E3 2011: White Knight Chronicles II Updated Preview

A sequel is on its way for White Knight Chronicles that will wrap up the storyline involving the main character Leonard. In White Knight Chronicles II, you once again create a customizable and silent avatar, which you can take into the online world. However, some changes have been made, and fan feedback has been taken into consideration to make White Knight Chronicles II a faster-paced experience. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, we had a chance to mess with the customization of the arc knight and fight a larger boss whose identity we won't reveal.

The story takes place a year after the events of the first game. The evil organization known as the Magi is out looking for the fifth knight, and Leonard's goal is to find it before they do. In our last preview we went into detail about the changes in the battle system. To recap, the action bar (or circle in this case) starts off full when you initiate a fight. It also refills faster or slower depending on armor, because weight makes a difference in terms of your resistance to knockback as well as your attack speed. Distance now matters, so the closer you get to your target, the more accurate your strikes will be, and enemies can hurt you only by using ranged attacks if you are farther away. There's a break system that lets you target specific parts of enemies to stun them, which is crucial to bringing bosses down quickly and knocking them over. At any point, you can hit the triangle button for a turn break, which lets you attack without waiting for your action bar to fill up. By pressing the X button, you can do a more devastating charged attack, and now you can defend without having to wait for your action gauge to fill.

You can now bring your customization incorruptus into the online portion of the game, where you'll take on a variety of missions as well as new bounty quests that will yield rewards when you track down certain enemies. We're told that the missions are harder now, which is why you are given the power to transform into an Arc Knight. Instead of four players, you can now have up to six people playing online together, and if you have your save data from the first game, your information should all transfer over. The first game is included with the purchase of White Knight Chronicles II, and it has been remastered to include the battle system changes. You'll have plenty of options to make your incorruptus unique by changing colors on the individual armor pieces and equipping yourself with different armor types and big knight-specific weapons.

The demo took us through the dismal Lost Forest and into the Asian-themed kingdom of Faria. We skipped through the cutscenes since they reveal some plot points that might be considered spoilers. However, like the previous game, White Knight Chronicles II is a good-looking game, and we're told that the graphics engine has also been enhanced, so there are some improvements.

Look for the game when it is released sometime this summer.