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

I admit I was a little afraid to wake up this morning.  The thought of being buried in a pile of Tokyo Game Show 2009 runoff was a tad daunting.  After finally bringing myself to check into the goings-on of the event, I am relieved that there weren’t that many announcements or developments I actually care about.  That could just be because this is day one and there is still more to come.  Alright well, let’s get to it.

KONAMI

I am going to suppress my urge to slowly work up to the most exciting info and instead just start with my favorite morsel of Konami goodness:  the impressive trailer for Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.  Be forewarned, it is nearly 10 minutes of extreme awesomeness:

That shit gave me goosbumps.  I don’t know why, but I foolishly wasn’t expecting much from the story for Peace Walker.  I imagined that the priority for the game was making multiplayer fit in somehow and anything else wouldn’t receive as much attention.  How naive of me…

After watching this trailer I can see that this game serves to continue emotionally where Metal Gear Solid 3 left us.  I feel like we’re about to really understand Big Boss and his inspiration for Outer Heaven and etc.  I am very excited about Peace Walker and I believe this is easily my favorite trailer I have seen from the game yet.  I really dig the game’s theme song: Heaven’s Divide.

Also at Konami’s booth was some sweet swag which I really wish I had gotten:

I guess I can live without some pins–I don’t need pins, right?

SQUARE ENIX

Square Enix didn’t want to be outdone at TGS as they had a few exciting announcements of their own.

Final Fantasy fans will be happy to learn that Final Fantasy VIII has been added to the Japanese PSN games archive.  As we saw with Final Fantasy VII earlier this year, we will most likely be receiving the same honor soon.  The price in Japan is 1,500 yen, but I believe the actual cost for westerners will match Final Fantasy VII’s $9.99 price tag.  The game can be played on both the PS3 and PSP.

Not much new on the current gen of Final Fantasy’s in the works.  I am really hoping to get a look at the battle system for Final Fantasy Versus XIII before TGS draws to an end.  It seems that if Square Enix really wanted to show it off, now would be the ideal time to do so.  Maybe they will wait until the end of the event.

Square did reveal a special edition PS3 Slim to be bundled with Final Fantasy XIII.  This sexy piece of machinery features a 250 GB hard drive (considerably larger than any PS3 to date) and the exterior is adorned with the game’s leading lady, Lightning:

Considering the PS3’s lack of region protection, well-off consumers may consider importing this version of the system come December 17th.  The bundle will sell for 41,600 yen, or around $450 USD.  I normally avoid jabbing at the PS3’s competition, but I really can’t imagine an Xbox 360 being that sexy, if they even decide to make a special edition for the game’s launch.

SEGA

In Sega news the four main characters for Yakuza 4 have been revealed.  Each character has their own background story as well as style in combat:

Kiryuu Kazuma–The Classic Main Style: Traditional kenka arts	Akiyama Susumu–The Homeless Loan Shark Style: Deceptive footwork
Masayoshi Tanimura–The Corrupted Cop Style: Police-themed arrest techniques	Taiga Saejima–The Murderer of 18 Men Style: Really big guy fighting

As if the Yakuza series didn’t already provide enough to do, they had to throw in now 1, but 3 new characters to play as?!  I guess I should be happy since recent developments seem to suggest that Sega thinks America can handle the series.

I really am fascinated by the different characters.  I think Akiyama’s story interests me the most, but Masayoshi is the coolest looking of the group.

The full trailer for Valkyria Chronicles 2 that was teased to us earlier last month has been revealed.  It’s not much longer but definitely worth checking out:

I was forced to watch this at work from my iPhone so the less than desirable quality made it difficult to decipher everything.  Still, I believe I saw a brief shot of the new shield-bearing unit whacking some enemies around.  I am hoping for a better trailer in the near future.

Also, as if anyone cares, I was right that the cloaked individual is indeed the game’s iconic Valkyria girl.  Don’t quite know what this means, but I look forward to learning more!

SCEA

A brief trailer was released for The Last Guardian.  It tells us absolutely nothing we don’t already know, but damn if it isn’t pretty:

I expect more from this game as TGS draws to an end.  I think if this was all SCEA had to show they would have some extremely pissed people on their hands.  I picture an angry mob of horn-ed otaku.

Wow, this post ended up being much longer than I anticipated.  Still, if one were to boil the days events and skim off everything I care about, it would be everything I have mentioned here.  Maybe now I won’t mind waking up tomorrow as much.

Roy japan, konami, merchandise, ps3, psp, sega, sony, square enix, Team ICO, tgs, videos 5 comments

Despite your views towards Sony, it’s hard to not be impressed by the PS3 Slim.  Sure its size has decreased, but I don’t often wave my PS3 around or try to palm it like a basketball.  The impressive part is the affordable price tag of $299.99.  Now nearly every denomination of gamer can afford a PS3!  Wait… that’s starting to sound an awful lot like socialism isn’t it?

Other than the price and size, the PS3 Slim consumes less electricity, boasts a 120 gig hard drive, and retains its two USB ports.  A key feature many people were squawking about was backwards compatibility with PS2 titles.  This seems to be the topic of some confusion, probably due to the fact that no one wants to admit the PS3 Slim does not have this feature.  According to the Japanese Wikipedia article on the PS3 Slim, there is no backwards compatibility.  I am saddened by this as I believe it to be the truth.  Why would Sony not want to tap into the impressive library of the PS2?  I guess their priority was getting the price as low as possible to increase the number of PS3 owners.

I personally own the PS3 which came bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4:  Guns of the Patriots.  I believe this was one of the last models to feature backwards compatibility, so I will be holding onto it.

Speaking of Metal Gear, at Gamescom Konami unveiled a new trailer for the PSP exclusive Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.  The trailer was mainly showing off the multiplayer aspects of the game.  A lot of very unique abilities were shown, all characteristic of the Metal Gear series:

It appears that a downed Snake can be resuscitation by another Snake on the battlefield.  There is also a scene in which Snake uses a ration on a wounded comrade.

This looks like some kind of collaborative mode where a player can latch onto another player for more synchronized sneaking. I am not positive if that’s what this mode does, but I am just guessing.

Other abilities highlighted in the trailer include box antics, door jammin’, and damage display bubbles — I love a little RPG in my Metal Gear.  I am really excited by the number of ways players can interact with each other.  I also saw some interesting items in the inventories of some of the Snakes: a mini hot air balloon, a functional shield, etc.  If you wanna take a look at the full trailer, it can be found here.

Square Enix was also aiming to please at Gamescom, whipping out an impressive Final Fantasy XIV demo.  I don’t normally discus MMOs on Kotowari, but goddamn this is some beautiful video gaming:

I probably won’t be signing up for FFXVI, but I certainly wouldn’t mind watching someone else play it.

If Gamescom didn’t provide enough exciting video game news for you, rest assured the rumblings of Tokyo Game Show 2009 can be heard in the distance.  Today the official TGS site has announced that a total of 456 titles will be on display at the event, 52 of which are RPGs.  An incomplete list of titles (with some English) can be found here.  Some titles worth mentioning are Valkyria Chronicles 2, Ninokuni, etc.  Truly where Gamescom was an appetizer, Tokyo Game Show will be a bountiful feast.

Related Entries:
Peace Walker Is A “Metal Gear Solid 5-class game”
Level-5 To Announce 3 New Projects At Level 5 VISION 2009
Valkyria Chronicles 2: Galia Royal Military Academy For PSP: Teaser Site Opens and First Scan

Roy consoles, japan, konami, level-5, mmorpg, ps3, psp, sony, square enix, videos 6 comments

So I arrived in L.A. on Monday pretty damn late and got settled into my hotel.  It was definitely the calm before the storm of video game info, which due to a combination of jet lag and just plain fatigue is a bit overwhelming.  I enjoyed a heaping bowl of ramen at Daikokuya and went to bed unsure of what the next day’s events would contain.

Tuesday I arrived at the Los Angeles Convention Center around 11:30 and grabbed my media badge. Yeah, I missed Sony’s press conference which sucked, but sacrifices had to be made according to E3 shuttle services.  Inside I basically followed the masses waiting for the doors to open.  It was a long wait, but there was a lot to take in: advertisements, other journos, and just L.A. in general.

Once the doors opened, I started in the South Hall, since I wanted to take a look at Square Enix’s booth, which was sadly crippled by a fear of swine flu.  After cutting through several other booths, I reached the Square Enix booth only to find that taking photos was off limits – lame.  Luckily, I uh… “found” some photos:

Square Enix Employee: “I sure hope no one is taking a photo right now…”

After taking a walk around and playing Final Fantasy VII on the PSP for nostalgia’s sake, I decided to take some time out to watch the various trailers on display on Square’s big-ass screen.  The most exciting of the bunch was without a doubt the new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, complete with English voice acting for every known character.  Part of me was hoping that the game would have optional Japanese dialog since I think a Blu-Ray disc could handle the extra contents.  However, after hearing the English voice acting for the game, I think I could live without it if I had to:

I don’t know where Square Enix finds these quality voice actors…  They should definitely share their source with a few other localizers who seem to only be able to find monotone hacks.

After that, I decided to check out the West Hall which boasted more of the big name companies like Sony and Nintendo.  On the way in, I couldn’t help but notice Bethesda’s relatively eye catching booth.  Please note that this photo doesn’t really do it justice:

They showed a few vague trailers for some titles they have in the works including Brink, Rogue Warrior, and Wet.  Most of these trailers I had seen before, which was kind of a let down.  I was hoping for something concerning Fallout: New Vegas, but sadly the only Fallout news was a trailer for the new DLC of Point Lookout:

This trailer was basically the highlight of Bethesda’s booth for me.  I found it pretty creepy – maybe it has something to do with my fear of people who live in the deep South.  Does anyone else think that the logo looks pretty lame?

Shortly after checking out Bethesda’s booth, I began getting demands via Twitter for some decent PSP Go images/comments.  Sony’s area was pretty impressive and the section displaying the Go had a good sized line which I braved to try out the only new hardware worth mentioning at E3.  Here are some images of me with the PSP Go:

I know some people out there are complaining that they couldn’t possibly wrap their minds around the button logistics of the PSP Go, but I honestly had no issues.  It felt pretty natural for me playing Gran Turismo, which is saying a lot since when it comes to racing games my skills are lacking.  It also felt light considering there was an enormous cable jutting out of the back.

I know there is the whole debacle over the $300 price tag and the fact that the actual UMD drive was removed.  Honestly, you aren’t gonna find 16 gigs of flash memory much cheaper than $200.  It’s basically an iPhone, minus the phone, with better graphics and controls.  It will be good for some, others probably won’t give a damn.  I think Sony was smart to do this since the whole UMD movement doesn’t seem to have taken off the way I am sure they had hoped.

After Sony, I had to hit up a near, dear friend of mine: Atlus.  Their booth was pretty popular as there was a lot to see and do.  A quick walk through revealed a sadly ignored demo version of the Japanese Shiren the Wanderer for the Nintendo Wii.  I guess the percentage of people who go to E3 that care about rogue-like games is pretty low.  When the Atlus rep assigned to the game heard I was familiar with the series, his eyes lit up at the prospect of someone not being like “OMG I DIED WTF!”:

I had a lot of fun playing this game.  It was nostalgia-inducing since it’s still a Shiren game, but according to the Atlus rep, there are loads of new features.  One of the biggest changes concerns Shiren’s allies who can be controlled if necessary, which is great when you’re in a pinch and they decide to do something absolutely idiotic.  It felt fun on the Wii, too, which I think really helps counter any frustrations that come with rogue-likes.  I am so glad Atlus is bringing this over – your loss, Sega.

Next I played a bit of Persona for PSP and Devil Survivor.  Both would definitely be fun if I could sit down and focus on them.  The environment of E3 makes focusing on text-heavy games a little tough.  It basically brought my concentration down to an ADD-like state.

After that, I noticed a spot had cleared at the Demon’s Souls booth.  Salivate.  I played first as a warrior class character who wielded a large polearm/spear.  I was a tad disappointed there was no jump command as I just really felt like I should be able to jump.  Still, there is more than enough to compensate.

I checked out a few blood spatters which revealed how others before me had met their end.  I then climbed pretty high up in some castle where I met my end to an archer I didn’t even see.  After that, I decided to try a thief who proved to be more fun since they are more agile and their weaponry isn’t as cumbersome.  I got pretty far before getting killed by some flaming arrows.  Still, I wanted more.

After walking around a bit, I was shocked to discover a tiny wall displaying some NIS America titles in the works. I really wanted to get my hands on A Witch’s Tale since I don’t really know what to expect from it in terms of story and controls. From what I played, it definitely looks like it will be another characteristically cute, witty NIS game.  The main character Lidelle is controlled on the bottom screen with the stylus and although I didn’t get to check out the battle system, I liked what I played.  I was kinda hoping to check out the upcoming Sakura Wars title or Phantom Brave port but neither was available.

The last title of the day really worth mentioning was Muramasa: The Demon Blade.   There was quite the gathering around Ignition’s booth just about all day, and for good reason. I think this game was the most fun I had at E3. The controls were great and the game is as gorgeous as all the scans and screens had led us to believe.

An in-depth tutorial brought you up to speed on everything from moving and jumping to deflecting shuriken.  There are also a bunch of special attacks that can be executed depending on a few respective gauges and sword management.  The demo ends with a boss battle that was tough but enjoyable:

As you may be able to tell, I played as Kisuke.  Sadly, I didn’t play through Momohime’s story, but there is still time.  The demo does offer both explaining that different areas of Japan are explored depending on the character you start with.

E3 has been a lot of fun and I wish I could have gotten this article up sooner.  The jet lag will just suckerpunch me at random times, so when my brain says enough, it’s enough.  Well, that about sums up the first day, but I will give a run down of day 2 soon.  What will it include, you ask?  Oh, a little something about giant cows and maybe even some hilarious images of protesters if I am feeling generous.

Roy atlus, bethesda, dlc, e3, nintendo ds, nintendo wii, nis, persona, preview, ps3, psp, sony, square enix, videos 5 comments

Every once and a while, two very similar looking games will be released very close to one another.  No one knows why this happens or how to stop it.  Is it a matter of software espionage or are video game companies losing interest in that old selling point known as “story”?  I don’t have the answer.

Regardless of the reason, Activision’s Prototype and SCE’s InFamous both share stories centered around an individual who has extreme superhuman-like powers.  If that wasn’t enough, they are released within weeks of each other.

As much as I love video games, I try to be careful when it comes to buying new PS3 games, since that shit ain’t cheap.  This puts me in the unfair position of having to pick just one of these games.  Which will it be?  Here are my thought processes on the matter, streaming live for all to appreciate:

At first the decision seemed fairly simple to me: Prototype.  In terms of the available means of making another living thing dead as quickly as possible, InFamous just falls short.  If you were to watch a 3 minute video of InFamous gameplay, 2:30 of it would be pure lightning-palm-bursts.  To me, this gets old very fast and feels like a repackaged third-person-shooter.

When watching Prototype, humans, vehicles, and cityscapes are brutalized like wet tissue paper.   It also seems like there are more tools at your disposal, including but not limited to:

• retractable insane-o claws
• large arm blade
• weird tentacle things

The game also incorporates a stealth aspect allowing the player to assume the shape of felled enemies. This is obviously not required, as brute force is always an option.  Judging by the gameplay I have seen, brute force appears to be the more popular method of accomplishing things:

Despite all this, I am slowly warming to InFamous.  I feel like it surpasses Prototype in terms of graphics and overall appearance in general (just not character design: hood > goatee).  Something about the darker, more futuristic-looking city I find appealing.  It’s a setting which I think accentuates the theme of the character choosing to tread the path of good or evil.  Depending on how you treat the inhabitants of the city, they will react differently.  This karma system reminds me a lot of Fallout 3, which – as many of you are probably aware – I thoroughly enjoyed.  Where InFamous brings in moral complexities, Prototype just comes off as violent for violence sake.

I also like that, depending on the player’s actions when choosing good or evil, different skill trees will become available.  According to the creators, by the later stages of the game around 70 different skills will be available.  Hopefully there is more than just 70 different variations of lightning-palm.

I also appreciate that in InFamous the main character’s powers are dependent on finding an electric power source, which means there will probably be times when his powers will not be available.  I feel like I can better relate to a character with weaknesses than a demi-god.

Ultimately, the high-scale destruction in Prototype looks fun, but InFamous appears to provice much more room for character and story development based on the player’s action.  I think once you get sick of tearing through tanks, humans, and zombies Prototype may get a bit boring.  I call this GTA-syndrome: ultimate freedom leading to eventual bordeom.  I think I would still like to give Prototype a try, but right now my instincts are saying “rent.”

Roy ps3, sony, videos 11 comments