In our house, being the geek homestead we are, Studio Ghibli is pretty popular; our family movie nights frequently feature Nausicaa and the Castle of Cogliostro. The Studio Ghibli game Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joō (translated to The Another World or, Second Country: The Queen of White Sacred Ash) just looks amazing. A console adaptation of a 3DS title, the game is about to go on sale in Japan. Hopefully it gets a localised release, the 3DS version is yet to be adapted to English.

The game follows the adventures of boy named Oliver attempting to revive his dead mother in an alternate reality faery world, where he meets alternate versions of people he knew in the human world. He uses a book of spells given to him by a doll his mother gave him, who’s actually a fairy, to battle the nastier elements of this other world. The DS version of the game used the stylus to draw symbols to cast spells, not sure how this will work on the PS3 but I imagine it might involve the Move.

One of the reasons the game may take a while to get localised is that it comes with an actual copy of the spell book in the game that’s packed with information and hints. Might to time to break out that Japanese phrase book.

Like all Ghibli productions expect a world both adorable and slightly creepy

Also populated by weirdly animated objects

Naturally the game looks pretty damn gorgeous

I feel lucky to live in a time where games can actually look like the cartoons they're based on