White Knight Chronicles

The single player experience of a multiplayer-intended gameby Jyggalag

Thanks to the brilliant piece of video gaming artwork that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 my opinion of online gaming has certainly changed over the past year or so. My first experience with online gaming was on UT (Unreal Tournament) on the PC and as we all know most online PC gamers are complete and utter wankers whose greatest pleasure is to rip into new gamers so they don't have to feel bad about their tiny shlongs. Okay, I made a penis joke thus proving the immaturity of my comment but I am sure there are many who agree with me... maybe. With COD:MOD2 whilst there was an entire single player game to complete with storyline and missions the main attraction to the game was its multiplayer aspect (which I would happily call flawless). I didn't play the multiplayer at first, I stuck to the singleplayer asect of the game, but once I did go multiplayer well... I couldn't go back. Killing AI is nowhere near as fun as killing and teabagging that fourteen-year-old player whose been quickscoping you for most of the match.
I have a friend who dislikes online gaming. He buys games for the singleplayer aspect believing that multiplayer games sacrifice storyline and in-depth gaming. I was once inclined to agree with him but now I'm not so sure. To try and get a good feel of singleplayer gaming in a multiplayer-intended game I'm going to talk about a game I have played both offline and online. The game was developed by Level 5 (the makers of the Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy) and is called White Knight Chronicles. Now I'm guessing very few have heard of White Knight Chronicles. Firstly its a ps3 exclusive so that already put it into quite a small group when compared with other console exclusives and secondly... its far from brilliant.

White Knight Chronicles main attraction is clearly is multiplayer part. And the multiplayer in the game is pretty damn good. The missions are imaginative and challenging and is something akin to Monster Hunter, which in my opinion was a good game. However the game required A LOT of grinding and in most modern RPGs there's no need to grind at all. It's an outdated aspect, just like the turn-based combat we had in Final Fantasy VII. But I digress. This is about the singleplayer game and not the multiplayer.


What's interesting to say about WKC is that before you start the game you create your character (known as The Avatar in the online community) and this is the character you play as during the online game but he/she is also there during the singleplayer game. Any items, equipment and experience you gain from one game is kept whilst you're in the other so if you played online and maxed out your character then you'll be maxed out in the singleplayer. This however is game breaking and certain missions are only available depending on how far into the story you are. The story of White Knight Chronicles begins in the Kingdom of Balandor where an envoy from the neighboring kingdom (which was previously at war with Balandor) arrives in the capital complete with a fancy parade and riding what appears to be a giant white camel.

A young wine-clerk named Leonard (with the worst ponytail in the history of all ponytails), his new colleague (that's your Avatar) and his childhood friend Yulie all get caught up in a crazy adventure whilst they deliver a big cart of wine for a fancy do up at the palace. It's during this party that an organisation known as "The Magi" attack, killing the king and kidnapping the princess. I know what you're thinking: "this isn't exactly original", but JRPGs don't aim for originality these days. Leonard somehow makes a pact with a giant medieval mech known as the White Knight (yes that's THE White Knight of White Knight Chronicles) and sets off to rescue the princess with the help of a strange man named Eldore. WKC has all the elements of a typical JRPG. You have your rag-tag group of misfits in the forms of Yulie the pan-faced, Leonard the Gary Sue (who is about as lovable as a soggy fart and spends most of his time calling bad guys "bastards"), Eldore the bearded who practically screams "I will turn evil" (but he doesn't), Kara the inevitable-betrayer, Caesar the skirt-chasing dickhead and finally Daniel my doppelganger who neither speakers nor is spoken to during the entire course of the storyline. But he's always there, looking handsome to boot.

The storyline to the singleplayer game is shit (trust me, that's an appropriate term) and is simply used as a precursor to the online game. The voice acting is either terrible or good, nothing brilliant. This saddens me somewhat because such well-known (and very talented) voice actors such as Nolan North, Crispin Freeman and Kari Wahlgren all voice major characters. The character designs are also on opposite ends of the scale, either being great or shite. There are two characters who really stood out to me. The first was a spirit named Phantom that Leonard has to fight when forging the pact with The White Knight. Phantom looks very cool and speaks with a Shakespearean eloquence rarely found in video games. The second one was one of the "early villains" named Belcitane. Aside from sporting a kick-arse red coat and hairdo he also has an impressive vocabulary. Up until Belcitane I'd never even heard the word pestiferous before! The environments are nice to look at (not a patch on Pulse from Final Fantasy XIII though) and the combat and levelling up systems are simple yet allow a lot of room for customisation. But it doesn't seem worth it when the game takes only around fifteen hours to complete (including watching all cut scenes). It all plays out like fanfiction. Characters seem to suddenly remember things in order to cover up a plot hole, romance blooms from quite literally nothing and some of the writing is so bad its unreal. It leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. From the looks of things it seems that after designing most of the game one of the devs at Level 5 suddenly remembered that a singleplayer game needed to be added as well and so they rushed something together and this did not work in their favour.

Famitsu only gave WKC a 29/40 and Eurogamer gave the game (shockingly) 8/10, which is surprising to say the least but of course they reviewed the multiplayer aspect too. Without the multiplayer I doubt WKC would have enjoyed the success it has because as a singleplayer game it is incredibly weak. You can't get the best armour or weapons without doing certain online quests and the Georama system (players of Dark Cloud will be familiar with this) is pretty dull unless you've reached a certain GR (Guild Rank) level. And unless you're spending lots of time online your GR level is destined to stay low... so very very low. Yet somehow the game has convinced me not to sell it or trade it and it is still a part of my diminishing collection, so maybe there it's doing something right after all?

Because it's a video game, it's okay for a creepy old guy to hang out with a bunch of kids

Toy Story 3

Lots of people hate going home to their parents' house. I am not one of them, I quite enjoy going home to see my family. Anyone that knows my mother will realise I have no reason to lie about this because she is 100% computer illiterate. This does have a point... honest. I went home to see my family the other day and did the usual catching up, seeing my younger brothers and sisters, eating all mum's food etc. However, another great thing about going home is rummaging through the game collection when everyone has gone to bed. My little brothers are quite fortunate in two ways: 1. They possess the love for games that I do. 2. They have the brains to ask for games on every gift-worthy occasion. Their game collection has contributed to the broadening of my virtual horizons quite a bit over the past few years. If it wasn't for them I might never have cast my beady eyes over Mini Ninjas, EyePet, The Lego games and ModNation Racers as well as others. This time it was the turn of Toy Story 3 and I have to say, I'm impressed.

The game kind of follows the story of the films.You visit the Sunnyside Daycare, Andy's House, Bonnie's House, The Junkyard and of course Al's Toy Barn. The great thing is that Andy's toys are telling the story in hindsight to Bonnie's toys, so often they embellish what happened and this allows for greater perils and more dramatic sequences which are always ridiculous and mostly great fun. The levels are quite short and the story mode is easily done in 4-8 hours. For me, this is a great thing. Often games are drawn out to lengthen them and give the illusion of more content, but this game delivers quality gameplay and scenery along with a charming and quite funny plot and dialogue.

There are essentially three playable characters: Woody, Jesse and Buzz. Each have their own unique abilities, but the player can switch between them with L1 at any time. Woody can swing from hooks with his pullstring, Jesse can balance on small platforms and Buzz is very strong, enabling him to throw the others across big gaps. The levels consist of different ways of applying these abilities, but it doesn't get tiresome and it never gets too challenging. For a child (it is a kid's game remember) the difficulty has a gradual steady increase, but the collectibles can be quite tricky to find. This adds an extra challenging element for any perfectionists out there, but you also get rewards in the 'Toy Box' mode for collecting certain things.

Finally there is 'Toy Box' mode. The premise behind this is similar to the scenario at the start of the movie: it's an imaginary world where you are the Sherriff of a town. The more quests you complete, the more you unlock. As you progress you will build a barbers, a school and gradually complete the town. I think that this mode is hyped up a bit too much and may just be a place where all the spare ideas from the game were thrown, but it is fun and it held my attention for a good few hours.

This game suggests to me that it is possible for a kid's game to be engaging annd cute without being mind-numbingly dull or flawed. This game has lots of elements such as teamwork, vehicles, puzzles and open world exploration, but all of these come together and actually work (the little cars are a bit annoying, but the horse, dragon and big car are ok). A movie tie-in game that works! Just stop for a second and appreciate that. You might think that Toy Story 3 is a bit childish or basic for you, but even if just to play a movie tie-in game without the gerbil turd disappointment of Avatar, have a go.

Terrible handling- bet the insurance is monstrous

DannyDarko

Now on Twitter!

Yes, I'm now tweeting. I'm still learning so be gentle, but if you're a twitter user please follow me on there twitter@dannydarko1990

I hope I used the right terminology there, but we'll see in due time.

DannyDarko

Nintendo Wii:

I have been in two minds about the intellectual property of Nintendo for quite some time. I hate the way that they sell and resell anything with a moustache and dungarees stuck on it. Mario, Zelda, Pikachu, Kirby, Donkey Kong. Nintendo have more mascots than they know what to do with. This might make you think that there are more original ideas coming out of Nintendo than I let on, but actually the only reason they become famous enough to be mascot potential is because they are used again and again and again and again and again and again. Yes, that was an annoying and badly structured sentence, but that was supposed to represent the annoying and badly structured hierarchy of the Nintendo cast.



Cash-cows beware- Nintendo will milk you dry





Ok... so I didn't start this just to rant about Nintendo. I actually meant to point out a little thing about the Nintendo Wii that I always forget until I actually play it again. It's really fun! It's the only console I have been able to play with my girlfriend, mum, sisters, brothers, in-laws, gaming and non-gaming friends. The point is, the horrible words that seem to occur far too much these days are necessary terms: 'casual gaming'. Although the design behind these games is often unimaginitive and unoriginal, they do sell well and that's part of the reason they continue to be made. Why not make them if its what people want? Why not play them for a few hours with your friends now and again? You can't play Final Fantasy, Uncharted, Heavy Rain, Bioshock or Dragon Age with your friends. They're all single player and although I can sit and play them in the company of certain friends, there is no way it could be replicated with my little brothers, in-laws, or my girlfriend. It just would not be fun. I'm not going to go on about this any longer because I only wrote this to make one point....

Sociable, family, novelty games may not be the most soul-shaking, emotive and in depth experiences, but they certainly do their job. They entertain almost anyone for a good hour at least. I almost fell into a hardcore gamer snobbery, but thankfully I was brought back from the edge by last night's encounter with Wii Party. Thanks guys. Sorry about the step game...

DannyDarko

As a side note I'd like to add that the encounter with Wii Party was not in fact, last night. It was over a week ago, but because my laptop decided to play silly buggers with my image uploading, I've had to wait and go to the library to post!