White Knight Chronicles

Yes, dammit! I finally managed to get this game, a couple (few?) years after release, and a few months after #2 released. I have about 2 hours invested so far, and I just have to say: it's a Japanese RPG. WOW! Picture an earlier Final Fantasy, before the straight-line mechanics of 13, but with Oblivion level graphics. Top notch music that matches areas and happenings. Decent voice acting and animation. TONS of weapons, upgrades, combat moves, combos (once I learn how to use them), and a full on list of other awesome features. Yes, I can see that maybe the combat might get repetitive down the road, and there is a lot of X-mashing, but there's quite a bit more thought involved in combat compared to the Final Fantasy games I've played.

About combat...there's 7 or 8 schools of umpteen skills. You learn skills with level-up skill points. Then you have 2 skill bars you place skills into, having to decide which skills work best for you. Also, with the loads of weapons, some skills only work with some weapons, and you get to add elemental upgrades to weapons as well. Depending on your level, you can then stack skills into combos, which are also added to the skill bars. During combat, you can run normal skills, combos which cost Action Chips, or "powers" that cost Magic Points. Then of course there's Health Points. You have to keep in your head how many of each you have, and how many you might need to pull of moves, while deciding the best course of fighting. A lot of strategy and thinking!

Add to that, as I said it's a Japanese RPG. Nicely done locations, rabbit guys and frog guys and giant turtle-backed cities. Character development? About 2 hours in, I know the main character was raised by the owner of a winery, the character I play is the winery's new hire, and the city's captain of the guard looked up to the King like a Father. Within the 10 minute-ish opening cinematic, I figured out there was a badass war going on, and I even found a couple characters I wanted to reach into the TV and strangle right off the bat. About an hour and a half, the plot goes WHOOSH and then....THEN.... they roll an opening credits scene like an anime. So far, I love this game! Just gotta get my weapons upgraded faster and figure out combos quickly!!! If you can find it, as of right now I'm giving it 9/10 stars.

Ohhhhhhh... so that's how to pull off combos! They took a page right from The Witcher here (I'm sure from somewhere else also, but the Witcher was the first game I've seen this mechanic). You have a turn timer, which is a big dark circle. It slowly turns white in a clockwise direction. When it gets back to "12 o'clock" the circle flashes and you're ready to launch a skill from your skill list. BUT, when you choose a combo, the ring flashes yellow to let you know IF you manage to hit X again while the circle is yellow it will string the next move in the combo. In the Witcher your attack cursor switched to a flaming sword when you had to hit the next combo move, and it was more forgiving...WKC seems to have a REAL fast timer, and after upgrading to a 4-string combo, I can still only pull off 2 moves for it....sigh.... And of course, like the Witcher, you get so busy watching the fight, it's hard to keep an eye on the combo timing indicator (the yellow ring in this case) while watching some awesome swish-swash-thrust...or trying to read the insta-log to see how much damage the little bastard just did to you, cuz that scrolls fast too!

Another thing to point out is the world. Of course, when you start, you have your city. When you get your first official quest, it unlocks another place on the world map. When you get to the other side, it unlocks the next town on the world map. HOWEVER, at any time during the first quest, you can choose to turn around and go back to the start city for supplies or what-nots. After returning and more cinematics, you unlock another part of the world map...and though you have a quest, you can choose where to go! No linear stuff....well it's way more linear than a Bethesda, but nowhere near as linear as FF13. Later on in the game, once you hit a certain level, you can buy side quests from an Adventurer's Guild. I have kept myself from wiki-ing or googling to find out how many total quests or how many estimated hours of play there are, but I do know the side quests will take you all over the world map, and you of course get to choose where to go between all of these areas later on, so it will be big and mostly open! YAY!

Oh...and did I mention a HUGE medieval aircraft carrier looking fire-propelled airship?! WOWEE!!!!