Ni no Kuni Announces Release Date in Beautiful New Trailer

Trying to pick a most anticipated game for E3 is a nigh impossible task, and not just because some of the games that will be shown will be secret right up until the trailer rolls. Saying this however, this year was an easy choice for me – the PS3 exclusive Ni no Kuni Wrath of the White Witch:

A collaboration between Level-5, responsible for games such as the fantastic Dragon Quest 8, and Japanese animation deities Studio Ghibli, Ni no Kuni is a dream team I never even knew could exist. Some of the finest RPG minds coupled with the finest animation studio, creating a videogame that just looks… there are no words.

The animated scenes look fantastic, the in game CG scenes look like the animated scenes, and it all bleeds seamlessly into one another. The story line promises to be sweeping, fantastical and yet still emotionally grounded, revolving around themes of loss and responsibility as a young child. If there’s one group of people I’d trust to make a story like this it would be Ghibli (they always seem to manage to make me cry) and nobody I would trust to put the gameplay behind it more than Level-5.

With a now announced release date of January 22 2013 in the US and January 25 2013 in the UK, it’s still quite a wait before we can get our hands on the finished English product, but I just know it will be worth the wait.