the guide that was already out there.

But you guys here are talking like it IS the same. So...

Are they the same thing, or what?

It is the same thing, yes.

I thought the one they were sending out was hardback? Or are all of them hardback?

As far as PlayCanada goes, is it not against the terms of service for eBay to sell something you dn't actually own yet? I mean, if it were could not a few people put in complaints against them? Wouldn't achieve anything more than potentially causing bother for them but it's minimal effort and potentially annoying and if that's not trolling in it's purest form, what is?

All of the guides (at least of this initial first batch) are hardcovers.

The guide is different from the Wizard book, right? Cause it's going to be a pain to read all that on the TV screen.

Yes. The guide they're giving you is this: Amazon.com: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch: Prima Official Game Guide (9780307895981): Howard Grossman: Books

The Wizard's Compendium is the entire point of the Wizard's Edition, as it's a physical edition of the in-game service of the same name. (Think like a bestiary.)

How much of the compendium is duplicated in the Prima Guide is beyond me. I imagine there's the same core information, just in a less arty and pretty package. It might be reduced to tables. I don't know, but I imagine it's like that.

I'll pop open my copy when I get home and see what kind of compendium it has in the back for enemies/monsters and what have you. I haven't opened it yet simply because I hadn't gotten the game yet (;-; thank you skills).

On the whole free guide, did they send an email to everyone, or was that just a pussy out announce it to the press thing? Because I didn't get an email. But to be fair, they might have just taken me off the list because I opened up a paypal dispute regarding this whole mess. Who knows. But I wouldn't put it past them simply because of their obvious disregard for customer service.

Figured this would happen again when I got burned on my pre-order Dark Souls LE, aside from the Wizard Edition simply not being worth double the cost of what I paid for the game. $47.99 from Newegg and I'm a happy gamer. Namco needs to ditch Digital River after all this negative press, and the only thing that will help move that along is more negative press. Internet petitions and the like do next to nothing. Continually bombing their Facebook and Twitter with stories of how Namco continues to do business with a shipping company that repeatedly fails to do anything right -should- get the job done.

Really sucks for you guys that got burned by them.

holy shit, it does have a lot of enemy/familiar bestiary stuff, but its in HELLA tiny writing. At least it comes with some artwork and interview stuff....but yeah, I'd certainly rather have the book with the WE.

so i'm still waiting for my ebay copy

how are you guys enjoying the game?

is it game of the year?

http://i.imgur.com/xXf7sx4.jpg

I finally got around to starting it last night, and I love how much the world map feels like Dragon Quest VIII. Too many of the options are still locked to say much more than that, but I'm enjoying it.

Pee-pee girl is secretly the main character.

Awesome, glad to hear some Dragon Quest impressions in there! :D

I heard it's like Dragon Quest meets Pokemon.

It looks like I'm buying a PS3 because of this.

For those who are already playing this and/or have the guide...

What are the manhole-cover like things for? Drippy just says "these are useful too bad you can't use them", so I'm curious. I'd imagine they're for some sort of teleport/transport type spell, but I dunno.

They're access to your Pokemon-like monster storage. You'll unlock them during your time in the second area, and they can hold up to 400 monsters. You get access at the same time you gain the ability to tame (capture) wild monsters as familiars.

I probably should check on my ebay purchase

beginning to think i got swindled

that's like a reoccurring theme with this game for me

also

YouTube Video

Additional Spam:
oh nevermind looks like it's probably going to come today or tomorrow

yaaaaaay~

I'm enjoying what I'm playing so far. There's been a few times that time has actually slipped away from me and I realized that I have been playing for hours.

Sometimes you'll have to grind like crazy, but I miss that feeling. Overall, I've been pleased with this. I just hope I can play it to the end and not get a case of ADD and let another shiny take my interest.

The grinding aspect is kind of nice, honestly. The combat system works well enough, especially for simple encounters, so it's easy to wander around, enjoying the music and gameplay and kill some time. It's old school in the nicest possible way.

Look what showed up at my door today.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...ps28a15739.jpg

No note, no invoice. Just a packing slip and a refund a week ago.

Jesus Christ, their shit is all sorts of fucked.

What the fuck...!

What part of the ordering group were you in? Did you preorder a while ago, or were you part of the Jan 18th order?

January 18th group. Beyond that, I'm not entirely certain; my girlfriend placed the order.

That being said, she's delighted. Visiting tomorrow, so we'll crack it open and have a look-see.

I wish Namco refunded my money and still sent me a Wizard's Edition. :(

Cripes, I hope they send me a copy randomly, too.

Heh, that WOULD be all kinds of awesome.

I will be buyeing this game
!

UPS is trying to charge me 100 bucks in brokerage fees for delivering this shit.

Luckily Canada Border Services says I can tell them to fuck off and still get my package. Shame I have to wait until Monday to do it.

Gotta say the genie boss fight was -great-. Tedious, but fun.

I don't know why people think this game is hard, or at least what I've read from reviewers. So far I haven't had a single issue with a boss, though to be fair I'm just about to reach the fourth town.

Fuck all of you.

I had to ask about receiving the book and they said they checked and that I canceled my order in September. I threw a shitfit about how THEY canceled it and that I might have been the first of thousands of fuckups.

Two hours later they still insisted that I was trying to cheat them out of free product and that this was only offered to people that got fucked in January.

Seriously, if you get a pallet of free copies by mistake and don't intend to give them away to us, stop posting about it. Maybe I'd be less upset if tons of people who didn't bother in August got a Wizard's Edition copy a week before launch, but jhgkfdjghdfkjghdfkjhgdjfghdfkjghkgjhdfjkgfkjhgjkhg dfkjghdkfjghjk!!!!!!!!!

That said I found the world map and found where you just get fucked by monsters through exploring.

Reviewers always claim that average difficulty games are too hard, and use it as an excuse to dock points. The slightest hint of a challenge sends most of them into a weeping fit.

Woh what? They haven't even contacted me regarding getting my so called free copy of the guide, and I was part of the January fucked-over group.

Also yeah, pretty true that if you go exploring once you get the boat you get your arse rammed by monsters. It's especially difficult if you go to do a certain sidequest (i think it was a golem of some sort) and find that all the monsters on that island are incredibly higher level than you. WHAT THE FUCKKKKK.

I thought that was supposed to be for the people that ordered it on time, not the "woops" date in January. But yeah, its not just that island (despite getting the quest and it being on the way to the next area...which is stupid to scale your bounty hunt like that, but whatever), its half the fucking world at this point.

Also yeah it officially turns into DQ when you get to do alchemy. And yes you can do the experimental shit that I won't do. Looking up those recipes.

I'm finding myself sidetracked now trying to tame everything I can. I have a feeling before I start advancing the story, I'll be like level 50 and pure rape mode the rest of the way.

Also I tamed a Monolith and morphed it into a Megalith. Best familiar on Earth. Why lie. Maybe I should have named it Zeal.

Enjoy chasing mobs until they run away and despawn. It sorta forces you to move to the next area.

Yeah, I'm in the Tombstone Trail and only level 35 and everything is running from me. I just want to capture a Girlfiend! ;_;

o3o went a huntin' tokos and got to level 40. I'm ridin' tengri around and being a baller before I get to collecting all those three parts. Man, I can't imagine I'm getting to the end, but most of my familiars are getting to their last evolution.

If you stop chasing, they stop running. It just takes a bit more strategy to sneak up behind them.

Meanwhile, I need to capture one of those Cog things from the Hamelin area for a quest, but they never seem to spawn on the map. I think I've fought 2 of them in total, and neither one was recruitable.

they also show up on fairy island if i remember correctly.

Yeah, that's where I got mine.

Fun fact: It seems that if you constantly jump while running, you go a little faster. I do it sometimes out of boredom when traveling long distances (before getting Tengri), and noticed that Drippy and the others slowly start getting farther and farther away. It sometimes helps with outrunning mobs on the world map.

All that said, oh man you guys. I just got the first (Moon) stone, and am only just hitting level 35. I should probaby TRY to go find some of those Tokos, but I haven't really done any outright grinding.

I'm also kind of stuck on two errands. I know that one requires more Confidence [I think is the one], but there's one sitting in my journal that needs Courage, and I haven't seen any in ages, but nobody seems to have any. :<

Yeah, I'm stuck on that Courage one too. I'm sure it'll pop up eventually.

Just got Tengri tonight. That trumpet noise is the best ever.

That is EXACTLY what I thought when I first... trumpeted.

So considering how glorious this game is, can we just all assume that we'll be playing Dragon Quest X together happily (minus the collector edition bullshit)?

PS: This game is really pushing me towards that "top 10 games of all time" status. I'll review this consideration when I finish it.

I'd like to put it on that list, but the pacing, especially the repetitive "Take heart, give heart" quests, holds it back. Mr. Drippy and the other characters are constantly connecting the dots and explaining things like we're 5 years old.

To be fair, though, there's actually a legitimate chance that the player could be 5 years old. It's been a while since i played an RPG with such gloriously simple mechanics.

Also, Oliver is what, 8?

The more I play the more I think its going to have a terribly depressing ending where it turns out Oliver was just dreaming this all to deal with the grief of losing his mother.

But again, that's something I would write, and nothing that fits in Ghibli. But I still worry Q_Q

Don't play Eternal Sonata.

Except in Eternal Sonata, that's pretty much the concept of the game, so ... no spoilers there.

I'm still waiting for a month or two before the price goes a bit lower.

I've been hearing good and bad things about this game. I really hope this won't be boring and a chore to finish.

I got it as a birthday present and I'm enjoying it so far. Played about 8 hours, just going into the Trial of Sages or something like that now. So far all the quests have been very straight forward go here get that but I'm guessing finding the right heart bits gets more complex later. Just met the girl which has made combat helluva more complicated, primarily in terms of keeping her alive during hunt quests. Having over-levelled a bit before meeting her helps though, my level 15 cat thing can take a lot more hits than her crappy level 10 penguin. I'm guessing unlocking capturing monsters comes soon.

I love the look of the game and more rpgs need Welsh characters in but why oh why in a game where literally everyone is English is the voice actor for Oliver a whiny American? I'm almost tempted to switch to Japanese audio to get rid of him, it's only the comedy Welsh that's stopping me at the moment but hearing him shout "Neato" many more times at the end of fights might become a deal-breaker pretty soon.

The heart quests never get more complex unfortunately. Discover some story character that needs a new type of emotion, solve it, and blammo, suddenly there's someone in every town that needs that emotion, and someone (usually in the same town) with that emotion to spare. The heart quests are quite grating after awhile, but at least once you get fast travel it eliminates massive backtracking.

I dunno if this is a universal price drop or not, but some places, like Target, are selling the game for $39.99 now. So if you've not picked it up for whatever reason, there's no excuse now!

So I finished the trial last night and got the chance to recruit new monsters and instantly wasted several hours of my life going back and catching most of what I already met. So glad I'm not actually OCD because I imagine this game would take years to finish if you are. Still, got a few watery ones from the Sewer to use on the Volcano so not a completely wasted trip. Also used the bridge spell near Deep Dark Woods and got killed really, really quickly by the monsters over there. Debating whether to just leave it or be stubborn, find a monster on it's own and try to catch the bastard, thereby breaking any challenge the game might have had for the next who knows how many hours.

They largely eliminate the need for it and its just incentive for finishing side quests. I find myself just working on alchemy and going after familiars by the time the heart piece searching becomes mundane. Then again its worthwhile if you're a completionist because of the number of alchemy items you'll get from it.