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In general
White Knight Chronicles (Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodō, lit. "White Knight Story: Ancient Heartbeat") is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3 which was released in Japan on December 25, 2008. It is Level-5's first project for the system. As per the playable demo at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, some enemies are extremely large in size, in one piece of concept artwork, a massive turtle-like creature is depicted carrying an entire city on its back. As of January 4, 2009, it has sold 310,000 copies in Japan. At TGS 2009, a sequel entitled White Knight Chronicles 2 was announced.
Gameplay
White Knight Chronicles is presented in third-person perspective. The player can freely choose which character to control. Like any other RPG, the characters gain experience points and level up, becoming stronger over the course of the game. Level-5 conceives White Knight Chronicles as having 100 hours of gameplay, a length Akihiro Hino considers to be a full length RPG, going against the pressure to make White Knight Chronicles a launch title and cutting the story short.[3]
World
A trailer for the Tokyo Game Show revealed that, similar to Soul Blazer, one can select locations on a world map that the player has already visited to instantly go to, along with a preview of that area. Each area also has a quest list that shows quests the player has yet to complete. The player can choose a quest to do before going to the desired area.
Battle system
The battle system used in White Knight Chronicles uses a real-time combat system, where the battle mode is initiated automatically when enemies are present. Before a battle, the player optionally goes into the "Battle Preparation" menu (accessible at any time) and chooses a set of seven commands for each character in the party. This set of seven commands is called a "Function Palette", and several of these palettes can be saved, making tactical palette preparing and switching essential to the game. The commands can also be linked in order to create combos. These can then be used in battle, but before a player can perform these combos the character must attack when the enemy is vulnerable - otherwise the attack gets blocked or deflected. The player controls one of the characters, while the others are controlled by the AI, as also seen in the Tokyo Game Show trailer. Players, though, can freely change the character they're controlling. The main character can transform into the White Knight when a gauge is filled, using normal attacks on minor enemies. Characters can also perform combo attacks with other characters, such as one character holding an enemy while another attacks it. Boss battles also take place in a similar fashion except that they may include cutscenes for in-battle events.
Enemies can be attacked with various kinds of elemental attack magic, while the player can heal his or her own party by resorting to holy (recovery) magic. Magic is an essential part of White Knight Chronicle's battle system, but it comes with one pitfall. Magic skills do not improve a character's physical strength. This means magic users have to avoid enemy attacks. Among the featured weapons are two swords, which can be wielded in one or both hands. One of the swords is described as a handy all-around weapon, while the other is effective against larger enemies like trolls.
After defeating an enemy, players will obtain raw materials. While this occurs in both the story and online modes, some raw materials will only be obtainable in online quests.
Story
The story of White Knight Chronicles begins in the kingdom of Balandor, where a princess' coming-of-age banquet is raided by an evil Corporation called Wizard. A boy called Leonard grabs the princess's hand and leads her to safety in the castle cellars, where he finds a strange suit of armor that transforms him into the White Knight – an ancient warrior with the strength to defeat Wizard's forces. This marks the beginning of a life-changing fantasy experience, fighting against the fiercest enemies.
The motive behind the kidnapping is unknown, however. The leader of Wizard is a general called Dregias. Nobody knows what Dregias looks like, because his body and face are hidden under his dark armor. What is known is the fact that he is capable of transforming into the winged Dark Knight.
Sound
White Knight Chronicles features full voice-overs, as well as an orchestrated soundtrack by Level-5 composer Tomohito Nishiura.
The theme song, ~Travelers~, is sung by Kazco Hamano.
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Trailer starts at 0:26
You have a world map like in FF and a real time battle system but besides that all other similarities are standard rpg feautures.
