It’s hard to get too excited for a Japanese RPG anymore. I haven’t seen anything really innovative among these in some time, and they really are all starting to look the same. My wife and I found ourselves making comments like, “look, guys who look like girls. Who knew!” and “look, a girl who prays.”

White Knight Chronicles is supposed to be heavily based in summons. Combat is real time, which is worrisome to me because it invites comparisons to the Tales of Repeated Disappointment series of games. I can see a conflict between wanting innovation and wanting a turn based battle system as the idea has kind of been done to death, but I think what I’m really looking for is something that mixes up the battle mechanic the way Chrono Cross or Baten Kaitos did. Not that I’ll make many fans bringing up either of those games. I seem to like both better than anyone else I know.

This is the opening cinematic above, and I’ll post another video with some gameplay footage below. You can let me know how this game makes you feel. The second video is partly a tour of the Level 5 offices and lots of Japanese chat about the game, so skip to the 5:40 mark to see some gameplay.