Kash, I know the first wasn't perfect - it certainly needed a few tweaks to its combat, but I didn't think it was THAT bad. What didn't you like?
It wasn't an awful title, but the cons tended to outweigh the pros. Let's see:
*The alchemy system was a nightmare. Not because of the game, but because finding ingredients was so reliant on luck. While not needed to finish the game, the fact that you have to spend hours fighting one specific enemy for one specific ingredient that has a small chance of dropping wasn't fun. The thing is, they could have taken a cue from something like Atelier and made ingredients more bountiful.
*I used to be a fan of monster collection games like Pokemon or Monster Rancher, so when I learned that NNK's biggest gimmick was finding familiars I was skeptical. Like alchemy, there is too much reliance on luck to capture familiars. Also, Oliver, Ester and Swaine are much weaker in comparison.
*NNK isn't the only game guilty of this, but having enemies appear on the overworld or in a dungeon gives the idea of encounters being avoidable. Most of the time, Oliver was slower than the enemies so that was a slight annoyance.
*And then we have the battles. I'm sure you know the common gripes with those. ^^()
It's not that I disliked NNK, but there were just so many issues that made me wonder what Level 5 was thinking. Despite it's grindy nature, it only took 60 hours to earn the platinum. I tell people this: "It's a difficult game to recommend, but if you see it through you'll be well rewarded." I say that because the story, setting, characters, and presentation are magnificent. There was so much creativity used in creating such a unique world. But, playing through it and trying to do as much as you can leaves so much to be desired.
I'll just throw an "IMO" in here for good measure. ^^
