Q&A: White Knight Chronicles

So White Knight Chronicles comes out THIS WEEK!  Needless to say… I’m super excited about it.

Recently, PSNation had Producers Tsubasa Inaba and Kumi Yuasa on for a little Q&A.  If you listened to the show, you know that I sent them a list of 23 questions but, as expected, due to time constraints, they could only ask a few of them.  Well Glenn sent the rest of them to Mr. Inaba and Ms. Yuasa via email and they answered them for us.

So here you go.  A ton of stuff you may or may not want to know about White Knight Chronicles.  Their answers are in italics.

Questions:
Communication:
1) Are you able to talk to all 12 players via voice chat when in an online lobby/georama?
–> Yes. (This was answered on the show in more detail)
1b) –If so, are you able to cross-party chat after the players move to their respected games? ie still talk to all 12 players after splitting up into your parties of 4.
–> No. (This was answered on the show in more detail)
2) Are there customizable quick chat options similar the Phantasy Star online titles?
–> There are preset quick chat options you can use. There are also many options to emote for enhancing communication with other players.

Online:
3) Most important… Free online play yes?
–> Yes, it’s free of charge. All you need is a valid PSN account.
4) The players online avatar is part of the party during the story correct?
–> Yes. Avatars can switch back and forth between online play and story mode.
5) Is the avatar able to level up during online missions?
–> Yes. Levels and gears/items will transfer between the online play and story mode.
6) If yes, is there anything implemented to balance out the rest of the story characters and enemies so that your avatar is not “God Mode” compared to the rest of them due to leveling in online missions?
–> No we didn’t implement anything to balance on that. If we did, that would have been disappointing to users since they went all the way out to raise Avatars into higher levels. So we see that as a reward to the users.

7) Can other players access your Georama when you are offline?
–> Yes. (This was answered on the show in more detail)
8) Does it cost in game money to build your Georama?
–> You can create Georama parts if you have necessary materials. Materials can be usually obtained through combats or from the fields, but you may have to buy certain materials from the in-game shop.
9) Are players able to buy weapons and items from the shops in your Georama?
–> Yes. (This was answered on the show in more detail)
9b) –If so, does the player generate income from said sales?
–> Unfortunately no.
10) What kind of loot do you get during online play?
–> Materials that can be used to bind weapons/armor/items/Georama parts. Some materials are only available from quests.
11) Are there trophies for online play?
–> Since Trophy information/details are hidden on XMB, we’d like you to find out. : )

Story mode:
12) About how long is the story mode?
–> About 25 – 40 hours depending on how much you explore in each field.
13) Level 5 did a GREAT job with side missions in Rogue Galaxy, are there similar side missions in this game?
–> There are many sub quests in White Knight Chronicles but they are not directly related to story mode. In that sense, it may be different from the side mission in Rogue Galaxy.
14) Is there a weapon creation/combination system like Rogue Galaxy or maybe an accessory creation system like Jeanne D’arc?
–> Yes, welcome to the Level 5 game! The familiar character will help you do that. : )
15) How many characters do you meet throughout the story and how many can you have in your party?
–> We don’t want to disclose too much, but we’ve revealed 6 characters in our official trailers. Will they all join the party? Let’s find out!
16) Level 5 is very good about allowing your story characters to earn experience points even if they are not in your combat party. Does White Knight do something similar?
–> Yes.

Combat:
17) I understand that the combos are customizable within reason, how easy is it to earn skill points to get new skills for your combos?
–> Skill points can be earned every time you level up.
18) Sounds like there are close to (if not more) than 400 skills to learn. Do the pillars of strength require a min/max strategy (focus on one or two) or will your characters get enough skill points to cover all pillars?
–> In your initial round, your characters will not get enough skill points to cover all pillars. It’s up to you if want to master a pillar or unlock some skills here and there in multiple pillars. Make sure you strategically allocate skill points to raise each character!
19) Are the moves available in each “pillar of strength” different for each character?
–> They are basically the same.
20) Does each character have a particular pillar of strength that they lean toward? Ie are better with skills from one pillar than the other characters?
–> Some characters can unlock certain pillars that other characters don’t. In the same pillar, skills are basically the same.
21) How exactly do you earn action chips during battle?
–> Action chips can be earned as you go through combat. Not only giving damages but also receiving damages will increase the action chips. The character who gives the last finishing blow to an enemy earns more action chips. Also when you level up, you get the full action chips. Furthermore, characters can learn skills to restore action chips too.

I would like to personally thank Tsubasa Inaba and Kumi Yuasa for taking the time to answer these questions and Glenn from PSNation for sending them on.  I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time, and it shows.  This is a great week for the Level 5 fanboy in me.

Don’t forget that VGEvo will be hosting White (K)Nights.  We’ll be getting together to play White Knight Chronicles online every Tuesday at 8PM Eastern time starting on February 9th.

Later people.