White Knight Chronicles is a frustrating game. This long delayed JRPG, which has been
out in Japan since late 2008, is full of interesting ideas, all of which have been very badly implemented. For every plus, there's a gang of minuses just waiting to kill your buzz.
We'll give you an example. You have the freedom to tailor each warrior to your heart's content. Fancy a healer who also packs a hefty wallop? Or an archer who can throw fireballs? Fine - you can learn skills in any of eight specialised areas. But the structure that allows you to do this is diabolical. First, you have to go through two menus to assign Skill Points to unlock your desired action. Then you have another four screens to trawl through before assigning these skills to individual slots so you can use them on the battlefield. One by one. For each character. Every time you level up. No thanks.
The item and equipment systems are equally convoluted. It took several hours before we worked out that we'd looted some decent swords, then another 15 minutes to equip them.
CHINK IN THE ARMOUR The battles themselves fail to convince you to forgive these cack-handed oversights. If it's not the numerous HUDs and gauges obscuring your view, it's the camera doing its level best to focus on your feet, or the head of an off-screen giant. Adding insult to injury, it doesn't even matter how you grind; from the lowliest gnome to the meatiest boss, everyone's a pushover and doesn't require any tactical thought.
Of course, it does help that, once you Action gauge is full, the lead member of your party - orphan boy Leonard - can transform into the titular White Knight. Once morphed into this gigantic suit of armour, Leonard is pretty much invincible and will easily cull humongous monsters, without breaking a sweat.
IT'S NOT THE SIZE On that note, everything about WKC can be summed up with the word 'humongous': monsters, levels and cut-scenes. Levels are unnecessarily large, with vast expanses of land that lead nowhere; not even to any rare loot. They're also littered with the same set of creatures (gnomes, bees, boars and trolls), who change colour depending on the climate.
Meanwhile, WKC's extensive cut-scenes will push even the most patient of RPG lovers to the limit. At one point, we put the pad down for a full 20 minutes and tried to switch our brain off, possibly as a defence against the painfully dumb dialogue. To make things worse, wooden, doll-like characters, whose lips open and close like Thunderbirds puppets act out the woefully idiotic lines.
The usual JRPG personalities are all present; Leonard the rather clueless hero, Yulie the sassy gal pal, Eldore the gruff grown-up and Cisna the pathetic simpering Princess who can't do anything without crying.
Your avatar is another bizarre addition to this stereotypical line-up. Control constantly switches back to Leonard, making your own warrior redundant. Meanwhile, your poor doppelganger hangs around, trying his best to peer into shot. In fact, he only takes centre stage when you plug in your network cable and partake in online quests (which you 'buy' within the game). The servers weren't up as we went to press but we'll feature a full review next month - we're not feeling too excited.
WKC fails because it's dated. The shallow, cookie cutter characters are as believable as mannequins. Your quest to rescue the princess from a megalomaniac intent on ruling the world has been done many times before. The menu-heavy battles are archaic and the delivery is badly animated, translated, and dubbed.
Everything about White Knight feels stale and stuck in a clichéd, JRPG rut. Maybe that was fi ne back in 2008 but now, next to FFXIII and Resonance of Fate, this feel like a poor third choice.
PSM3 Staff
// Overview
Verdict
Simple characters and dated presentation tell a bland tale.
I'm enjoying FFXIII at the moment, here's hoping Resonace of Fate is good (I've played the jap demo, it's different to traditional rpgs), it is from Tri-Ace afterall.
I'm also waiting to see what scores Infinite Space get, what with it being made by Platinum Games.
If you really had that hard a time finding your way around WKC's menus you must either be somewhat retarded or this is your first JRPG.
Every section of the menus lets you swap quickly and easily between characters for equipping, leveling up and so on. In fact it's amazingly simple to manage your characters, even if the initial talk of combos is a bit confusing.
Another thing is that this review is about as big a scandal as that for Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, as it focuses exclusively on the campaign of what is to a great extent an online game - and it really shines online with a gameplay that's a mix of Grandia 2 and Phantasy Star Online. Heck, GeoNet is innovative and odd enough in its own right to warrant a mention.
It's not the best JRPG and it's not the best online hack'n'slash, but I'd probably have to say it's the most solid combination I've seen. The online section isn't quite as good as Phantasy Star Online v2, but the story is certainly better than PSO's. On the other hand the story has been done better many times over in other RPGs, but this game is a massive package.
Bad review. Horrible review. 3/10 for the review. 7,5 out of 10 for the game.
You're free to do what you want, Adam81uk. Just know that you're missing out if you like games like PSO or just want an ok RPG for single player mode. While the reviewer is right that the dubbing is horrible (why no Japanese?) and there's a lot of pointless running around, it's still fun enough, and the interface is certainly quite elegant and easy to use.
I've probably played more games, played for more years and written more reviews than the reviewer in question here. Can't be sure of course, but I'm no whippersnapper. One thing is certain, though: This review is lazy, incompetent reviewing from someone who hasn't touched the main section of the game. If he did indeed touch the main section, I'd say the crime is even worse.
As a matter of fact I'm playing it with the intent to write a full review later, but sadly it won't be in English.
I agree with Ninjakoala. PSM3 gave a 70 over 100 to FF XIII!!! PSM3 has been given bad reviews to great games. I think this is according to the likes of the one writing the review. The best way is asking your mates in PS3 (if anybody have the game); I have been told that this game is fantastic.
Guys they are just opinions and because they differ from yours you think there wrong! I've been gaming for 28 years now and i do love a good jrpg but i have to agree with the reviewer this is mediocre at best. With the advanced generation of consoles today you would have thought they would have nailed these games by now instead i find its the classics like XenoGears and Suikoden II that i would rather play then this half baked travesty of a game.
I agree that WKC is flawed and it should have been twice as good as what it is, yet i find myself strangely hooked! The main story isn't great and online can be a constant grind at times but there's just something about it that makes it hard to put down. One of the best things about this game, which rarely gets a mention in most reviews, is the beautiful music. Top notch.
I love the PSM3 crew but i think some of their staff writer reviews lately have been iffy, i mean, they gave Dragon Age 63%!!
Agreed. It's not the best RPG this generation by any means (that honour would go to Lost Odyssey and Valkyria Chronicles on the two respective platforms). But it's certainly solid and enjoyable. In fact I'm currently playing the final boss battle and have unlocked loads more for online play later.
What's scary about this review is that it's just obvious that the reviewer didn't even bother to *try*. I mean FFS it has visual indicators for switching between characters in inventory and shop management.
Where's the mentioning of GeoNet's features such as a complete online community with forums, history, friends lists, the ability to build your own frigging town, four player co-op and so on? I'm still well outraged.
This seems more like a reader review from someone who hasn't tried that many JRPGs. The whole review itself is short and doesn't seem to get out of the habit of bitching about problems that other people have said aren't that big a deal.
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