Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch wasn’t exactly a smash hit when it landed in Japan last November. After selling just 67 032 units during its opening week it quickly disappeared from the software charts altogether. Thankfully these disappointing sales haven’t stopped this PS3 exclusive from being localised for the Western market.

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Ni no Kuni is one of those Japanese-developed games which has received plenty of attention in the West despite there being a constant question mark over whether it would ever be released here.

Today Level-5 president Akihiro Hino confirmed that an English localisation is in the works, and that the publisher is targeting an early 2012 release date in North America.

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One of my all-time favourite games is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on GameCube. A large part of its appeal is its use of cel-shaded graphics which lend it a unique, cartoonish charm.

I’ve often wondered how cel-shaded visuals would make the transition to the current generation of consoles, and have even played some titles like Tales of Vesperia on Xbox 360 which utilises a fairly subdued form of this technique.

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[Update] Added a new trailer showing snippets of animation from the DS version of Ni no Kuni, and an extended look at the special magic book. [End of Update]

Level 5 and Studio Ghibli are currently hard at work on the duo’s videogame collaboration, a stunning Nintendo DS and Sony PS3 RPG by the name of Ni no Kuni, and thanks to a recent press conference held by Level 5, some new media and details from the game have emerged.

Ni no Kuni features real-time 3D animation on the PS3 during gameplay, and after watching the released trailer, in-game graphics look to have been taken straight from a Studio Ghibli movie, with (what appears to be) traditional turn-based RPG combat, overworld exploration and town navigation.

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