White Knight Chronicles – Your Questions Answered

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You may have read impressions of White Knight Chronicles garnered during our LA Media event in the last day or two, but I know you’ve got lots of questions. Today, we’re happy to bring you answers. In this video interview with US Producer Tsubasa Inaba, find out how the game works, how it might change for North American release, and the status voice chat.

Look for more on WKC at E3 and beyond.

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182 Comments

10 Author Replies

  • Thanks guys; looking forward to this one.

  • Dear ky181 (73),

    I am sorry to hear that you feel that way. I would like make the following recommendation: at your earliest convenience, fornicate yourself with a metal fence post and follow up with eight solid hours of rest. If the condition persists, repeat as necessary.

  • Level 5 games have never dissapointed me yet so I’ll be picking this up for sure. The weapon synthesis in Dark Cloud 1 and 2 was addicting and fun so I’m happy to hear there will be something similar in this. I usually don’t go for online games but I am cautiously optimistic about this I think it could end up working quite well.

  • dear jeigh

    i got a recommendation for you go buy this crappy ps2 game waste your money while i play uncharted 2,MAG,God of War 3,and all the other awesome game not this crap

  • Can I have it now?

  • Level 5 is one of the greatest independent video game developer in world

    i cannot wait to my hand this game cuz remember of dark cloud alot but it bigger world plus this battle system sound like Final Fantasy XII that cool i feel right at home on this game

  • THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS INTERVIEW! This game is a MAJOR blip on my gaming radar!

    Just had a thought; is there any chance that we could see a next-gen Dark Cloud game? That would be SO cool!

    Anyways, thanks again for this interview Jeff AND Tsubasa! Can’t wait to get my hands on WKC!

    So far, this has been one hell of a week for the Playstation Blog!

  • Is this game ever going to come to the PSP? That would be a great boost!

  • @cybershinigami87

    Do you have a link for that? I searched IGN and didn’t find anything about ToV PS3 getting a release in NA.

    I doubt it will, sadly. The PS3 version has about twice as much voice acting as the 360 version, so it would not be cheap to localize the PS3 version. Namco has a long history of shafting Sony platforms when it comes to releasing Tales games in the west. And Bandai Namco just had a Gamer’s Day and announced their 2009 lineup for NA and Vesperia wasn’t there.

  • this has been another game i’ve been waiting for. hopefully sometime this year i can be playing it.

  • sold!

  • We can we expect to hear the timeframe for release???! PLEASE be this year!!! I’d love to have this game in the Sept/Oct timeframe… earlier if at all possible. The wait has been torturous!

  • Hands down one of the best interviews I’ve viewed. Jeff, you do such a fantastic job selecting the correct questions based on user interest. None of mine made it but that’s ok because Inaba did a hell of a job filling in the blanks. I always get so sick of the interviewers that get snarky or buddy buddy, you keep things clean and professional. Thanks for that!

    And to Mr. Tsubasa Inaba, you looked exhausted at this point of the interview cycle but I’m so glad you maintained and delivered such great responses, thank you. I was thrilled to hear this was getting localized but after your delivery here the wait is nearly unbearable. Looking forward to seeing you and the game in June at E3!!

  • Will we be seeing anything new like Jeanne D’arc on PSP soon? Also, will we be getting a Dragon Quest from Level 5 on the PS3, because Nintendo’s been getting all of the Dragon Quest love.

  • amazing interview i cant w8 to try tthis out later this year,

  • Good interview, thanks looking for the game

  • Thanks a lot Jeff for taking the time in asking the question and including my question =D
    Excellent interview! Can’t wait for the game!

  • yeah leave option for japanese language please!

  • Really great interview Jeff, but I was surprised about the Japanese VO… “I never thought about”!?! I really hope this is a wakeup call to more developers out there (now that they got Blu-Ray discs to fill ;)
    Most Anime in Sweden got Japanese and English VO (maybe even swedish) plus English and Swedish subs. Just don’t forget English subs even with English VO if you don’t do subs for all contries.
    Really looking forward to the game =)

  • I can’t wait for this RPG to release stateside! It looks great! Also, thank you Jeff for pressing on NamcoBandai about Tales of Vesperia for PS3. I just have one more thing to for you guys at Sony. Any word on when or if Last Remnant will be releasing on PS3??? I’ve been waiting for that one, too! Thank you for your time and all of your help! Have a nice day!

  • Thank You Tsubasa and Factor 5 for your loyalty to Sony and the outstanding titles youve put out! Just curious, what did Factor 5 work on before Dark Cloud? Also, please tell me this game will be full 1080p, so many PS3 games dont support it and it really should come standard now just like Trophies. Once again thank you and take your time to make this title the best RPG ever, just dont take too much longer.

  • Definitely want original japanese voice support, Thanks! :)

  • Awesome! I can’t wait until E3!!!

  • Thx for the interview. Can’t wait for this dam game. Hell yea!

  • Great Job on picking out questions that I didnt think of but definately wanted to know! My question is how well is the human combat balanced with White Knight level fisticuffs? For example, while later in the game I wouldn’t want to have to transform for every battle. Similar to Xenogears (which I would pay alot for to get on PSN to save burning through my 3rd first disk), where even at the very end of the game there were certain areas that forced the player to not allow their character, out of their gear, to become weak. Even more the stronger the character became, the respective gear would do the same! NOstalgic…….

  • Awesome, been waiting for news on this game for a while now, I am so excited to see that it is finally coming to the U.S. Finally an RPG that has some co-op play, I was getting tired of only playing shooters for my co-op fix. And Finally a decent RPG for the ps3…its been too long.

  • Don’t add Japanese voices.

  • Yes, while of of this retrospective looks at fun PS2 games and a pending PS3 rpg are nice, I was wondering when the hell someone is going to say anything about Demon’s Souls. Yes, it is a From Software game, but it is yet another RPG that SCEJ has been holding from the rest of us.

    WKC is a good start, but I’d like to see a game that is basically ready for English territory release the add to the lineup.

  • @jeff
    Hello love what you do in the playstation blog great interview and btw loved your shirt in spanish “vive en tu mundo ,juega en el nuestro” am from mexico..grettings!!

  • great interview, but for some reason the most important question was overlooked ;WHEN IS THE RELEASE DATE? what month/quarter/year????

  • Hey Tsubasa, long time no see! I really like the work you have been doing on PS titles this gen and the approach you have with us consumers through this blog (I remember you taking your time replying to every question on Siren for example).

    Level-5 brings some great games and I’m sure WKC won’t disappoint. I heard some sad things on the JP release (specially the difficulty and some weird bugs), but I’m sure the devs are working hard to make it a better experience when bringing it to US.

    Cheers!

  • And just clarifying about the difficulty issue, many people said it’s too easy :( I hope there’s some way to make the game harder or whatever ^^’

    • Hey there!

      Too easy eh?
      Maybe I should be working on a different title then?! (LOL)

      Honestly speaking, I was not a big fan of RPG games until I was assigned to this project. Once I played, however, I was pulled right in.

      I\’m sure our fans in the US will enjoy the experience when we deliver.

  • I noticed quite a few glitches in Dark Cloud like in a certain dungeon with Ruby the element to open the doors looked as if it was wind but it was holy or something like that and it only happened on one of the doors. Then I noticed typos like Pike being called Dike (when you place him on the map). In any case, it is still one of my favorite RPGs.

    Level 5 is the king of RPGs (Squaresoft died and Square-Enix makes nothing but mediocre games). Level 5 is the new king!

  • Definitely gonna get this game upon release. I want it to release already!!!

  • @ Jeff
    [Quote]
    I was just talking to Namco Bandai about that this week. No news at this time, but I’ll keep pushing them :-)

    ——

    Come on, Jeff… you can do it. I want Vesperia be localize it on PS3 over here. Tell Namco/Bandai that my money it’s waiting for the PS3 version ^^

  • thank you Jeff , cant wait to play it

  • Oh, I forgot… I’m so looking forward for WKC

  • Omg thanks for asking my question! Man, I tried to let the hype within me for this game to die away, but watching this interview just lit the fuse once more =(

    This game is going to be great. Definitely going to make sure I purchase this on the day of it’s release. I love Level 5 and the guy you interviewed gave really great answers. I’m glad he went into detail about each answer he gave…that’s something most developers try to avoid doing, lol. Anyway, thanks again for getting my question answered =D

  • Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask….are we going to be able to submit some questions for E3 and will you guys be going around getting interviews and post them on here for us? I know it’s a pain to run around and try to grab developers for interviews, but

    • That\’s the plan, we\’re putting together our schedule now. Since we\’ve focused so much on 1P games, we might branch out to more 3rd parties, with tons of PSP exclusives and stuff like Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

  • Launch day for me sir!

  • Can’t wait. Level 5 is one of my favorite developers after Dark Cloud and Professor Layton.

  • Good ol Tsubasa, still talks the same. I remember all of his translatin interviews for Kazunori Yamaguchi. I’m a huge GT fan so I enjoyed them. Tsubasa, I’m definitely one of the many who wants Japanese voiceovers for this game and future japanese games. Keep up the good work. I know your busy with this game, and I wish you the most success, but do you know far along Kazunori and polyphony are doin on GT5? Just wonderin, been wonderin for soo long.

    • Thanks, your comments bring back good memories :-)

      Unfortunately, I am no longer in the loop of things when it comes to GT issues, but I\’m sure they are working hard on GT5.

  • The game looks awesome, I’m glad you told Tsubasa that we want a Japanese voice track, while it’s not a make or break feature, it definitely makes it more appealing to me.

  • Slightly off-topic, but I really hope you guys will be pushing new software for the PS3 as much as the PSP has seen recently at E3. Localizing WKC is a step in the right direction… now if you guys could bring over Demons Souls, that’d be even better ;)

    Great job with listening to reader feedback, Jeff. I know I certainly appreciate what you guys are doing here with the blog.

  • I love Level 5 and I simply can not wait for this game, heck I haven’t been this excited for a game since Final Fantasy XII (which I loved btw). But I was wondering are we going to be able to get a chance to try this game out before it is released? Like say a disk based or PSN demo? I am going to get it regardless, I was just curious.

  • Very excited about WKC!!! My poor PS3 is in need of some RPG goodness.

    Please take the suggestions to heart and keep the Japanese audio tracks as an option in the Western release.

  • @121

    So sorry, I meant Level 5. Always mix those 2 up! So 1080p or no 1080p?

  • Please bring more RPGs like this!! With Square Enix now making the majority of their games on other consoles, Sony needs to step it up and produce some quality RPGs in-house.

  • Well well, this certainly looks better than I expected. Good thing he explained that it was NOT a full action RPG, since that explained why the battles seemed so inexplicably slow-paced. Who knows, maybe it’ll actually be good?

    I’m loving the “avatar” idea. I always hated being casted as some unlikeable f***wad I don’t give a s*** about, and would rather have my own custom character instead.

    Honestly, I’ve never understood the appeal of japanese voiceovers. If you don’t like the voices, just mute it – it’ll be just as effective. All I want is the option to turn voices off PERIOD.

    Good interview by the way, lot of good questions there, and a lot of good info.

    Wait, Level 5 did Rogue Galaxy?! Awesome! Loved that one! Still pissed off at myself for getting that horrible Star Ocean game instead of it a couple christmases ago. It was down to those two, and I decided to go with SO, since it looked like it had the most potential. Man was I wrong.:( Ended up grabbing a used copy a last year, and loved it! And I thought the item creation thing sounded familiar(albeit horrible flashbacks from SO’s convoluted Creation system were the first to come to mind:P). If they can make it as addicting as the one in RG, I’m sold!

  • @ 114 / waffman: You might also give Yggdra Union a try. And don’t forget about the upcoming Class Of Heroes.

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