White Knight Chronicles II Preview

The original White Knight Chronicles may not have received glowing reviews, but it was a solid, gorgeous-looking Japanese role-playing game nonetheless. Level 5 took into consideration some of the fan feedback and has addressed some of the concerns in the upcoming White Knight Chronicles II. If you haven't played the original game, however, that's not a problem. White Knight Chronicles II will be released with the original game's single-player story campaign so that you can experience the entire story with the improved combat features.

Like the first game, White Knight Chronicles II begins by having you create your own avatar. Not much has changed here, other than a few additional options, and if you have a previous save game, you can import your character over as well. Otherwise, you'll begin with a blank slate and will be given skill points to customize your character as you see fit. Either way, your avatar will once again play a silent role in the game, tagging along quietly as Leonard and the rest of the gang make the big decisions. The story is set a year after the events of the first game, so the Yshrenian Empire has had some time to grow and is now invading neighboring countries. During the intro sequence, we were introduced to a knight named Scardigne and to Lady Miu, both fleeing for their lives. We skipped over all the cutscenes, not only to avoid spoilers but also because the initial cutscene also serves as a recap of the events in the first game. We were told that there are more cutscenes this time around and that you can skip them in smaller chunks at a time. The pair will eventually meet up with Leonard, Yulie, and other familiar faces, and their quest will go on from there.

Combat is still very much like in the original game, where you see enemies onscreen and initiate combat by targeting and picking from your list of commands. To speed up this process, you'll be able to start a fight with a charged circle so you're not waiting to attack. Once again, your skills are listed at the bottom of the screen, and you can customize your sets to chain combos. One big change is that your positioning matters now during combat. You have to be close enough to an enemy to hit it, and where you stand will also affect how much damage you do and how accurate you're going to be. New skills have been added to help you position yourself better in combat. For example, there are lunge attacks that will bring you closer to the enemy, as well as attacks from behind to deal more-damaging blows.

Another feature that has been added is break attacks. A colored icon (one of three) will appear on an enemy's body part, which indicates that it is about to do something with said limb. You'll have attacks that will correspond with the icon, so if you're paying attention and can break the enemy's attack, you'll stun him and prevent him from pulling off a spell or an attack. This is particularly useful against bosses as well as in online play, where a member of the group can focus on break attacks to give the team an advantage. We only had a chance to play the beginning, so we don't know how tough these fights are going to be, but this does add another layer of strategy in battles.

At a certain point in the game, you'll be able to create and customize your own incorruptus, a towering knight which you can bring into the online multiplayer. On top of all the weapons and armor that you have from the first game, there are more than 400 new weapons and armor pieces to play around with, as well as new skills and spells. We didn't get a chance to see how Geonet (the online portion) works, but we're told it's pretty similar with a few updates. Instead of four players in a party, you can now have up to six players with you as you take on quests together.

Like its predecessor, White Knight Chronicles II is a beautiful-looking game and makes a good first impression. The visuals are definitely a strong suit, and it helps that the setting always seems to be at a time when there's either a gorgeous sunset in the background or a dark, star-filled sky. Even during the tutorial section of the game where Miu and Scardigne were trying to escape the guards, we couldn't help but notice the Asian-themed armor and structures as well as the nicely groomed gardens and cobblestone walkways as we ran past.

We'll hopefully have more information for you in the coming months. We were told that the single-player portion of the game will last at least 60 hours if you play through both games, not including the side quests and other activities. Look for White Knight Chronicles II to be released sometime this summer for the PlayStation 3.