THE FIRST REVIEW!

And so, Stuffimus Maximus comes to it's first review.

Exciting! (And really really late!)

Skipping the dawdling, we'll jump right into it! And the subject for today's review is....

*drum role*

White Knight Chronicles!

White Knight Chronicles (Referred to in this review as WKC from here on out) is an action RPG released in 2008 in japan, 2010 in NA. Developed by Japanese dev. company Level 5, and SCE Japan Studio for the Playstation 3, WKC is one of the few games released this generation to help fill the gaping void of decent quality role-playing games that the PS3 has to offer.

And at the least, it puts up a damn valiant fight.

Lets move to the deeper stuff.

First Impressions

White Knight chronicles piqued my interest immediately with it's intricately designed titular knight, and promise of a grand, sweeping story worth telling time and again. The simple, yet tastefully designed case art, in combination with the wonderful instrumental rendition of it's main theme, "The Travelers" that plays during the preview of the game that plays when you linger on the "Game" section of the cross media bar convey a sense of simple yet epic adventure awaiting you. The mandatory installation was a bit off putting, but my anticipation returned almost immediately upon the title screen loading. At the very least the game is capable of catching the eye.

(7.5/10: A well presented box/case goes a long way towards making me want a game, and good music certainly helps.)

Overall Presentation

This is where it begins to get a bit rocky however. While the game's start screen is nice, it's technical limitations begin to show almost immediately. Graphically, the game certainly is no powerhouse, and it's sound ranges from amazing to nigh gag-worthy. But those will be touched on later. Moving past that, before the story begins, you're given the chance to create your own character. The character creation is not particularly deep, but it holds enough options to leave one willing to spend a solid 20 minutes on preparing the avatar that will be representing your impact on the story.

The game chooses a very old, tavern-y feel for it's character creation menu, and a more ancient look for it's in game menus, so at least there's something nice to look at as you customize as the game goes along. the game opens in very typical story fashion. Evil is plotted atop a cliff, a mysterious cloaked man enters a gated high-city like environment, a king is sad, a princess is emotionally stunted, background is provided, a festival is held, and soon, you are introduced to your rather average looking hero/storeowner's apprentice, Leonard. Your character also enters the story at this point, and thus your adventure begins. As a whole, the games presentation begins to pick up after you pass the prologue (some time after the stuff I described), and the Knight begins to play a much more pivotal role. Character designs and locales become more and more inventive, the voice work picks up a bit, and so on and so forth.

(6.0/10: In parts, the game has shining moments, but altogether, it doesn't have the best flow.)

Accessibility

Fortunately, the game is not very hard to pick up, the battle system is easy enough, the menus are easy to navigate, and the story contains just enough twists and intrigue to keep you playing. There are moments of serious lulling though, when grinding is required or a particularly far trek across some land is required for a quest. There's also the game's primary time investment near the mid/late game, the online portion "Geonet". Players can log on and grab a few friends in order to complete quests earned by completing sections of the main story, or leveling up your Guild Level. You can also customize your lobby so that people can visit, buy merchandise you choose to sell, or join you on quests. All of this is also relatively easy to manage, so it makes for a good timesink. Leveling up isn't a chore either; the game makes use of a skill point system that allows you to invest skill points gained by leveling up into different sections of your character's combat style, earning stat increases, new moves, and stronger abilities.

(8.0/10: The ease of accessing the games features is a welcome plus in a genre populated by confusing menus and "innovative" battle systems.)

Graphics

A hero and his big ass suit of armor.

As mentioned earlier, WKC is not a graphical powerhouse, but it's not total crud either. The game comfortably straddles the line between good and great, Standing at around high end PS2, low quality PS3 when simply using the gameplay engine, but coming across wonderfully during an FMV/CG cutscene. As a whole however, the game's moments of graphical greatness do pull through, as characters move with a sense of life, and the Knights are awe-inspiring when summoned to do combat, or simply to provide epic moments throughout the story.

Weapon effects look swell, though nothing groundbreaking, and characters facial expressions come across convincingly. All in all, not bad to look at.

(6.5/10: Though it's not a graphical masterpiece, the game holds up well enough to keep one's attention simply by design. Despite some stiff moments, rather nice character designs, in combination with some flashy combat animations and fluid, constant graphical stability with little-no slowdown keep the game looking solid.)

Sound

Moving on to the audible portion, WKC's sound splits somewhat between bad and positively amazing. As far as voice acting, WKC tops out at mediocre, with some scenes coming across with a distinct lack of emotion, taking the wind out of some of the more dramatic scenes' sails. Other scenes are overacted to the point of not being able to take the thing seriously. This, however, is standard for JRPGs, so it doesn't bother me too much. 

On the soundtrack half, however, WKC shines, with brilliant mood pieces, excellent overworld music that almost drives you to explore the depths of the world as best you can, and one of the most memorable theme songs in "The Travelers" in recent video game history. It is hands down one of my favorite video game tracks of all time. Of course, with all games, there are bound to be a few duds. In particular, the battle music is quite boring, which isn't helpful if you're the type of player who tends to grind as you progress through the game so that you have no problems. It makes the journey just that bit more tedious.

But as a whole, the quality of sound in WKC is memorable, and one of the better qualities of the game.

(8.0/10: Despite some issues with mediocre voice acting, the overall sound quality of the game is excellent, with a positively excellent soundtrack.)

Controls

The game, out of battle, handles like any standard RPG, with the X button controlling a majority of decisions, and the analog stick controlling your movements. Triangle opens the menu, and so on and so forth. There's an openable mini menu (select button) that control things such as the character you're currently controlling, mapped keys and shortcuts to help out in the overworld, which are nice. 

Battles are entered in an encounter fashion; You see an enemy, you attack it, battle begins. The battle system is handled by equipping learned techniques to one of three action bars. You can move your character around at whim during battle, but attacks can only be unleashed once a white action circle fills, making it a slightly more in depth "Active Time Battle" combat system. The stronger the technique, the more "Action Chips" or "AC" it uses up, which are gained by attacking with weaker, costless attacks, taking a turn to charge/wait, or being attacked.

The game also has a rather interesting "Combo" system, which allows you to combine moves in a string in the menu, then save as a single combo, which you can name then equip like any other technique. Combos take up more AC the more moves you have strung together, and so as a result, can double as a "Limit Break" system of sorts, but that was just a personal view I took when playing. Magic is handled using Magic Points (MP), and as a whole, the battle system is fairly coherent, but a bit sluggish.

Battle for the Knights are handled in a similar fashion; transformation into the behemoths costs AC, the more AC spent, the more combat options available to the Knight in use. Knights battle using Action Points (AP) that double as their Hit Points (HP). When these run out, the Knight reverts to human form, and battle continues (or ends, if you've killed the last enemy.)

As a whole, it's easy enough to master, but deep enough to want to invest a bit of time in messing around until you've created the best configuration for yourself.

(8.0/10: The game's menus and combat are easy and fun, though not particularly original, and the customization of your skillset via the action bar is quite a draw. As a whole though, the game controls quite fluidly.)

Difficulty

The game has moments of difficulty, but nothing particularly noteworthy. If you're the type of player who grinds before big battles religiously, the game can become a breeze. As a result though, it makes paying attention to the story quite easy, as opposed to games where the difficulty completely overtakes any story value the game may have.

(3.0/10: If you're coming to the game looking for a challenge, you won't get much of one unless you don't spend any time leveling up. It does make the story easier to enjoy though.)

Replayablity

While there's a fair bit of reason to continue playing the game with the online features, there's practically no incentive to play it again once you've finished with that. Unless you simply like the game that much.

(1.0/10: Save for obtaining some bonus equipment via New Game+ that you would normally have to grind for online, there isn't much reason to dive back into this one.)

Story

The story for WKC, while not a masterpiece of storytelling, is fairly engaging. full of political intrigue, expansive fantasy, and a grand sense of adventure, WKC has everything you need to at least entertain you for a solid playthrough. Centered around the aforementioned protagonist, Leonard, the story chronicles his adventures attempting to save the princess of his kingdom from the invading force that's kidnapped her, using the ancient force that said kingdom was initially invaded for; the White Knight.

Quite the badass ancient weapon.

You see, it turns out the White Knight can only be wielded by the one it deems worthy.

...

I suppose I would have chose someone with a cooler name than Leonard... but I digress.

Leonard passes the White Knight's test of worth, and as a result, becomes it's sole wielder. The villains decide that the best way to convince him to give up the Knight, is to kidnap the princess of the kingdom/Leonard's love interest, and as a result, end up with a face full of main character with a big ass Knight/theoretical weapon of mass destruction watching his back.

As the story continues, you find out that there are more Knights than simply the titular White one, and they were created to be weapons of mass destruction intended to end a war between two precursor races.

They were sealed away after the war because of the destruction they caused. Which means should they be gathered together and reactivated, the world could become a big pile of chewed gum! Or at the very least, be destroyed in a fire/brimstone-y fashion. 

So. obviously, as main character, in addition to saving his lady love from what amounts to an entire kingdom, Leonard must also stop the gathering of the knights, else the world go "BLOOEY!". No pressure.

Plot twists and cool shit follow pretty much without fail, and so as a whole, make the story quite an enjoyable one.

(7.5/10: While not the greatest story ever told, WKC still tells a pretty damn cool one. If only it had better voice acting...)

And finally, we come to:

FUN FACTOR

To me, the most important part of any game, is whether or not it's fun. A game can be an absolute artistic masterpiece, but if I didn't enjoy playing it, then I couldn't give a fuck if I was paid to. (Well... On second thought...)

That out of the way, I can safely say that I had great fun playing WKC. I wouldn't sing it's accolades across the world, but if someone was looking for a pretty solid action RPG to sink some time into on the PS3, I would certainly recommend it. And for those worried about a slow battle pacing, the sequel contains an updated version of the original with the updated sped up battle system introduced in part 2. So there's that.

(7.0/10: It's a great game, with added fun points for not forcing me to grind constantly!)

THE VERDICT

 Before I get to that, I'd like to explain the score guidelines. Basically, the scores indicate the following.

•  1-10: SO FUCKING BAD! LIKE EYE EXPLODINGLY BAD! Don't do it to yourself. Even if you enjoy pain. Some things just aren't worth the trouble.
• 11-20: Pretty damn terrible. I wouldn't suggest it for any reason.
• 21-30: A bad game. Not my cup of tea, but I'll forgive those who chose to enjoy it. Myself included.
• 31-40: An O.K game. While not a worthwhile pursuit, the game contains enough merits that should someone choose to defend it, it's at least mildly understandable.
• 41-50: A decent game. It's nothing worth raving about, but it's worth at least an hour, or a quick playthrough on a rainy day.
• 51-60: A good game. A game that's happily nestled in average territory, I wouldn't tell someone NOT to get a game that ranks here. Hell, I might recommend it, simply because it definitely isn't bad.
• 61-70: A damn good game. While not a masterpiece, a damn good game is something I'd recommend. It has enough merits to stand at least a head above the average.
• 71-80: A great damn game. This is a game worth suggesting to just about anyone, a solid combination of story, gameplay, graphical presentation, and sound work.
• 81-90: An excellent game, one worth having praise sung about it. Games that have the qualities of a great dame game, but have something that shine about them that puts them above the others will rank here.
• 91-99: A positively marvelous game. An awe inspiring, breath taking work of art that sucks you in and doesn't let go.
• 100: The Perfect Game: All of my reviews will be pursuit of this... An act of god... Or better yet, all of the gods from all religions. A creation of active impossibility, dividing by zero and producing, hands down, a game that firmly belongs in the halls of the gods of gaming, passed down to our mortal eyes for enjoyment solely so said gods can be amused by our ravenous mind explosions as we experience game nirvana. AKA, Not gonna happen.

And with that out of the way....

White Knight Chronicles scores a 62.5

 A DAMN GOOD GAME!

*Applause*

 

And so ends the first review! Hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully, the next one will come a bit sooner. 'Till then.