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White Knight Chronicles (White Knight Story) is a video game RPG developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is Level-5's first project for the system, and is currently slated to release in Japan sometime in mid to late 2008, with a worldwide localization to follow shortly thereafter. According to Sony during a press conference in Tokyo, White Knight Chronicles is expected to launch during the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2009, though whether this applies to all releases of the game is still to be determined.

While little is known about the title, Level-5 has revealed they are placing an emphasis on scale within the game world. As per the playable demo at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, some enemies are extremely large in size, resulting in battle situations similar in style to Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 2 title, Shadow of the Colossus. In one piece of concept artwork, a massive turtle-like creature is depicted carrying an entire city on its back.

Gameplay
White Knight Chronicles, like most other console RPGs, is presented in third person perspective. The player can freely choose which character to control. Like any other RPG, the characters gain experience points and level up, becoming stronger over the course of the game. Level-5 plans to make White Knight Chronicles a 50-60 hour game, a length Akihiro Hino considers to be a full length RPG, going against the pressure to make White Knight Chronicles a launch title and cutting the story short.


World
The Tokyo Game Show trailer shows that, similar to Soul Blazer, one can select locations on a world map, presumably ones the player has already visited, to instantly go to, along with a preview of that area. Each area also has a quest list that shows quests the player has yet to complete. The player can choose a quest to do before going to the desired area.


Battle system
The battle system used in White Knight Chronicles uses a real-time combat system, where the battle mode is initiated automatically when enemies are present. Before a battle, the player optionally goes into the "Battle Preparation" menu (accessible at any time) and chooses a set of seven commands for each character in the party. This set of seven commands is called a "Function Palette", and several of these palettes can be saved, suggesting that tactical palette preparing and switching will be essential to the game. The commands can also link in some way, presumably to create combos. These can then be used in battle, but before a player can perform these combos the character must attack when the enemy is vulnerable otherwise the attack gets blocked or deflected. The player controls one of the characters, while the others are controlled by the AI, as seen in the Tokyo Game Show trailer. Players, though, can freely change the character they're controlling. The main character can transform into the White Knight when a gauge is filled, using normal attacks on minor enemies. Characters can also perform combo attacks with other characters, such as one character holding an enemy while another attacks it. Boss battles also take place in a similar fashion except that they may include cutscenes for in-battle events.

Characters

Lenard: The main character who can transform into the White Knight.

Yulie: A girl who comes from the same village as Lenard.

Erudoa: A middle aged warrior.

White Knight: A seven meter tall warrior from a time when such creatures nearly destroyed all of mankind.

Black Knight: A warrior identical to the White Knight in both powers and abilities.

The Player: A character that the player of the game can customize and have accompany the main cast throughout the game.

Story
Not much is known about the story, though in an interview with Famitsu, Level-5 president Akihiro Hino revealed that the game's story will center around the relationship between the protagonist and the princess that was seen in the promotional trailer. Early in the game, the protagonist comes to the princess' rescue and from there on, they begin to develop a close relationship with one another.

source - wikipedia

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Sony Japan and Level-5 updated the main image in the front page of their official sites for Shirokishi Monogatari (aka White Knight Chronicles) with a text that my poor translation says “The days of awakening is coming soon“. The change is noted by some Japanese blogs and most likely point to a reappearance of the highly anticipated RPG after a year of silence at Tokyo Game Show 2008 or better yet, new updates in the upcoming issue of Weekly Famitsu (Level-5 president and the game’s director/producer Akihiro Hino has a regular column chatting about the game in the mag for a few issues before it disappeared quietly). Although this is not entirely surprising as Sony had mentioned before that the game will be launched in this fiscal year (ended April 2009), the game’s complete lack of updates is worrying me, so any minor updates is a news for my single most anticipated PS3 game now.

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A White Knight Chronciles Ad

The White Knight Chronicles publicity machine has kicked into gear here in Japan. The above ad not only shows off the game's RPG heroics, but character customization. Nothing new for gaming, but still neat to see as a selling people for a TV ad. The Level-5 developed PS3 exclusive is out Christmas Day in Japan.

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The official White Knight Chronicles website has received a major update today. The new update adads a few new characters in the Character screen (one is a creepy old man) as well as some brand new enemies in the World screen (shown above). That's not all, they've also revealed a (flying?) ship in the World screen as well. Along with that, there is some new battle information in the System screen.