White Knight Chronicles and FFXIII

March has been a maniac month for me gaming wise, White Knight Chronicles and of course the behemoth that is Final Fantasy XIII (maybe it’s not to everyone’s liking though). Yes both are JRPG’s and have some similarities but they are two entirely different games.

First off White Knight Chronicles (WKC) :-

Developed by a Japanese studio called Level-5 (whose previous games include the likes of the Dark Cloud titles that were on the PS2) follows in the footsteps of a young kid called Leonard and him transforming into a White Knight. As soon as you start your new game you can create your own customizable character who you can then take online and do quests with (I will cover that later on.)

But overall  the story for WKC is lacking and it just seems really samey, see the Princess, fight boss, Big boss man gets away with the Princess and rinse and repeat. And it isn’t the longest game in history and when you complete it you have a sense of “Was that it?” But a sequel is in the works and obviously it will carry on the story but they could have added some extra spice into this one. And the fights aren’t really difficult and if you are struggling against a certain foe all you have to do is transform into the white knight and you’re laughing, seriously the last boss took me like 5 minutes to kill, not very good is it. The story is an alright one I guess but you kinda know who is the “good guy” and “bad guy”  straight from the go!

Where WKC really makes it’s money is online the character who you create can go online and quest with other people around the PS3 world, it is a really great idea and the quests you do are determined by how high your Guild Rank is. The more quests you do the higher it becomes (obviously!) And another outstanding feature is the Georama which is where you can create your own little village of sorts (I think it was first introduced in Dark Cloud and they have just re-invented it for WKC.) You interact with people from the gaming world of WKC to join you in your quaint little village and they can all do kinda jobs like miners, fighters, mages, cooks, lumberjacks and the kinda of people you get to join your village reflects what items you can sell to other PS3 users who can come and visit your Georama.  A great idea and the quests you can do with 3 other people on the PSN friends you know or just random people you come across in the Georama world, also items you get can be carried over to the single player and vice versa.

So overall I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 if it wasn’t for the multiplayer aspect it would be a heck of a lot lower :). Oh and I gotta say that the graphics are pretty good though but that alone doesn’t make a game good!

Next up the monter behemoth that is Final Fantasy XIII :-

Now when it was released back in Japan in December it sold over a million copies in the first day and I think it has sold over 1.6 millions copies up until the end of 2009. Not bad since many people say that it isn’t a “proper” Final Fantasy game. Pfft! What do they know. It has sold over 1 million copies in America and became the fastest UK selling title in 2010 (granted it’s only 3 months into the year but still a great achievement.) And Square Enix have stated that it is has become the fastest selling game in the franchise’s history again not a bad feat. The reviews were good in Japan but around the world they were somewhat lackluster some scorin it 74 out of 100, but I guess each to their own.

My review of the game is that I love it, yes sooo many people say that it is way too linear and it opens up after 20 or so hours, well, maybe that is the case but you know what I don’t care what they all say I think it is fucking brilliant. The graphics are the best I have ever seen in a game along with Uncharted 2 and possibly GOW3 (I haven’t played it!) yes ok maybe the voice acting is a little slack but it makes up with it with the passion of the storyline and the way you feel for some of the characters and what they are going through. Now yes when I first got into the game I got very, very confused with the L’Cie, Fal’Cie and Cie’th so many words sounds the same but eventually I got around it.

And even though it is a bit linear you know running then fighting and so on, for some reason I don’t mind it, and something else about this FF is that I have found it much more difficult than previous one’s, the amount of times I have died takes the piss, but I still love the game and wanna get further in it.  I must have died like 10 times defeating this one boss but it is only about tactics and what Paradigms you use and with what person. Because if you are too slow in killing some enemies you don’t get a good star ranking but then sometimes if you go all out attack on some monsters and not heal then you get whopped and die so you have to get a balance between the two and keep switching out.

One bad thing I don’t like about the game is the weapons and accessories and the amount of gil you don’t get. The weapons I always like in FFIX because they have different ones and the further you get in the game then the better then weapons just like any other FF game and pretty much any other RPG’s for that matter but FFXIII is kinda stupid (or maybe it’s just not me getting it right) but why the hell would I want a weapon that stops the enemy staggering, when you can do more damage when it is staggered. And the idea of upgrading your weapons is a good idea but not when it takes ages to do it and you clearly don’t have enough gil to do it maybe it is more for when you are nearing the end of the game and bout to defeat Eden idk but I like the old ways =D

But apart from that minor hiccup the game is fantastic and the Eidiolons or G.F.’s as I will always call them are a welcome addition to the game and if though they aren’t that good as they were in previous installments they help nonetheless. So overall I would give it a 9 out of 10 it would be higher but the weapons idea just gets on my nerves idk why it just does. And if you are yet to have a look at FFXIII I suggest you do so NOW!!

Thanks for reading this long-winded post and comments below if you wish.