White Knight Chronicles (PS3)

[saturn-gamer]

Today I finally got this game, I was anticipating this since the Japanese release. The game gets a lot of flak which lowered my expectations. But get this: My mind is blown! Really. The thing I wonder right now is 'how the hell did this get 5.0 ish scores?'

I absolutely love this game. The graphics, music, gameplay... the whole package. I'm playing for 4 hours straight and it keeps getting more fun. Maybe its going to suck later on, I don't know. But I love the basics already.

Character creation sucks, whatever I tried, he looks like a doozy. I'll stick with him anyway. Your avatar will be a mute throughout the story, but he will accompany you and level up which is very important to you as he will be your playable char during the (online) side missions. The single player is rather good so far, not a complex story or anything but it keeps me going and its not pretentious gibberish like SO4 and Eternal Sonata. Lip sync sucks, but VA is just good. Nolan North's in too. The production values go through the roof. Its very well presented. This game has exploration, you hear that FF? These few towns I visited are big and houses are there to visit. Just like old times. It made me happy, heh. Skill system is effective and fun, I also liked the create combo system. You link up what you want, as long as its within the perimeter, and then name your attack. ie. Thrust + Fire Lunge attack and name it Fire Thrust or something cheesy.

IGN or some other site addressed something that is correct though; enemies will hit from every distance it seems. Its kind of lame at first, but it didn't bother me so far. I am a sword fighter myself, and my avatar is an archer which I gave the 'safe distance' tactic. I set others on Heal etc. The White Knight itself is fun for a while but seems to be exact like Xenogears: less versatile than normal fights.

Then we have GeoNet which opens up after the long but fun prologue. Here you can make your own homepage with blogs, backgrounds and even an own town. But I didn't start with most of this yet. You can buy quests, go to the worldmap and open them up. You can solo them, or multiplay them. Multiplayer worked with me from the Netherlands and some other dude probably from the States so that question is out of the way. This multiplayer is nice for getting items, and nice to stray from the storyline.

If you're into JRPG's at least give it a chance. Worked out for me so far.

[elaniel]

I've installed and created three characters so far (haven't been really fond of how they end up looking in the game though). I haven't really had any spare time to play it yet. I think it's complete bull that if you want to recreate your character at any time it costs you $4.99 in the playstation store though.

I'm looking forward to playing it, and if anyone else is going online with it add me: Elaniel

[saturn-gamer]

Yeah but be wary. I've read that if you're with this US disc on an EU account or anything non US, you can't change the avatar anyway. Its supposedly to go under 'services' instead of game data.. which means you have to play with your US account..

I've read something along these lines. Not that I was planning to pay for it anyway.

[hush]

The game gets a lot of flak which lowered my expectations. But get this: My mind is blown! Really. The thing I wonder right now is 'how the hell did this get 5.0 ish scores?'

I think it was because the online part of the game was not open to the people who was reviewing it

[J0e Musashi]

I've read that if you're with this US disc on an EU account or anything non US, you can't change the avatar anyway. Its supposedly to go under 'services' instead of game data.. which means you have to play with your US account.

The JPN game doesn't suffer from this so perhaps you are mistaken? Where is this "Services" too?

[saturn-gamer]

Transaction management -> list of services or smt similar. Unlock keys go there too, mine shows a Wipeout key.

But I've only read about this issue regarding the makeover ticket.

[elaniel]

I've been playing about 20 minutes now. Getting frustrated as it kind of just throws screens of info how to do things rather than showing you. Hopefully I can figure it all out. Like Combat Skills. Do you set up string attacks. Then there's combos. They don't explain it fully.

Plus, when leaving the first area, they told me to go to get some wine. Then when I was leaving told me to go to the square (which I guess is blocked off as couldn't get there) and then that I need a weapon, when those are shops are blocked off as well.

Think I'm gonna need some time with this.

[saturn-gamer]

Those screens are typical Level 5 fare, I always liked them

The initial town is quite big, use the map. You can also walk around with the map in full screen mode. Its just old school exploring towns, something I really like in these days of linearity.

You don't set up strings when placing single attacks in slots. Just put your favourites on the left side, so that you can reach em quicker. The only way to string attacks is by creating combos out of them and then install that combo into any given slot.

[elaniel]

I've figured it out now. Thanks .

Just wish it would have been explained a tad more clearly in some form of battle tutorial. I guess I've probably just gotten used to those that I expect them.

It is a good game though so far.

[elaniel]

Ended up playing a bit more today. It's gotten a lot better now that I can figure out what's going on with the battle systems.

Another girpe: Pick up an item from a treasure chest, which ever character you're controlling it locks to them (and can't be traded between characters.) I guess this is technically a way to get around getting a lot of equipment online with your AVATAR and then passing it around offline. However, you can use the online money to then buy stuff for other characters... Hmm

Speaking of, any one tried the online yet? I haven't seen the opportunity to go on yet, so I guess I'm not far enough to get online.

[saturn-gamer]

Online's fun, but kind of hard. Those recommended levels are really too low.

Boot camp 1 was easy, we ripped through that with 4 guys getting A rank. But that first real quest is hard at the boss, way too hard for level 8 guys. We were on the way to beat it (we were level 12-15 ish), but lagged out of Geonet just when we had the 2 items and returned for the boss fight.. gah. A waste of 15 minutes, although I gained a level.

[hudson]

You still playing this, Saturn? I have it on order. I know it has captured the imaginations in any reviews, but I still really fancy it. How do you feel about the game, now you've had it a while?

[mugetsu]

didnt know there were others on here who had this, i'm currently lvl 42 and GR rank 7, looking for some people to team up with for some high lvl grinding/quests/farming of rare drops.

my online id is Mugs1

havent built my own town yet but im gonna start on it as soon as ive rebuilt my cash back up after synthesising my lovely new axe.

[saturn-gamer]

You still playing this, Saturn? I have it on order. I know it has captured the imaginations in any reviews, but I still really fancy it. How do you feel about the game, now you've had it a while?

I finished the story last week. I was planning to continue with multiplayer, but I try to beat Star Ocean before FFXIII right now.

WKC is good, really. Albeit a fair bit on the easy side. I found the story to be actually good, it starts out very basic but to my surprise gets kind of complicated.

Online multiplayer is where the game shines. The GeoNet thing is also a nice touch. I'd still rate it as one of the better JRPG offerings on the HD consoles, and with that WKC scored way too low. Thats the general consensus if you go by user reviews.

[Adrock]

I'm getting this for sure, so if anyone else is playing this and fancies teaming up I'll stick my psn details on here as soon as I get one. Haven't used psn yet.