TGS 08: White Knight Chronicles media event

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Just a few minutes ago, one of the most anticipated games of Tokyo Game Show was formally unveiled to the media: White Knight Chronicles (called Shirokishi here in Japan). I sat in on the session and, um, chronicled it for you here:

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Kentaro Motomura, Producer of White Knight Chronicles, first runs down some key points – Level-5 created this RPG especially for the PLAYSTATION 3, with a key differentiating element of a transforming hero. They’re trying to do something new with this mechanic. You can play solo, or in a group of up to 4 online (more on that later).

Motomura-san gives a quick rundown of the story and then plays a trailer detailing these scenes: During the princess of Balandor’s coming of age ceremony, a group known as the “Wizard” raids the kingdom looking for the power of “Knight.”

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A young man named Leonard escapes into a cellar and finds a mysterious set of armor, which transforms him into the White Knight, and he defeates the Wizard’s enormous monster. However, the princess was kidnapped during the battle. Leonard sets off with his newfound power to find the kidnapped princess.

The trailer also reveals a number of other characters, huge beastly monsters, even larger armored creatures, and Leonard’s transformation into the titular White Knight (who is clearly a bad ass). The trailer concludes with a bat-winged airship flapping off into the stratosphere.

Motomura-san now describes the concept of the world – an authentic fantasy world created on an enormous scale. One of the characteristics is that there are lot of enormous creatures in the game, such as a monster so large, it has a town on its back.

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Next, character transformation designs are shown – the White Knight, the Black Knight, and the Dragon Knight, which has a pair of wings. All are huge (7 meters high).

More details on who these powerful characters are *before* they transform: Leonard is a young man who works for a wine merchant before being drawn into the events detailed above. Cisna is the aforementioned princess. Yulie and Eldore provide support to Leonard. Yulie is a childhood friend of Leonard, while Eldore is a mysterious warrior lending advice to Leonard.

There are many more major foes shown as well.

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OK, now what you were really pining for: the Battle System. Players can freely register commands into the “function palettes”. You can create and name your own combos to be used in an active-time battle using simple controls. Many, many combinations are possible.

Motomura-san talks more about the Knights for which the game is named. Sometimes you (and your friends) are going to come face-to-face with incredibly large enemies, impervious to most of your attacks. But you’ll likely want to transform into one of the huge Knight characters. But it’s possible to fight successfully with a mix of small and transformed warriors.

There will be significant character customization in WKC as well. The created avatar will take part in the epic story Leonard’s companion

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Online vs offline mode: When offline, Leonard is the main character and plays through the story. When online, up to 4 players cooperate to battle as their created character. A video demonstrates a number of characters traveling together through the countryside, the customization options. Male and female characters are shown, with vastly different looks. The type of character (warrior, magic user, etc) is customizable as well. Players can invite others from within the game, and another joins.

The group is then shown taking on a huge troll with a giant club. More areas are then shown, countryside, towns and castles, and other vistas and landscapes.

Now Motomura-san explains the fusion of offline and online modes. Players share money, items, and levels that are earned in one mode into the other. Motomura-san mentions that there are many more new elements to this that will be revealed later.

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During the Q&A, Motomura-san assures “a huge number” of online quests, and reiterates that it’s different from the offline “story” mode. It’s basically 2 RPGs in one title.

Shirokishi hits Japan on Christmas Day. There’s not yet a set release date for North America or Europe, but you can be sure we’ll announce that information on the PlayStation.Blog when it happens. Look for more on White Knight Chronicles throughout TGS – we’ll be sure to link out to the best coverage. In the meantime, we’ve got lots of screens here.

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147 Comments

3 Author Replies

  • I have been watchin this game for a long time and cannot wait for it to come out. Finally the PS3 is startin to get some more rpgs!

  • I am beyond stoked for this! I hope it sees great success so we can see more RPGs make their way to the PS3.

    Is there not even a rough time frame for when we could hope to see this in the US?

  • Yeah it would be nice if Sony decided to add these games to the Playstation Family.

  • I meant developers.

  • Cool! I heard it will be 1080p.

    Keep the TGS updates coming.Will there be any chance for some videos from TGS on the PS Store?

  • Thanks jeff for answering the invite!

    thing is when I read online it mentioned auto match making where it puts people into the hub by matching SOMETHING. But they said we can send mail to each other so i was thinking it may support PSN Friend invite which I HOPE it does!

  • finally. this is what i originally wanted my ps3 for, bad ass rpgs. i’ve had to wait almost 2 years, but now i have this and valkeria chronicles to show for it.

    *still waiting for atlus to announce new shin megami game for the ps3*

  • can’t wait for this game.

    Sony!!!!!!!!!

    HURRY UP AND ACQUIRE LEVEL-5 ALREADY!!!
    you NEED an in-house JRPG developer to cover
    all your bases!!!

  • i havent posted on this blog for obvious reasons.however, i had to put my two cents on this one just one word AMAZING! :)

    i just hope that jeff keeps his promise this time around and bring the ppl of level five to the blog…for those who may be wondering why i say this, well he promised to bring the guys of nisa to this site and he never delivered.

  • This is great news. I have been following up on this game for awhile. Voice chat in online mode would be cool. Im sure it will come in a update if its not out on launch though.

  • thanks a lot, jeff, for the info.

    i really like level-5 games. now i wish i know japanese so i can play this game early

  • especially for the Playstation 3, eh?

    It’ll be interesting to see how long this relationship will last. nothing is sacred anymore D:

    Seriously though, awesome post! Lookin forward to more revelations about the game.

  • About time!!! i’v been waiting to see a RPG out for the PS3 for a long A** time. Looks and sounds great! it’s on my list :)

  • Co-op RPG?!?!? Just what I (and so many others) have been waiting for! I cannot wait to get my hands on this one. I was amazed by this when I first heard about it, but now having more details about it, I can truly say that this will be a blockbuster hit for the PS3.

  • I’ve been following this game since the trailers were released on the JP PSN store in early ’07. Can’t wait for this to actually come out!

  • Jeff,
    do you have any news on the previously promised announcements?

    We were supposed to get around 9 new games from Sony studios. I’m I correct on that?

  • That online mode is making this game more of a must get. I’ve already set myself up for disappointment after FF12. Maybe it’s time to check out other rpgs.

  • yeah but thats 9new game with NDA :P

  • I just hope there will be no monthly fee. or something.

  • Really happy this game is approaching release in Japan which means it is almost time for a US release. If the follow the old rule book we should be hearing something in 3 months ^^ oh so happy.

    *crosses fingers* I hope 3 of the new titles to be announced are RPG’s. Eternal Sonata and Valkyria Chronicles are only going to hold me over for so long.

  • Notice how this post is rated extremely high Sony? Yea, its cause we want RPGs meanwhile Xbox is getting all of them. ANd no North American announcement? Come on get on the ball.

    p.s. Make sure Socom is really good, I can’t wait.

  • I cannot wait. I want this game!!!
    At least the Japanese are test driving it for us…so if it stinks we’ll know.

    I mean that in a loving way Japan!!!

  • Looks amazing can’t wait here more about it. Thanks Jeff!

  • Jeff, any word on a demo? Looks Phenomenal, and bug our friends over in Japan for more JRPG’s on the PS3 ;)

  • Thanks for info! I can’t wait for this game. I might import this if the wait is too long for the English version.

  • http://www.gamespot.com/news/6193056.html

    This was mentioned that WKC will be released before Fiscal year 2009. We got the JP release date at December 25th. Does this game include other region? i know it mentioned in the article and they were unsure but is it still a possibility of coming out still within FY09?

    Oh.

    about this part

    “Now Motomura-san explains the fusion of offline and online modes. Players share money, items, and levels that are earned in one mode into the other”

    Share levels?

    i don’t get that one. is that the same as sharing EXP points?

  • Looking good, guys!

    On an unrelated note, any chance of a Dark Cloud 3 coming to PS3? PLEASE???

  • God between this and Disgaea, I can see myself litterally spending 100+ hours of RPG goodness(already have 60 hours in Disgaea 3, nowhere near as my 350 hours in Disgaea 2 though.)

  • @70

    If you know those won’t last you. Get Disgaea. Its an quired taste to like it, but if you do like it, expect tons of hours of enjoyment.

  • Nice to see our one an only JRPG. Can we expect some Trophy support for this title?

  • This game really looks promising. I am curious to see what else is going to be announced in the next day or two from Sony. There are supposed to be some previously unannounced titles which where to be revealed at the TGS and i really want to see what Team Ico has planned.

  • Any chance they Japanese version will ship with English subs? Got a feeling the rest of the world will be waiting along time for this game…

  • Worldwide release ???
    When this game go out off Japan ???
    Can yu make more multi language game please.
    Stop make game for Japan only…if i buy Japan game console it s because i love japanese game company, i want Afrika and Aquanaut too!

  • Online RPG’s with friends, its about time. I’ve been waiting for a game like this, as soon as it gets a release date I will preorder it.

  • awww man thanks a bunch jeff for this wonderful info about this aweeeesome sounding game….. wish i can fast forward time to get this game!!!!… i dont care if the other box is getting more RPGs but the ps3 will get the best rpgs IMO… like sony said quality vs quantity… i realllly cant wait for this game… hey can you find out how loot works…. cuz if its anything like diablo then its going to be more awesome

  • this is exactly wut i need :)
    hopefully release early next year.

  • This is where knowing Japanese would come in handy… because I want to play this in December of 2008 LOL! But I don’t know Japanese so I’m gonna have to wait.

    I’ve always loved Level 5’s work and I knew they wouldn’t let us down… this will be the best RPG on PS3, FF13 better add some online stuff or it’ll be left behind quick!

  • The big question does it support trophies?

  • Awesome! I’m looking forward for this cuz its one of my most anticipated titles next year.

    Jeff? There any talk about or any process about a English localization taking progress on this right moment? I remember Rogue Galaxy localization took like 3 months after the Japanese version was launch over Japan.

  • Wow! You mean that Sony actually remembered that people liked playing RPGs?

    And one of the reasons that their competition is catching up to them in Japan is because they’re actually promoting RPGs on their system, unlike the PS3 which is in the middle of an RPG drought. Finally Sony sees the light.

  • I simply can not wait for this game. Here’s hoping for a quick localization. May, perhaps?

  • Things are sad as usual for SCEJ. It takes over two years after launch to put out a single RPG that wouldn’t even look impressive as a launch day title.

    It’s even sadder that people are excited about this game. Open your eyes people. WKS is an embarrassment. SO4 kills it and people sure don’t hesitate to point that out all over xbot-infested Japanese boards. Weak PS3 exclusives cause even more embarrassment than botched ports. And it gets worse from here. DemonSouls looks so bad it will be lucky if xbots even bother to insult it.

    SCEJ was lucky as hell that Nagoshi’s Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza)3 was at TGS so that PS3 had at least one high quality game at the show. Those guys accomplished far more in ~6 months of development than L5 did in 3 years.

  • Many thanks for the great update. I’ve been waiting for this game since it was announced and it seems I’ll have to wait even more.

    Anyway, I got a question: do you know if there’s a limit for how many commands you can register in the “function palettes”? (I loved registering textures for the OctoCamo in MGS4 but a maximum of 10 is too little).

  • Hay Jeff do you know if this game will have an English option when it is release in Japan on December 25th? Like English menu, and subtitles, but not English voice? I really would like to know, because I want to import it

  • thanks jeff i love rpgs

  • Oh boy, I’m going to write a complete item about this on PS3Life.nl :-D

    Moments like these I hug my PS3 dearly.

    Jeff, a question of which I hope you can answer. Is, or isn’t Star Ocean IV going to release on the PS3 as well? According to N4G at first it was officially announced by SE, but that website is IMO one of the most crappiest in giving accurate information. Plus more reliable websites haven’t noticed anything about this. I assume that at least a PS3Fanboy will be fast enough to post that news down.

    Thanks,
    Anouschka

  • This game looks awesome! Can’t wait for it to hit North America… it’s too bad that Sony had nothing really new to show at the TGS as this game was already announced.

  • yes cant w8 4 this game a legendary rpg game i mostly got the ps3 4 rpgs but theres none hopefully well c a lot of good rpgs like this 1 next year and onwards :) ps3 play beyond it all

  • well what I want to know is where are the 9 games for PS3 that were supposed to be announce, I mean If you Sony wants to wait for a later time that is fine but don’t promise something and not deliver, that isn’t right.

  • Cant wait for this game. This is my most anticpated game for 2009. unless God of war 3 actually comes out next year. but i think that’ll be pushed to march 2010. continue the march release pattern the last games had lol

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