With a sequel already announced for Japan, Sony and Level 5 seem keen to replicate the success of other long-running JRPG series, and with this expanded International Edition, it's clear they're hoping White Knight Chronicles' popularity will travel.
But while this is a competent debut, its strong ideas are held back by some poor execution and an unwillingness to let go of genre trappings. If Level 5 can truly scrub out the lines that separate their ideas into a meaningful, coherent whole, then their vision of the JRPG - or whatever they may call it - could stand tall.
Grab your longsword, shield and round up the fantasy archetypes - there are Ice Dragons afoot!
Chalgyr's Game Room writes:
I am kicking things off by going back to a familiar well here - with a song from the Neverwinter Nights soundtrack. This is still arguably one of my favorite music scores in a video game ever, but I decided to lead off with it and then create something of a theme as I decided to pull all of this edition's songs from RPG games.
Neverwinter Nights (PC) - Battle - Forest Boss
I touched on the somewhat mystical quality of another Neverwinter Nights song last week when discussing City Docks Day. There were a lot of really good battle tunes in this one, but the Forest Boss song always stood out in my mind. The battle itself was not even the most memorable one, but right around the one minute mark, it reaches an epic level that just stuck with me.
Digitally Downloaded writes: "Below are the ten games we'd like to see make their way to the new generation of consoles this year. Or, perhaps, game collections that could be pulled together into a single disc package for even better value as we have seen other recent HD/ Remaster releases."
B-But FFXII isn't last-gen. I'd love to see it remastered regardless though. Brilliantly fun game, I just disliked the story unfortunately.
story was ok, but very unlike the other ff storylines where there is a clear villian.
i just want the game for vita/ps4. international zodiac version would be interesting to play but i hope that the original glitches(?) are still there.
i had more fun breaking the game then playing the game properly.
would also be cool if they added dual wielding. would make some rare weapons actually useful.
I really would like to see a HD Remaster of both Twilight Princess & Skyward Sword. Those games deserve to be in HD
Are you saying that they could make Ni no Kuni look even better, because I would like to see that.
they could easily make that game look better. just make it as detailed as the animation. the 3d models had a lot less detail.
not saying it didnt look nice, just saying it could be improved a lot.
what i want to see:
Patapon HD Collection
FFIX & FFVII Remastered
MadWorld HD
Thrasher:Skate&Destroy HD
EA Skate series HD
Lumines Collection
VibRibbon remastered
Mario Galaxy 1&2 Remastered
BF1942 Remastered
About 30is hours in and I've barely touched the main plot. The Monster Hunter elements, farming and town-building are a blast.
That's not to say that the story is as bad as people are becrying. It's competent enough. The second installment will definitely be more interesting, story-wise, as they've laid some interesting plot threads and mysteries.
If I were a game reviewer, I'd give the game a 7-8/ 10. Personally, it's a "9", on account of how much fun I'm having with it, but I can see how WKC doesn't appeal to everyone. And that's how reviews should be, you know, arbitrary. Instead of fanboy nonsense. For example, I find the dialog trees in Dragon Age and Mass Effect incredibly tedious and sleep inducing after more than an hour (I usually play those games in small increments of time). That said, when someone asks me how either game is, I say "incredible", because the sum of their parts are really well done, even if it isn't exactly my cup of tea.
Pretty good score, I'm tempted to buy this game.
didn't they give the import version a 8???? So the added content and voice chat made the game worse??
i dont understand how the japanese version was a 8 and this version with more content is a 7.
Everything is a 7 with these guys. No matter what. clearly unprofessional.