Failure to Launch Title: White Knight Chronicles

Level 5's White Knight Chronicles is certainly a game. There is no denying that. It has all the trappings of electronic entertainment. You place a disc in a slick black machine and its data is transmitted onto a television screen by means of either lasers or magic wrought from ancient tomes unearthed years prior by the Arcaneologists under Sony's employ. I was never very clear on the details. Whatever the means of conveyance, soon this information is in your eyeballs, where you might desire it to be.

White Knight Chronicles was intended to be a launch title for the PS3, and one that caught quite a bit of attention as a reason to buy the console. It looked like nothing anybody had seen before. Rapid, intense combat in sprawling environments against giant beasts where you could transform on the fly into a giant robot of some kind. When the PS3 was first unveiled to the masses, that kind of dynamic action in an RPG wasn't something we had really ever seen before. The graphics were stunning, the combat looked intriguing, and the hook - being able to become a sleek, enormous suit of animated armor - had people scrounging the depths of the internet for more news on when to expect this sure-to-be-classic to drop.

So when the PS3 finally came out sans knights of any hue, it was an ominous sign about the future of Level 5's bouncing baby boy. In fact, it was another year after the PS3 release before we even saw a playable demo. If you are reading this from the dimension in which the Backlog normally derives its readers, you know that White Knight Chronicles did not exactly live up to its hype. For those of you viewing our blog from across the constraints of time and space, I apologize. You should still buy a PS3; eventually Level 5 makes a game with Studio Ghibli and it's awesome.

"Also, blowjobs aren't that great." - GameInformer

So this post is going to be about how playing White Knight Chronicles made me put it's sequel on the backlog almost immediately. I gave it a good try, a few solid attempts at putting time into it, but the much-hyped and now much-maligned failure-to-launch title just burned me out, and I really don't know when I'll make an attempt at going back. Let's take a look at just what makes a game that by all means should have been a Charlotte Bronte instead will be remembered as a mere Anne.

Persona 4: The Social Link Network

Here at the Backlog, you know it's mostly coke parties and Gangnam-style dancing. That's why we missed a pair of updates in the last month or so. But, with a vacation on the horizon for both myself and my erstwhile writing partner, I suppose our update schedule will be a little more reliable. You know, now that I think about it, I might be confusing us with IGN. But either way, the point is, more posts, and more Korean dancing.

Oppa Backlog Style.

Case in point, before the latest time crunch began for me, I wrapped up Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. The game was recently remade/upgraded for the PSVita, no doubt following the success of their last remake for the PSP, Persona 3 Portable. I've mentioned in the past that the P3 is one of my all-time favorite games, and I was assured by several people upon embarking upon this fourth entry in the series that it eclipses its predecessor. I'm pleased to report that they were not lying. However, after writing about how Xenogears narrative-heavy style and extremely linear storytelling made it less enjoyable in today's interaction-heavy era of gaming, it feels hypocritical to talk about Persona 4 as being great. So I should point out some of the similarities as well as the differences before I get into the meat of my post.

This game is about 80% cutscene, 15% dungeon crawling, and the rest of the time is split up into running to and from cutscenes or dungeons. Like Xenogears, this game has a lot of talking. A lot of talking. The script for Persona 4 has to be e-freaking-normous. You begin as a transfer student in April of 2011, and every few actions causes the day to move forward until the finale on Christmas Day. Each "day" is essentially a new cutscene, or sometimes several cutscenes, where a lot of the time you'll find you have very little control over what happens. My girlfriend observed me playing this a few different times over a 3-day period, culminating in her asking "So, do you ever DO anything in this game?"

"What do you mean? Can't you see I'm fighting giant strippers? Honey? H-honey?"

But that's the thing - going through those scenes IS playing the game. It's what you play the game FOR. In Xenogears, I played the game expecting a standard RPG that included some giant robots, and instead I got a sci-fi novella with amazing potential, ultimately letting me down because of its glaring flaws. With Persona, I went in knowing that I was going to be spending a lot of time talking to people, and that was what I wanted. Someone once described this set of games to me as "a visual novel, not a game," and for the most part I agree. The difference is that he meant it to deride Persona 4, whereas I find it fascinating.

Xenogears featured a lot of talking and lack of character control because that's what happens when you tell your programming team to build a Sphinx and then take all their slaves over to work on Pyramid #36.

                                                                         egyptpyramidhistory.com

The nose was supposed to be on Disc 2.

Persona 4 is a game where the fighting and dungeon crawling is just a consequence of all the awesome talking you get to do. I'm going to take some time now to describe how this works so well for the game, so grab a snack and prepare to hit the X button a lot as we delve into the world of Social Links.

Almost Got 'Em: Suikoden III (Got It)

We interrupt Xenogears to bring you this tale.

Suikoden III. Off the Backlog.

I have to say, I'm happier with this than I thought I was going to be.

But not happy enough.

I was fortunate enough to have left off this game pretty close to the ending, so when some free time unexpectedly popped up for me, I decided to scratch this one off my backlog for good. This meant tackling the challenge that defeated me last time; the final large-scale battle of the game. Now, for all the great work the series does with the political intrigue and personal stories which mark the writing, the flow of each entry is more or less the same. Hero suffers traumatic experience, finds one of the 27 True Runes, is drawn into a war - a seemingly hopeless war - where his inspiring presence and the help of a brilliant strategist turn the tide, defeats the enemy forces in an enormous final battle, and finally confronts the main villain, who summons a giant monster from a different True Rune. Hero kills monster, villain is vanquished, peace returns to the land.

So the nuggets of storytelling and gameplay that excite Suikoden fans are all contained in this basic framework, but since I quit after losing the last major battle all those years ago, I never got to see how the whole giant monster fight worked out.

He looks nice enough, maybe in this one they just talk it out.

After I gleefully crushed Yuber, and I am not kidding it wasn't even close, I think I took him down on accident when he attacked one of my units so suck it Yuber-who-beat-me-that-one-time, I advanced to the final dungeon. Which, to my surprise, was filled with a lot more of that storytelling and character work that draws Suikoden fans in than either of its predecessors.

So let's take a look at how, with everything finally said and done, Suikoden III stacks up to the first two.

AGE: Suikoden III and the Lost Generation

                                                                                                                                          Gamer Limit

When I first began seriously building my video game collection, I was happy if I could keep $1,000 in the bank at any given time. Now I could re-buy my entire collection ten times over and don't have the time to play any of them. So while I had intended to get through my list of Almost Got 'Em titles this summer, I ended up not even making a dent in the last game I was playing, Suikoden III. However, with what I had played and what I remember from my first attempt at scaling its heights (and Ayn's subtle threats of physical violence if I didn't post something while he's on vacation), I've got enough material to tackle one more post about Suikoden III and how it represents a void in the overall Suikoden narrative that may never be filled.

One of the enthralling things about the Suikoden series has been the lore of the world it takes place in. The creator of the series, Yoshitaka Murayama, originally conceived of the second game first. When he was greenlighted by Konami to make a game for them, he decided to put his grand vision on the back burner to test out the waters with a prequel to his concept. So Suikoden, the game so good it was the whole reason I bought a Playstation in the first place, was the game Murayama made because he needed to prepare the world for what he really had in mind.

"4 stars? It's a start."

And what a story he told! In the span of two games Murayama gave us the Toran Republic and the City-State of Jowston. The epic retelling of the classic Chinese tale The Water Margin with its rebel alliance and domineering empire and impenetrable Death Star.

It's a trap!

Through two games, separated by three years of in-game time, a tale was woven of stalwart heroes and tragic villains, of powerful runes and ancient civilizations, of love, sacrifice, triumph, tragedy, all while making a moving statement about the human condition. Suikoden I and II introduced us to the concepts which were at the heart of Murayama's vision; a saga about a world with 27 True Runes as the focal point of not just magic, but the tragic wars and inspiring heroism that envelop their owners, and the power of the hearts of 108 heroes joined together to change the world.

When Suikoden II was released, it thrilled many players almost right off the bat by not only revealing the fates of two heroes from the previous game who had vanished at its conclusion, but then adding them to your party. This set the stage for discovering that the world would be full of previous "Stars of Destiny" still shining 3 years later. Not only that, but people and areas only referenced in the first Suikoden were now revealed in full, building a whole new layer to an already fantastic story. When Suikoden III was released, taking place a full 15 years after the first sequel, it not only followed suit, but introduced more children than either of the two previous games, hinting at another big time jump and a thrilling new adventure in store for all the fans of the series in Suikoden IV.

And then that never happened.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Holy Shit

Oh where to begin with this all-encompassing, life devouring wonder of a game? I guess I should start by saying I thought I would never be able to get through Morrowind. I played Oblivion first and even though I knew Morrowind could offer the same 200+ hour complete infatuation like I had with it's successor, Morrowind's subpar graphics and missing upgrades/conveniences made it really difficult to get very far. I tried at least 5 times on the Xbox to go back and force myself to play Morrowind, and never once did I get past the first village following the lengthy character creation process.

Then, shortly after Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's announcement, I stumbled across this:

and instructions on how to mod the PC version of the game to make it look more modern. I had never really considered myself much of a PC gamer, mostly because I owned a mac growing up and didn't have a decent gaming rig until a few months ago. Needless to say I was intrigued, and I quickly installed the game, it's expansions, and spent a few hours upgrading my game.

About 2 or 3 weeks later I emerged from my man-cave, covered in stubble and smelling of nerdy sweat and determination. I had fulfilled an ancient prophecy, saved the world, explored every nook and cranny, risen to the top of every guild, and amassed massive stores of loot and weaponry. It's a pretty typical "After" picture for an Elder Scrolls game, one that's different for every person who plays because of the inherent freedom in the game. Oblivion left you feeling like you had made a difference in a massive world with almost all of your actions, and Morrowind succeeds just as well at this, if not better.

Another gem overlooked: Hexyz Force

Sometimes, there's a game that just clicks.

You turn it on, and from the beginning the story has your attention. When you get to the actual meat of the game through the combat system, there's enough depth that it's not overly simplistic, yet it's easy enough to pick up that you're not completely frustrated. This has been my experience with Hexyz Force; a solid game that's managed to grab my attention for some time -- to the point where David wondered if I would ever put the game down long enough to make this post.

If you followed my previous post on Spectral Force 3, you already know I have a knack for picking up some of those niche RPG titles that are easily overlooked. I'll wholeheartedly admit that I have a penchant for enjoying said titles (after all, I enjoyed the SaGa games on some level) that the mainstream seems to abhor. While this PSP RPG is not a frontrunner for handheld game of the year, Hexyz Force still manages to stand out as a enjoyable experience that has a few cumbersome quirks, but does the majority of what it sets out to do right. Read on for some insight into the story, the few annoying points I found while playing, and an overall look into the game.

The Story

Hexyz Force takes place in the world of Berge. Due to a calamity long ago (you know the usual: God of destruction running rampant, the rest of the pantheon sacrificing their powers to stop him, etc.) the world was split in two halves: Lustrous Berge, a land of eternal light, and Dark Berge, a land of perpetual night. As the game begins, you are prompted to select one of two protagonists. Cecilia, a priestess, hails from Lustrous Berge. Levant, an imperial knight, hails from Dark Berge. Although both character stories eventually intersect, each character's tale is essentially its own game until the final chapter.

























Of the two, Levant's story sounded more interesting, so I went with him. Plus, he has a cool coat, which I can dig in the guy I'm controlling for the majority of the game. Next up, I'll give a brief overview of Levant's story:

A Tale of Loyalty, Betrayal and Floating Furry things

Levant's story begins with a meeting between him and the emperor of Rosenbaum, Axel, who just happens to be his best friend. Axel, a just, honorable, and kind-hearted ruler is realizing that the strife between the humans of the empire, and the non-human races (elves, turtles, and lygars -- collectively referred to as "Halbs") has to come to a stop. In an attempt to show unity between the races, and end centuries of warfare between the races, Axel introduces Levant to his new bride to be: An Elven woman named Natulle. While taken aback initially, Levant is able to put aside his deep-seated prejudice against the Halbs long enough to support his friend's choice in bride, and ultimate desire to unify the land.

You're introduced to a few other characters as the opening scenes continue: Irene, Axel's younger sister and Levant's love interest; Bahn, a close friend of Levant and Axel's, as well as a distinguished soldier who has worked his way up through the ranks; Faust, a seemingly kind-hearted scholar who vaguely alludes to an injury he treated Levant for, and Ulu, your obligatory fuzzy mascot character who's there for no real explainable reason.

The opening scenes continue with Bahn and Levant being promoted to the distinguished rank of Cerulean Knight, as well as plans to meet with the elves for Axel and Natulle's engagement dinner party. With his best friends leading his army, and his elven bride ready to support his vision of a brighter future, it all seems as if things are going Axel's way.

Naturally, we know this can't last, right?

Don't get me wrong: The opening is well written, the characters are believable and have good dialogue (for example, Irene doesn't totally throw herself at Levant, but the affection is apparent), but the cynic in me could not help but notice a few things signalling the inevitable train wreck to come. I mean let's lay it out:

First, how often in the history of gaming, movies, or any other form of entertainment has an -empire- ever done good? A kingdom? Sure. A republic? Why not. A Federation? As long as it's not Gundam, sure. But an empire? No matter how noble their plans are initially, they always go south eventually:

I'm sure the Death Star was originally intended as a children's hospital.

Secondly, there's the matter of interracial marriage. Now I'm not against this at all, considering the relationships I've been in. Interracial marriage, however, is something that's still not fully accepted in the 21st century. When we move things back to the equivalent of the middle ages, it's pretty evident how it works out. Furthermore, we're talking inter-species marriage here, and if you read over David's post on Arc the Lad, we've seen how well that can work out.

In Rosenbaum, Keith Bardwell would be a hero.

Lastly, there's a guy named Faust. For those who are well read, you'll recognize the name Faust originates from German literature, named for a brilliant scholar who, in spite of his success, is unsatisfied with his life, makes a deal with the devil to attain greater power, and ends up eternally damned. If you're one of those people who gave up reading in favor of MMO playing, you might recognize this guy:

Sneaky bastard, no matter what game his namesake is in.

I won't spoil much, but if you see a picture of Faust, in spite of his kind words, everything about the guy screams "mad scientist" -- maybe it's the crooked monocle.

It doesn't take long for things to go sour. During Axel's engagement dinner, the party is attacked by unknown assailants, Natulle is murdered, and the empire and Halbs alike are blaming each other for the attack. Since a thorough investigation which gets to the bottom of the matter is far too time-consuming, Axel decides to have a change in foreign policy, going from an amiable fellow like this:



To donning a mask and overhauling his army to be more like this:



Axel, understandably, is a little bit upset that his future wife was murdered. Well, maybe a little upset is an understatement. With some strategic planning from his imperial advisers, Axel comes up with a new vision and course of action:

"Kill it with fire" is the new foreign policy.

Levant, being the stand-up guy that he is, can't quite support his buddy's "flames and genocide" agenda shift. During an attack on the Spirit Forest, the home of the elves, Levant saves a few of the fleeing survivors. In the midst of this attack, he happens upon a monument sacred to the elves, which bestows upon him the Holy Sword Kravunado: A relic meant to appear to the champion of elves in a time of crisis. Of course, considering that most of the able bodied elves are well, dead, the powers that be decide that Levant works for now.

Axel, unfortunately, gets wind of Levant's noble actions. While the Axel of old may have praised his actions, the new Axel is well, sort of a dick. Levant is promptly charged with treason, stripped of his Cerulean Knight commander rank, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. Shortly after, Irene hears of this and confronts her brother, being none to pleased that she's jailed her man. Axel being well, sort of a dick, hasn't changed much, and he promptly reminds his sister that she's an unwanted bastard child of their father and has her thrown out of the castle. Irene, naturally is not happy about this. Fortunately her response to stress is a little less flame-filled than her brothers, but nevertheless bold. She enlists the help of a Halb rebel organization -- Argent (named for a deity in the world) -- led by the Lygar Griek, breaks Levant out of jail.

All of this takes place in roughly the first -hour- of the game, so it's easy to see how the story gripped me early on. Of course, story alone doesn't make a game: What keeps an RPG engaging are the mechanics and battle system, which I'll cover next

Game Mechanics

Overall, there aren't many flaws with Hexyz Force. It attempts to keep things simple while adding a few innovative touches with battle and the overall gameplay. A lot of these elements work well. Some of them, however, are explained so confusingly in the tutorial that even sharp minds would be left in the dark without the help of Gamefaqs:

Certainly not elementary.

The main culprits here are the Hexyz Charge System, the elemental affinity system, and the Creation/Destruction scales. First, let's look at the Hexyz Charge system:



The percentage marker at the top notes the Hexyz Charge, which accumulates points by properly aligning the three divine aspects (Crimson Lotus, Pearl Light, and Cerulean Flame -- representative of each major diety) in battle. The higher the percentage, the more damage the next attack deals. Failing to match the proper alignment leads to it resetting. Really, once you play for a bit, you can figure it out (and the game helps you along if you look at the charge meter), but the way it is initially explained in the tutorial makes it quite confusing. This, perhaps, is due in part to being introduced to the elemental affinity system shortly after. In addition to having to consider the divine aspects, you also have to consider enemy elemental attributes.

Don't get me wrong: I don't mind systems like this. In fact, the whole Hexyz Charge system has potential since it's influenced by both player and enemy alike. What you find out as you play more, however, is that the game is so painfully easy that neither really matters: If you sufficiently level up your weapons (one of the systems that was done quite well, honestly) and occasionally level your characters, you'll pretty much stomp everything in the game. As such, it's often not worth bothering with elemental based attacks, save for maybe the holy or dark based ones. Sigh.

The real culprit in all of this, is the creation/destruction system, also pictured below:

Balan-Sight is a jerk.

The choices you make, how you handle battle, and how you handle quests all affect this scale, which eventually determines which ending you get: One of creation, or one of destruction. It's a neat idea, but one that again, is never really explained well. The scale pops up at the end of each chapter to show your progress, with a decision being made in the final chapter.

In spite of these gripes, however, I've found a lot to enjoy about the game

The Perks

I mentioned before that Hexyz Force is a rather easy game. Frankly though, after taking a break from the sometimes punishing difficulty of Spectral Force 3, this was a welcome change. The easier pace of combat (augmented by the fact that you can fast-forward battles), combined with the rather engaging story made for an enjoyable experience. Here are a few key areas:

Combat is fun: It's your standard turn-based fare, but the variety of weapons and abilities at your disposal, in addition to a slight tactical element with enemy positioning makes for an easy, yet fun combat experience.

Interesting Weapons: There are a host of weapons in the game: Some have limited durability (which you'll likely never used) and others with unlimited durability, like Levant's sword, can be leveled up to gain new abilities, additional attack power, and speed. As each character has a range of weapons they can use, this adds an additional depth to combat, and is fairly straightforward.

Item Fusion: While it can be a little cumbersome to find the ingredients for items sometimes, the game forgoes your standard shops in favor of having your little furry mascot thing sytnhesize items for you: Accessories, capes, spiritfacts (the weapons with limited duraility) and more are available to you through the synthesis system.

The Story: I've already mentioned an overview of the first part of Levant's tale, but the story is rather gripping. It's not too cheesily written, NPCs have enough amusing dialogue to keep one's attention, and the character development, as well as interaction (at least in Levant's tale) is believable and well written.

With all of this going for the game, it didn't take me long to reach the closing chapter of Levant's tale. It's already an amazing feat when a game makes it off the backlog, but even moreso when it happens in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately, as I stand at endgame, I'm suddenly brought to a stop. It's already been established that there's more than one tale, and while Cecilia's playthrough, should I elect to do so, will be an easier playthrough, there's another factor:

So what's the hold up?

Remember the creation scales? I discovered that if balanced properly, you can go towards a neutral path, which is essentially the "true" ending. Balancing the scales in this way is already a task in itself, but it also requires you to do certain things in Levant's quest before you finish. Furthermore, to make Cecilia's quest a quicker playthrough, I'm stuck doing a certain amount of grinding, and making sure I get the items that carry over.

Sure. I could just ignore all of this. I could finish Levant's story, breeze through Cecilia's, and possibly watch the "neutral" ending on YouTube. After all, I've enjoyed the game enough, and I have plenty more to go through. However, there is one person that stands between me and allowing myself mediocrity:

I hate this guy almost as much as David does.

..Thus a game that could have been finished a week or two ago is still going on. These days, I'm getting a little better about not getting absolutely everything in one playthrough, and even resigning myself not to go through a second time. However, I know that guy is there. Watching. Laughing. Mocking.

Fortunately, I've completed those annoying sidequests, and after wrapping things up with this post, I fully intend to finish Hexyz Force by tonight. Maybe I'll do Cecilia's playthrough, maybe not. But I can at least consider it 'finished' with this playthrough should I choose.

For those of you considering a purchase of Hexyz Force, you'll find it well worth your time. Sure, it's an easy game, and sure, there are other RPGs on the PSP that stand out more. Sometimes, however, you don't need to be awed by everything in a game, nor do you need every encounter to be an edge of your seat challenge. For a game that's meant to be played on the go, Hexyz Force does an excellent job of providing a great experience.