White Knight Chronicles International Edition Review

White Knight Chronicles International Edition is Level 5 latest rpg entry for the PS3 released in Japan almost two years ago. If you ever played the Dark Cloud series, Rogue Galaxy or Dragon Quest VIII you know Level 5 has been dropping good rpgs for while now and I think they continue that trend with White Knight Chronicles but with some shortcomings.

In White Knight Chronicles you follow Leonard, a wine delivery boy that gets caught in a castle raid and tries to rescue the Princess Cisna during all the commotion. Leonard and Cisna stumble upon the White Knight armor which he uses to protect Cisna who manages to get captured anyway and Leonard sets out on an adventure to get her back.

This is nothing groundbreaking in terms of story but given that this is the first of a trilogy Level-5 is created a nice world to explore and the origins of the giant armor like the White Knight called Incorruptus is pretty cool. The voice acting is generally pretty good although Eldore is a bit hit or miss with his deliveries. You can call the story clichéd if you want but Level-5 goal was to make a game that was enjoyable to play and I think it succeeds in that area. The plot twist is nothing you won’t see coming but with the sequel already announced I can’t wait to see where they take the story next.

Level-5 has created some huge areas to explore. The towns themselves are big and if you take the time to explore each new area you’ll find some pretty good items to use in your adventure.

The highlight of the game is the combat system. If you played Final Fantasy XII you have an idea of what to expect but the difference is that you have more control over your combos and from the start you can spend points to customize your characters as you see fit.

There are no transitions to a battle screen combat happens whenever you decide to engage an enemy on the field. Its semi real time since you still have a circle that needs to fill before you can attack. When fighting you gain Action Chips which you can use for certain attacks, your created combos or when you transform into the White Knight. When you transform into the White Knight you stay transformed until you kill everybody or you run out of Magic points which is basically fuel for the White Knight.

One of the problems with the game is that it’s a bit too easy. While some bosses may need the White Knight to beat overall you can beat mostly anything without every transforming. The last boss might give you a little hassle but since the AI is smart enough to heal you whenever you are in danger of getting low on health and since the AI doesn’t use their Action Chips much and you can command them to use their combos you can decimate most foes easily.

While the single-player is mostly easy the same isn’t true for the multiplayer. You create an avatar in the beginning of the game to that you can use in single-player and you can take him online to do quest up to four people. All of the items you find while questing you can take back to the single-player and you keep the exp your avatar gets. As you do quest you get Guild Rank points and the higher your Guild Rank tougher quest become available. I’m at Guild Rank 8 and believe me its gets to point where you will need at least 3 people to beat these quests.

What I would have liked is for you avatar to have the ability to transform into a Giant Knight online. This was a missed opportunity which if I’m right they have already corrected for the sequel.

Doing quest is where I think you will spend most of your time with this game. The single-player is just a warm-up for when decide to go questing with your friends. White Knight supports voice chat, has an in-game keyboard and emotes as well.

Not to forget the amazingly addicting Georama, which is a town you can build to invite friends over to do quest and if you upgrade it right you can buy items that you would otherwise have to fight to get. Some upgrades for the Georama aren’t available unless your Guild Rank is high enough so if you like to grind this game is for you.

I think people need to understand is that with White Knight Chronicles Level 5 didn’t try to go and reinvent the wheel. They wanted to deliver a solid game and adding an online component that really extends the game where you can easily put in over a hundred hours.

White Knight Chronicles isn’t by any means perfect. Some may not like the simple story and the single-player is too easy but going online with your friends, building your Georama and transforming into the White Knight is pure fun. This is a solid jrpg to get your hands on with tons of replayability and for those who like the story its sets up for the sequel, hopefully it will not disappoint.

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