NGG: White Knight Chronicles review

Justin Robson of NGG writes: "Let me start this review by stating simply, I would not know the ass-end of a JRPG. This is a good and a bad thing; I'm able to give a fresh perspective on a VERY well established genre, but at the same time, I might come across as completely clueless. So I hope you can forgive any inconsistencies that might pop up..."

[FENDR]

someone doesn't know how to play JRPG's

[Lovable]

Yes and he honestly admitted it.

"If you're like me and you feel alienated from anything remotely relating to Japanese culture, save yourself the hassle"

[Grandmasterstash]

Good point. Some honesty in game reviews is refreshing.

[mastiffchild]

Well, honesty MIGHT be refreshing but ignorance? Not so muc. I know sod all about most RTS games cdfos I don't really l;ike them-would I be the right person to write reviews for them? No, no I wouldn't. I('d have no frame of reference and no way of knowing if it's a good or a crap one and would likely come away having had zero fun and knocking the game-pointless.

Now, if this was a review for people who hate Japan then I suppose it might have SOME point but as it really isn't and people who don't like Japanese culture wouldn't care about a jrpg anyway I'm struggling to see this as anything but a bit daft and devoid of any reason whatsoever.

Sure, he was honest but it doesn't mean he should have been doing the review because he doesn't like the culture(so will hate the game and mark it down) and doesn't have any other jrpg knowledge to compare it to. He doesn't have the inclination or the tools to make a decent fist of his review so it's unfair on him, the game and the genre.

I'm personally, at the stage where turn based com,bat does my he3ad in a bit-I feel tech is at the point where it shouldn't be necessary to suspend belief and have these silly "it's your go now" moments in combat. There has to be a better way to keep both old fans of the genre and newcomers alike happy. Sure, stop in battle to make the odd strategic change but don't make it rigid turn based and don't make it "press X to win" action either. Is it too much to hope for that a jrpg might come along that rewards hand eye as well as brain skills? I think the answer might lie in a plethora of difficulty settings with dynamic pauses(that get shorter as the diff goes up) for your strategic moments AND actual dodging, real time casting and action that actually needs both skill and thought. It won't happen, though, as even Vs looks tro have the idiotic, if short bterm fun, of the basic KH system which leans towards the "pr54ess...2 end of the spectrum for me-hope they really mix it up, though, as there IS hope if they do.

[WildArmed]

hey.. i got a great idea.
I hate opera ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... ) but I'll go give a honest review about it..

I can't possible see what can go wrong here! :)
/s

While WKC is far from perfect, the online community and game-play makes up for majority of the flaws.
Because a game is not the sum of it's flaws. I find it sad that some people forget that.

[cliffbo]

why is this guy even reviewing this game if he doesn't even like the genre.

[SillySundae]

How do you review something you are alienated on?

[UP]

Yea that is like a person who hates action movies reviewing action movies. Yea that should not be allowed in my opinion.

[maruyuki]

its like, im just going to review this to prove i can give it a bad score.

and even so

for me im horrible at fighting games, and i honestly cant get into them.

but am i going to give street fighter 4 a 3/10 just because im not into the game genre? no

[Eddie20101]

If this person knows nothing about JRPG's and does not like them he probably should not be reviewing them in the first place.

This game has been out for sometime why is it reviewed now and showing up on N4G.

[Mit]

I was just about to buy something for my ps3.........and it was going to be this no lie...Ugh pass.

[Mit]

I've read the whole article, I'm going to sum up what this whiner said. He pretty much didn't like WKC because it's like your typical JRPG, and it's not like western RPG's like Fable, Fallout, or Dragon age Origins. So yeah I'm still going to buy this title.

[SpaceGhost]

I completely agree with Mastiffchild, The only reason I can see the point of this review is to get people to see what other games he has reviwed to see if he is ignorant as he seems, if someone doesn't know how a Car works are you going to go to them on advise on how to get your car started? NO you are going to get someone who has dealt with and fixed a lot of cars to get an Advise on how to get it started, not someone who has no idea what is what in a car. In a completely different direction I loved White Knight Chronicles and almost every JRPG fan will to.

[Gue1]

isn't this kind of too late?

[Anime-Vixen]

lol i know. He like 6 months late

[rdgneoz3]

Yep, over 6 months late and and he reviews it knowing he doesn't know "the ass-end of a JRPG".

[DarkFantasy]

i never knew there was a time limit on reviews for games XD..i never got the play this one ,my friend was addicted to it for a long time

[lashes2ashes]

how can you be a gamer and not know any thing about jrpg's that dosent make since. i know lots of people that started gaming a year or two back and they at least know about turn based battles and other jrpg style characteristics.

[SpaceGhost]

well look at most people who play video games this generation, they are mostly shooters and sports games, and do you really expect a "manly" man to sit down and play a 60 hour plus game mostly about story? Majority of the time I would say no, No they would not, they would get bored of not shooting something or getting a goal withing 10 minutes of playing a game.

[Anton Chigurh]

This game should 5 not 3 imo.

[Homicide]

I agree. The game is not horrible, but it's not good. It's average.

[Newtype]

7/10 it should be. Reviewer sucks.

[TukkerIntensity]

It's not a perfect game but it is a good game. Can't wait for part 2 to improve on what was done in part one. The guy reviewing this is a tool who his bad at games...and life in general.

7.5/10

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

At least, this is better than Final Fantasy XIII in my opinion.

The Community online and Cooperative mode is the reason why is so interesting.

WKC 2 looks so much better.

[plb]

When is the release date for WKC2..you know?

[PSK22]

Well its out in Japan already, so probably by Spring/Summer next year for others areas but I'm not sure yet.

[dkgshiz]

1.This game is much better then a 3/10! Its at least a 7.5/10 or higher.
2.This game is relatively old to be reviewing now....Its the end of September for Christ sakes!
3.Nobody cares about this kid and his crappy review.

[blahblah]

i'm a huge fan of L5 games (RG especially), but WKC had few really annoying factors which made any game replay a no go for me. (will replay whole 1 when i get 2 since it is getting new combat system)

annoyances in WKC
- damn slow fights with way to slow hit recharge
- completely missed shield usage
- although you could run around during fight, it was pointless, no matter how far you get you got hit from most low ranged enemies. making whole in battle moving pointless
- no challenge (online i got to level6 and simply couldn't stand slowness anymore to get where fights were interesting as people said. grinding was to annoying)

what i liked
- story had a nice L5 atmosphere
- combo system was awesome
- personal town

worth noting is the fact that WKC2 had reworked exactly what annoyed me and WKC1 is present on same disc as WKC2, using new combat system. i'm definitely buying WKC2 on day one and replaying new WKC1.

[WildArmed]

I gotta say most of ur issues of the game were because you didn't understand the mechanics. (not really ur fault as much as Level 5's not explaining them well enough)

--speed..My fights were very fast, i got my 'hit recharge circle' back up within a second.. =/
But, If you were wearing full heavy armor + 2hd weapon (or s/s), your circle takes 6-8 secs to charge (which was very excessive). I'm glad they fixed that in WKC2.

--missed shield usage.. sure I can understand that. But shield is still an amazing add-on if you are tanking.
They are implementin insta-block.. in WKC2, but still it's not an action RPG so they aren't going far as DEmons souls for shield usage.

--running around.. the battle system isn't based on an action RPG like Demons Souls. It's heavily based off turn-based game play.
Moving in battle was hardly pointless, it was made to prevent AoE splash damage. At lower GR this may not matter at much, but at latter GR you dont wnat to get hit with splash dmg (since usually the tank is taking the hits). So moving around is hardly pointless.
THere were MANY MANY times I wanted to spread out my chars in FF13, but coudln't so everyone would get caught in AoEs

but they are improving this in WKC2, bigger distance = less acc of attack and vice versa.

--no challenge?
You got to lvl6?
Level 7 is actually the 'basic' level you need to get to even start playing online.. Until GR7 you dont even unlock higher GR quips.Level 5 implemented that poorly.. since many ppl tackled online after finishing the story. Fortunately they are implementing that in WKC2. You'll get some GR quests during the story.. so you aren't stuck with a high a level char in a low GR
I can understand you complaining about the grinding.. but challenge?
If you get into WKC1 (in WKC2), u'll see that higher GR quests offer a lot more challenge.
You are supposed to be GR7 by the time you finish the game..

The main issue w/ WKC with me was EVERY SKILL took AC.. so it came down to just spamming Combos..
In WKC2, they changed that so if you use skills outside of combos, it may not use AC (depending on the skill).

[Matthew94]

are you all idiots? should be 7/10??? are you joking the reviewer is spot on

i like jrpgs (DQ9 and FF3 are some of my favourite games) but the whole game is a boring grind, the story is crap and gives you no reason to push forward, the graphics are dated (normally not an issue for me but in this game it is)

the character creation is useless, he does nothing in the entire plot

the combat is worse than any game ive ever played, enemies can hit you with a sword from range but you can't to them, i mean you can be "hit" by a sword from 30m away!

the online sounded really good but its just "grind through 60 enemies then a mini boss)

[Redempteur]

"the character creation is useless, he does nothing in the entire plot "

Ok , use the online modes and come back apologise later

"the combat is worse than any game ive ever played, enemies can hit you with a sword from range but you can't to them, i mean you can be "hit" by a sword from 30m away! "

not really , ennemies can hit you when they are in range for attacks , unless you're not in attack mode aka fleeing .., the only flaw is that t hey can attack enevn if they don't see you , but they always attack in range regardless if there is a door , or a wall .

"the online sounded really good but its just "grind through 60 enemies then a mini boss) "

seriously , try the online mode , really .. first you have your own hub , your own town customisable , also each quest has sub quest and extra ( they are hidden but right someone who play regulary know 99% of them ) that mean one quest can have extra bosses , extra challenges , extra bonuses depending how you play ..there are co op quest where you have to act with your teammattes to use switch in order to proceed and more...

SO to summary , don't talk out of your **s and try the game if you dislike jrpgs fine, but the reviewer is uninformed and didn't give the game a chance ..

[blahblah]

and own most of Level5 ones (and love). but i have to agree with original poster.

in light of Level5 quality WKC is damn disaster. why do you think they include WKC1 on WKC2 disc with completely reworked combat? corrected in the same way as he and me in my previous post described?

graphically outdated i can forgive, originally WKC was PS2 game long into development. but fights and grinding not.

story though, was very simple, calm and subtle. maybe i'm strange, but i liked WKC story. there was no "save the world", "kill the giant monsters" as main plot. same reason is why i loved Mirrors Edge story.

[Redempteur]

i'm a rpg fan and seriously i agree that the way you avatar was handled could have been better ... but your avatr is not the hero of the story .. that's leonard and co ..
the création mode ..is used to create your avatar you'll use online ..and out of the 400+ hours needed to platinium this title , only 50 at most is spend offline ..

so please the creation system is not useless ...as said countless times , white knight is Offline + online ( not one or the other , BOTH ).
Ah and by the way , the combat is not that mich reworked , they just made it faster

"why do you think they include WKC1 on WKC2 disc with completely reworked combat?"

because OF THE ONLINE !! it's the same server , the same community and it's a console game!! Do you want to cut your community in TWo or do you want to please everyone they inclued the original WKC data because they just reworked their graphical engine and did not want to prevent anyone to jump in ( because not everyone had played the first opus ).

[WildArmed]

"the online sounded really good but its just "grind through 60 enemies then a mini boss)"

well obviously someone hasn't played the online quests on WKC :)

[PSK22]

I thought WKC was a good game. I understand it wasn't perfect but it deserves at least a 7. This review = Failure

[Darkspade]

Dam this guys on the Reviews, Maybe he should review them when they come out like the rest of the World.. WKC was a Decent RPG Differently Better then a 3

[COINTELPRO]

Next Review - Grand Theft Auto 4

[ChronoJoe]

Why bother if biased.

I mean I know he admited it, but why bother? It's like 'Oh, I'm going to review lego starwars, but I figured I'd let you know, due to repressed memories from my childhood. I have an illogical preexisting hatred for both the lego, and starwars IPs... anyway, here's my review'.

What a waste of time.

[BrianC6234]

When I saw he knows nothing about Japanese RPGs I stopped reading. Why does anyone care about a review by someone who knows nothing about the genre? Besides, this game came out a long time ago.

[Tex117]

Great review and relevant! </sarcasm>

[Relientk77]

I'm glad this guy is staying up to date with his video game reviews...

...oh wait

[Homicide]

He brings up a lot of good points, but the score is harsh. 5/10 is fair.

[hazelamy]

i've got the game, and i can see what he's talking about, but i enjoy the turn based gameplay of jrpgs so i really don't have a problem with the gameplay.
there was no mention of the custom combos you can create for each character.
he's right about the attack range of the enemies, i've had them use melee attacks on me when i was too far away to attack them, even when i'm armed with a bow.

anyway, i really like the game, if he doesn't then he doesn't have to play it, doesn't make any difference to me.

[iddqd]

Okay chaps, Justin Robson here, let's take a step back.

First of all, I haven't read all the comments here, in fact I had no idea the review was even posted here, haha... but I'll get round to it.

The only other JRPG I've ever played was Enchanted Arms a few years ago, and same with WKC, the only reason I played/reviewed it is because a website sent me a review copy. And you know what? I gave it a shitty score for the same reasons.

I didn't even know this game existed until... like two weeks ago. So Jesus, if I'm late in writing the review, what's your excuse for reading it?

I got WKC in the mail, played it for a couple of days then I bashed the review out in a night. It was hardly comprehensive. I was so under confident in what I was writing that I stated several times that I'm not the right person to be reviewing it, and that I'm probably not going to do it justice. I think it was a pretty poor way to go about it, and to be honest, I probably shouldn't have done it at all. I'm not saying it's a bad review, or that it wasn't honest... just that I tried to enjoy this game, I gave it the best chance I could and I still didn't like it.

What I'm saying is, it's not like I went "hurrdurr, I hate Japanese culture so I'm gonna vent mah rage on this!" ...get a grip.

Truly you guys if it's such a good game, or at least a not bad game, why should what I say detract from your experience?

Justin.