White Knight Chronicles International Edition - Playstation 3

Ok before I forget all this stuff in my head:Flaws:1) Cut Scenes - holy! I must be getting old cause back in the day cutscenes were used to move and connect major plotpoints. In this game, everything warrants a cutscene.New kid in town?(cue cutscene) Hey we need some wine (cue cutscene) Hi, I live over there (cue cutscene) Oh, Leonard! (cue cutscene) - My first playthrough was very painful because:2) Quest tracker - Oblivion, this is not. You get a giant star (if you're on the same map) for a visual, or most likely you'll have to rely on the 'next location' tab on the open world map to tell you where the story is going. So if you're like me and bypassed the 4/5 cutscenes after major fights, you'll end up with doing some additional running around to get your ground again.3) Massive Zones - with respawning mobs. Great for grinding, sucks if you're lost.Now, with that said:Pros:1) Avatar (Creation) (Sp/Mp) - So right off the bat you create your avatar, a common event in most RPGs. Customization is ULTRA detailed (Brow length, jaw width, eyebrow, eyelid shape, angle, smirks, frowns, smiles, you can wink!, height, weight - these are just an example - there are over 8 tabs of customization, each tab breaks down the category even further)or you can choose from pre-made templates. It gets better - the avatar you create plays the 'new kid/sidekick' role in the sp mode, and then gets used as your main toon on GeoNet.2) SP Campaign - Short and sweet. If you're looking for an epic saga, taking up weeks of your time to meet the last boss, this aint it. If anything, the SP reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Super Mario (yes, she looks just like that princess). Took me all of 3 days to finish (2 if I didnt endure 90% of all the game's cutscenes. The 'ending' was weird, and because I was yet again skipping cutscenes, I didnt fully realize it was the end until the credits starting rolling.Bah , whatever, on to GeoNet!!!GeoNet - IMO, the real game! You can play your avatar both online and offline. This was a crazy concept to wrap my head around: You're the sidekick in the SP, but in MP you're the man. It's like the Clark Kent syndrome.While you *can* play online right after the prologue, there wont be much you can do. As you progress in the game, you will come across Guild shops in each town. Each mission is specific to a certain location so you're ability to run different Guild missions relies on your own sp progress.You start off with a simple Rank1 GeoRama, certain conditions need to be met in order to improve it. As it improves your 'square footage' increases, allowing more room for additional buildings.And then things go gray (for me): As your town grows it will need residents. All throughout the (sp) game there are people you can recruit into your GeoRama. Each resident has a trade (Miner, farmer, lumberjack etc) and each trade breaks down into 3 specialties. You can also place shops (armory, general supplies, binding shops, etc) your shops will sell the items your tradesfolk create. Depending on the people you recruited, no two shops/town could possible be alike. Also, there are different levels of tradesfolk, some are highly skilled and require much higher ranks, others are simple and perfect for new towns. In your GeoRama you'll have to find a balance between real estate and available shops/houses/items. Also, nothing is bought with money (except for the ever so convenient Sony Online Store) everything is made with in-game gold and the *RESOURCES YOU GATHER*. If you're not a pack rat or have ADD, you might have a sad GeoRama :(Combat: Basically, it's weird, but it works. Basically everyone works off their own 'timer' as the timer completes a cycle you can begin a new turn. The heavier your armor, the slower your 'clock'. Once you see it in action with 3 party members, it makes sense, but yes, it's still slow.Combos: This is a blast! You can create you own string of combos (ground attacks, juggles, mid-air attacks, buffs, etc)Customze: Another Gem: Unlike the NPCs, your avatar has no restrictions on his 'class' which means you can make him into whatever you desire: Axe wielding magician? Yep. Plate wearing, 2handed healer? Yep.There's too much to cover here but all in all, and I dont think this game is for everyone but for those who get the concept behind this hybrid, you will have a blast.All in all,(although I understand L5 has done this before) I give this game a 5 because of the originality of this concept and the hours upon hours of gameplay for the GeoNet part.

This game is tons of fun and has just enough online to keep you in it but not go crazy like in WoW or other MMO games that require huge chunks of time to play. You can do missions in this game in half an hour and then bounce. About the graphics and story: the graphics look cool to me, i don't know what people are talking about with the PS2 comparisons. Some of the cutscenes are downright amazing. The story is stupid, obviously, I don't know why people are expecting to see a Tolstoy or Shakespeare level type of story in a VIDEO GAME. The gameplay is pretty fun and you have a chance to try out all kinds of combinations of weapons and magic on your different arty members and find the one you like. There is a crazy amount of weapons, accessories, armors etc. that you can play around with. The monsters are cool. I have heard that the game really picks up once you hit guild rank 7 which is your online questing situation. I am not there yet but am totally satisfied with this game so far. Definitely an A+ title.

I enjoyed playing through White Knight Chronicles, and here's the gist of what I encountered.PRO:CUSTOMIZATION - The customization options in the game are really robust. This has been the only game where I actually took the time to customize my own character instead of just taking a default and changing one or two details.CUTSCENES - The cutscenes are very beautiful and are well integrated into the game. Once or twice in the game, a cutscene will play right before you get to a save point, which is an annoyance though.SKILLS - This game runs a classless skill-based system. You can customize your characters to fill any role and party configuration. Note, some skills are not available to certain characters so a few roles are unavailable to those. Of course, your own character can learn everything.GEONET - The GeoNet is the online lobby for White Knight Chronicles. You can go online and add friends (PSN IDs are case sensitive on GeoNet), then visit their Georama (player-created town) and even quest together. You can also create adventure logs to let your friends know your progress.REINCARNATION - When you reach level 50 or above, you can reincarnate your character. This pretty much starts a new game+, but your level is reduced to 35 and your skill trees are reset. You will be refunded all the skill points a level 35 character earns, plus 40 more. This will allow your character to gain even more skills the second play time around. On top of that, your character can reincarnate once they hit level 50 again for a cumulative 80 skill point bonus, and so on. I believe the reincarnation cap is 4 times, but may be more.CON:EASY - The single player game is way too easy. With just a basic understanding of the game mechanics, a new player can cruise through the game without any trouble.LONG DUNGEONS - Some dungeons in this game are much longer than what is comfortable for me. Long dungeons make a player weary of the surroundings, bored and wastes their time. Another byproduct is monsters respawning. When a long dungeon forces you to backtrack, you will encounter monsters you've already defeated.GRINDING - Unfortunately, this game still forces you to grind. However, you're not grinding to gain experience or money. You have to grind online quests (can be done solo too) to gain Guild Rank (GR), which gives you access to more online quests when it increases. This isn't a problem except early on when you only have two quests (three for the first) per rank. Repeating those two quests several times will eventually net you the next rank.NEUTRAL:GEORAMA - The idea of creating your own town and letting other players visit is great. However, it requires a lot of resources and money to build up your town. All the money you get from the beginning to the end of the single player game will only cover a few upgrades. It's worth the effort to build up your Georama to access higher level items, but some people might not want to spend hours grinding to raise the money and resources.BIND/CRAFTING - The crafting system (binding) lets you create items of a much higher level than what the best vendors sell. The system allows the flexibility of several recipes for equipment so they can be obtained by different means. However, the materials needed for some of these recipes requires you to build up your Georama quite a bit. That takes a lot of time and money spent. Plus most of the first tier (GR7/GR8) post-game grade equipment can be found in chests during New Game+ mode.NEW GAME+ - There are benefits to NG+ mode. New chests will spawn everywhere containing full sets of various high grade armor and several of each weapon type. These items can normally only be gained from crafting (GR7/GR8) so it is definitely worth it to go out of your way for the new chests. Doing so will save hours of time if you plan to invest heavily in the post-game. However, monster levels don't scale with you so for the vast majority of the game, you will just plow through everything looking for treasure chests.Overall, I really enjoy playing White Knight Chronicles. It is a lot of fun for me and my friends to adventure together online. However, those who don't want to invest a lot of time into a game should definitely turn away. You will find the single player bland.