“Your destiny is about to begin.”

	Publisher: Sony	+ Challenging Online + Classic RPG elements + Second half of the plot
	Developer: Level 5
	Genre: FPS
	Release: 02/02/10
	ESRB: Teen	- First half of the plot - Knights equal God mode - Too short
	Platforms: PS3

Opening\Story: White Knight Chronicles is about two kingdoms in the middle of a massive war.  In an attempt to end the war, the King of Balandor invites the Duke of Faria to his daughter’s coming of age.  The event is cut short as a cult, the Magi sets out to steal an ancient weapon of war known as the White Knight (which is sealed beneath the castle in order to take over the world).  A young man named Leonard accidentally activates the power of the Knight as a “pact maker” while he attempts to protect Princess Cisna.  With this new found power he is able to fight off the Magi, but not before they make off with the Princess.  As the kingdom is in chaos, both the King and Duke of the feuding countries die in the raid. Leonard is then tasked with tracking down and rescuing the princess.  As the story progresses his life, the Princess and companions who later join his cause all play a much bigger role than they could ever imagine.  Let us focus in on this epic quest and see just how big that role is.

The Good: One thing WKC offers is classic RPG elements missing from most JRPGs today.  To me this is a breath of fresh air.  You will create an avatar that will travel with Leonard on his quest and customize your characters to your liking as you level up.  You can choose to focus characters on learning one specific class such as a healer or nuker, or you can make a strait hybrid.  Personally I made all of my tank classes secondary nukers or healers, and my warrior classes focused on pure physical damage.  Of course, this is just one possibility as your free to level up your characters however you’d like.

The later part of the story (will cover the first later) was also very enjoyable to me.  The game really started to interest me as things branched out and the plot as a whole became clearer.  There are quite a few twists as well and for me, that’s always a good thing - a predictable plot is a boring plot after all.  Characters develop very well as the story progresses, and people who don’t get along at first learn to work with one another and better understand each other in the end.  All areas of the game can be revisited and explored at any time and the maps are wide open and decent sized as well.  Definitely something that was welcome to me just after playing Final Fantasy XIII in all its corridor glory.

The online is also very well done and very challenging.  There are a total of 51 side quests in the game, and each can either be completed with your avatar alone or with up to three other players and their avatars online.  There are also extra quests which are temporarily added to the WKC server and eventually replaced every week keeping the game from getting stale.  When it comes to these quests  strategy is essential and a mic is a must.  Without teamwork, you won’t be able to complete most of them.  Seeing as how you only control your created avatar in these quests, the best way to describe them would be like an instanced raid found in some of today’s more famous MMORPG’s. 

As you complete these quests, you’ll gain guild ranking and experience for your character in addition to any other spoils you may acquire.  Each quest has a guild ranking requirement so if your into the online mode, your going to want to get that raised as soon as possible in order to experience everything.  Anything you acquire in these quests, and all experience you gain is directly saved and transferred to your character to use in the game’s single player mode as well as the multi-player. Anything you gain in single player can also be used online.  That being said, its a very smart idea to take advantage of the new game plus feature and max out your character while getting the best items during your second play-through.

The Bad: As much of a breath of fresh air WKC is, it’s far from perfect.  Personally, I felt that a certain challenge level in the main plot just wasn’t there.  When playing offline, you really don’t have to use strategy in order to win your fights – unless its one of the larger enemies, and even then it gets repetitive as they’re all fought basically the same way.  Also, as cool as the Knights are, they’re like God mode when you use them.  Even the bosses are pretty much done for when you use one of the knights.  Luckily, you can only use them every so often, but if you wait for the right moments, you can have them ready for just about every boss battle in the game.  The game isn’t a breeze your first time through, but I would’ve liked a bit more of a challenge to keep those classic RPG elements in combat feeling more meaningful.  Keep in mind, this only applies to the offline mode.  The online mode is very challenging and very well done.

Finally, the first half of the game is so cheesy it isn’t even funny.  The plot, in a nutshell, is basically finding the princess over and over just for something lame and predictable to happen where the enemy makes off with her even though you kick their ass time and time again.  There were a few times I half expected them to say, “sorry, your princess is in another castle.”  Keep in mind its only the fist half of the game that’s like this, the second half gets much deeper and unpredictable.  What sucks about that is how the game just ends right when everything hits a climax.  It just feels so incomplete and was a major letdown that right when I was at the edge of my seat, the ending credits rolled.  I know for a fact I will be getting the second game when it comes out, but I really hope they make the entire game as deep as the second half of this one, and finish with a complete story line.  Cliffhangers are one thing, but just dropping off right in the middle of the main plot is kinda annoying in my eyes.

PRESENTATION / STORY		GRAPHICS
The first half of the story is cheesy but the second half is great.  Even so, the game ends right when things get really interesting.  This game is more like a prologue to something greater on the horizon.		Detailed character models and the lush, colorful environments look great.  Visuals are nothing special but they fit in nicely with this generation.
GAMEPLAY / CONTROLS		REPLAY VALUE
The return of classic elements are a great thing, but the lack of challenge makes it useless in the offline mode.  Still, the online remains to be a fun challenge with the right people.		With a new game plus and loads of online side-quests that are updated over time, any true RPG gamer can get more enjoyment out of the game after its been completed.
OVERALL (NOT AN AVERAGE)

By no means is White Knight Chronicles a perfect game, but it is enjoyable.  The online is great and will require teamwork in order to get the most out of it.  The second half of the main plot is definitely worth looking into as I truly feel this game is like a prologue to something greater later down the road.  With the sequel already released in Japan, the International version should be right around the corner.

Written by: Jason Roberts

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• White Knight Chronicles II EU release May 2011 
• inFocus – Final Fantasy XIII Review
• Head2Head – Final Fantasy XIII