White Knight Chronicles: Review

I just picked up the international release on opening day. I have currently played exactly...one hour...so this is to kick off my on-going review. I want to be detailed, so I'll chronicle a lot. Check back to this post often for updates.



Install:
Yep, there's an install. So right after you stick the game in the PS3, it automatically goes into install mode. I believe it takes a gig or two to put some content on your HDD. That took about 10 minutes to install. A little annoying, because lets face it, when you buy a console game, you want to put the disk in, and start playing. But it's one time, so whatever.



Game Start:
Movie time. The game begins with a cut-scene. It lasts about 10 minutes (for those keeping track, you're 20 minutes into putting the game in before you actually control anything). It attempts to give you a little story about some guys on horses approaching a castle, where the King is having a coming out party for his daughter. It shows a background scene where the princess watched her mother be murdered, and then through dialogue you gather that the king is about to make peace with the kingdom responsible for his wife's murder, explaining that since they speak the same language they should be sharing words, and not murdering each other. There is a procession where the invited king from the other warring kingdom is entering the kingdom. Also, there is this hooded guy with something wrapped up that is long, like a sword or something, who gets stopped by the guards, but he glares at them, light shines in his red eye, and apparently he uses a jedi mind-meld to let the guard let him by. Lost yet? Good, because this is just the opening sequence.


Gameplay:
Finally, after the movie part where Leonard, the 'hero' of the game shows up in a shop, where your avatar is working, and is told by the owner to go get the wine from a nearby village/winery and bring it ASAP. Now, I didn't even look at the instruction booklet, because I expect games nowadays with unique combat systems to train me. Outside of the shop, when I am finally in control, a couple of pages of control information pop-up, which I quickly read, and then I am in control. I immediately see a purple glowing stone, and assume it is a save point. Just like FF, it is, so I create a save. These save files are massive. They take a little longer than a PS3 gamer is used to, and the file is nearly 5mb! So the traditional rotating of three will still come into play, but just know it will take a while to save each file.


I ran around the town talking to everyone I saw, and even discovered a few...chests. Yes, that's right, we don't want to break JRPG tradition and have something different. They are chests. Of which I got a few health and mana potions. After a few conversations, and despite the mini-map, I had no idea where to go. The mini-map has no compass, so I don't know if you get one later, or what, but I kind of wonder about the mini-map's value other than to show enemies. I started pressing buttons, and behold, pressing the select button brings up a sub menu where you can bring up a full sized map that you peruse using the directional pad. There was a compass on this, so I knew where to head...for another brief cut scene that took me outside the city limit.


Suddenly, I am in a field, and Leonard is voice talking to my character that we need to hurry up and get to the winery. I see a glowing stone, and do a quick save. As I cross the bridge over the creek, I spot an enemy. This is just like FF XII, where you see the enemy in the open world and engage in combat without breaking into a combat only screen: It takes place in the world seamlessly. Mind you, I had no idea what to do, so I figured, when in doubt, press x. Sure enough, I engaged the enemy, and after my circle filled, I attacked (you play as Leonard). My avatar (named Landoram of course) attacked automatically. I figure there is some kind of gambit system to work on what he does, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Anyway, I easily whoop up on a few enemies, and notice a nearby tree glowing. I press x by it (nothing prompts you), and I start digging up strong and weak roots. After I gather a few, I got bored so I moved on down the road.

As I was fighting enemies, I noticed the edges of the screen turned red. I figured I was dying, so sure enough, a glance at my health meter indicated it was low. So how to heal? I had no idea. The only option I could see was an attack. I press the circle button, and I sheathe my sword. Only problem is enemies are still fighting me. I tap triangle, get in my menu, and navigate to my items (thankfully years of playing these games helped understand my menu). I was about to use a health potion when I was killed. Damn! Thankfully I had saved when I entered this area.

This time, paid attention to my health and that of Landoram. I found a few chests along the way, and manged to get a better shield, which I was able to figure out how to give to Landoram to use. I also figured out how to use the skill points to upgrade attacks, and finally figured out that pressing up or down on the directional pad IN battle would allow me to call up items (or spells, but I don't have any yet). I made it to the save point near where I have to transition to the winery, saved, and stopped for now.


Impressions:
My initial impressions are that this is very much like FF XII, or really, any JRPG. Dialogue is a little wooden based on the translations, characters are quirky and over animated, but again, all of these things are part of the charm of JRPG's. You either appreciate it or you don't. Battling is definitely going to take some getting used to. And finally, don't expect to have your hand held. I haven't felt this lost in a game for a long time. I'm sure that once I get used to it all, it is going to be great. I know, writing a review after one hour is lame, and I promise not to be so specific on all my updates, but I wanted to get a post started for this game. If it pans out, I think it could be a lot of fun for all of us to link up and play since it is supposed to have online friend questing.


(The image was copied from http://site.video-game-ce

ntral.com)