- So far, a lot of attention has been paid to the single-player story of White Knight Chronicles. You know, how you'll create a character that will hang in the background while Leonard and his motley group of heroes make their way across the countryside trying to protect the princess.
Well, today in Tokyo, the online portion of WKC got its time in the spotlight.
Unlocking after you complete chapter one (which should take a couple of hours), the online portion of this game will take that character you've created and toss him or her into 50 disc-based quests with online players. Be on the lookout for DLC later. A yourself if you're a loner. If it's just the fact that you're a loser andtotal of four players can set out on these journeys, but you could really take them on by have no friends that's holding you back, there's a random match option that'll pair you up with other friendless, PlayStation Network losers.
Your avatar's single-player level and skills will carry over to this online mode, but you'll be building your Guild Rank when you take the fight to the Internet. The rank increases as you complete quests, and as it does, you get access to better missions, weapons, and gear. Although you can have the character emote or text chat, voicechat is going to be supported when White Knight Chronicles launches in the United States and Europe.
Now, there are two major parts to this online community -- GeoNet and Georama. GeoNet is the guts of the WKC online infrastructure. Here, you'll be able to message other players, manage your profile, blog, access message boards, and more.
Meanwhile, Georama is your personal lobby. Here, you'll be able to place structures such as houses, fountains, and windmills while building a village for your avatar. When you invite friends to play a multiplayer quest, they'll pop up in your town, shop at the stores that have opened up, and meet the NPCs you've recruited to live in your town before heading out to get the job done.
When you create your village, you can select the plains, desert, or wilderness setting and drop trees, embankments, and so on wherever you like. Each of the NPCs you get to live in your town come with specific jobs and skill levels. Those levels play into your Georama's attributes.
Sadly, I only got to see Georama in an onscreen presentation, but it looked pretty detailed. Level-5 was able to whip up a village with iron fences, colored crates, and more in a matter of seconds and everything looked good and ran well -- it was kind of like a current-gen Dark Cloud. One lobby has a maximum of 12 people, although one quest can only have four players. While we're talking brass tax, one person can create a total of 20 Georama rooms.
Live Talk is also being added to the U.S./Europe version of White Knight Chronicles. Now, characters will "mutter" while running across levels and have conversations. Plus, all of the updates the Japanese version of the game saw will be included on the disc, which is coming "as soon as possible."