White Knight Chronicles is a franchise you might not have ever heard of, especially if you just started really paying attention to gaming and the last seven or eight years or so. Originally launching in late 2008 in Japan and a couple years later in North America on the PlayStation 3, White Knight Chronicles released to an audience that was fairly mixed on the game and there wasn’t really a strong consensus one way or the other.

The game play, to most, was very boilerplate for the genre at the time and today would be considered downright generic. It’s pretty standard RPG fare. You learn attacks, you level up, you maintain and acquire materials after battles would you use to enhance various other elements of gameplay, and there is a real-time combat system that can be freely initiated once you come across enemies in the world. This was perhaps the original sin of White Knight Chronicles. It just didn’t really do anything new or particularly interesting even for the time. If you wanted a good RPG with that Japanese style you had countless other games to choose from that arguably did it better and have a little more meat on the bone.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t really save the experience by being about as generic. A king is killed, a princess is captured oh, and an unlikely hero is tasked with suiting up in a mysterious suit of armor to save the day, and that he does. With very little deviation into anything noteworthy or unique along the 20-to-30-hour game which, for that genre, is a fairly short adventure. Now that’s not to say that the story or the action were executed poorly or fell apart in any major way, but it just didn’t stand out in a huge way on the PS3, which as anyone who played a lot of PlayStation 3 knows, was a JRPG bonanza. Between Final Fantasy, the Tales series, Disgaea, Eternal Sonata, Resonance of Fate, etc., it was a pretty crowded field, then White Knight Chronicles showed up to the gunfight with a toothpick of a concept.

While many would praise the game for how well it integrated its different systems and how intuitive it was able to make its complexities, including its relatively interesting online functionality, there would be just as many complaints about its half-hearted online modes and a story that was overly simple and predictable – even by JRPG standards. Still, despite general lukewarm reception with a handful of detractors in both directions, White Knight Chronicles sold pretty well especially in Japan and at that time that was more than enough reason to seriously consider and pursue a sequel which Japan Studio did with White Knight Chronicles 2.

The sequel to White Knight Chronicles would improve on the originals’ shortcomings in some notable ways. Combat was way more fluid with combos that you can chain together, more flexibility with different armor types and some light crafting, and the overall presentation was a little bit nicer with larger more appealing areas to explore and a better sense of enemy variety. That said, it still fell short of the competition more notably than it had improved on its own issues. From the perspective of anyone outside of the White Knight Chronicles Ultra fandom circles, it just felt too similar to the original game with a story and set up that didn’t even try to do anything new and more online integration that just didn’t add enough to the experience for it to be worth messing with. Most of White Knight Chronicles compliments would come from what they got right about the single player offline content anyway so it was a bit puzzling as to why they didn’t just spend all of their time with the sequel focusing on that. In any case White Knight Chronicles 2 was by just about all accounts a flop especially when compared to the last game which did notably better in all measurable ways despite being a rougher game overall.

That said this would not be the end of the franchise quite yet, Sony was beginning to shift focus the new hardware and new horizons, the White Knight Chronicles series will be brought to the PlayStation Portable with a new game White Knight Chronicles Origins. It had a few surprises up its leaves with a far more interesting cast of main characters than either of the two previous games could ever dream of having.

White Knight Chronicles is a perfect example of a game series that just never quite figured itself out. There’s plenty I’ve games out there that are like that but the thing about White Knight Chronicles that hurts the most is that it really kind of started to get it right at the end. The problem was, with the previous two games performing as badly as they did, you can’t really blame Sony for pushing it off to the side and giving the spotlight and budget to other games that were coming out to close out the PS3 on a stronger note than it had started with. Maybe if they had given a PS3 style budget and similar resources that Guerrilla Games had when they made Killzone 3, it might have surprised everybody and done well.

But given the situation that the PlayStation was in at the time where they needed to be as consistent and impressive as possible to compete with the Xbox 360 and shore up support for the next generation, it’s easy to understand why they just didn’t want to take that risk at that time. And with Japan Studio being concentrated further down into the team that made the Astro games and pretty much filtering out everything else now, the odds of another crack at the White Knight Chronicles franchise are pretty low to say the least. It’s a series that just didn’t find itself until it was too late and even then, it just wasn’t good enough to really stand among the games that it needed to compete with in order to maintain any sort of profitable relevance. That said, the games still exist and for those that love them they can always be played again. But that is probably all there will ever be from this franchise that never quite found its footing.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Much like its predecessor, White Knight Chronicles 2 follows the story of Leonard, a young man who makes a pact with the ancient Incorruptus weapons to rescue a kidnapped princess. The plot follows on from the original game directly, and players can transfer levels and items over from their old White Knight Chronicles save file should they wish. I’m sure there would be many who would be lost by the plot of WKC2 had they not played the first one, so it’s exceptionally praise worthy that Level-5 have included a remastered version of White Knight Chronicles 1 in its entirety on the disc. This represents great value for money, and the improved hit detection and graphics of WKC2 are also retrospectively applied to the original game.

The story has a worse pacing than last time, but it will still appeal to series fans

Whilst the inclusion of WKC1 is a definitely impressive feature of the package, it does somewhat highlight the shortcomings of the sequel. Whilst the original often maintained a steady and engaging pace, the speed of WKC2 is comparatively weaker. With longer dungeons that often outstay their welcome, the sequel is plagued by a generally slow moving story. It’s made almost unbearable if you decide to jump into the game without a save from the original, as you’ll be lumped into the game with all your characters set to LV. 35. Whilst this is necessary to keep players competing against the higher level enemies in WKC2, it means you need to invest 35 levels worth of skill points in one go. The combat system involves investing skill points into new abilities from one of eight skill trees but, whilst there are a lot of different skills, most of them are fairly similar. Regardless of this, the sheer wealth of them is rather daunting for newer players.

Once you’ve got your skills set you can assign them to any of your 21 available move slots for combat. Physical confrontations occur in real time, with players selecting what moves they want to use from the slots at the bottom of the screen with the directional buttons. It plays out in a quick enough manner to stay entertaining in the short term, but there are one too many holes in the woodwork for the combat to stay satisfying. The main problem is that you spend more time navigating through your ability buttons at the bottom of the screen than you do actually looking at the battle. The other main problem is the lack of strategy present. Whilst enemies respond to the different damage types (pierce, strike, slash, fire, water, wind and earth) in different ways, it doesn’t take much time at all to work out an enemies weakness.

There are a few things that keep the experience fresh in spite of the occasional hiccup. Rather than just retaining the standard health and magic points of other RPGs, WKC also adds in action chips that are required for certain abilities. Players can create combos out of any of the moves in a character’s arsenal that can act as a super move if they have enough action chips. Likewise the ancient White Knight arc that Leonard possesses allows him and his companions to transform into the legendary Incorruptus if they have enough MP and AC. This adds a new dimension to the battles as the knights are absolutely huge in comparison to the normal characters in the game. It feels refreshing to begin with when you see these intimidating and gigantic enemies on the map and know you can counter them but, like the rest of the game, it becomes a little repetitive once the novelty wears off.

You’ll spend more time looking at the ability bar than the action on screen

The story that comprises the single player portion of the game follows on from the original, with Leonard and co. continuing to try and prevent the powerful Incorruptus from falling into the wrong hands. It’s a damn good thing they included the first game on the disc as, aside from a painfully short “story so far” clip, WKC2 really throws you in at the deep end. I found the story wasn’t quite as satisfying as in the first game, even though it retains the pretty cool transformation elements provided by the Incorruptus. Without the solid pacing that the original had, the clichés and plot stereotypes, in conjunction with the awkward dialogue, makes the story elements of White Knight Chronicles 2 a bit hard to swallow. It’s embarrassing, annoying and not quite enough to make you push through the monotonous mission structures.

Adding to the package is a multiplayer element consisting of merry questing for up to six players. The problem comes in that most of the quests are the standard “kill a certain creature” missions, and just aren’t that engaging. It’s like they literally just left all the boring grinding style quests in the multiplayer side of the game. Alongside the questing is the Georama feature, where you can build a town for you and your fellow adventurers to gather before you set off. Considering that the Georama elements of Level-5’s previous Dark Cloud games were such entertaining and integral elements to the gameplay, the town building in WKC feels like a real afterthought. You can see where they were going with it, but it is essentially a glorified match lobby.

Despite the often unsatisfying multiplayer elements, Level-5 have tried to seamlessly blend them with the single player experience. Sadly, it just winds up leaving White Knight Chronicles 2 with very little direction. You create an avatar at the start of the game who you play as online, but he also tags along with Leonard and the gang throughout the story. It works in theory with some impressive and varied customisation options, but the practice just felt wrong. The story entirely focuses on Leonard and his abilities, while your character you have created stands at the sides like a melon and says nothing for the whole game. I found myself confused as to what to think by the end of it all. This confusion works the other way as well. Emotes and auto text cues set WKC2 up to be an MMO style RPG experience, but the game lacks the loot and ability variety to remain addicting in this capacity. Level ups occur at a regular enough rate to keep you pushing through but, despite a wealth of equipment upgrade options, bolstering your inventory just felt like a waste of time.

The attention to detail makes White Knight Chronicles 2 look lush

White Knight Chronicles 2 is a game that is more about style than substance and, whilst this means the content can be lacking, it means that the presentation is impressive. Graphically the game is fantastic, with a lot of subtle wind and movement effects bringing the game’s lush and varied environments to life. The character models too are detailed, even if the hair and fur does look a bit odd to begin with. The game’s soundtrack is also pleasant, with some vivid melodies that are well timed to fit the mood. The voice acting is a bit more hit and miss, though it’s corny nature is very much exacerbated by the poor dialogue. I’m sure there weren’t such crappy lines as “we’re the good guys,” the voice acting would sound highly polished.

White Knight Chronicles 2 offers excellent value when you consider that the remastered original is included in the package. If you’re an RPG fan and you haven’t played the original, then this is the place to do it. The great graphics and classically paced story will likely make the price of entry worthwhile. If you’re just getting the game for the sequel, then the weaker narrative and lack of obvious improvements will disappoint all but the most loyal of fans. If you don’t often play RPGs but fancy a go, I’d recommend looking elsewhere. WKC2 has too many loose elements, and is neither accessible or deep enough to be a wholly satisfying example of the genre. A shame really, as there is certainly untapped potential left in the franchise.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

Sony have confirmed that White Knight Chronicles II for PS3 and White Knight Chronicles: Origins on PSP will both be released on the same day in Europe.

The pair will be released on June 10th in the UK, June 9th in Australia and New Zealand and June 8th across the other PAL territories.

Check out the two trailers above and below.

Check out the EU playstation blog for more info.

Level-5′s White Knight Chronicles 2 has been given both a European and Nother American release date.

The RPG will arrive in Europe on May 20th and in North America on August 2nd.

WKC2 continues the storyline found in the first game and includes a new, redesigned “dynamic” combat system which allows you to create and customize attacks and combine different strategies and combos.

The online allows for up to six players in both cooperative quest and a free-roaming mode, and easy play chat. The Georama feature is included in the sequel as well, where you can create your own customizable online town.

Sony has announced that both White Knight Chronicles 2 and White Knight Chronicles PSP will get a western release.

The RPG sequel got a japanese release last year and contained the original game in the package. Whether the western box will contain both games has yet to be confirmed.

The PSP game, titled White Knight Chronicles: Origins, won’t be developed by Level 5 but it will allow four players to go through the entire game co-operatively.

Neither game has a confirmed release date, but this is exciting news regardless.

Check them out below:

Expect to see some footage of the game during Sony’s press conference on July 5.

Those who own White Knight Chronicles will be able to redeem a code that unlocks a few White Knight equipment including a shield, sword, and a helmet for the avatars that you use in online. And players will also be able to carry over their avatar from the first game to the second.

No release date for other regions so far, but check out the latest trailer for the game!