At Tokyo Game Show earlier this week, Studio Ghibli and Level-5 announced that they will be releasing the long awaited Ni No Kuni: Queen of the White Ashes to North America sometime in 2012.

According to Level-5’s President, Hiro Akihino, the english version of the game is now in production and will be released to the market in early 2012. He also said that while the the PS3 and DS versions will both start out the same, the games will have major story differences at a certain point. He also noted that the PlayStation 3 version will have additional content as well as planned downloadable content exclusive to the system.

Hit the jump for more information on Ni NoKuni for the PlayStation 3.

In Ni No Kuni, players control Oliver as he goes to a parallel world (Hence the title: “The Another World”) after learning that he may have a chance to revive his recently departed mother. In the parallel world, Oliver meets alternate versions of people that he knows.

The original DS version of the game met with critical acclaim in it’s native Japan. Scoring a 38 out of 40 in Weekly Famitsu magazine (the most read gaming magazine in the country) and sold over 170,000 copies in it’s first week on sale.

Expect Ni No Kuni: Queen of the White Ashes to arrive on North American PS3’s in early 2012.

[Via Gamespot]