Review:
White Knight Chronicles

For a console whose predecessor led the way in traditional-RPGs, there has definitely been a significant lack since the PlayStation 3’s release. There have been the odd few releases to tide fans over, Valkyria Chronicles & Disgaea 3 are both worthy of a mention, but on the whole fans have been needing ‘the next big hit’ for a long while. That could be changing however with both White Knight Chronicles and Final Fantasy XIII both released in the past two of weeks.

White Knight Chronicles will be a game many fans will have long been looking forward to, even with its painfully slow transition to western audiences. Developed by ‘Level 5’, a studio set up by the same developer that made Rogue Galaxy and the Dark Cloud series on the PlayStation 2, White Knight Chronicles has had a lot of hype since its announcement and has been commonly labelled as the next ‘big’ Japanese-RPG.

Well the wait is finally over, but will the game live up to the anticipation and satisfy what RPG fans have been longing for?

Sadly, the story of White Knight Chronicles isn’t one to jump up and down over, and is one of the most cliché storylines ever written for an RPG game. Starting with an introduction to the main character of the game, Leonard, players are first tasked to set out and retrieve a large shipment of wine for the princess of Balandor’s coming of age ceremony.

After you return from your budding adventure, things take a turn for the worst when a group known only as the ‘Magi’ attacks the castle and tries to assassinate the Royal family. Leonard comes to the rescue though and saves the princess from the attackers. After an escape into the depths beneath Castle Balandor comes the discovery of a giant knight, said to be a weapon developed by ‘The Ancients’ (another example of the oh-so inspired names found within the game).