White Knight Diary Part 1

As I walked into gamestop I had idea what I should have bought. Staring at many used titles from Burtal Legend, Ghostbusters, Wolverine and many other PS3 titles in my grasp. Listening in to the clerks conversation about Red Dead Redemption with another customer I began to chuckle a little. It was when he talked he paused at every other word and that to me was funny. With my wife nudging me to go I glanced back at this and picked as Jawgoosh (Matt) reminded about this game from twitter earlier in the week.

Once I got home it was not to play the game it was to read the manual. You may not think the manual is important, but I do. Manuals sometimes can tell how good or bad a game may be with to much or to little of information provided. Even though it wasn't big as other manuals I think it gave off enough information for me to put down Borderlands for a moment.

After it down loaded to the PS3 I was able to start on my magical journey that Level-5 provided for me. Now time to go threw the basics like all the other games: Character Customization, Story Line with game play and cut scenes and this is all before the opening credits. But really there is more cut scenes then game play in the first hour. Now Final Fantasy 13 may look better in every way for graphics. The style may be dated, but I am enjoying it as it brings childhood memories for me.

For me not playing RPG's like everyone else, I was pleasantly surprised by the combat phase. So I have this timer which is the circle ring on the pick to the left. It has to go around and high light before I can use one of my moves. Now you may see that big giant in the picture an think that is a boss. Well think again as Big Giant Monsters like this are common and well worth your battle skills. With having three man team to a option fourth person team I can say I am enjoying the battles. Not really the tedious battles, but the cohesion between characters during the battle you need as well.

With having a Multi-player aspect of Geo-Net I have not tried this, but maybe on my next Diary I will be able to give my thoughts on this. I wont say whether you should get this or not, because it is not a review, but for pink frogs every where FTW.

(13)

Tommy Ingallinera

February 05, 2010

Great. I waited too long to get this(too busy with Borderlands) and now I have to choose between WKC and Star Ocean. Just about every complaint I heard about Star Ocean began and ended with the voice acting, and the PS3 re-release has a Japanese option. Choices, always choices

Toby Davis

@Tommy I heard if you played Star Ocean on the 360 it is the same as the PS3.

Jason Wilson

I hope -- HOPE -- that this arrives today, Toby. I know next to nothing about this game: It's my "go into it blind and see what happens" adventure for the next month. I'm hoping it's fun. I've enjoyed every game from Level-5 that I've played.

Alex Gagne

@Jason

...

Let me give you a little background.
I have been a Level-5 devotee ever since Dark Cloud 1. I have purchased every game they have released stateside and loved it. I HAD been waiting for White Knight Chronicles ever since I have heard talk about it -- despite the negative inklings from previews and the Japanese press.

Fuck White Knight Chronicles. I gave it a solid 5-8 hours of my time and despite my positive outlook toward the battle system at first I soon realized that the fields are WAY too big and the enemies are in far too many numbers. They are also really easy to kill, which isn't a big deal, but when you hit a mini-boss the game becomes a war of attrition. Oh, you are still winning with ease, but it takes so long you wish you were playing something else.

Okay, I can deal with that. I mean, needless to say the story is prototypical JRPG bullshit. Whatever, I don't need a story.

I was very interested in the online portion of White Knight Chronicles. That was the real reason I purchased the game. Guess what? The cost to fit more than one house and three stalls on your piece of land is incredibly expensive, having a different environment is incredibly expensive, and trying to build anything is both expensive AND you need to gather materials by farming MMO style for them. Screw that!

...but wait! There's more! The reason I took the game out of my collection.

It cost a lot of in game currency to purchase anything, but for the suckers out there you can BUY items in the game with real world cash! Instead of paying 10 hours of grinding in order to purchase a desert area to keep your town, you can just pay them 6$ instead!

I already paid $60! So my options are to waste my time playing your monotonous game just so I can have a bigger e-dick when I start a party to do the cookie cutter quests, OR give you MORE money? Well *$&! THAT! I couldn't even think of an appropriate curse word for how much this game pissed me off, so I just typed that last one in Q-bert speak! That is how much this bullshit should be called out.

I didn't read ONE review by any of the major websites pointing this out. If I knew they were trying to shamelessly milk their fans I would have never wasted the $20!

Why only $20? Well, I traded the White Knight for the Silver Ball. Pinball Hall of Fame: The Midway Collection, that is. I now have the 148th best score for the Firepower table. So there is a happy ending after all.

@Toby: Good luck with the diary buddy!

@Alex Your experience sound distressing. I'm getting WHC via GameFly, so I didn't have to plunk down $60 for it. I hate it when developers allow gamers to purchase items with real cash along with in-game cash.

@Jason

Me too. Especially when it is done so insidiously. It feels like Namco-Bandai produced the game, for god sakes.

Lance Darnell

Toby, I agree whole-heartedly about game manuals. Once quick glance through one will definitely tell you whether the game is a KOTOR or a LOTR: The Third Age.

Alex, I feel bad for you, Man!

February 06, 2010

@Alex I played the first few hours, and I'm enjoying it thus far. I like the way Level-5 organized the skills trees and the layout for your abilities. Combat is a bit grindy thus far, and its plot reeks of standard Japanese-RPG fare. Yet I like it. We'll see if I encounter the issues you had with it, Alex. It's too late for me to try out the online portion, so I can't speak to that yet. I'm too old to stay up beyond 1 a.m. playing games anymore.

Brian Shirk

Hmm so many different opinions. Keep us updated Toby!

@Jason my Geo net name is ATC-1982.land

Christopher Quach

@ toby,

loved these diary entry - I'm really intrigued in the game but still not sure - does it have a looting element like borderlands? look forward to your thoughts about online - I really enjoy playing monster hunter on the psp and if it has that kind of online element I'd be really keen to get the copy!

@ toby, sorry for typo - change "these" for "the" :D

@Alex @Brian Though I will say that the last part of the game I played before heading to bed this morning really reminds me of Ultraman.