Over a year ago White Knight Chronicles was released in Japan as one of the first PS3 exclusive RPGs.  After completing its leisurely journey to the West, I couldn’t help but pick it up — Level-5 after all does boast an impressive roster of games.

Did White Knight Chronicles prove to be a shimmering armor-clad success, or are the pages of this story not worth the 0s and 1s it’s made of?

System — Henshin!

The battle system for White Knight Chronicles feels like the one in Final Fantasy XII.  The player is free to select a character to wander the map with and control.  That character is joined by two allies who cannot be controlled.  There is a time gauge that fills at a certain rate based on the respective character’s agility.  Once it’s full, a command can be executed on an enemy within range.  Repeat until victory is attained.

Learning Skills Requires SP Gained at Each Level

Commands are acquired through a weapon-based job system.  If you want your character to tread the path of an axeman, then they’ll generate some hefty attack and HP.  At any time the player can choose to dabble in other weapon abilities.  Want to sling some magic between axe swings or learn some healing spells?  No problem, it’s entirely up to you how your characters grow.  I always appreciate this openness when it comes to character development so this earned some major points with me.

Commands can be strung together to make unique combos.  This system was actually a lot of fun, since there are a number of abilities which work well together in combos.  Your axeman can smack an enemy into the air, hit it a few times, then strike it straight downwards into the ground.  Executing combos requires the player to select the next move at the appropriate time however or the combo will fail.  This kept me engaged during battle and reminded me of Legend of Dragoon which was certainly appreciated.

Ankle-Biter Watches On

The one element that many people are familiar with from White Knight Chronicles is the huge shimmering knight you can transform into.  This is mainly used to combat the game’s many enormous bosses.  Where a normal character would only attack the shins of some enemies, a knight can get all up in its grill and dish out the justice.  This system consumes all of the character’s MP and AC (action chips, used for combos and special attacks) so it must be used sparingly.  Still, the player will use it enough for it to feel like a relevant part of the battle system.  It is also pretty fun, especially since knights can boost surrounding allies and their attacks are quite flashy.

My main complaint with the battle system comes from the games AI — mainly your allies’ AI.  If I am fighting a fire troll, it’s a fair guess that he’s weak to ice.  If my allies know all 4 elements, they’ll use a randomly selected element, meaning about 25% of the time a magically inclined ally will exploit a weakness.  This system forced me to take the reins of magical characters and let melee units mindlessly slash away at any enemy.  This resulted in a pretty solid system, but I would have preferred that AI units could exploit weaknesses on their own.  Also, I cannot tell you how many times the character I was controlling would be afflicted with sleep or paralysis only to have my two allies (who have the ability to cure my ailment) stand around dumbly staring at me until the effects wore off.  This system definitely could have been polished!

Story — More Like TRANSLUCENT Chronicles

The game’s story begins like nearly every RPG you have ever or never played.  There is an annoyingly upbeat guy who wants to save a princess who prays and has blond hair.  Admittingly, the characters surrounding the aforementioned clichés are considerably deeper.  By about the 20 hour mark things begin to get interesting with no help from the main character, Leonard.

I Am Thinking of a Word That Starts with “P”

If I had to sum up Leonard I would say that he is a record, playing on repeat.  His list of phrases include “We have to save the Princess!”, “Give us back the Princess!”, and of course “Princess!”.  By the end of the game (at least in this installment) he has not changed at all.  Leonard is a static character and this style of storytelling does not enhance anything.

As I mentioned, my love of certain supporting characters helped me choke down the story.  There were even a few twists which I found very surprising, earning the game some respect.  Given a more dynamic foundation the story of White Knight Chronicles could have been great.

Presentation, Mechanics, and Online — Avatars Everywhere

Graphically, there are more recent titles which easily surpass White Knight Chronicles.  However, the game maintains a cartoon-y anime feel which felt relatively timeless so that didn’t bother me.

Cut scenes are still pretty impressive, though there are few in the game.  Occasionally detailed hand-drawn art is used to depict the past which I enjoyed as well.

One of my favorite aspects of this game is the customizable avatar you create as soon as you start the game.  This avatar character will be joining the main cast for the game’s story as well as being the player’s vehicle for online play.  There is quite a bit that can be adjusted and you can easily spend an hour or so creating an acceptable character.

This system is an ingenious way of incorporating online play with a standard, story-heavy RPG.  I applaud Level-5 for their creativity.

Naturally, this brings us into the game’s online features.  At a certain point in the main story, the player will be able to go online.  Here you can construct your own village called a Georama (a la Dark Cloud), complete with inhabitants of different professions who can harvest different materials.  The player can arrange buildings and a number of accessories to achieve their desired look for their Georama.

The Georama serves as a “room” when going online.  Other players can come to your Georama to shop, explore, harvest, and team up on missions.  I enjoy seeing the degree some players have gone when it comes to decorating.  I should mention that there is also a “cash shop” of sorts where more gung-ho players can purchase unique and more valuable items for their Georama using real money.  I became quite addicted to editing my Georama, which became one of my favorite features.

When you team up with other players online, you can complete a number of quests as if playing an MMORPG.  You can chat, emote, give items but sadly not kill each other.  When your Clan Rank is low there are few quests you can complete so moving up in rank will require some repetition.  If you aren’t afraid to grind a bit the game really opens up around Rank 7.  Certain weapons and armor can only be equipped based on your Clan Rank which is a good means of motivating people to keep playing post-game, at least for me.  I suppose if you aren’t into the grind you’ll probably ignore this feature and discard the game shortly after completing the ~40 hour main quest.

Conclusions

As a game which attempts to incorporate modern technology with a classic genre, White Knight Chronicles comes very close to succeeding.  I did enjoy the game and plan on playing it a while longer — hell, I will probably play it today after work.  Still it had its moments where I wanted to kick my Playstation in the teeth from the sheer corniness it was projecting onto my screen.

All in all I liked the game and look forward to seeing the direction the series will take.  Perhaps the later installments will be more polished and the story will mature.

Roy level-5, ps3, review, sony 2 comments

The official Nippon Ichi company site posted the above image today to show its fans that they’re planning a new Disgaea title for the PS3.  It’s part of their new strategy to help make up for some serious company losses that were shown by NIS a little while ago.

For those not in the know, Nippon Ichi posted a 97.5% profit drop in the first 9 months of this financial year. The total loss is estimated at nearly 300 million yen (about 3,450,000 USD). If things don’t shape up soon for the fledgling game developer, we could see one of the most cherished groups in the niche gaming community close its doors.

Nippon Ichi is blaming externally developed titles for their losses, so they’re going to focus on a high quality line-up, with a lot of attention being poured into PS3 development. In total, they’ve announced 87 new games for the year, with 6 of them being completely original titles. They are also very much aware of their huge fanbase outside of Japan, so they send an assuring note that they are increasing their efforts for the overseas market.

Part of me can’t help but be worried about Nippon Ichi. They are one of my favorite developers after all, but I feel that they should be treading ground more carefully. Disgaea certainly is their most popular title by far, but will it be enough to help pull them out of this financial slump? Not to mention it’s being developed alongside 7 other titles — seems a bit like overkill for a developer in such dire straits. I think they should spend as much time on their next Disgaea title as possible. Many people complained about the sprite graphics for the third entry in the series, especially since it was a PS3 title. NIS could maybe bring Disgaea into the next generation with new, updated 3D graphics to help bring in more gamers. Although in doing this, they may lose many of their loyal fans who would see the change as a disservice to the people who bought their games in the first place.

Either way, they have a lot more to think about if they don’t want to be shut down. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors and eagerly await news on those other 7 titles that they have up their sleeves.

Julius disgaea, nis, ps3 4 comments

I am really excited for Red Dead Redemption, but I am still trying to decide where to purchase it.  Right now I am leaning towards Game Stop since their pre-order bonus is the most appealing to me.  For a complete list of the other bonuses, check out this page on Rockstar’s main site.

Rather than settle on a single option for players, Game Stop is allowing consumers to vote for one of the above three bonus DLC outfits.  They are as follows:

• Savvy Merchant Outfit: Price for guns and ammo reduced by half
• Deadly Assassin Outfit: “Dead Eye” regenerates twice as quickly
• Expert Hunter Outfit: Receive double the reward from skinning an animal

This is a tough decision for me — it seems like the deadly assassin outfit would be helpful regardless of how far the player is in the game, which is great.  However, I think the value also depends on the player’s technique, I am sure some people will use Dead Eye more than others.  The other two outfits seem like they would be most helpful at the beginning of the game, but their value would taper off as time goes on.  Still, I imagine I will always need to buy ammo, even if all guns are unlocked so maybe the Savvy Merchant is the best choice.

I just can’t decide on my own guys!  If the decision is obvious to you, let me know and be sure to vote as well.

Roy pre-order, ps3, rockstar 3 comments

Capcom’s dropped fighters

I’ve really been enjoying the latest Japanese fighter to hit American shores, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Of course, with every new fighter, there’s that given moment after its release to lament what could have been.  For a game on such a massive franchise-scale as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, the number of characters you would want to appear in the game from either side can be staggering, so sadly many don’t make the cut.

In an interview with Dengeki Online, three of TvC’s head honchos, Ryota Nizuma, Mr. Bancho and Ryota Igawa gave some insight into the game’s early stages while they were still deciding which characters to include in the game.  The most interesting of which was the inclusion of the star from the Ace Attorney series, Phoenix Wright.  I remember the days when TvC was just newly announced and Phoenix was a definite hopeful to join the game’s ranks.  To find out that they actually did consider adding him to the game is pretty amazing. Although, what’s more amazing is the way thought up on how Phoenix would actually fight his opponents.

Some difficulties came up while deciding on moves for Phoenix. For one, the only movements he really makes in the game are hand gestures, and not much could have really been made from that.  Secondly, for the most part, you only see Phoenix from the waist up in the games.  This led to the decision to have Phoenix and his desk act as one whole character, with wheels attached to the underside, making him some sort of rolling, justice-bringing tank.  While I think this sounds awesome in theory, it would just end up looking really stupid in-game.  Not to mention I expect his hitbox to just be massive.

Other TvC wannabes were Arthur from Ghosts N’ Goblins fame and Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Jam.  Even though none of these made the cut for the first game, Ryota Nizuma said that if a sequel were ever made, he’d work really hard to get these characters into the game.

More revealed on the 5th generation of Pokémon

Remember that new Pokémon game that was teased about a few days ago? I was under the impression that it was just going to be a Pokémon Crystal remake, but it actually turned out to be a whole new generation Pokémon game. This latest piece of news comes straight from Coro Coro magazine, and though the details are scarce, the rag says that more info will become available in the coming month.

For starters, the silhouetted pokémon was revealed to be Zoroark/Zoroaaku (ゾロアーク). Many people mistook him to be the next evolution step for Lucario (myself included), but who knew it’d end up being a new pokémon entirely? Zoroark also has a pre-evolution by the name of Zorua/Zoroa (ゾロア).  Click the above image for the full picture including Zoroa.  The few details on Zoroark is that he’s a Dark-Type and classified as a Monster Fox.  He will also be playing a major role in the upcoming Pokémon film Phantom Champion Zoroark.

The name for the new region has not yet been revealed, and other gameplay details are incredibly scarce at the moment.  I’m also curious as to what the next set of games will be called. The last two were Diamond and Pearl, so I think it’d be a good guess that the next two games would be named after some precious metal or gem. As with the unveiling of any new Pokémon game, I’m incredibly excited and eagerly anticipating more news from Coro Coro next month!

Sega announces bonuses for Yakuza 3

The wait for Yakuza 3 has been a long time; the fact that it was announced at all for an international release still seems pretty crazy to me. Well, Sega announced this morning that they will be offering up some goodies for those who will be purchasing the game, although the sweetness of the deal depends on where you hail from.

Sega Europe is offering a “battle pack”.  The battle pack includes a 31-track soundtrack, a Yakuza Who’s Who which acts as a dossier for all the characters in the game and 4 separate pieces of DLC:

• Battle Survival: A boss-run mode
• All-Star Tournament: A 7 character tournament
• All-Star Tag Tournament: 8 tag-team tournament
• Haruka’s Request: Missions given by Haruka, where you’ll be made to play mini-games to keep her entertained

European pre-orderers will also get access to alternate costumes and two-player mini-games (pool, golf, darts and bowling). However, if you’re in North America, the deal is a little less sweet as pre-ordering the game will only get you the 4 pieces of DLC.  If your primary place to pre-order from is GameStop, you’ll also get access to the alternate costumes and two-player mini games.

Overall I think this is a good idea on Sega’s part. I know one of the main fears of bringing Yakuza 3 outside Japan was the less than stellar sales of the first two games, so maybe these added bonuses will bring in more buyers.  Hell, if this ends up selling well than we might just have a chance of seeing Kenzan! and Yakuza 4.  I really wish they would go the extra mile for us Americans and give us the Battle Pack.  I’d love to get my hands on that soundtrack and character dossier.

Julius capcom, dlc, japan, nintendo ds, pokémon, ps3, sega 0 comments

Scans of the article concerning Fallout: New Vegas in Playstation Magazine has made its way onto the Internet.  I found these care of Duck and Cover so many thanks to them for getting this out quickly.

As you may notice, the images used in the article are identical to those found in PC Gamer so there is not much new to see.  We do get a better look at the interface for controlling your followers — it appears much more helpful and involved than the system in Fallout 3.  I am hoping the emphasis on followers doesn’t make things too easy.  I actually avoided followers on my second play-through of Fallout 3 for that very reason.

One new feature which caught my eye is that the player can upgrade weapons.  In page 5, the image in the upper right hand corner says the the mini-gun used in the image is upgraded to decrease spook-up, which (I believe) means that the aim is less affected by recoil.  It is also mentioned in page 6 that upgrades increase the value of the weapon.  I wonder what other aspects of weapons can be altered?  Does this also apply for melee weapons?

The game’s new difficulty, “hardcore mode”, is addressed as well.  This time it mentions that healing limbs will now require an additional item aside from just a stimpak.  The item is called a doctor’s bag.  I am not sure if this is a key item or a consumable item.  Since it’s pluralized in the article it sounds like a consumable item, but the way it was going to be utilized in Fallout Tactics suggests a key item.  Either way, I am sure it’s added weight thus hindering the player.

The article is just another take on the same game intro which Obsidian appears to have presented in both publications.  This article does seem to stress that the decisions the player makes have far reaching consequences and play largely into both the different factions in the game and the ending the player receives.  I definitely appreciate the interaction between the player and the game’s story.  Sounds like a great update to the series.

Related Entries:
Fallout New Vegas: Teaser Video
Fallout: New Vegas Details Emerge
Fallout: New Vegas Scans

Roy bethesda, ps3 2 comments