White Knight Chronicles (SPOILERS).

[bluestarultor]

So Phantom picked this up today and I have to say that for a game with an MMO setup, it looks pretty darn good. Kind of odd in a few ways, but not necessarily bad. I'll post this as a mini-review.

So game start. You begin by creating a character like you would in a WRPG or MMORPG, with some pretty comprehensive options ranging from basic body build to voice. It's a bit limited in what it gives you, but not enough to be a complaint, because there are certainly enough combinations even with the limited breadth of them. The main issue really lies in key features being pre-set, such as eyes you don't seem able to further adjust, and a lot of the limited options offered simply look like crap, so I imagine most people will end up looking like a pretty narrow spectrum in the online portion this is for.

Once you're done with that, enter the hero, AKA not you, oddly. Despite picking a voice, you don't actually have any lines, reducing you to a satellite character who's literally set up to be the hero's sidekick, only once other characters come along, you quickly end up just standing in the background listening to them all yammer on. It's not necessarily a bad thing, just weird.

On the plus side, where everyone else has more limited paths, your avatar is totally open to develop however you want, which can make you either the most or least useful party member depending on how badly you fuck up by not specializing in something. Put simply, pick one or two areas and stick with them. You don't get the points to nab everything, or at least not all at once. Also, keep in mind that for some odd reason, spears = tanking. Phantom has yet to fully explore the systems, but I'm sure there's a wiki I'll be finding for more.

As for the story, Leonard and you get sent off to provide the merriment for a royal ball, by which I mean your surly animal-dwarf-thing boss kicks your asses out with instructions to get wine from somewhere in a desert. I stepped out of the room for this, but somewhere in there, an old guy Jedi mind tricks his way into the city. Apparently, the party is both to serve as a peace treaty meeting between the humans and a bunch of guys with antlers, with both kings attending, and also to show off the princess, who hasn't spoken since her mother was murdered straight in front of her ten years ago. If you can't see the king's death and princess' kidnapping coming from miles away, you need prescription lenses. Which is why it's such a surprise that BOTH kings get killed. By a guy in black armor and his midget vizier by bringing their troops in under the guise of frankly a VERY talented circus, which kind of makes you wonder why the troops are serving under a guy with glowing red eyes under his helmet instead of, I dunno, actually being a circus. You kind of assumed the antler guys were the bad guys, but in a tragic twist, they actually REALLY MEANT PEACE. So apparently, seeing her FATHER murdered in front of her gets the emotional damage of seeing her mother murdered in front of her out of the princess' system, because she starts talking again, which in psychological terms is kind of like whacking someone in the head with a brick to cure brain damage, but whatever, and then she mumbles some stuff and unchains a giant suit of armor that eats Leonard, but it's okay because he makes a pact with the demon living inside of it and it calls him "master," so you know the demon's getting the raw end of the deal.

So the princess is kidnapped and it's up to the red-headed hero, you, the old guy, and some purple-haired chick with no chest and a bowl cut that likes the hero and has no chance in Hell with him to go rescue her while another guy who clearly is supposed to join your party goes emo over the king dying and stays behind to clean up the mess. It's cliche as hell, but it works. Also, directly after this, you get an enhanced version of the opening theme, which again, isn't necessarily bad, just kind of weird.

The motion is actually all pretty good. Cloth and hair move well at some points, not so well at others, like the devs only let Havok handle things half the time and didn't do quite as well when they did it manually, or maybe the other way around. The voice acting is also pretty good, but it's that kind of good where it's good enough that you start to fault it for its issues, and it's not helped by the literal total lack of lip-synch because the Japanese script had a lot more silence in it. Combat seems to flow nicely, but you're on a charge-up timer for every action, so things can be a bit slow. When you go into knight form, which only Leonard is able to do, it pretty much acts as a limit breaker and doles out tons of damage for MP until it runs out and changes you back. On the other hand, the MP/damage ratio is pretty fucked when one hit costing 4 MP does a few points shy of what looks like a powerful combo does for 11. The music is great, though, and has kind of a Chrono Cross thing going in the theme, which also has a great bass line.

Also, it turns out your party is Lawful Stupid, because your first attempt to rescue the princess falls apart because everyone rushes to congratulate Leonard on kicking a giant monster's ass, leaving her undefended to get re-abducted by the fucking midget. Then Leonard is all like "DAMMIT! We HAD her!" and I'm just like "FUCK YEAH, YOU DID, YOU IDIOTS!" So at least they can't be blamed for not REALIZING they're stupid.




Overall, it seems like an okay title, but not without stumbling along the way. Anyone else actually buy this thing? There was some amount of hype over it a while back, but then it all seemed to die off into obscurity.

[Yumil]

My roommate got it. Story is bland, but it is awesome to hear my roommate say "Go go Power Rangers" out of nowhere while he is playing it.

[bluestarultor]

Well, I spoiled myself, and I have to say there are a couple twists I never would have seen coming.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

There was some amount of hype over it a while back, but then it all seemed to die off into obscurity.

Most of what I've heard about it is that it kinda sucks or, at best, is disappointing, especially given the company it's from. I'd check it out and review it myself, but I lack a PS3, so I can merely shake my fist angrily.

[Magus]

Level 5 also worked on Dragon Quest VIII, which was quite enjoyable even if it didn't break any new ground. As long as people are aware that the plot is a typical RPG plot that's been done a thousand times with enough differences to differentiate it, plus slight differences in combat and whatever, it's another "solid" RPG that people who like to play those kind of RPGs over and over again will enjoy. Frankly if I were looking for something groundbreaking I'd be looking to a Squarenix RPG or try to finally beat Breath of Fire V the whole way through (for the hundredth time).

People probably feel the same way about this one as they did Lost Odyssey or something, where for some reason they expected it to be pretty different even though the specific reason to play it was for another Hironobu Sakaguchi RPG that was actually supposed to be similar to past Final Fantasy games that we all enjoyed ten years ago.

I mean, there's something to be said for playing through a plot where a princess gets kidnapped and the party is stupid, because it brings back a certain level of nostalgia. If the gameplay is differentiated enough, at least it doesn't feel completely the same (though from what I can see on Wikipedia, it plays a lot like FFXII. Which isn't bad, after all, since this would only be the second game to use that battle system? Maybe?)

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Magus

Level 5 also worked on Dragon Quest VIII, which was quite enjoyable even if it didn't break any new ground. As long as people are aware that the plot is a typical RPG plot that's been done a thousand times with enough differences to differentiate it, plus slight differences in combat and whatever, it's another "solid" RPG that people who like to play those kind of RPGs over and over again will enjoy. Frankly if I were looking for something groundbreaking I'd be looking to a Squarenix RPG or try to finally beat Breath of Fire V the whole way through (for the hundredth time).

People probably feel the same way about this one as they did Lost Odyssey or something, where for some reason they expected it to be pretty different even though the specific reason to play it was for another Hironobu Sakaguchi RPG that was actually supposed to be similar to past Final Fantasy games that we all enjoyed ten years ago.

I mean, there's something to be said for playing through a plot where a princess gets kidnapped and the party is stupid, because it brings back a certain level of nostalgia. If the gameplay is differentiated enough, at least it doesn't feel completely the same (though from what I can see on Wikipedia, it plays a lot like FFXII. Which isn't bad, after all, since this would only be the second game to use that battle system? Maybe?)

Yeah, the story is pretty generic, but it's done pretty well. Battle has some minor flaws, but said flaws are no worse than what I've seen in Perfect World, like an enemy's melee attack hitting you even if you run out of range. The speed is no worse than FF12's. And it feels faster just because you don't have the "piss lines" flying all over the place. A lot of reviews are bashing on it because they're just plain disappointed, but one of the most confusing complaints is that it's not as pretty as they said it would be, because the game is pretty much gorgeous.

Basically, it's like people are grasping at straws to hate on it, rather than seeing it as a solid RPG that just doesn't bring a ton new to the table in terms of story.