This leaves one piece left in the puzzle. Why level up to 50 five times and get a load of hardcore gear when all the dungeons in the game can be beaten at level 30? The answer: online questing. You and up to three friends can tackle any quest you or they have unlocked during offline play, in an online instance – providing you meet the minimum guild rank needed to participate. This system works excellently via a Quest Officer in your online town which allows you to host or join quests already running, set privacy, level, guild rank limitations and so on. Once the quest instance is created everyone has 10 minutes to gather and prepare, after which the quest starts unless you start it before the timer expires. Each quest has a time limit and conditions for success and failure. The time in which you complete it and a couple of other factors are directly correlated to the rank you’ll achieve for it, and what you’re really looking to do here is finish as many quests as possible at the highest rank (“S rank”), because it’s the fastest way to advance your guild rank – hence opening more quests and town upgrade options. If someone dies during the quest, they go back to the quest’s start point and can either catch you up or you can go back for them. Once the quest is over, there is a cooling off period of a few minutes before everyone gets dumped back into the host’s home town, which again, can be skipped.
This system works superbly and answers the question of why hardcore gear is needed: there are quests which require a full group of level 50 players with high spec weapons and armour to complete, which can’t be done in the single-player offline game. It’s worthy of note that the mobs are much tougher to take down when playing online. Loot that you pick up from online quests can be taken back into the single-player game offline, as can farmed items. Players cannot give each other money and only certain kinds of items, which I assume is done to prevent cheating and works adequately. While you can’t give each other epic swords, you can share out heal and mana potions to help each other without problems, which is a good thing. Voice chat is essential for team co-ordination even with just two players and works smoothly.
You are probably starting to see how all of this falls together now and why there is so much gameplay. What Level 5 have done here is subtly and carefully link online and offline play in such a manner that those who aren’t interested in online play can still play through an entertaining adventure, and have the option to do more afterwards if they wish – yet never go online, while those who want to play online will have plenty of reasons to do so and can bring their loot back with them to help in the story if they want. There is actually no need to play the story first beyond getting to know the controls. Once you’ve grasped it, you can just stay in the first town, quest online and keep picking up new quests from the town’s adventurer’s guild as your guild rank increases. All dungeons are unlocked by default when playing online, providing you or a friend have a quest set in one of them.
So in essence, while online play and offline play don’t strictly rely on each other in White Knight Chronicles, they are blended in such a way that it is strongly to your advantage to thoroughly explore both. The story mode should really just be considered an introduction to all the areas on the map if you are planning to take the game seriously.
As if that weren’t enough, once you’ve completed the story for the first time you have the option to go back and play a so-called New Game+ separate from all of the above, which resets the story but lets you keep all your characters, levels, gear and other items. Everything is harder and the loot is better.
So, what are the downsides? A large number of small ones. The menus, while generally laid out well, do have some deep options that should have been made much quicker to access. The friends list on GeoNet is bugged and only seems to add some people properly, claiming others have pending friend requests while actually adding them but not sending the recipient any request at all. There is no option for Japanese voice overs, although it has to be said the Western ones are quite amusing at times, purists will hate it. Comparing item stats and effects is a little easier than in Star Ocean but still awkward. The camera can be occasionally annoying, especially when you’re the White Knight or there are a number of large mobs in the room. Skills you haven’t learned yet don’t tell you how much MP and AC is required to use the skill. More than 4 players in a quest instance would have been preferable. The game is initially confusing while you’re learning the combat system. The health bars are tiny little vertical crystals instead of bars and there is no progress indicator to show how far you are to the next level except by going into the Learn Skills menu and looking at the numerical value of your character’s experience and next level experience. You can’t see how many AC other members of your party have without selecting them. The story cut scenes are often a yawn-fest. Some may feel the story is too short and too easy – for me this wasn’t an issue given the rest of the game.