7.3.2010

This one was tough to call... while White Knight Chronicles is indeed a very goodJRPG in a gameplay sense, the story, plot structure, pacing, and game world arejust not up to scratch with the rest of the game. I'll take it from the top:The single player mode has you playing as Leonard, the stereotypical 'lowborn'JRPG underdog who has a crush on the emotionally distant princess of the Kingdomof Balandor, whom he of course is thrown together with when an invasion ofBalandor by 'The Magi' leaves the king dead and the kingdom in need of savingquicksmart. So it's up to Leonard using his handily discovered in the royalpalace's treasure room 'White Knight Ark' which allows him to 'pilot'a huge whiteknight suit of armour(Which you CANNOT name Escaflowne no matter how much youmight want to) to gather up a merry band of party members and blah. Blah. BLAH!So yes, you really are in the most generic sounding of JRPG plots here, with thestory and characters being fairly typical archetypes with the only "interesting"addition to proceedings being an "avatar" character whom you design from scratchyourself at the outset of the game to serve as some sort of 'silent manservant' toLeonard who does not speak, is mostly ignored by everyone else, and serves zeropurpose to the story to such an extent that I merely pretended he was Leonard'simaginary friend, and somehow this added a small degree of comfort to a coldlycliched story. But basically the 'Avatar' character is your 'online' persona(Added into the single player adventure to let you build him up a bit), but moreon that later.So the story is bland(Not to mention insubstantial), but thankfully the gameplayis actually of an extremely high quality, seemingly taking it's cues from thecriminally underappreciated Final Fantasy XII it gives you a large number of trulyenormous open world areas to work through, with insanely vast valleys, fields,chasms and canyons punctuated by large, densely populated cities... this gametruly does 'scale' on a degree you will not have seen in a Japanese RPG before.Add to this a combat system that will sit well if you enjoyed Dragon Age Origins(Which this game could arguably be described as a Japanese styled version of) andyou really do have a JRPG that is a heap of fun to play. Fighting hordes ofmonsters across vast open world areas might sound a bit of a grind fest, but it isactually a fairly easy game, despite the perhaps over abundance of menus andfiddly item and equipment management system. The leveling and stat building is alot more user friendly though thankfully, and there really is a lot to be said forthe utilisation of the 'Knights' in the game as well... it really is something tosee to face off against a boss so huge it can stomp your entire party with onefoot, only for you to match it's size by jumping into your suit of armour andhaving the whole transition occur in real time, no pause or break in combat, justan instant switch between regular and giant size combat and vice versa. This gameis exceptionally smooth running, with few break ups in the action and thestoryline mercifully using a bare minimum of cutscenes. You will have a BLASTplaying WKC if you have any sort of appreciation for JRPGs I can promise you.Now, where things get REALLY interesting is when you delve into the onlinecomponent of the game, where you take your personally created 'avatar' characterinto any of the in game 'Guild quest' side missions and team up with up to threeother party members and take on various tasks across the game's numerous huge openplan maps and the effect is simply fantastic. It manages to capture the fun andteam camaraderie of MMORPGs in a way I haven't seen any console RPG manage in thepast. It is a riot to run into battle against some ridiculously oversized bossand argue with your team about who needs to pull back to focus on healing everyoneelse as you all approach death. It's a small thing, sure, but the smooth runningand clear voice chat really do make the experience one to savour. It's the mostfun you will have in an online RPG on a console without having to pay to accessthe game's online portion basically, as several other JRPGs would have you do.Visually, the game is very pretty, if unspectacular. It looks great and all, andevery single character and NPC looks totally unique(A rare thing in JRPGs that'sfor sure) and each character's appearance ingame and in cutscenes will alter witheverything you equip or remove from them. The large open worlds are also verydetailed and pretty, with the towns and cities perhaps not being quite asimpressive to behold, but all in all, it looks good, runs smoothly, and while itwon't have you agape with awe, you'll probably be pleased with it's presentationif you aren't overly demanding.Soundtrack wise things are a tad less impressive... with a competent soundtrackand decent voice acting... neither really being anything overly great, but at thesame time not overly awful either.Overall, White Knight Chronicles is a fantastically fun to play JRPG with adisappointingly flat, cliche stuffed and unsatisfying storyline at it's coretempered with a truly superb combat/gameplay system and a stupendous and deeponline component that provides a whole lot of fun for your money so long as you'reprepared to put the time in.I'm going 4 out of 5 here for WKC, HOWEVER, if you're only thinking of playing thegame for the single player mode and nothing else, consider this a 2 out of 5 gamefrom me. It IS fun to play, but the storyline, pacing and game structureseriously tarnish all that it does right to a fairly major degree.

5.3.2010

This is a Level 5 rpg that takes aspects of their previous ps2 games, especially Rogue Galaxy. From the free flowing environemts with very few loading screens to the 3 party combat system and the active chat - if you've played Rogue Galaxy you will be in familiar territory. The single player experience is a very traditional rpg with gaining experience and money from battles to upgrading weapons and skills. The story is pretty traditional (read: cliched!) with a princess being captured and the quest is to rescue her - although we don't have to jump an monsters' heads like certain italian plumbers! You start off by developing your own character, which then only has a bit part in the main story and you can swap between all the characters.You have control over all the characters' skill development and so can set up a fairly balanced party and you can control which ever character you like - changing characters is menu driven rather than using any buttons so it is not as instant as other rpgs (star ocean 4 for example) in the midst of battles.The combat system has the appearance of an action rpg, but its roots are firmly fixed in the traditional rpg style - it is sort of time based with an imposed time limit between attacks and evading or blacking attacks depends on stats rather than physically moving your character. An interesting feature is that you can develop combos (the amount of attacks in combos depends on how many skills you have unlocked) and so your attack period can consist of up to 6 attacks without needing to wait between each attack. However more powerful attacks and combos costs various amounts of action chips (AC) which can be gained through attack or taking damage from enemies. Therefore combat also involves management of AC to either try and save enough for a massive combo of just use several minor combos.The AC also controls the activation of the White Knight in which Leonard (main character) turns into a massive White Knight and deals out pain to all around. This uses a lot of AC and so is usually saved for bigger battles. Apparently other charcters get access to this transformer ability later in the story.The sp side of the game is pretty average, but quite enjoyable. The graphics are adequate for the game and sound/bgm is decent enough. If it was just an sp game then it would be 3 stars. However, early on in the game you get access to the Geonet which is a great interface for mp. Initially it seems a bit fiddly, but once it is explored a bit then it is a pretty indepth mp interface based on an social networking site - you can read other people's comments and then link to their homepage and even join their hometown and your avatars can interact. However, i'll not go into massive details here. The main thing to remember is that the geonet is almost a seperate entity than psn - this means you can't link to your psn friends lists and only list friends who also belong to geonet - the upside of this is that you can have a specific friends list that doesn't take up space on your psn limited friends lsit.The mp quests are bought in towns in the sp game in the adventurers guild - the quests you have access to depends on your Guild Rank and the areas you have access to which are reached through playing through the sp game. you can invite up to 4 people on a quest and this seems fpretty stable with working voice chat or text chat (in game - rather than just the psn text chat)The final thing to mention is the hometown - you can develop your own hometown with buildings and residents and lots of other stuff. To make the items for your hometown you need money and materials and so a lot of the sp game is focused on getting materials for your hometown. You can also get materials from certain items in the hometown or certain residents so its good to develop it. You can upload your hometown to the geonet and use it as a gather point for quests or just chat. It is similar in style to the dark cloud georama sections.My final verdict is that this is a great rpg and possibly the best so far for the ps3, only let down by the cliched story of the sp campaign. The geonet elevates the game above being merely average to a joyous gaming experience if you have friends also wanting to quest with you or if you want to make new friends! Obvioulsy this is not for you if you don't like rpgs or only like action rpgs (the combat syatem will be too frustating) but otherwise then i strongly suggest buying this game - even considering the great rpgs also due out this month!

16.3.2010

Honestly I cannot understand why this game is not more popular than it is. The story may be fairly typical JRPG fantasy but the gameplay is superb. Especially for the PS3 which has very few interesting RPGs.This game starts fairly simple but there is alot to enjoy within it. Firstly, the combat is enjoyable, firstly its a bit irritating waiting enough time to swing your sword once more but when you get the hang of it and play few the first few tutorials it enables you to build your own combos. Basically you get skill points to level up all the main single player characters and your custom character (used for online games but also usable in the single player which i think is pretty neat)

3.4.2010

White knight Chronicles is a pretty cool JRPG in the style of an MMO type game.It's pretty anime like and if loved FFXII, I'm sure u will like WKC too, cause the gameplay (especially the combat system) feels pretty familiar.It has a big world and no random enounters, which means u can see all ur enemies and decide if u want to fight or evade combat. If u were one of those guys who hated the FFXII's System u propably like it either, because it has some nice Network features. U can build ur own town and invite friends to come there. U can play online with up to 3 friends and do quests together to get rare items u can use for the singleplayer mode.

17.6.2010

graphics - in this game i think the graphics are more anime ish . in some parts the graphics lets it down like the field and the grass . i think there can be a more effort to make the graphics a little better like clothing a little to me they are a little dusk at times like at night or when the weather changes.gameplay and online - to me the game play is amazing as this is an online game that you can talk with people and either help people around the world and gives more of a freedom in the game like getting people to come to your village . and then you can buy more stuff to attract more and more . and you will need a lot of spare time to actually find everything in this game . the fighing is a bit rough .

3.3.2011

I bought this game a while back as it was only cheap so didn't really expect it to be much good. I was mistaken, really addictive game with a great storyline and very nice to look at too. The combat system is good too, it is your run of the mill Final fantasy type turn based system. The only negative thing I can say about this game is that it's too easy for a seasoned RPG gamer but it's still definately a fun game to play.The online mode is brill too, you can build your own town that other people can visit and buy goods and you can also join online guilds to go and do quests with, sort of like instances where you kill a boss at the end and get some nice items or rescue someone etc. All in all,

12.9.2010

WKC is a game with beautiful scenery and graphics. The two things I love the most about this game are Geonet (you can play online quests up to 3 other players) and Georama (you can make your own village, buy houses, parts - kinda like Dark Cloud- and then upload it to Geonet and invite other players to your village). If you loved Dark Cloud, you'll love this game.The battle system is a little too slow-paced for me, it's very similar to the one of Final fantasy XII.Lip-syncing is not on spot in WKC, but it's really cool to see your character's current armor equipped in every cutscene.A PS3 RPG worth buying but it never reaches the awesomeness of FFXIII imo.

19.9.2016

This game is both well made and has a true rpg feel that many of the mainstream and promoted titles lack nowadays (including many recent Final Fantasy titles).It has a cutesy style to it, but there is, as ever; a somewhat dark underlying story that can be truly experienced only as an adult. One both for children and for adults.

16.1.2012

After seeing the trailer a while back I was interiged. I brought it last year and I must say its a compiling RPG.The romance add a little sparkle. Graphics are good but however those who are familiar with the Final Fantasy sagas can agree that it's almost a direct copy of FF12 for the PS2. But other than that a great game.

29.2.2012

I have been playing for 20 hours now. The story is not very original, but ok. The battle system reminded me of FF12. The graphics are cool. So far the only problem I see is that it is very easy.

19.6.2010

a good game when you first play it it seems rather childish but it soon has you enthralled very much like a simpler version of final fantasy. Buy it and try it.

12.6.2013

This game as grafic and story is pretty good perhaps I don't like the story with an continue, for this i will give 4th star and not 5th star

28.8.2018

Amazing game! Highly recommended, especially white knight 2.

26.10.2014

once you get past the quirky controls it is a very good game

28.8.2015

a GREAT FIRST GAME , VERY CHALLENGING INDEED.

White Knight Chronicles (PS3) - Reviews

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