Ni No Kuni II Controls – How to Play

Ni No Kuni 2 isn’t an overly challenging game, but there’s still a lot to take in while you’re playing. If you jumped in head first, there’s a chance you missed some of the basic Ni No Kuni 2 controls. While you can pull this up in-game, that’s not always the best option, so we took the liberty of covering Ni No Kuni 2 controls and providing a quick explanation as to what these controls do. So sit back and let’s take a closer look at the Ni No Kuni 2 control scheme.

Ni No Kuni 2 Controls

Move Character – Push the analog stick a little bit to walk, or all the way to run. You can increase movement speed even more by doing research after building up your kingdom.

Move Camera – Move the camera around your main character.

Strong Melee Attack – Unleash at powerful, but moderately slow close-range attack. You can press the button multiple times for a combo and even mix in Quick Melee Attacks as well.

Quick Melee Attack – Hit enemies with a quick, but somewhat weak close-range attack. If you press the button multiple times you’ll perform a combo, and you can use Strong Melee Attacks at any point during the combo as well.

Jump – Allows you to jump during battle and on the main world map. Jump in battle to hit flying enemies, and jump on the world map to get to out of reach areas.

Direct Higgledies – When a circle appears around a Hiddledy, approach the main Higgledy in the middle of the circle and press X to activate a Higgledy skill.

Ranked Attack – Attack from a distance or hit flying enemies with a ranged attack. Most ranged attacks are limited by MP, so if you’re out of MP your ranged attacks won’t be as effective.

Block – Reduce the damage on an attack by holding the block button. You cannot dodge while holding block and your movement is slowed. In addition, you won’t stop all damage, just most of it.

Open Skill Palette – Hold the button to open your skill selection screen, then press Triangle, Square, Circle or X to activate a specific skill. If you have no MP you will not be able to perform more skills.

Change Active Weapon – Change the weapon you’re actively using.

Item and Party Menu – Open the main menu so you can adjust your party members and other options or check out the various help screens.

Weapon Switching – Switch weapon mode from automatic to semi-automatic to manual to determine when you switch weapons during combat.

Change Character – During combat this changes the character you’re active using. Other party members will be computer controlled.

Change Target – Once you lock on to a target, use the d-pad to cycle through available targets.

Dodge Roll – Quickly tap L1 and any direction on the Left Analog Stick to execute a roll that avoids most attacks. You can increase the invulnerability of dodge rolls once you’ve started building up your kingdom.

Target Lock Toggle – During combat you can use this to lock onto a target or remove your target lock. If you get knocked down your target lock is automatically removed.

Leafbook and Check Help – Access your Leafbook or any help screens when prompted.

For tips and tricks or other helpful advice, check out our Ni No Kuni 2 game hub!