Wired's Chris Kohler went hands on with the DS RPG Ninokuni: The Another World, the collaborative game effort between game developer/publisher Level-5 and legendary animation studio Studio Ghibli.

Ninokuni is a standard RPG with unique elements, with your requisite battles, NPC-talking, potions and magic spells. In battle, you can have your basic RPG-type system with a twist: you can manipulate the positions of your party members with the stylus.

The game is set to release in the spring of 2010.

Studio Ghibli’s involvement with Level-5’s upcoming RPG Ni no Kuni makes all the difference.

While the Nintendo DS has no shortage of role-playing games with animated sequences in between the monster battling, it’s Ni no Kuni that’s got cinema scenes from the Oscar-winning Japanese animation studio responsible for My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. The many animated sequences in the demo, telling the story of a boy named Oliver who finds a magic book that opens a portal to “the second world” of the title, are wonderful to watch — you’ll just want to keep your eyes glued to the DS screen when they’re going on.

Akira_EX via wired.com »