White Knight Chronicles

[schild]

Holy shit at the character generator.

More later I suppose. Let's use this thread to organize multiplayer also.

[schild]

Worst lipsyncing in the beginning of video games. Mike Tyson's Punch out was more impressive.

[dusematic]

lol

[Hawkbit]

I bought it, but won't be able to delve into it until the weekend.  Work has me 

[Riggswolfe]

IGN gave it like a 5/10. Pretty damn bad and the reviewer said he was a fan of the other games by this company.

[Rasix]

Yah, reviews scared me off. Most I've read were absolutely savage.  Too much stuff coming out and I still haven't bought ME2.

[schild]

IGN gave it like a 5/10. Pretty damn bad and the reviewer said he was a fan of the other games by this company.

So what?

[NiX]

What's the jist of why it's getting bad reviews? I've just heard the weapon creation system isn't that great.

[Rasix]

What's the jist of why it's getting bad reviews? I've just heard the weapon creation system isn't that great.

From one review:

Boring.
Bad plot.
Bad zone layout.
Bad voice acting.
Easy combat. 
Pretty.

Granted the guy reviewing it said a bunch of dumb shit as well.  So who really knows? But I haven't really seen any praise for this title either.  Seems like a cool concept, however.

[Hawkbit]

It might be bad, I don't know.  But I do know that the PS3 doesn't have many real traditional RPGs, so I'm gonna snatch whatever I can.  If it's a boring story, then w/e.  I've sat through worse, I'll wager. 

Also, I trust an IGN review about as far as I can throw them. 

[LK]

I waited since PS3's launch to get this game. And with that, it's time to sell the PS3 if it's that shitastic.

God damn it.

[schild]

Yea, I'd have a kneejerk reaction and sell my PS3 before The Last Guardian too.

Totally in your camp here, Lorekeep.

:groan:

[Rendakor]

Since you're defending it so much schild, how is it? I've had this preordered for a while now, but haven't picked it up yet.

[schild]

I complimented the character generator, which is fantastic.
I then made fun of it.
I then made fun of someone, anyone, quoting an IGN review (what, should I not have, I don't care if it was for Imagine Babyz).
I then called Lorekeep out for saying something daft.

As such:

Since you're defending it so much schild

What the hell are you talking about.

Also, I can't answer how it is yet.

[ffc]

I'd like to hear about the game's combat.  This clip has some Voltron combat at about 2:45 and it looks painfully slow.

[Margalis]

I played a little of it at the last E3 and "painfully slow" was a good way to describe the combat at that point. I forget how the system worked exactly but it included a large amount of waiting for meters to fill up or something like that.

[Rendakor]

Touche.

[Hawkbit]

Intuition tells me I'm going to enjoy the game, although I only spent 45 minutes (yeah, only) in the character generator and then went through opening cinematics.  I like the art and while the syncing is terrible, I cut it some slack by being a dub over.  Can't say much about the reviews yet.

[jakonovski]

I'd like to hear about the game's combat.  This clip has some Voltron combat at about 2:45 and it looks painfully slow.

Not going to say anything about the combat, but the map. I hate hate hate maps that simply draw the edges of accessible terrain. It's like the cheapest way to make a map and not immersive at all. "Hey here's the limits of our theme park/potemkin village, it's like a cave with a sky coloured roof."

[Yegolev]

Nothing in this thread is definitively negative so far.  Complaints could be used on any number of JRPGs.  I'm probably on board.

[BitWarrior]

I has a feeling...

[Rasix]

I think the graph for this game is more of a dromedary.

Nothing in this thread is definitively negative so far.  Complaints could be used on any number of JRPGs.  I'm probably on board.

Maybe the JRPGs you slog through.  We know about Blue Dragon.

[Ard]

The game is more or less what I expected personally.  It's a pretty standard level 5  rpg, and the character building is pretty ludicrous between looks, skills, and equipment.  The city building thing is interesting, but the direct hook into city building component DLC in the menu is pretty   

I'm only a bit past the intro so far though, and have just gotten the knight and my village, but I'm pretty much not disappointed by the game.

[Riggswolfe]

IGN gave it like a 5/10. Pretty damn bad and the reviewer said he was a fan of the other games by this company.

So what?

So, while I don't usually agree totally with them, usually when they savage a game that badly and I buy it anyway I end up disapointed. Right now this game is running at 65 on metacritic which isn't exactly making it a critic's darling. While I have been known to shrug this kind of stuff off (Dynasty Warriors usually rates low but I enjoy some mindless button mashing from time to time) it is also usually a sign that the game in question has serious faults.

The main complaints from the IGN review:

1) Poor story. I can sometimes look past this in an RPG if the characters are interesting enough.
2) Tedious MMO-like combat. Hmm...that sounds worrying to me. The reviewer specifically mentions that other than changes due to elemental defenses you can just use the same spell or attack over and over in each battle.
3) "Range" doesn't matter since monsters can hit with close range attacks from across battlefields. Hmmm....odd.
4) Pop-in of graphics, mostly enemies.
5) Some complaints about transforming back from the white knight even if other enemies are nearby and you still have enough magic to maintain the form.
6) technical issues. He says it only happens a couple of times so I'm willing to let this one slide.
7) Poor character models.
8) Bad lip synching.

[schild]

Mmmm, I don't have a problem with the character models, but I'm pretty used to Level 5's art and tend to like it.

After FFXII I can't really imagine how someone could complain about MMOG combat in an RPG :shrug:

I'm playing mostly for the metagame anyway. Which is incredibly robust and I imagine Yegolev will play and enjoy it for the same reason. It's why I play all Level 5 games really (much like NISA titles).

[Riggswolfe]

Mmmm, I don't have a problem with the character models, but I'm pretty used to Level 5's art and tend to like it.

After FFXII I can't really imagine how someone could complain about MMOG combat in an RPG :shrug:

I'm playing mostly for the metagame anyway. Which is incredibly robust and I imagine Yegolev will play and enjoy it for the same reason. It's why I play all Level 5 games really (much like NISA titles).

Well, if memory serves FFXII was fairly controversial for its MMO style combat. I like Factor 5 stuff, heck DQVIII is one of my favorite PS2 games. It just sounds like this one may be a misfire. Most publishers have at least one in their catalog.

[Rasix]

heck DQVIII is one of my favorite PS2 games.

 

[Ard]

Right now this game is running at 65 on metacritic which isn't exactly making it a critic's darling.

It's hanging at 65 because there have only been 7 reviews total, two of which were IGN and Gamespot dragging down the average pretty severely.  If you have any question at all as to the quality of the game, give it a week or two, and wait for more reviews to actually come out, and then check what the real average is.

I mean, honestly, most of Level 5's games have reviews that go all across the board.
Dark Cloud 1:  average 80, low 60
Dark Cloud 2:  average 87, low 50
Dragon Quest VIII:  average 89, low 60
Rogue Galaxy:  average 83, low 60

I mean, really, the only trend you're seeing here is that IGN and Gamespot have gone out of their way to ding it pretty severely.  It also doesn't help that this is one of the very few rpgs for the PS3 right now, and likely getting compared to what people are expecting from FF13, despite the fact that the game is over a year late making it to the US.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sit here and defend the game to death.  It is what it is.  I'm already predisposed to liking Level 5's games due to their past history, and I more or less got exactly what I expected.

[Rasix]

Does it compare favorably with Rogue Galaxy? Never played DC1/2 and despised DQ8, but I did like Rogue Galaxy.

[Ard]

The game was pretty clearly built off of Rogue Galaxy, if that helps you make your decision. 

I haven't touched Rogue Galaxy since it came out and I never beat it, so my comparisons will be a bit sketchy.  It's still a 3 person party, but you have, at the same time, both more and less control in this game than you did in Rogue Galaxy.  You can give them general orders, like spread out or focus attacks, etc, and you can set up their attack bars, but as far as actually triggering attacks, the best you can do is generically order them to do "something", but who goes and what they choose to do are kinda up in the air far as I can tell.  It's probable I've missed something though, since I didn't even figure out how combos worked until after the prologue.  The tutorials and manual could use some help 

You directly control all the character building, and all the characters use the same advancement choices, although all the ones but your character have a few varying  weapon trees greyed out.  The options are still absurd though.  You basically pick a weapon tree, and unlock skills and passives in it, which further unlocks more skills and passives.  You can mix passives between trees, but abilities only work for the weapon in question, so at best you can mix one weapon type with magic.  You also can enchant and modify equipment to change damage types, resistances, and stats.  Not sure the actual usefulness of this though.

Really large MMO style zones, with all the mobs on screen, pretty much the same as all their other games, although maybe a bit larger in size.  The game felt a lot like FFXI to me in look and feel in this regard.

Not sure what else to add since I feel like I'm retreading over what's been in the preview videos anyhow.  Go watch those if you haven't.  I'm not far enough in the game to comment on length or quality.  So far I liked Dark Cloud 2 more out of all their games, just from a sheer style perspective, but I've found nothing really to dislike on this one yet.

[Velorath]

Right now this game is running at 65 on metacritic which isn't exactly making it a critic's darling.

It's hanging at 65 because there have only been 7 reviews total, two of which were IGN and Gamespot dragging down the average pretty severely.

Yeah, I'm sure that C- review it just got from 1Up is going to bring that Metacritic score shooting right up.

[kildorn]

It's an .. okay game?

It's pretty. It's got controls that are about as clunky as trying to play an MMO with a PS3 controller (seriously, it's a combo of reading the manual, referencing it again after the help prompts, and fucking around pressing all the buttons to figure out how to do some things.  Transform took me a few minutes of re-reading everything and finally figuring out it was under the same bar as Items now, wihch I'd never used)

Skill tree is puzzling, but not too bad. Just confusing about what you need to take to unlock what.

Party members are FUCKING ANNOYING, and worth -3 points out of a 10 scale for their incessant repeating of the same statements while you explore. Especially fuck you, messages that we've already gone this way. The game MAKES you backtrack, that's what we're DOING you stupid pink haired punk.

I like it, I just think it needed more polish. Some of the monsters are glaringly misplaced, too. The second real zone is realistic looking and the monsters kinda fit for the world, the then boss just looks like he was done by a completely different artist trying to animate a different game entirely.

[Rendakor]

Hows the Combat :: Cutscene ratio? While I loved DC I and II, Rogue Galaxy turned me off because (at least in the first few hours) I was watching more than playing.

[kildorn]

Hows the Combat :: Cutscene ratio? While I loved DC I and II, Rogue Galaxy turned me off because (at least in the first few hours) I was watching more than playing.

... poor so far. It's cutscene-tastic. I'm not far in though, but I've already started skipping cutscenes if they go on for more than a minute to introduce a plot point.

[Ard]

Yeah, I'm sure that C- review it just got from 1Up is going to bring that Metacritic score shooting right up.

I didn't say it would get better.  I said wait a week or two for more reviews to see how it actually shakes out, since their games tend to have very large ranges for review scores.  Honestly, this is probably one of the most transparent games on the market as far as quality goes if you actually went and looked for it, given how long it's been out in Japan already.  As I said, I got exactly what I was expecting with this.