It’s rare to find a game that’s as visually appealing as this one, and if that means going through a bit (okay, a lot) of grinding to see all this game has to offer, it may just be a price worth paying.

Ni No Kuni is a timeless masterpiece of a JRPG. The only reason to not own it is if the JRPG genre is just not your cup of tea. But if it is, you’ve got up to 100 hours of engaging game ahead of you, and those hours will not be forgotten.

The remaster is a great reminder of the potential that the series had and hopefully any future iterations of Ni no Kuni return to this winning formula and bring back the story, cinematics, and combat system that all come together to help make Wrath of the White Witch a modern classic.

Despite the many technical differences between each gaming platform, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, on Switch, hasn’t any issue that could make you want to play it on another console.

The arrival of this remastered version of Ni No Kuni: The Revenge of the Celestial Witch on PC, PS4 and Switch is good news. It's a joy to (re)explore the landscapes of 'The Other World', and to admire the artistic direction of Studio Ghibli. We sometimes forgot we were in front of a game, and not in front of an anime, yet the gameplay from Level-5 is as deep as it sounds. The possibility of having your pets fight offers multiple combinations. Whether you are a fan of JRPGs or Ghibli in general, you have no excuse not to dive into an adventure to help Oliver save his mother!

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch has gained the reputation of being a top-tier RPG and among the favorites of all time for some. While it certainly does a lot right, I think a few things hold it back from being truly amazing. The battle system, while fun, can become frustrating at points with the AI-controlled party members. Constantly switching between characters during regular battles wasn’t something I found to be as enjoyable as doing it for boss fights, but not doing so resulted in low MP. With a pretty high encounter rate, this caused more than a few issues. That’s not to say Ni no Kuni isn’t entertaining; it just feels a bit imperfect. Regardless, exploring the different sights within the stunning world and interacting with its fascinating characters helped to overcome the shortcomings.

Much as it pains me to say, Ni no Kuni — an otherwise masterpiece — is not worth your time on the Nintendo Switch. Its issues are simply too frustrating to work around or forgive. The game is in dire need of patches that overhaul how the game performs on the handheld. I was hoping with talk of a new game in the series and this Switch port that the future of the franchise would be positive. For right now, I’m just disappointed that Nintendo fans have gotten the short end of the stick.