Amazing graphics. Great gameplay. US release. White Knight Chronicles just leveled up even more in my book. Writing about this game a few times has actually given me an itch that I've wanted to scratch for a while now. Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino shares his new RPG through this video interview. A must-see.

Back at TGS last month, Sony had this closed theater for White Knight Chronicles. Those who went got a card, with which they could get access to a video. Lucky for us, internet is all we need - here's that vid.

Level-5 Producer Akihiro Hino recently entertained an interview for the upcoming PlayStation 3 RPG title White Knight Story. Despite this video game being one of the sleeper titles for Sony's console, it has gained a lot of popularity ever since it was announced back in TGS 2006.

"What we wanted to do was to provide a fantasy story, where the hero is just your typical cool hero that everybody else wants to be. And both Kusuda and I are huge fans of hero-type stories - the superheroes and even the Japanese typical robot hero kind of stories," commented Hino when asked about the inspirations for White Knight Story.

Regarding gameplay, the title will feature a one-button mechanics for all attacks. The Level-5 officials explained that this was done on purpose because they wanted their game to be accessible to many gamers. Despite that, the combat system will sport a customization feature that adopts on the current in-game situations players are in.

Players will reportedly be provided with function slots where they can put the different attacks of their character. These can then be rotated during combats for variety and depending on the weaknesses of the enemies. Hino further explained:

The function slots that we're providing for the combat system...we want that to be incorporated into the player's strategy where, depending on the situation, they re-arrange the different slots with different attacks so that they can fight the enemy based off of their weaknesses and strengths and just incorporate that into their strategy.

Lastly, Akihiro Hino talked about the "White Knight" mode in the game where players will be able to change forms during times theyre encountering enemies much stronger than them. But players have to take note though that this mode is only for a limited time:

The White Knight is much more powerful and offers a much more powerful arsenal to take on the enemy. But, we're not going to provide a free-for-all. The White Knight does have a time limit, so it has to be incorporated into the strategy, and the players have to pick and chose when to best utilize the White Knight.

White Knight Story is expected to hit Western markets after it has been released in Japan later this year.

Prominent developer Level-5 amazed everyone with its game of epic proportions, White Knight Story, at last year's Tokyo Game Show (TGS). The Japanese company continues to impress as the game demonstration at PlayStation Premiere left everyone in awe.

Demo started off with a bang, showcasing the game's extensive character creation tool. Not trying to exaggerate, but we expect customization to reach a whole new level with this engine. After all, Level-5 used it themselves to design the main characters and around 1,000 NPCs that appear in-game.

Next up, the pseudo-mech White Knight and monstrous demon that could eat Godzilla alive have at each other. You probably know the drill: it's an epic clash of the titans. Another nice detail is how there are humans enjoying their own party of havoc on the ground.

Show ended up with Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino promising that the quality will improve more before the game appears on TGS as playable. With a couple of months to wait, we definitely have something to look forward to. These are the guys behind Dark Cloud 2, Dragon Quest XIII, and other top class titles so we expect more of the same.

For the rest of the screenshots courtesy of Famitsu, click on Full Article.

  

The president of White Knight's developer, Level 5, sat down with Japan's weekly Famitsu magazine and allowed his insights regarding the game to be put on record.

According to him, they hope to make a game which has at least 50 to 60 hours worth of playtime, which, in his opinion, is the standard play time for an RPG. However, Level 5 initially wanted to get the game shipped in time for the launch of the PS3, which would mean that the game would be some rushed first generation RPG project. Good thing they got to their senses and realized that if they were to do that, they would have to cut the story short, which is definitely something they didn't want to do.

"With White Knight, we don't want to release a half-way product," said Akihiro Hino, the president of Level 5. "We want to have a big title that surpasses the volume of the RPGs we've made in the past."

Well, that's certainly good to hear. It's better to keep us waiting if only the game will truly be worth it, as opposed to having it rushed and falling short entirely of our expectations, right?