Ni No Kuni and The Wizards Companion

Ni No Kuni is a JRPG game that was a collab between Level 5 and studio Ghibli, that's actually a creature capture game even though it doesn't look like it. You play as Oliver a boy from another world traveling the land to learn how to be a great wizard so he can defeat the evil djinn Shadar. The creature capture in this game is grueling to say the least with some of even the earliest "familiars", the creatures roaming the land that you can befriend and add to your team, having a recruit rate as low as 8% in the case of the Green Buncher who you meet in the third area you explore in the story. 

The world to this game is vibrant and colorful and completely supported by the simple yet intriguing designs and art style of studio Ghibli. Were even spoiled with 2D animated cut-scenes every now again.

Ni No Kuni is regarded for its Unique story, It's Great visuals, and its JRPG combat system, but something else stuck out to me more. Something I think gets glossed over but ties together the theme of becoming a better wizard. The Wizards Companion.

The Wizards Companion is a book that your given at the beginning of the game and at first I didn’t think much of it, because normally books in most games are just used to reiterate tutorials or keep track of quests, but I wanted to look at some info on one of my familiars. The Wizards Companion actually held information on my familiar, its future evolution's, their ability's, and weaknesses.

I got curious and started looking through the whole book and realized that it was entirely legible and filled with interesting medieval art and information that helps you throughout your play through. It has an entire section on material used in alchemy as well as the many recipes for healing items and weapons alike. Telling you if it occurs naturally on the overworld to forage or whether you have to defeat certain familiars to gather them.

The most innovative thing about The Wizards Companion is the fact that it simply acts like a real book. A real tome in the game for YOU the aspiring wizard in training to reference and look to for the answers to all your wizardly problems. Just like in real life if you want to learn something find a book about it.

And it's not like the game is spoiling anything for you because it only gives you the information. Doing it or not is entirely up to you, but the ingenuity to look up how to turn your "phoenix feather" that only revives one person into a "phoenix breath" to revive your entire party is an option I love having. The option to excel so to speak.

Not only that but from time to time your asked to reference the book for quests, at one point looking for the password to open the "cauldron" you'll access to use alchemy. There's even a side quest that asked you to decipher an ancient runic language that is in fact mapped out for you in the book to translate.

All of these things when taken interest in can really add flavor to the world and what your doing in it, a lot of the recipes requiring you to explore the world to gather things. That being said the weakness of this element of the game is much like the weakness of books in real life. If no one ever opens them no one will ever know the wonder of their contents.