White Knight Chronicles 2

Whitewash.

Well, this was a sequel I never really expected to see. The first White Knight Chronicles - which eventually made it to these shores after a 3-year delay - wasn't really anything special; a JRPG which sounded far better on paper than the reality proved. Yes, you could turn into a giant knight, but much of the game was painfully dull and bland.

So, White Knight Chronicles 2, then, an unexpected chance for developer Level 5 to put right what once went wrong. Or not, as it turns out, since this sequel miraculously falls into exactly the same pitfalls as its predecessor, ultimately coming across as more of an expansion pack than a bona fide sequel.

Events kick off shortly after the first game, though newcomers (or those who have forgotten, like me) are treated to a largely incomprehensible recap. After a short prologue featuring two of the new characters (the unlikely-named Scardigne and Miu)- in which you're dumped straight into battle and expected to remember all of the controls and the skills - we pick up with hero Leonard and his buddies Yulie and Eldore en route to the northern realm of Faria to meet with the enigmatic Father Yggdra. Of course, there are problems - aren't there always?- because Faria is currently gripped by civil war, which naturally Leonard and buddies get drawn into.

Unfortunately, the civil war is presented with all the drama of a stone that dropped out of drama school for incompetence. White Knight Chronicles II is once again blighted by clunky dialogue, wholly underwhelming writing and direction, and a cast of characters so bland they could have been in any game made in the last 20 years. As if that wasn't enough, there's still the monotony of thousands of painfully easy battles standing between you and every single place you want to go, with even the promise of convoluted maps to explore denied you because alternative routes are magically sealed off (literally, with big blue force fields) until you're allowed to traverse them.

The combat system remains the same, sluggish affair as the original game too, in which you assign a myriad of nigh-identical skills to three hotbars and click on them to activate them once a timing circle has built up. In theory the presence of different elemental affiliations should add a strategic edge, but since the enemies are so numerous and so very, very easy to defeat you'll likely never need to bother with them. The ability to transform into a giant knight is fun, but even that is made clumsy due to an unskippable animation sequence that prefaces every single transformation you do. You can call on the White Knight as often as you like - albeit with a brief cooldown to regain power between uses - which makes it more like a good spell than something you have to rely on in a pinch and plan your uses carefully. Even the bosses which pepper the game don't pose much of a challenge. I'm all for making a game accessible, but at least give me some threat of defeat.

The unwieldy item management system from the first game remains , with each character keeping their own inventories of useable items and equipment, though I'm saddened to say the variety of equipment doesn't seem to have changed much - which basically means that you'll end up with a party of identically-dressed characters with little to tell them apart. Some more weapons and combos have been added, which certainly helps, and the excellent skill system is as robust as ever, allowing you to freely develop your characters in a variety of fields. That said, you'll still likely end up with the tried-and-tested arrangement of healer, defender, and damage dealer, but at least you can change who does what.

The characters are also accompanied by your avatar, a silent, sometimes sinister presence who lingers about at the back of cutscenes, watching intently. You'll want to keep them in play, though, since its this avatar that carries across experience, gear and all - to the game's online component. Multiplayer has been expanded from the first game, so you're now able to field parties of six characters and take on quests, and the fun Georama mode which lets you build your own towns also returns as complete and enjoyable as ever, with a few new tricks for those willing to devote hours to its pursuit. There's enough content here to keep you playing for quite some time, especially since Level 5 has bundled a remastered version of the original White Knight Chronicles onto the same disc as well. Its also worth noting that the online features are locked out, too - you'll need a key (provided with new copies of the game, or bought for £7.99 from the PS Store) to take part.

Whether you'll actually want to experience all that content is a different matter, however. White Knight Chronicles 2 does very little to alleviate the drudgery and walkover difficulty of the first game, and even those who got hooked on the storyline won't find the sequel's story especially gripping. Online the game does fare a lot better, but it still feels disjointed, and the presence of your avatar in both games modes does little to tie them together.

A few minor tweaks have been made to the graphics engine, but they don't help the fact that the artwork still looks very generic, with little character or identity of its own, especially the designs of the main cast - even the newcomers look pretty ordinary. Yes, it all runs very smoothly, and the loading times are thankfully pretty brief (after a hefty mandatory install), but there's nothing about the way the game looks or feels that would make you remember it once you're done. The soundtrack isn't much better; an instantly forgettable score accompanies the efforts of a returning voice cast who still plough through the clumsy dialogue with a grim determination not to let their boredom show.

Written by :

James Hall