White Knight Chronicles... I've played this before I think...

RPGs have captured my interest in games for a long time and I remain hopeful to find those games striving to use their imagination within the format. Final Fantasy showed us that storytelling should be compelling, Dragon Quest showed us only the worthy will survive, Mario showed us he's still cool even with turn based combat. Near the end of the PS2's lifespan, Level-5 decided to polish the best of the classics to a beautiful shine with Dragon Quest XIII. Having been absent from the Enix series for some time, I was quickly welcomed back with a fresh look and an ass beating - just like old times. The game held no surprises or punches yet served as a culmination of a legacy of games blended to create perfection. Maybe I'm spoiled since the American edition went to great lengths to impress with appropriately tongue and cheek voice acting, and the orchestral remix of the music in place of the original, to me it felt like playing perfection. Now that you have an idea for why I like Level-5, let's talk about White Knight Chronicles.

Similar to my experience with Heavy Rain, I had an extreme interpretation error with an aspect of the game. Going into the White Knight Chronicles I believed the "chronicles" in the title implied a narrative about the White Knight, instead it liberally utilizes the primary definition. I had no reservations about the plot of this game since Dragon Quest XIII had a derivative story hidden beneath a compelling visual narrative, but this first historical account of the White Knight copied the plot of the Super Mario game series: princess has party, evil-doer on an airship crashes party, princess is kidnapped, you must save her. Level-5 manages to put a bit of a twist on this formula by making the main character, Leroy or something, the worthy pilot of a transvestite giant robot rather than making him an Italian plumber.

About six hours into this smelly game I jotted down four predictions about the story, by the end of this first installment of the White Knight I got three out of four correct. I'd warn you there are spoilers ahead but I think the absence of plot means the absence of spoilers.

1. Kara dies in Dreadlock's arms and confesses her love in her final dying moments
2. Eldork turns out to be Leroy's father
3. The main villian is a pawn for a greater evil menace yet to reveal himself
4. Pink hair girl continues to mimic the role of Tifa from Final Fantasy VII

Gameplay didn't get much better. I appreciated Level-5's penchant for thrusting the player into the story but was quickly disoriented since the combat felt like that of Phantasy Star Online's with turn based action commands reminiscent of unrefined combat in the first Final Fantasy. Being able to move the character around was amusing for the first five minutes but the only purpose it served was to navigate the various zones and put me out of range of attacking my enemies. The combo system was pretty interesting until it became useless after obtaining my transvestite giant robot and became a gimmick once I got a second transvestite robot. At that point clearing the levels was only a matter of grabbing every visible enemy on the map, summoning a robot and killing them simultaneously allowing that character to recharge afterward.

With regard to difficulty, the 'x' button on my controller took a heavier beating than any of my characters and I went to great lengths to kill myself throughout the game. Either I'm an amazing RPG player or there really wasn't any difficulty to be found, just mindless grinding through monsters, since even the "final boss" of the chapter was unable to stop me with virtually no resources at my disposal. As long as I had a dedicated healer in my group no number of monsters was great enough to stop me, ever.

Level designs reek of redundancy and also borrow a lot from Phantasy Star Online. Players will go on scavenger hunts for NPCs at the bar in every town, explore the entire map to pull one lever controlling a door, spend countless time grinding through packs of quickly respawning monsters and will fight a boss to watch a 10 minute storyline sequence. Online questing reflects this redundancy but rewards improved items providing incentive to the player to split their time between online and offline modes.

Art direction and music don't get much better. Corners seemed to be cut during certain sequences in the game which reverted rendered 3D cutscenes back to their soryboard pencil and ink progenitors. Designs of the monsters vary between differently colored versions of the same five to ten models and the animation of abilities is nonexistent, most likely due to the minimalist game already stressing frame rates with more than five objects on the screen. Music was the same neutral, somewhat familiar tunes found in all MMOs.

All in all this game was a complete disappointment. Having beaten The White Knight Chronicles Part 1: Origin of the Knight Arks I can safely say I won't be back for a new game+. There's no innovation to be found and generally feels like a made-to-order multiplayer RPG to satisfy Sony executives pieced together from various bits and pieces of RPG gaming history. Unlike Dragon Quest VIII however, these pieces were far from polished and the gaming experience was anything but perfect. On their Wikipedia page it appears as if Level-5 has a sequel already in development, I can only hope they break out the polish again.