Out of all the games that D3 was showing the other day, everyone seemed collectively excited by White Knight Chronicles 2. The sequel picks up about a year from the end of it’s predecessor as your group seeks out the fifth and final knight so you can stop the evil Magi. For those unfamiliar of White Knight Chronicles, the game plays like a 3rd person realtime rpg mixed with an almost Dynasty Warriors kind of feel, in the way you stomp through the levels. The designers really listened to the fans this time around, with a much improved and sped up combat mechanic that allows for distance/accuracy compensation. Two things that really stood out was the addition of dash attacks and armor classes. This adds some real stylization and diversity to your gaming approach. The only bummer was that while your active character is playing, the other members of your team take a powder break. You do have the option of quick switching between characters which adds some strategy and diversity to your experience, and for you attention span deficient gamers they even added quick travel on the map.
This sequel gets a big bump in graphics compared to the first game, and is wonderfully drawn in a very “Final Fantasy” sort of way. As an added bonus they included the ENTIRE first game on the same disc with completely revamped graphics. We’re talking almost 100 hours of game play here people! Oh, and as an added bonus if you’ve played through the first game already you can import the character data into WKC2 with all the same items and stats. Don’t worry, the enemies will be leveled up to make it a challenge.
Boss battles were pretty sweet. The one they showed us had our character transforming into this monsterous creature to duke it out (not completely unlike an episode of power rangers). Each boss has his own weakness which is conveniently marked with glowing parts. Glowing parts aside, my money is on the family jewels being every monster’s weakness…
The game will be priced at the usual $59.99 and should come out in September. While I don’t know if it will have the mass appeal of Skyrim this season, it should definitely be a contender for those who’re a fan of the RPG genre.