On my birthday, I so happened to have received a copy of White Knight Chronicles II for the Playstation 3 (As you can tell, it is a case of I pick my own presents). The first game in the series was lackluster to say the best, with an online mode that would rival the grinding requirement of Granado Espada. However, how did the game differ? Well….. I am saving most of it for my upcoming review, but there are 5 things that are noticeable almost immediately with varying levels of interest.
- For the first part of the game, they force you to go through all the levels of WKCI backwards from the ending point of the first game to Balandor. Argh! It took me forever to grind all the way through those levels again.
.. - The game forces you at the start to only play with four characters: Your Avatar, Leonard, Yulie and Eldore. This might not be a problem if you are used to using them from the previous game, however my normal party consisted of Avatar / Leonard and either Kara or Caesar, so my gameplay style was adapted.
.. - The graphics have by far been improved, and looking much more like a PS3 game then a previous-generation console game. Even in the included version of WKC1, there have been sufficient improvements.
.. - The online grind mode is no more — for another few levels at least. I will be honest, I am only up to GR12 (From GR7 that I started at) and it took my sufficiently less grinding (Eg. 60k GP for GR12 instead of 1,000,000 or whatever it was). As well, the GR restrictions on items and some levels are a welcome bonus. With less of a grind, it is evident the community is having a lot more fun then grinding the same level over and over again. As well, single player quests award a nice sum of Guild Points.
.. - The Opening Theme now has English Vocals in comparison to the Instrumental opening of WKC1. This is true for both openings and not exclusive to the new opening. Still undecided which are better (English / Japanese / Instrumental)
For those who are interested, White Knight Chronicles 2 is now available on the Playstation 3 for those in PAL Regions (Europe / Australia) and for those in the US, it is apparently due out in September after a month-long delay was announced on the publishers Facebook wall recently. For those the PAL regions, you can also get your hands on a copy of the PSP game White Knight Chronicles: Origins, which takes place in the Dogma Wars which is discussed often during the storyline of the game.
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