White Knight Chronicles - FFXII-esque RPG with 4p Multiplayer

[JubeiSaotome]

As summed up on Wikipedia:
White Knight Chronicles​ (白騎士物語 -古の鼓動-, Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodō,? lit. "White Knight Story: Ancient Heartbeat") is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 which was released in Japan on December 25, 2008, and was released in North America on February 2, 2010. It is Level-5's first project for the system. As per the playable demo at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, some enemies are extremely large in size, in one piece of concept artwork, a massive turtle-like creature is depicted carrying an entire city on its back. As of August 8, 2009, it has sold 350,000 copies in Japan. At TGS 2009, a sequel entitled White Knight Chronicles 2 was announced.

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I just got this, have been waiting for it since it was announced. Have only started, but will report on how I'm finding both the Single player and Multiplayer.

[Lex]

Jubei gets hyped for terrible rpg. How surprising. Wait. No. The opposite of that.

[JubeiSaotome]

Just got up to accessing GeoNet. My GeoNet ID is JubeiSaotome Land. PSN is JubeiSaotome. Up for games every now and then.

Just played online with 2 Americans and a Canadian, no lag from what I saw. Did some quest where we explored a cave to find some herbs, then got ambushed by 2 huge trolls on handing in the items. Failed, was fun, though.

[concrete donkey]

If i had a ps3 i'd be getting this. it looks good

[sausage]

Gee, combat looks pretty clunky from that vid and the enemies look like arse.

Not wanting to base a firm opinion at all but I was underwhelmed tbh.

[StorminNorman]

The trailers for this game and the fact it's by Japan's top RPG house have me really hyped for this game, but it's apparently got some terrible reviews.

Maybe this is Level 5's first misstep?

[JubeiSaotome]

I can totally agree with what they're saying about the SP. It's really your standard RPG fare, but there's been much worse plots & voice actors. The main avatar you make kind of hangs around like a third wheel and doesn't contribute. Someone was saying, it's kind of like a Don Quixote character, where the game is really through his eyes and he's along to experience it. If you can get over that and don't expect SP to be the stand out, then you should be fine.

The Multiplayer has this thing called GeoNet, which is basically a browser-esque hub for your personal experiences. Each player has a home page, where they can blog about their adventures and attach images. You can visit other homepages, read message boards and use simple mail functions. It works.

There's the whole Dark Cloud/Chronicle town building Georama, where you can log into any player's town to use their stores and so on. From the towns, you can start quests with who ever is present. Lag seems to be a non-issue, I played with a Canadian and 2 Americans the other night with no drop outs or spikes.

If you're interested in this game and hang around to play it to the end, you're most likely there for the Multiplayer to begin with. If anything, the Single Player kind of eases you into the system and sets you up for MP.

[Nic Xtreme]

The trailers for this game and the fact it's by Japan's top RPG house have me really hyped for this game, but it's apparently got some terrible reviews.

Maybe this is Level 5's first misstep?

First? Have you tried playing Rogue Galaxy? The first five minutes were button-mashing absolutely-no-hook-to-keep-playing rubbish.

[StorminNorman]

Rogue Galaxy is one of the best RPGs on the PS2, and I'll have you shot for saying otherwise !

Anyway, went to buy this today, can't find it anywhere. What's the deal?

[Nic Xtreme]

Rogue Galaxy is one of the best RPGs on the PS2, and I'll have you shot for saying otherwise !

You're going to love White Knight Chronicles then!

Anyway, went to buy this today, can't find it anywhere. What's the deal?

I read on EB's site that it isn't out till the 25th or something - the same day as Heavy Rain.

[Natrak]

I'm conflicted on this one. It's Level 5, Dark Chronicle was novel (although I didn't really like the dungeons) and Dragon Quest VIII was just awesome but this doesn't look or sound particularly good. I guess it doesn't help that it looks like a PS2 game >.>

[StorminNorman]

Dark Chronicle was one of the most complicated games I've ever played. There's way, way too much stuff you need to keep track of to get anywhere in that game.

[JubeiSaotome]

I guess it doesn't help that it looks like a PS2 game >.>

Seriously, what.

[Natrak]

From what I've seen the textures aren't great and the modelling all looks quite basic. It looks like a PS2 game that was polished up a bit for the PS3. I'm surprised you're not seeing it. Maybe it looks better first hand than it does in videos on the net.

[JubeiSaotome]

Some textures are pretty average, but when the game isn't in extreme close ups, everything looks sensational. Especially when you leave the first city on an errand, that first field looks awesome.

[StorminNorman]

Picked this up alongside Heavy Rain today. It's actually pretty great, so far. Has a really unique combat/progression system, and I love that you can build your own attack combos.

Story is standard RPG fare (right down to a rescue-the-princess plot!), but it's done well enough, and the characters are pretty engaging. The main hero is like a way cooler version of the main hero from Infinite Undiscovery.

The game plays kind of like Final Fantasy XII, but with actual interactivity in the combat. It's pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

Was disappointed to note that the local release only supplies an English dub. While it's tolerable, it's a bit of a shame, because the Japanese version has a bit of an all-star cast. You'd think that with the acres of disc space available on a BRD, you'd be able to fit both languages on there, but apparently we're still living in the dark ages of single-language PS2 releases.

[JubeiSaotome]

The story is generic to begin with, but it takes some of the most shark-jumpingest turns when you get settled in. Prepare for a story so retarded that you will want to see it to the end.

By the way, add JubeiSaotome.town to your in game friends list.

[StorminNorman]

I doubt I'll be going back to this after it crashed on me the other night. For some reason I almost never go back to games after they've crashed on me.

I might have another crack at it later today, but I'm not looking forward to replaying the half-hour I lost due to the crash.

[JubeiSaotome]

I think I've had it crash once, but it was a very isolated incident. Once out of 50+ hours of game time is very minor. Just save whenever you get the chance.

[Rambo]

I'll pick this up on wed. Looks good :D