White Knight Chronicles: The Review (Can't think of a witty tagline)
Everyone was first introduced to Japanese developer's, level-5, White Knight Chronicles for Playstation 3 way back in 2006. Back when the first trailer was released, many people were impressed by the look and unique looking battle system. Fast forward to 2010 and the game has finally been localized for American audiences. There was much skepticism because the game was actually released in Japan 2 years prior and not much was being said about it. The lack of hype for something that way back in 2006 was one of the most hyped trailers was suspect. Needless to say the game has gone through some changes since the first trailer. Now the question becomes was the game worth the wait or is it too little too late.
The first thing that the player will probably notice is the battle system and how it has changed. In the original trailer all those years ago the battle system looked deceptively deep. Now we turn to the actual product and the battle system is nowhere as deep or complex. The battle system essentially boils down to turn based attacking like the Role Playing Games (RPGs) of old. The system hides with a coat of free roaming battles but that's hardly the case. Enemies can hit you from anywhere on the field of battle once you've gotten close enough for them to execute their attack the animation doesn't matter. But unlike the battling of old the random encounters are gone. Instead the enemies are out in plain sight and it's up to the player whether to engage them or just run past. In fact the environments and the way battles are fought are reminiscent of Final Fantasy 12 minus all the brightly colored lines. But one again don't get me wrong the battle system isn't complex at all. I mean you can probably get though the game spamming a single attack.
Many reviewers are saying that the story is generic to a fault. Basically an evil organization captures your kingdom's princess and it's your job to rescue her. Pretty generic right? But believe me the story does get more complex and compelling. The story serves as a way to keep the player focused and give them a sense of progression. I've always stood by the belief that if you should only fault something if you think you can do better. I may be completely mistaken but I don't think any of the games reviewers can do better. The story was compelling that I kept playing because I wanted to know what happened next. The simple story seems to give the characters motivation. Yes the characters are sort of generic but they are unique enough to distinguish themseleves. The key thing to keep in mind is that the game was planned as part 1 of a 3 part series. The game does a good job in that regard. It sets up the story as a whole very nicely. And there were people faulting the ending *cough*ign*cough*. The ending offered a decent amount of closure but left the story open to continue it might have been a bit cheesy and cliche but it was fine. So I don't see what the problem is. These people act like they have never played the .hack series of games. The endings for those singular games were far more cryptic and frustrating in my opinion. This might not amount to much but I enjoyed the story far more than eternal sonata, which I didn't even bother to finish because near the end I came to the realization that I don't care about the characters or how the story ends in general. Anyway I digress. The main story is relatively short at a 25 hour-ish mark to complete.
The online component can add hours more. The are quests not relating to the main story that the player can choose to complete on their own or with friends. It's a novel idea because the game has a sort of massively multiplayer online (MMO) feel with the dialogue box on top that describes ever action taking place during a battle. The online feels a bit clunky though. The friend list is separate from your playstation network (PSN) friend list. Meaning you have to re-add everyone in the game, which is time consuming and annoying. Not to mention that after you friend someone in game they do not receive any sort of indication that you have friended them. The connection is only complete when they happen to add you after you add them. Other major complaint is that every time you happen to sign in online you have to scroll through the user agreement. Every time. I have been disconnected a few times but overall it seems pretty stable. Not to mention it can add a lot of play time to the otherwise sort of short adventure.
The game also has a town building feature. The player can upload the town online whenever they choose. I've only spent a few minutes building my town. To me the whole idea was too tedious for me to delve into further. But if building you own town is your thing the mechanics seem rather solid. You could potentially spend a few hours designing your own town. This also happens to add playtime.
When the game begins the player is allowed to create an avatar, which will be in the game. The character design is top notch. There are tons of options. My qualm with this entire scenario is that your custom avatar really has no importance to the story. The avatar you create just happens to stand around in the background during cut scenes, never saying a word. You can play him/her, which is cool. The avatar mainly serves as the player for online play. In online play the player is only able to play as their created avatar. It is also really lame that Sony has decided to charge the player $5 if they wish to change the look of their avatar. But seriously how many times can you possibly want to change the look of your character? But I will admit it was cool to see your created avatar (fyi I made mine to look kinda like me) in an RPG.
In the games many cut scenes the in game avatars all wore the items they were equipped with. I really felt that was a stand out feature that level-5 put into this game. I thought this was very interesting, unique, and cool. Although in some of the more polished computer generated (cg) movies this was not the case. The characters wore what they did at the beginning of the game.
The game has a relatively deep system. Every character can basically use and wear everything in game. However every person is customizable in their specialization. The player has the ultimate say as to what each person is. The player can as much make the main character a swordsman or a mage. Although the game being as easy as it is doesn't not require all that customization. All the game really needed would have been an attack skill for everyone and a heal spell for everyone. The game is super easy. But then again as far as RPGs go the difficulty takes a back seat to the story being told.
I think a more subtle change since the original trailer are the graphics. The game visually looks more anime-ish and less polished than the original trailer. But the game still had a visual style all it's own. Although at times the game can feel like another run of the mill MMORPG.
It seems like I've been gushing about this game but it isn't all gumdrops and candy canes. The "dungeons" in the game are rather linear not to mention that they feel labyrinthine. There were times when I was wondering when the dungeon slogging was going to end. When the dungeon crawling wasn't fun anymore. And as I've mentioned previously the game is ridiculously easy although the online component can be quite difficult. The actual game can be laughably easy at points. So if you're looking for a challenge this is by no means your game. There's really none of it to be found here.
After all that being said I enjoyed White Knight Chronicles. It was relatively relaxing to play and the story kept me invested. I mean the game has undergone a bunch of changes since it was first introduced to us in 2006. I think that trailer in itself raised expectations to unattainable levels. So the question is does the game live up to expectations and the simple answer to that would be no. But as a much needed JapaneseRPG (JRPG) I think it does it's job nicely. At it's core White Knight Chronicles is a very traditional, by the books RPG. It had that so called "old school" feel for me. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but the game does little to distinguish itself. But it is a great start for the 3 part series. With expectations lowered to reasonable levels, I think that the next installment will get higher scores.
As far as I'm concerned based on the simplicity of this game. I give it a highly recommended 7.9/10 for anyone who likes JRPGs. For someone who doesn't like them I'll give this game a -100/10.
On a side note I would just like to talk about video game reviews in general. Every single one of them is based solely on a person's opinion. The sad part is that big name sites and their reviews actually have pull on the buyer. Low reviews could sink a game. I truly do think that that might be the case with White Knight Chronicles. I've grown very tired of people reviewing something overly harsh just because they don't like it. I'm mainly talking about the 5.1 score the game garnered at ign. I mean the sites ratings are just ridiculous take a look at their track record, inconsistency reigns supreme. The reviewer fails to take into account any background about the game namely that it was originally released in 2008, a time when the PS3 was in desperate need of an RPG. I guess that review proves that nearly anyone can write a review even if they are truly uninformed. Everyone has a type of game they like and I'm fine with that. I just don't appreciate someone who goes into a game expecting not to like it, which seems to be what this person did. If you can sell yourself it doesn't even matter if you're good at what you do. Seriously they will pay any jackass to write reviews. Maybe I'm just jealous I haven't found a paying opportunity to write reviews.
The first thing that the player will probably notice is the battle system and how it has changed. In the original trailer all those years ago the battle system looked deceptively deep. Now we turn to the actual product and the battle system is nowhere as deep or complex. The battle system essentially boils down to turn based attacking like the Role Playing Games (RPGs) of old. The system hides with a coat of free roaming battles but that's hardly the case. Enemies can hit you from anywhere on the field of battle once you've gotten close enough for them to execute their attack the animation doesn't matter. But unlike the battling of old the random encounters are gone. Instead the enemies are out in plain sight and it's up to the player whether to engage them or just run past. In fact the environments and the way battles are fought are reminiscent of Final Fantasy 12 minus all the brightly colored lines. But one again don't get me wrong the battle system isn't complex at all. I mean you can probably get though the game spamming a single attack.
Many reviewers are saying that the story is generic to a fault. Basically an evil organization captures your kingdom's princess and it's your job to rescue her. Pretty generic right? But believe me the story does get more complex and compelling. The story serves as a way to keep the player focused and give them a sense of progression. I've always stood by the belief that if you should only fault something if you think you can do better. I may be completely mistaken but I don't think any of the games reviewers can do better. The story was compelling that I kept playing because I wanted to know what happened next. The simple story seems to give the characters motivation. Yes the characters are sort of generic but they are unique enough to distinguish themseleves. The key thing to keep in mind is that the game was planned as part 1 of a 3 part series. The game does a good job in that regard. It sets up the story as a whole very nicely. And there were people faulting the ending *cough*ign*cough*. The ending offered a decent amount of closure but left the story open to continue it might have been a bit cheesy and cliche but it was fine. So I don't see what the problem is. These people act like they have never played the .hack series of games. The endings for those singular games were far more cryptic and frustrating in my opinion. This might not amount to much but I enjoyed the story far more than eternal sonata, which I didn't even bother to finish because near the end I came to the realization that I don't care about the characters or how the story ends in general. Anyway I digress. The main story is relatively short at a 25 hour-ish mark to complete.
The online component can add hours more. The are quests not relating to the main story that the player can choose to complete on their own or with friends. It's a novel idea because the game has a sort of massively multiplayer online (MMO) feel with the dialogue box on top that describes ever action taking place during a battle. The online feels a bit clunky though. The friend list is separate from your playstation network (PSN) friend list. Meaning you have to re-add everyone in the game, which is time consuming and annoying. Not to mention that after you friend someone in game they do not receive any sort of indication that you have friended them. The connection is only complete when they happen to add you after you add them. Other major complaint is that every time you happen to sign in online you have to scroll through the user agreement. Every time. I have been disconnected a few times but overall it seems pretty stable. Not to mention it can add a lot of play time to the otherwise sort of short adventure.
The game also has a town building feature. The player can upload the town online whenever they choose. I've only spent a few minutes building my town. To me the whole idea was too tedious for me to delve into further. But if building you own town is your thing the mechanics seem rather solid. You could potentially spend a few hours designing your own town. This also happens to add playtime.
When the game begins the player is allowed to create an avatar, which will be in the game. The character design is top notch. There are tons of options. My qualm with this entire scenario is that your custom avatar really has no importance to the story. The avatar you create just happens to stand around in the background during cut scenes, never saying a word. You can play him/her, which is cool. The avatar mainly serves as the player for online play. In online play the player is only able to play as their created avatar. It is also really lame that Sony has decided to charge the player $5 if they wish to change the look of their avatar. But seriously how many times can you possibly want to change the look of your character? But I will admit it was cool to see your created avatar (fyi I made mine to look kinda like me) in an RPG.
In the games many cut scenes the in game avatars all wore the items they were equipped with. I really felt that was a stand out feature that level-5 put into this game. I thought this was very interesting, unique, and cool. Although in some of the more polished computer generated (cg) movies this was not the case. The characters wore what they did at the beginning of the game.
The game has a relatively deep system. Every character can basically use and wear everything in game. However every person is customizable in their specialization. The player has the ultimate say as to what each person is. The player can as much make the main character a swordsman or a mage. Although the game being as easy as it is doesn't not require all that customization. All the game really needed would have been an attack skill for everyone and a heal spell for everyone. The game is super easy. But then again as far as RPGs go the difficulty takes a back seat to the story being told.
I think a more subtle change since the original trailer are the graphics. The game visually looks more anime-ish and less polished than the original trailer. But the game still had a visual style all it's own. Although at times the game can feel like another run of the mill MMORPG.
It seems like I've been gushing about this game but it isn't all gumdrops and candy canes. The "dungeons" in the game are rather linear not to mention that they feel labyrinthine. There were times when I was wondering when the dungeon slogging was going to end. When the dungeon crawling wasn't fun anymore. And as I've mentioned previously the game is ridiculously easy although the online component can be quite difficult. The actual game can be laughably easy at points. So if you're looking for a challenge this is by no means your game. There's really none of it to be found here.
After all that being said I enjoyed White Knight Chronicles. It was relatively relaxing to play and the story kept me invested. I mean the game has undergone a bunch of changes since it was first introduced to us in 2006. I think that trailer in itself raised expectations to unattainable levels. So the question is does the game live up to expectations and the simple answer to that would be no. But as a much needed JapaneseRPG (JRPG) I think it does it's job nicely. At it's core White Knight Chronicles is a very traditional, by the books RPG. It had that so called "old school" feel for me. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but the game does little to distinguish itself. But it is a great start for the 3 part series. With expectations lowered to reasonable levels, I think that the next installment will get higher scores.
As far as I'm concerned based on the simplicity of this game. I give it a highly recommended 7.9/10 for anyone who likes JRPGs. For someone who doesn't like them I'll give this game a -100/10.
On a side note I would just like to talk about video game reviews in general. Every single one of them is based solely on a person's opinion. The sad part is that big name sites and their reviews actually have pull on the buyer. Low reviews could sink a game. I truly do think that that might be the case with White Knight Chronicles. I've grown very tired of people reviewing something overly harsh just because they don't like it. I'm mainly talking about the 5.1 score the game garnered at ign. I mean the sites ratings are just ridiculous take a look at their track record, inconsistency reigns supreme. The reviewer fails to take into account any background about the game namely that it was originally released in 2008, a time when the PS3 was in desperate need of an RPG. I guess that review proves that nearly anyone can write a review even if they are truly uninformed. Everyone has a type of game they like and I'm fine with that. I just don't appreciate someone who goes into a game expecting not to like it, which seems to be what this person did. If you can sell yourself it doesn't even matter if you're good at what you do. Seriously they will pay any jackass to write reviews. Maybe I'm just jealous I haven't found a paying opportunity to write reviews.
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