“Verto!“

Game Info
Publisher:	Sony
Developer:	Level 5
Genre:	RPG
Release Date:	09/13/2011
Meta Score

Story: White Knight Chronicles II picks up a year after the first game left off.  The Yshrenian Empire has been restored and is now waging war on all kingdoms in order to obtain world domination.  Leonard and company are sent to the land of Faria in order to form an alliance against the oncoming attack, just to find out that civil war has broken out and their leader is being held captive.  As they begin to fly into Faria, they encounter the grand daughter of the Archduke that died in the first game, who is currently being hunted down by rebel forces that may be in league with Yshrenia.  After swooping in and saving the day, it is evident that if any ground is to be made Father Yggdra (leader of Faria) must be rescued.

After taking care of some magic stones that seem to be draining energy from the land, the group makes their way into the capitol.  It is here that they face the rebel leader and save Father Yggdra, who happens to be a talking tree.  Leonard is given a book that can apparently take everyone back in time to try to alter the past.  The original plan is to go back and rescue the Archduke so he can bring order to the conflicted Faria.  Unfortunately they were not able to carry out as they planned.  What they did gain however was a magic seal that is the key to defeating the Yshrenians and restoring order to the land.  This seal is also the symbol of leadership in Faria and makes his grand daughter the new archduke after his passing.  Once back in the present, it is revealed that all three kingdoms have seals like this one that are entrusted to the nation’s leader and must be handed down form generation to generation.  However none of these leaders got the chance to appoint a new leader before their passing, which leads to more time travel.  From here the goal is pretty simple.  Get the other two seals and take down Yshrenia, plain and simple.

The first game had a problem with being cheesy during the first half of the game.  Not the second one however.  No this one just suffers from being boring and somewhat repetitive.  I mean each kingdom kinda plays out a little different from the last, but in the end it is all the same thing.  Go to said kingdom, fix their current crisis, and get their seal.  It is also quite obvious that this isn’t even a whole story, as number one and number two was supposed to be one full game.  For those who missed out on the first, this might seem like a decent tale from start to finish as the first game comes bundled with the second with all of the upgrades.  For those who played the first and eagerly awaited the second, well just imagine reading half a book and trying to read the other half two years later to get a picture of what it will feel like.

Graphics/Presentation:The visuals in White Knight Chronicles II have been improved from the International version of one, or as I like to call it, “the full priced demo” since the version that comes bundled with this one also has the upgrades as well.  Textures are now a higher resolution and the game runs fairly smooth.  It is still nothing to write home about, but it isn’t an eyesore either.  The voice acting on the other hand still sucks.  There is almost no emotion sometimes from any of the characters and even when it is evident that they are trying, it still falls short.  I have heard worse in my day, but I most certainly have heard better as well.  Another thing that hasn’t changed is lack of enemy variety.  Most enemies are still using the same old models with a different color pallet or a few different features added to them to create the illusion of them being unique.  In the old days this might have been okay, but in this generation not so much.  Overall I give the presentation a slightly below average score.

Gameplay/Controls:White Knight Chronicles II plays exactly like the first game, so if your didn’t like it then, you won’t like it now.  As you make actions in a battle, you will slowly gain AP.  These are needed for Knight transformations, skill combos, and certain skills for each class.  Decent attacks that don’t require AP will need MP instead.  MP generates slowly outside of battle and both AP and MP can also be gained through potions.  If you choose not to start from the first game you can either start from scratch at level 35 at the start of the second game, or you can carry over your save game from the first one and have your characters delved to level thirty but with all of your items from the first game.  Either way you will be re distributing all of your skill points, which by the way you have enough of to pretty much max out one class on every character.  It is because of this that I only find two types of build for every character necessary.  Primary healers with a secondary in attack or primary damage dealers with a secondary in healing.  Sadly this takes away from the strategic element in the game.

There is a bright side to the strategy however!  It seems that the enemies are a little harder this time around and will require decent MP and AP management in order to make it through the game.  This will have you switching between characters more often in some cases and actually use character strategy setting instead of just putting everyone to Auto.  This doesn’t kill the repetitive part of it all, but it does help you feel a little more challenged.  Knights no longer feel like God Mode either.  Sure you can kill just about any normal enemy that they come across, but you want them for the bigger fish.  In many instances you will be fighting more than one big guy at a time, and a Knight usually runs out of juice after you kill one.  This still leaves a bit of a hurdle to get over and doesn’t leave things feeling too easy.  This will also give you the chance to try out some of the new skills that were added to the game as well.

Crafting is still pretty deep but mainly the same as the first game.  One plus this time around however is that when you go out gathering for materials, you no longer have to keep searching things over and over getting items one at a time till the source is depleted.  Now you search once and get everything it has to offer in one go, till time passes and they regenerate that is.  One major plus is the number of side quests added to the game.  There are the traditional ones found in the first game that pretty much required you to do online, and then there are errands and bounties.  Now the traditional quests have been greatly improved for those who don’t have an online pass.  If you choose to enter them by yourself, Leonard and everyone else will follow you and help you this time instead of leaving your avatar alone to fend for himself.  Errands are the most basic of tasks like being a messenger boy or gathering x amount of a certain item.  Bounties will require you to track down a powerful enemy and eliminate them in order to claim your reward.  The addition of said quests definitely add a lot of value to the game for offline players and I must say was a very wise addition as a whole.

The online is nothing more than a more complete version of the first game, but requires an online pass to play and doesn’t use the same servers (go figure).  The maximum party size has been increased from four to six and the level cap has be risen to seventy-five.  Any traditional guild quest can be played online as well as blue colored quests found on the world map that are updated and changed after a certain amount of time.  Each quest also has a suggested level so you don’t have to worry about jumping into something that you can’t handle.  The Georama part of the game that allows you to make your own little town with shops and such also has a few new options to show off as well.  The problem is that the game has sold horribly so finding people to play with might be a challenge if you don’t have any friends in mind.  At least this time the US servers and EU servers are shared so your options are a little more open when it comes to finding teammates.

Replay:If you didn’t play the first game, White Knight Chronicles II has A LOT to offer if you can get past the weak parts of the story.  The addition of errands and bounties with the ability to actually do side quests offline offer much more in terms of content than the first game did by itself, especially since the version of White Knight I that comes with the game features these improvements as well.  If you have people to play online with, the replay value is increased that much more with a pretty well worked out MMO style system.  However if you did play the first one, you might feel a bit scammed with this release.  The lower level side quests will mean nothing to you and ultimately you will once again be playing full price for half a game.  If you MUST finish the story from the first game, I  suggest waiting till it hits the bargain bin before even considering it.  No matter how you look at it, you bought the beta with International and it robbed you of being able to enjoy the complete version of the entire game.  To put it simply if you didn’t play the first game and you feel like giving it a try, you might like it.  If you did play the first game and are interested in playing the second, don’t pay full price because it won’t be worth it.

As a complete package I give this game a seven, seeing as how this is the true form of White Knight Chronicles in its most complete state.  The online is well done and there is more content than ever for single player gamers.  This score only applies to those who have not played the first game however.  Those that did would essentially be paying full price for half a game, which isn’t cool.  Sure they let you transfer your save data, but it should have been one game from the start and you will feel little motivation to go back and replay the first game with all of the new additions that should have been there from the start.  In either case scenario however, with many other big named RPGs recently released and Mass Effect 3 being right around the corner, there are probably better games to spend your money on.

Written By: Jason Roberts