| White Knight Chronicles | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Level-5 SCE Japan Studio |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Series | White Knight Chronicles |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3 |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Co-op |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | Blu-ray Disc |
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 SCE Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It was released in Japan on December 25, 2008 and in North America on February 2, 2010. It is Level-5's first project for the system.
Some enemies are extremely large in size, as per the playable demo at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, in one piece of concept artwork a massive turtle-like creature is depicted carrying an entire city on its back.[2] As of August 8, 2009 it has sold 350,000 copies in Japan. A sequel titled White Knight Chronicles II was released in Japan in 2010.[3] A related game for the PlayStation Portable titled White Knight Chronicles: Origins was released in Japan in 2011.
The game unlocks PlayStation Home rewards when certain milestones are achieved, such as a White Knight statue for a user's personal space.
Contents |
White Knight Chronicles is presented in third-person perspective. The player can freely choose which character to control. Like in most other RPGs the characters gain experience points and level up, becoming stronger over the course of the game. Level-5 conceived White Knight Chronicles to have 100 hours of gameplay, a length Akihiro Hino considers to be a full length RPG, going against the pressure to make White Knight Chronicles a launch title and cutting the story short.
A trailer for the Tokyo Game Show revealed that, similar to Soul Blazer, one can select locations on a world map that the player has already visited to go to instantly, along with a preview of that area. Each area also has a quest list that shows quests the player has yet to complete. The player can choose a quest to do before going to the desired area.
The battle system used in White Knight Chronicles is a real-time system where the battle mode is initiated automatically when enemies are present. Before a battle the player optionally goes into the "Battle Preparation" menu (accessible at any time) and chooses up to three sets of seven commands for each character in the party. This set of twenty one commands is called a "Function Palette" and several of these palettes can be saved, making tactical palette preparing and switching essential to the game. The commands can also be linked in order to create combos. These can then be used in battle. The player controls one of the characters while the others are controlled by the AI, as also seen in the Tokyo Game Show trailer. Players can freely change the character they are controlling. The main character can transform into the White Knight using action chips which are acquired by defeating enemies. "Boss battles" also take place in a similar fashion except that they may include cut-scenes (videos) for in-battle events.
Enemies can be attacked with various kinds of elemental attack magic, while the player can heal the party by resorting to divine magic. Magic is an essential part of the White Knight Chronicles battle system, but it comes with one pitfall—Magic skills do not improve a character's physical strength. This means magic users have to avoid enemy attacks. Among the featured weapons are swords, two handed longswords, two handed axes, spears, bows and staffs.
After defeating an enemy players will obtain raw materials. While this occurs in both the offline and online modes, some raw materials will only be obtainable in online quests. Materials are used for crafting, and upgrading, equipment and items.
The Georama system is an online mode that lets the player create their own town. It can function as a lobby and allows the player to set up a shop. People can enter this virtual town and also take a look around. The editing mode functions as a system that can be placed from a list of objects ranging from houses and other garden accessories to anything customizable for the town. Towns can be placed in the middle of plains, deserts, or wilderness with six different field types. Other items can also help to shape the hub including elevated platforms, embankments, trees, and other items.
Non-player characters can be recruited to towns from "Story Mode". This makes the player's Georama change depending on whoever is living in it. Non-player characters have jobs and specific skill levels which will affect the kind of materials and items available to use in Georama. Each player has their own Geonet that can create up to 20 Georama rooms.
A maximum of 12 people can visit a customized town at one time and 4, including the host, can enter a quest room.[4]
With the use of the Georama system there are multiplayer quests called sub-quests for up to 4 players, including the player themselves. For this the player creates a self-styled avatar and controls it instead of using Leonard, the main story character. The Avatar's level and equipment will be the same as the players Avatar in story mode. More quests become available throughout the progress of the story and quests are unlocked as the players guild rank increases by accumulating points. Quests can also be played solo.
White Knight Chronicles begins in the kingdom of Balandor, where Princess Cisna is having a coming-of-age banquet which is raided by an evil organization called Magi. A boy named Leonard grabs the princess' hand and leads her to safety in the castle cellars, where he finds a strange gauntlet called the Ark that transforms him into the White Knight—an ancient warrior with the strength to defeat the Magi forces. This marks the beginning of a life-changing fantasy experience, fighting against the fiercest enemies.[5]
The motive behind the kidnapping is Cisna's ability to unlock any of the five Knights, of which she is unaware of at first. The leader of Magi is a general called Dregias. Nobody knows what Dregias looks like because his body and face are hidden under his dark armor. What is known is the fact that he is capable of transforming into the winged Black Knight, Ebonwings.
Ten thousand years ago, in the time known as the Dogma Age, the Yshrenian and Athwani empires erupted into a vicious and brutal war. These two were the largest and the most powerful kingdoms in the land, nearly equal in prestige and resources.
Their battles rages across the world, turning verdants forests and peaceful hamlets into charred and burned charnel houses. The casualties quickly mounted on both sides, resulting in a situation where one side or the other had to gain an advantage, give in, or risk mutual destruction.
Yshrenian scholars and scientists introduced the knights, giant machines created solely for the purpose of war. These beings, when bonded with a human soul, could utilize immense power on the battlefield and able to lay waste to an entire army single-handedly. The Athwani military soon began to fall under the overwhelming power of the Knights. Their forces became cannon fodder, causing a severe drop in morale and efficiency.
The scholars of Athwan, desperate to turn the tide of battle, developed sealing magic intended to completely remove the knights from the field of battle and leave both armies on an even plane. They cast their spell, and though many valuable lives were lost in the process, the knights were sealed away.
The Yshrenian army courageously rushed into battle against the Athwani army, but their spirit was broken. They had lost their strongest advantage and, having become reliant on the power of the knights, had no real hope of victory. The Athwani kingdom did not escape unscathed, however. Years spent in a costly and violent war ended with the death of their best and brightest, leaving the country in a state of discontent. Unrest grew through-out the land, eventually resulting in the death of the Queen.
The Knights remain sealed away, long forgotten and unused.
White Knight Chronicles features full voice-overs, as well as an orchestrated soundtrack by Takeshi Inoue, Yumiko Hashizume, and Noriyasu Agematsu. The theme song, Travelers, is sung by Kazco Hamano.
The localized version of the game has removed the original Japanese voices making it English-dub only.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 69.18%[6] |
| Metacritic | 64 out of 100[7] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 8 out of 10[8] |
| Famitsu | 29 out of 40 |
| GameSpot | 6 out of 10[9] |
| GameTrailers | 7.6/10[10] |
| IGN | 5.1 out of 10[11] |
| X-Play | 3 out of 5[12] |
White Knight Chronicles has received a mixed reception receiving 29/40 from Famitsu with the reviewers highlighting the online mode as being the source of their main gripes. Despite the lukewarm reviews the game sold well; around 130,000 copies on its first day and around 207,000 in its first week in Japan.[13] As of December 31, 2009 it has sold 360,000 copies in Japan.[14]
Eurogamer gave the game an 8/10, criticizing the multiplayer, with the caveat that "disappointing multiplayer doesn't take away from how enjoyable the game is, or how well-thought-through and impressively integrated its gameplay systems are."[15] The game has received a 3/5 rating from X-Play,[16] a 7.25 from GameInformer and a 7.6 from Gametrailers.[17]
A sequel titled White Knight Chronicles II was released on July 8, 2010 in Japan and on September 13, 2011 in America.
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