mirson the circle is similar to an ATB bar or many other "wait" bits in JRPG's, whats the big deal here?

anyway I'm at lvl 27.

You only control one character at a time. In FF, you control multiple people, and that's not the only problem with the combat. It's ridiculously easy. I pretty much used lunging slash the whole time.

Hmmmm...... Im still gonna give it a rent, no way its worse than Demon Souls...

not in FF12....unless you played FF12 in the stupid way I did (without using gambits meaning I manually controlled all characters as many times as I could)

did you have problems with FF12?

I agree its easy, but thats a good thing, most JRPG's are stupidly hard anyway. The game is fun & enjoyable

The BIG BIG BIG problem I have is the combo system, as you say they are USELESS if you want the white knight ready for fights against giants or the bosses.

combo's are useful online though.

what a stupid stupid way to implement combo's into the game!

Yeh, managing Action Chips were stupid. I wish I can perform moves/combos more without thinking about if the boss is coming up and if I want to transform into the White Knight.

And then the fact that you loss all of your AC after transforming, even if you still have most of your MP left.

But the online is good.

I didn't have any problems with FFXII because (1) it wasn't that easy, (2) you can adjust the battle speed to your liking and (3) gambits made it fun and had you strategize/prioritize certain things. I tried looking everywhere for the battle speed adjustment in WKC, but I couldn't find it.

I hate easy games especially one that lets you beat it by using the same move for the whole game.

yeah especially cus the combo's are SO FUN!

I love having ones where you can fling the enemy into the air & damage them there, it looks so cool

I even named one of em omnislash!

but I NEVER use it because......it costs like 5 AC & I'm usually near a giant or a "big opening" which means "BOSS" so I need to conserve them to get the level 3 white knight!

its very annoying

@mirson

fair enough

I can't believe I am going to say this but I am loving WKC SO MUCH!! It's excellent, it just goes to show you can't trust reviewer's or the media, can't wait till I get FF13 now, because no doubt the media will be wrong about that as well, and it too will be awesome!!!

Put me down for loving the shit out of WKC too. I totally agree that the story is awful, kind of like a Nintendo game that never realized its best strength is in its simplicity. Though having played Rogue Galaxy (the last big RPG by Level 5) White Knight has a significantly better story than that game, despite the fact that it has a horrible ending.

The reason I love the game is simple:

I love multiplayer coop RPGs like Diablo, Champions of Norrath and Titan Quest, but I've gotten tired of how similar all those games are to each other. Not to mention the fact that a decent one hasn't been released in years.

I also love Japanese fantasy RPGs with colorful worlds. I'll even play them when the story is goofy and has all the usual cliches, as long as the gameplay and world are fun.


Put these two things together, and you've got White Knight Chronicles, the only game to ever have:

Four Player Coop in a JRPG with a battle system similar to FFXII.

Every piece of equipment shows up visually on your character, unlike any other JRPG ever made -- even rings, gloves, and capes. Also, every piece of equipment looks completely unique -- no simple palette swaps like in, say, Dragon Age (which is one of my favorite games on PC, but it gets outdone in terms of character customization by WKC.

You get to create your character in a JRPG! You basically just tag along for the the main story -- you don't ever get to make any dialog decisions like in WRPGs, for example. For me, it was still really fun to be part of a classic band of adventurers, with all the awesome equipment and skills I'd built up online. The single player and multiplayer could definitely be better integrated though, that's for sure!


An aerial battle system in a mutiplayer RPG. Many of the large enemies in the game have multiple body parts which count as separate targets. The head of a dragon, for example, can only be attacked with a move that lets you jump up into the air, or with a spell. These moves also feed into the game's combo system -- there are other moves that let you knock smaller enemies into the air, where you can then pummel away at them in mid-air Liu-Kang style. These body parts are important because they often have different weaknesses, and because sometimes you have to attack a monster in a certain place to get the materials you're looking for to drop. The only way to get horns may be to deal a certain amount of damage to the head, or the only way to get a special gemstone may be to use earth magic on the spine of a creature, for example. This is the only multiplayer game I've ever played where there are battles that feel like an awesome boss battle from a single player JRPG.

That's a quick rundown of why I'm really enjoying this game, and recommend it at least as a rent if you like JRPGs.


another thing that makes the multiplayer great:

A level up/skill system that lets you mix different specializations in whatever way you want, which is incredibly well balanced -- there are as many character builds as there are players in the game, which is pretty impressive for a JRPG (usually they have pretty bad level up systems nowadays). It's also an amazingly deep system, which you're still learning the intricacies of weeks after you start playing the game. In this way, it reminds me of older JRPGs, where part of the fun was slowly realizing all the different subtle roles that stats have in the game. If anyone wants to argue with me about this point, give me a specific example and I'll be happy to show you how you're wrong. I've played this game a lot. The game is deep!



Sorry that was so long! I meant to just say a few words... oh well, hope it helps someone zero in on what the game's strengths are.

the game has its bells and whistles for the online aspect of it. but there's not really any story other than doing a bunch of random quests while grouped. at thier core a good rpg should in my opinion center around a sweeping well told story, this game (while like I said has some interesting aspects to it) fails horribly in the story telling. that alone imho makes me say the game fails. maybe not epic failure..but failure nontheless.