This generation Japanese RPGs haven’t really ridden the momentum they had going for them during the PS2 days. Both the PS1 and the PS2 were literally an everlasting cave of wonders for gamers who love JRPGs. Unfortunately this generation I can’t say the same yet, with only a handful of them out 3-4 years into this generation, none of them are really much to write home about. My optimism hasn’t been flushed down the toilet yet, because aside from the powerhouse that is Final Fantasy XIII, there are still a few such as Resonance of Fate and White Knight Chronicles coming down the pipeline with something worth offering to the genre. Today I got a little hands on time with the PS3 exclusive White Knight Chronicles to see what this has different in store for us.

White Knight Chronicles has been on my radar for quite some time now, as it’s released already in Japan over a year ago. There has been quite a lot of time and effort being put into localizing it for the North American release. Aside from the obvious hours-long venture into the story experience, what I find worth talking about that sets White Knight Chronicles apart from every other JRPG is it’s one of the only JRPGs to feature online content.

If any of you are familiar with Dark Cloud, you were able to create your own town to a highly engaging level. You were able to build the houses you wanted, move in tenants to buildings of your choice, add features to the houses and change their colors and appearances. Each town you’d build would have different requirements to better the community and such that you needed to fulfill in order to gain rewards and restore the area in the future. Well White Knight Chronicles is taking upon the georama system with the town building, but you will be able to share your town with friends online and invite them into your town. Around 50 or more quests are planned in addition to that that you will be able to embark on with friends over PSN. This is one of the main features that has had me eyeballing WKC for a while now, because sharing your personal worlds and experiences with a friend was never something you could share with your friends.

One other feature that seems kind of interesting if developer Level-5 is able to pull it off well is the GeoNet feature that’s planned. It’s pretty much an in-game social networking platform in which you can create your own profile, send mail to friends and write blog posts, in an attempt to really connect WKC players.

So back to the game itself! I don’t want to ride everything on the online features… When I booted up the game, I decided to start a new game to get an introductory feel for it in which I was prompted to create my character. A long list of tweaks were available to make such as jaw height, cheekbones and all those technicalities. I’m head over heels for customization and looks when creating your own character — but I was happy just being able to choose the hairstyle, hair color, eye color, main facial emotion (Haven’t seen this option before in customization! Take note of this RPG developers), height and weight for the most part. I was just fine with that. I sprayed on her some green hair and eyebrows, some bright blue eyes and I was off.

A slew of opening cutscenes paraded past my eyeballs as I watched patiently for what I had been waiting all along to see: The story. After all, without a decent story, an RPG hasn’t a real leg to stand on. Well, from what I’ve experienced, the story isn’t really going to blow your mind and isn’t making any genre-changing strides with White Knight Chronicles. You play the time old tale of a knight set out to rescue the princess. During the introductory set of scenes you’ll watch the princess be, you guessed it, kidnapped, by the Black Knight, who also kindly slays the king. Leonard, the main character in the story, becomes the White Knight necessary to save her. Though the story is more or less simplistic in nature, I really enjoyed the fantasy styled characters present in the town throughout the early cutscenes. I’m kind of a sucker for characters with all kinds of horns, ears, and green or purple hair.

From what I’ve seen, the voice acting is of decent quality, which I am glad for, being a touchy subject for JRPG fans. The battle system is real time, so everything takes place before your eyes with no entering another screen for battle. It was a new game for me, so I didn’t have any skills under my belt to unleash, but a circle that times your turn to attack will load up before you can wield an attack. You can also toggle between characters of which one you’d like to control.

A sequel has already been announced for Japan, as well as DLC in the works, so I’m hoping they’re doing something right to have already landed plans for a sequel! The international edition of White Knight Chronicles launches exclusively on PS3 February 2, 2010. Keep a look out for Spawn Kill’s in-depth review!

Tags: JRPG, level-5, PS3, RPG, Sony, white knight chronicles

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Featured, PlayStation 3, Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.