I'm liking just about everything else about this game other than its mind-numbingly simple difficulty. I'm only a couple hours in but I am already tired of mashing out the same simple combos and coming away with barely a scratch on my health. The battles just feel like filler to me even though there are a lot of interesting systems and interlocking mechanics none of it matters when you can easily win any fight with very little effort. I don't want to judge the game solely on its combat but it's honestly taking my enjoyment out of everything else it has going for it for me.

So does the game get harder? Is it worth sticking it out for future fights?

I'm about 14 hours in and I still find most of the combat stuff to be an absolutely cakewalk. You can spice things up a bit by taking on the cursed monsters (purple icons on the maps), but even they shouldn't be much of a challenge unless they're above your level a bit. The only time I've actually died was at the end of one of the optional magic-door dungeons when I hit a boss that was 5 levels above anything in the rest of the dungeon, which did an attack that killed my entire party in one big explosion. That wasn't a fun way to waste half an hour!

At this point I'm just kind of accepting that the bulk of the game is going to be unchallenging. I still like the kingdom-building stuff and tracking down employees for Evermore, but by and large every normal fight I've come across can be dominated by having Roland run up and use his fire-circle skill on the group of enemies and then mopping up. I'm hoping it gets a bit more challenging in the DLC or by patching in a difficulty slider, maybe? I'm told PC people can run scripts to adjust ini settings to up the challenge a bit but that sounds like a bad solution.

I also hate to be That Guy, and I'm probably going to finish the game regardless, but I kind of wish the story had a bit more edge to it. It doesn't need to be R-rated but the aggressively milquetoast storyline is already making me skip cutscenes before I've hit the third town.

I'm 15 hours in and it has not gotten any harder. Not only is the combat too easy, I feel like every aspect of the game is too easy or simple. The skirmishes, the kingdom building. There are so many systems and stats that you could potentially get invested in, but why would you really when it doesn't feel necessary 99% of the time?

I'm at a point where I stopped caring about what equipment I'm giving my party, what I'm putting in the tactics tweaker or what Higgeldies I'm switching out. Are the stats higher? Sure just equip it, level everything up. I know I'm just going to dodge a bunch and spam attack on the next boss, so.

Kind of disappointing to hear the game's a cakewalk. Then again I heard the first was tough and then breezed through that game so maybe my luck will hold out and I'll have a really tough time with this one?

@nicksmi56: I don't think the first one was easy or overly difficult, really; it just required a fair amount of grinding near the end to get ready for the final dungeon. The Pokemon stuff has been largely removed here, so I'm not sure what the endgame stuff is going to consist of. I'm really curious about the DLC stuff, too; is it going to be post-endgame stuff and harder than what we do at the end of the game?

Yeah, I know what you mean at times it's a little too cutesy for me but its charming enough to not be too obnoxious if that makes sense.

I'm really quite surprised at how the game's balance is tilted so much in the easy direction when most other aspects of the design seem so well thought out and put together. Call me armchair game designing but it just seems odd to me that there isn't at least an option to make things harder for the people that might want it.

I'll stick with it for now and hope more things grab me. Though with combat being a lot of what you are doing I don't know if it'll be enough. Which is a real shame because there is so much I like about the game.

Having now finished the game, I can say that it was a very enjoyable game with a lot of good systems that ultimately failed to become something greater than the sum of its parts. It's a solid four stars our of five type JRPG. I very much agree with Rorie and the many others who have criticized the story for being too cutesy, simple, predictable, and not even remotely self-aware. I mean, Evan wants to unify the world into one kingdom so there's no more fighting... that's pretty much the dream of every two-bit dictator ever, right? Meanwhile, the whole tactical skirmish with your four little rotating armies seemed pretty uninteresting, and stuff like the Tactics Tweaker that at first seemed neat turned out to be kinda irrelevant, except for matching your damage boost and resistances to a tough tainted monster.

Which gets back to the original question of the thread. The answer is that there are tough battles out there, but they're tough because said monster is just way higher level than you and/or you're not geared for it properly at all. Regarding endgame, there's a 30-level magic door randomized postgame dungeon that will be your source of materials to craft the best equipment in the game, featuring a random floor 30 boss who will be level 100 at danger level 1 (+5 levels for each danger level, I believe), and that thing will clean your clock for you. But generally speaking, if you're fighting any monster that's not tainted or vastly above you level-wise, you're going to continue to just roll over stuff. I suppose if you kinda mainline it you'll be underleveled enough that the battles might be more satisfying.

It sounds like I'm bashing the game a lot, but I really did enjoy it, particularly the kingdom-building aspect and recruiting people for it. The first game was all about collecting pokemon-like familiars for battle; this game has the same collection compulsion thing going on, it's just that this time you collect citizens who all have some dialogue and personality to them. That's a solid upgrade in my book.

Think my game time just rolled into the 6 hour mark? Really in a weird place with this game. I haven't played Sea of Thieves, but it's that kind of space.

The art style is great. The music is great. I love that this JRPG has an overworld map. The story hasn't necessarily put me off? Like, I'm watching the cutscenes etc.

...but I'm finding it so hard to play it.. emotionally? Not sure if it's the lack of difficulty (though I've almost died a handful of times because its kinda hard to dodge some of these bigger monsters, but then I heal and I'm fine) or is it the tone of the game or that the gameplay feels like it was made for children? It's very simple. I kinda like that story wise, maybe? Moments where I'd think "Ugh, just wait.. this is where X story trope surprise moment happens and thats lame" ....and then it doesn't happen. The story continues and something about that is nice. Like, not everything has to go badly for the sake of going badly.

Still, I don't know what to think of Ni No Kuni 2. I've started building the city, brought back the lady now and every time I've played it I just.. end up turning it off after an hour because I'd rather watch a movie.. just because. I keep asking myself: Am I just not in the mood for an RPG? Or is this game just not doing it for me? I put some time into the original Ni No Kuni and fell off that one for the same reason I think?

Ugh I don't know what to think. I say this is like Sea of Thieves or something because I want to like it and I want to play the game.. Is this a 20 hour RPG or a 60 hour RPG? I keep imagining its a long one, which I would normally enjoy, but that may even be putting me off this.

@seikenfreak: I'm around 20 hours in and I know I'm nowhere near the end from what the game has implied so far. From my rate of play I'd say it looks much more like a 60 or maybe 80-hour thing, but then I take my time on stuff like this.

Yeah the difficulty is unfortunate. Makes all the different systems kinda irrelevant.

its a jrpg, rush the story and you'll probably be underlevelled, take your time and you'll be overlevelled.

as more stuff opens up there's plenty of challenge out there, ive had a few tainted monster boss fights go 10+ minutes, and i am progressing the story only when absolutely necessary

I enjoyed the first game but yeah, the combat wasn't difficult - just a grind. It was more of a case of "okay, these enemies are much higher level, I have to grind out some xp, get some better familiars and come back when it's comparable".

Still looking forward to Ni No Kuni 2 regardless

I was pretty on par level wise for what i was fighting most of the game and had a pretty easy time, i could even fight red named enemies, but towards the end i gave up on leveling and just went to the end game, at that point the final boss was about 12 lvls higher than me, i used a couple healing items throughout and the fight took a little while but, all in all it wasn't that hard of a fight. Although the purple monsters are rough if your not at least close to their lvl (orange names). The field battles were pretty easy to, i was doing lvl 55 missions with guys barely or just under lvl 30.