Ni no Kuni 2 Combat Guide - Combat Skill Guide, How to Switch Characters

The Ni no Kuni 2 combat can be fast paced and frantic, depending on the weapons you’re using, the character you’re playing as, and the enemies you’re facing. In this Ni no Kuni 2 combat guide, we’ll be walking you through everything you need to know in order to dominate the opposition, including how to switch characters on the fly.

If you instead need anything else on Ni no Kuni 2, including a full story primer for the game, as well as how to get to grips with the full PS4 controller layout, make sure to head over to our Ni no Kuni 2 guides walkthrough hub.

Ni no Kuni 2 Combat Guide

Although you’ll explore the open world of Ni no Kuni 2 from an almost top down perspective where the characters are turned into chibi versions of themselves, the combat of the game takes place entirely in a third person mode. While exploring the open world you’ll see various monsters dotted around the landscape, each with a level number above their heads. If the level number is blue, it means they won’t automatically attack you, but if the level number is white or red, the enemy character will run straight at your party as soon as they see you.

Once combat has begun, you’ll find yourself playing one character, with two more backing you up. This can be a combination of any three characters, so you could be playing as Roland, while having Tani and Evan as supporting fighters. To switch between active characters for combat, head into the ‘Party’ section of the main Ni no Kuni 2 menu, and you can change the order around at will. Note that you’ll always start combat as the top character, while the two below that will be your supporting allies, with anyone below that left out of the fighting entirely.

The button combination for the combat of Ni no Kuni 2 aren’t actually all that complicated. You can press Square for a light attack, Triangle for a heavy attack, click in the right stick to lock on to a single enemy, and press the left bumper to roll out of the way of incoming attacks. What you’ll need to work on is chaining attacks together, in order to let out enough damage to stagger your enemy out of performing an attack. You can perform all sorts of weapon combo attacks by flicking back and forth between Square and Triangle, but the easiest combo attack in the game is executed by simply doing a light attack, and following it up quickly with a heavy attack.

Then there’s the combat skills you’ll need to get to grips with. In the upper left corner of the screen, just underneath the health bars of your three fighters, you’ll see a list of melee weapons that your character can switch between, by pressing the left trigger. You’ll also note that each of them has a percentage next to it, and this can be increased by repeatedly landing attacks on enemy characters and creatures. When the gauge reaches 100% for any of these weapons, you should equip this weapon, and then hold down the right trigger to bring up a list of the skill attacks you can execute in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Press any of the corresponding face buttons on the PS4 controller, and you’ll execute one of the powerful skill attacks that your character possesses. For example, one of Evan’s skill attacks involves him spinning around with a flaming sword, while Tani has a skill attacks that lets her shoot a bolt of lightning towards an opponent. While you can actually execute these skill attacks whenever you want in combat, they become far more powerful if you use them with a weapon that’s maxed out at 100%, so we’d recommend charging them up with standard attacks, before letting rip with powerful skill attacks.

How to Switch Characters in Ni no Kuni 2

Although we previously mentioned that you start off combat playing as your chosen character in Ni no Kuni 2, there’s actually a hidden way to switch between character on the fly while in combat, that the game doesn’t actually explain to you. Simply press up or down on the D-pad while in the middle of combat, and you’ll switch between the three characters in your party.

This means you can hop between characters on the fly, switching it up based on the enemy you’re facing. For example a powerful character like Batu generally performs better against a single, more powerful boss enemy than plenty of weaker enemies, while Evan or Tani are great for thinning out the crowd. Switching between characters can make the combat of Ni no Kuni 2 a whole lot easier, for you and everyone else in your party.

This might conclude our complete Ni no Kuni 2 combat guide, but make sure to continue ahead to our guide on levelling up quickly in Ni no Kuni 2, or our complete money making guide.

If you want to see what we made of the massive JRPG from Level 5, head on over to our in depth Ni no Kuni 2 review, where we break down where the game excels, and where it falters.