What happened to Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds?

Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds is Officially Dead

I’m sure you read the title and you’re thinking to yourself, “wait, really? Hasn’t it only been out for like.. a couple weeks?” And the answer is yes, in its current state, players are leaving the game in droves. Why? Take a look at the image below.

This was taken earlier today, at a time when most players aren’t logged in. And the servers are overflowing. “That’s a good sign though, right? It means a lot of people are playing it!” Wrong. With the introduction of play to earn, bots have flocked to the game to make a financial killing. And as a direct result, the community has suffered.
But don’t go anywhere – it somehow gets worse.

Players have reported being in queues of upwards of 1,000 – taking 45 minutes to an hour and a half to be able to log in. Weeks after launching, queue times have gone up exponentially.
Netmarble knew this would happen, though. Everyone did. Adding play to earn into the game made MIR4 shoot up to 80,000 concurrent players – and that game looks trash and plays even worse. At least Ni no Kuni looks beautiful and plays pretty well.
There’s no way this wasn’t anticipated. This is further evidenced by the fact that Netmarble introduced something called “The Daily Adventurer Pass,” that happens to cost $7.99 – this pass allows players to entirely bypass the queue free players and bots are put into, with premium players gaining access to their own premium queue.
Yes, you heard that correctly. Netmarble are providing paying players the option of purchasing their way around queues. Something that free players will never be able to do, with free players giving up their spots for the very bots we all hate so strongly.

I wish I were making this up, but the fact of the matter is: Netmarble just don’t give a shit. Legit, they could care less about their players, and are rewarding both paying players with a bypass to an issue free players are experiencing, and bots for logging in and remaining logged in with real money.
Honestly, I have no idea what they’re doing. Is this some kind of experiment? Do they think players – real, legitimate players, players that enjoy the game and want to actively play it, not make money from it, actually play it, are going to want to stick around when things are only going to continue to get worse? Because they’re not.
Sure, we’re gluttons for punishment, but this is taking this too far. They’re continuing to ruin a game that had the potential to actually be a worthwhile experience. And the growing sentiment expressed across social media is proof that players have had enough.

It appears that the Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds rabbit hole is going even deeper than we initially assumed. Earlier this week, we reported how this new mobile and PC title incorporated blockchain technology, with NFTs planned to be implemented later this year.

However, a new post on the subreddit r/gachagaming by user u/Tezoze has shed further light on the crypto practices behind this game. Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds’ producer, Netmarble, has created their own custom cryptocurrency, MBX, and its utilization has impacted every playable avenue of the game. Essentially, MBX can obtain Territe, used to get items correlating to Familiars, Crafting, Upgrading, and more.

Not only that, but this currency drastically pay-gates the experience due to the most substantial facets of gameplay being purchasable via crypto, despite the developers initially saying that crypto would be a minimal inclusion.

The aftereffects of such a design decision are expected, with PvP being humorously imbalanced. The Reddit user even states that whales, gacha players who pay exorbitant amounts of money, are seemingly not too into what’s going on here since there’s nothing to push for after buying the best gear via cryptocurrency.

What is probably the most insane part, though, is how this cryptocurrency implementation is only part of the title’s global launch and is not part of the game’s Asian versions. This means that all of these issues are exclusive to this specific version.

So essentially, the exchange goes like this:

Earn Asterite in-game → Convert it to a crypto coin (NKA), → Convert it to ANOTHER crypto coin (MBX), → Convert it to the crypto exchange of your choice (ETH, BTC, etc.)

Check out the original post on Reddit.

The user also shared an image gallery housing further proof of these issues.

Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds is directed and produced by Netmarble and features animations from Studio Ghibli with music by composer Joe Hisaishi. The story follows the player character who has just arrived in a new virtual reality game called Soul Divers. However, this turns into a grand adventure through an open world that follows the animated film with graphics developed in Unreal 4 Engine.

Players can customize their character with unique equipment and choose from a Swordsman, Witch, Engineer, Rogue, or Destroyer class. Each class has unique skills and abilities that will be used in battle. Further, familiars can be found that add buffs to the part. Players are able to decorate their own farm with various items as they work to rebuild the Nameless Kingdom with online friends.

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