First Impression: White Knight Chronicles

What does Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Assassin’s Creed 2 all have in common? They revolutionized the gaming industry in one way or anything and set the standards at remarkably new heights. In short, they took it to the next level. Why exactly am I bringing this up when discussing Sony’s newest exclusive RPG White Knight Chronicles? Well it’s because WKC does nothing as well as those game, yet it’s still a very enjoyable game. It just goes to show that a game doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel in order for gamers to have a good time.

Prelude: Old School RPG Rant
I fear that, as gamers, we are getting too spoiled with our technological advancements. Nothing is ever as good as this or that game does it. This mentality has been absorbed into our brains so much that we no longer appreciate some of the things that once gave us pleasure. I remember a time when any RPG was a good RPG as long as it had a decent storyline. Battle systems didn’t need to be more involved, we were happy enough beating a boss with one hand on the controller and the other in a bag of kettle cooked potato chips. I’m making such a fuss about this because the biggest complaint gamers are going to have with White Knight Chronicles is going to be that it’s too old school. All I have to say about that is “shame on you,” traditional RPGs were good enough back then and they’re just as entertaining today.

Early On: The Start of the Story
Before the game begins you must create your character. The customization here is very basic. You pick from one of about 20 presets and then can make minor altercations, none of which change your appearance in any drastic way.

The story opens up with a young unnamed hero on his first day working for a winery in Balander. Festivities are going on all over Balandar in celebration of a peace treaty with the rival land of Faria. Bad blood has been held between the 2 Monarchies ever since Faria declared war on Balandar 10 years ago. During the war the King of Balandar’s wife was murdered in front of the Princess, further fanning the flames of discontent.

Our hero is tasked with traveling to the next town over to pick up a shipment of wine for the celebration. Together our hero and another shop worker Lenard head to the neighboring town. After running into a few problems and picking up the female adventurer Yulie they return back to Balander late. This is where the problems begin. As soon as our hero and friends return enemy soldiers begin pouring out from parade floats in total Trojan horse fashion.

I won’t spoil anything for anyone, but what eventually happens is our hero’s friend, Lenard, activates an ancient Ark (Giant Mech looking Knight) beneath the castles main levels. Lenard with his newfound White Knight drives the invaders out of the land of Balandar. Amongst all the commotion the princess gets abducted by the attackers. Lenard and his gang set out to return the princess to Balandar.

Did the rival land of Faria turn their backs on the peace treaty? Is the princess safe? Will Balandar be prepared for a second attack? You won’t be getting those answers from me! You’ll have to play it to find out!

My Experience: Simple yet enjoyable
I’ve had little under a week with White Knight Chronicles and already it’s sucked away 8 hours of my life. Generally speaking, it’s been a pleasure spending time in Balandar! But my guess is you’re not here for generalities. You want to know exactly why I’m having so much fun.

Reason #1: The Battle System
Enemies populate the world map in real time. To engage in battle you simply walk up to them and begin hacking away, much the same as you do in Dragon Age: Origins. Once engaged in battle you are allotted a set amount of Action Chips to perform advanced tactics. Simple hacks, thrusts and back swipes are free to use but you’re going to want to chain together some to these attacks in order to take down some of the tougher baddies. Combos are set up through the menus prior to battle, the more your character progresses, the more attacks you’ll be able to chain together. The higher the combo, the more Action Chips are used.

The system takes some getting used to, but once you have the hang of it you’ll not only be controlling your character you’ll be rotating through your allies and issuing them commands as well. What is so great about the battle system is the options you have when it comes to creating combos. Attacks are spread across levels: ground attacks, thrust attacks, air attacks, and air to ground attacks. This allows a character to relentlessly attack an enemy from the ground, give them a good shove, launch them into the air, perform arial assaults, and then land a final blow that will send them smashing down towards the earth.

Sound like a lot of options? I haven’t even mentioned that you can throw in elemental magic anywhere in the mix. So if you want a fireball to follow your thrust, you can do it. You think it would be cool pummel your opponent with an earthquake spell before beating them again after they collapse to the ground, you can do it!

All of your basic classes are included so you won’t be without you’re trusted bow wielding mage, or which ever is your favorite weapon and class combination.

There’s all that combat goodness already and I haven’t even mentioned fighting as the White Knight! Here’s the run down. When Lenard saves up 7 Action Chips you can transform into the giant protector. But you’re not just going to get to use the oversized combatant against bosses, no that would be lame. Whether you’re traveling across vast deserts or crawling through cobwebbed dungeons you’ll randomly encounter larger than life, and much more difficult, “super” enemies. These behemoths come in all different varieties, sometimes as three headed electric tailed dogs, other times as mountainous purple trolls, and can be attacked from both the ground (by your partymates) and one-on-one by the White Knight. Your teammates will be slicing away at the enemies ankles while the White Knight attacks the head and belly of the beast.

If enough blows are landed to the legs of the creature it will collapse, revealing their weak points. This makes you’re teammates useful even when you’re engaged in Knight mode.

Reason #2: The Environments + Their Occupants
Walking through the towns and cities of White Knight Chronicles are almost as fun as some of the action intense moments of the game. The villages are bustling with diverse lifeforms. In a single town alone you’ll find yourself busy listening in on gossip from talking Toads, Cat people, Ogres, miniature floppy eared beings, and of course humans. They become even more entertaining when you make conversation with them.

In a small cottage outside Balandar you can overhear a mother telling her child, “Jacob you shouldn’t be such a picky eater. Haven’t you heard what happens to Parma boys and girls who are picky eaters? In the middle of the night the Picky Monster comes and plants seeds in their stomachs and they grow, and grow, and GROW.” Moments like these give little peaks inside the lives of the common folk and had me laughing out loud.

The fun doesn’t stop with colorful characters. You won’t find your typical cow or horse in this world, instead you get animals that may serve the same functions, but are more fun to look at. Don’t be surprised when you see a deranged bison looking creature with a mouth full enormous teeth slowly pulling a cart of supplies across town.

In addition to the colorful inhabitants of the cities, the layouts themselves are well developed. There are hilltops that overlook cemeteries and vast fields of wheat in country towns and cobblestoned mazes filled with tons of rude merchants in the larger cities. Visiting a town in WKC is never a boring task, there is always something going on.

Not So Great Experiences
While I’ve had my fair share of fun with White Knight Chronicles so far, there are a few things that bug me to no end.

Unnamed Hero
The unnamed hero, most likely named after yourself, is the character you control from the very start of the game. You designed his physical features, set up his attributes, and he’s the first player you take control of from the beginning. Well then why is it that he gets ignored as soon as Lenard enters the picture, which is about 5 minutes into the game. Lenard awakens the White Knight, Lenard saves the princess, and Lenard leads the quest to get her back. What is the point of even having the unnamed hero in the game? Why not just control Lenard from the beginning? As if not being the center of attention wasn’t bad enough the unnamed hero isn’t even acknowledged in any of the cut scene dialogue or small talk at all. He just sits idly by watching everything develop like he’s not even there. It’s awkward, when choosing members to be in my party I don’t even want to include him, although I’m forced to. He has no emotion, no role, and no purpose whatsoever in the game. It’s pointless to even continue calling him the unnamed hero because he’s not much of a hero at all, in fact he should be called silent sidekick! Unless he develops into an actual hero later in the game including him was a tragic flaw.

Saving
WKC kicks it old school with ancient relics spread out across the world that serve as save points. I don’t have much of a problem with this other than the inability to save whenever you want, but there are enough of them around that it’s never an issue. Instead my frustration lies with the amount of time it takes to actually save the game. Form the time I click save to the time the process finishes is a good minute to a minute and a half. It saves and then “auto-saves the game data.” I’m not quite sure why auto-saving the game data is necessary or even how it differs from the regular saving process that occurs prior, but one thing known for sure is that it’s annoying. Again, it’s only a minor frustration.

Overall
In the end there’s nothing too great to say about White Knight Chronicle and definitely nothing horrible to complain about either. In a nutshell, it’s a pretty mediocre game. Yet, I find myself up late at night starring down at my sweaty hands griping the Six Axis and wondering how 5 hours have managed to pass by. So please don’t let the run-of-the-mill story and gameplay scare you away from making this purchase. If you miss the days of simple and refined RPGs you are going to enjoy White Knight Chronicles.

As I was saying in the beginning of this post, not every game needs to take it to the next level. Some experiences are good enough without being tampered with. White Knight Chronicles is involved enough to contend with the apparent ADD every gamer seems to have these days, while still maintaing classic RPG simplicities that modern RPGs like Dragon Age: Origins can’t achieve with their overindulgent options. Sometimes keeping it simple is the best formula for a game, why include hours of codex and in depth public interactions when the majority of players won’t explore even half of it. White Knight Chronicles does a great job at trimming the fat that modern RPGs feel the need to serve its players and only delivers enough depth to make the player feel immersed.

Be sure to follow my continual coverage of White Knight Chronicles. In my next installment I will share my feelings on the games co-operative online missions.