Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn

The 2010 Nintendo DS original, animated by Studio Ghibli and bundled with a 352-page spellbook.

Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn is a role-playing video game developed and published by Level-5, released in Japan for the Nintendo DS on December 9, 2010. Its animated sequences were produced by Studio Ghibli and its score was co-composed by Joe Hisaishi, with artwork inspired by Ghibli's other productions.

Quick Facts

Developer: Level-5
Director: Ken Motomura
Producer: Hiroyuki Watanabe
Writer: Akihiro Hino
Artist: Toshihiro Kuriaki
Composer: Joe Hisaishi, Rei Kondoh
Series: Ni no Kuni
Platforms: Nintendo DS

Facts from the source article.

Background

Players control Oliver, a resident of Hotroit whose mother Allie dies after saving him from drowning; his tears bring his doll to life as the fairy Shizuku, who reveals that the evil wizard Jabou rules another world and that Oliver's mother resembles the captured sage Alicia. Battles use a grid layout, tamed creatures called imajinn, and spells drawn with the stylus from the Magic Master book, a physical 352-page volume bundled with the game that was later digitised as the Wizard's Companion.

Conceived for Level-5's tenth anniversary in 2008 and announced in Famitsu that September, the game got its Studio Ghibli collaboration after musician Naoya Fujimaki introduced Level-5 president Akihiro Hino to Ghibli president Toshio Suzuki, whose animation team was free after Ponyo. Ghibli's Yoshiyuki Momose directed the animation and drew the character designs and storyboards in a "Ghibli-like" style, and the team watched Ghibli films constantly. The game won the Future Division at the Japan Game Awards in 2009 and 2010 and the Excellence Award in 2011, sold over 170,000 units in three days and over 560,000 by the end of 2011. An enhanced version, Wrath of the White Witch, came to PlayStation 3 in November 2011.