White Knight Chronicles

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
O Wizel, white warrior, wielder of the ancient sword, grant me your power. Verto!

Describe White Knight Chronicles here.

Okay. Take your standard JRPG styled adventure, and slap a Guymelef in there as the most badass Limit Break ever.

White Knight Chronicles is the first game for the Play Station 3 by developer Level 5 Games. You are... well, you - the game features an insanely robust character creator, which was actually used to create every NPC in the game. However, the main character is Leonard, a seventeen year old boy of no real importance until, in an effort to save the princess of Balandor, he acquires the Incorruptus "White Knight", a seven-meter tall suit of white and blue armor. What follows is your standard RPG fare, involving princesses, evil conspiracies... and Humongous Mecha.

While not exactly critically acclaimed (reviews tend to be mixed, with some reviewers giving it 8-9, while others setting it firmly in a 5-6 range, the general consensus being that it's not much new, but it's not bad either) the game has an impressive cult following due to its long development time and interesting game play.

A sequel was released in Japan in 2010.

Tropes used in White Knight Chronicles include:
  • 0% Approval Rating: Yshrenia to rest of the world.
  • Actor Allusion: Crispin Freeman, he once played a White-Haired Pretty Boy named Balmung of the .hack// world.
  • Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Item Binding. To get the best items and Incorruptus parts, you've got to do binding. But to bind the best equipment, you need the exactly right bits and pieces of monsters or flora (most of which have random drop rates approaching the .000% range), or else you're screwed. So go buy a straw hat and a pitch fork, because you're going farming for a couple of hours ... HA HA, no days.
  • Advertised Extra: You. Despite the trailers and the fact that you, not Leonard, are the one mentioned on the back of the (sealed, so people can't see the intro in the manual) game box, be fully prepared to have your avatar stand in the background of scenes, nodding dumbly, with hardly anyone even addressing dialogue directly to him or her -- if your avatar is even in the scene at all.
  • Air Jousting: Black Knight vs Ancient Dragon in the first game, Dragon Knight vs Netherwyrm and White Knight vs Black Knight in the second.
  • And the Adventure Continues...: The second game ends on one of these, setting up both the Avatar storyline (which may or may not make it State-side) and Emperor Madoras's survival of the Final Battle.
  • Anime Hair: Leonard
  • Anticlimax: Both games sputter across the finish line when they finally get to their endings, but its particularly egregious in the second game, which feels like the ending of a Act Two of a three act story, when it is the ending of that story.
  • Anticlimax Boss: The Sun King only in the first game though, because Princess Cisna's spell holds back his power. You get to fight him without this assistance in the sequel, and, as a result, he lives up to his reputation as a formidable boss-fight.
  • Apathetic Citizens: You'd never know there was anything wrong with the world just by visiting the towns. Hell, Balandor's about as bright and cheery as it ever was the next day after the castle is raided, their king is murdered, and their princess is kidnapped.
  • The Archer: The Moon Maiden.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: This little exchange while on Redhorn Island near the climax of White Knight Chronicles 2

Kara: He'll pay for manipulating me!
Yulie: And for betraying Balandor!
Caesar: And for killing my puppy! Okay, I made that one up.

  • Attack Animal: The Netherwyrm was made 10,000 years ago as a weapon that can fight forever without being killed or defeated. 10,000 years later it is still around, spreading it's poison.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Brimflamme. It's huge enough to even dwarf the Knights.
  • Back from the Dead: Kara who died at the ruins in the Dogma Rift was revived by Father Yggdra because she still has a role to play.
  • Badass Cape: The White Knight, the Sun King, and Eldore sport these. You can also buy or bind some pretty badass capes as accessories.
  • Badass Normal: Cyrus. Whenever he is not drinking or wallowing in self-pity he is seen in the midst of battle, tearing through hordes of enemy soldiers.
  • Badass Abnormal: Eldore.
  • Beam-O-War: Kara's magic vs Ledom's magic.
  • Beam Spam: The farian navy. It literally rains energy spears when they start shelling the Yshrenian forces.
  • Becoming the Mask: This the majority of Kara's character arc, to the point where it happens twice. Once before the game starts when she falls into the identity of General Dragias, and the Black Knight, and again when she becomes the Kara the party knows for much of the game.
  • Berserk Button: Dragons don't like seeing their kin get attacked or killed.
  • BFG: The Act of God. Mountain-sized.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Grazel is put in his place once the true emperor of Yshrenia makes his appearance.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Greavers.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Leonard and the gang when they save Miu and Scardigne at the beginning of the game.
  • Bishounen: At one point in Albana, during the first game, you're required to play as Leonard and walk around looking for information. One of the NPCs the player speaks to will hit on him. It's also lampshaded by Kara.

Kara: You're all looks and no brains.

"This has got bad idea written all over it."

  • Giant Equals Invincible - The Demithor and Greaver
  • Giant Spider: Though the game has some very liberal views on what qualifies as a spider.
  • Giant Mooks: Many of them. Every area offers at least one or two.
  • Global Airship: Zig-zagged like crazy. [2]
  • Good Is Dumb: Invoked by the villains, and lampshaded by the heroes. The party, by its own admission, is notable for:
    • 1) Being entirely too trusting of otherwise untrustworthy characters.
    • 2) Being alarmingly short-sighted.
    • 3) Being incapable of properly rescuing people.
    • 4) Walking (at times knowingly) into incredibly obvious traps.
      • In fact, when they finally do do something smart, they have to hide it from the player because it would otherwise strain credibility.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Not a single one of the main characters wears a helmet, and the only equipment available for your character's head are glasses.
    • Averted. The second game had a special armor set for those who purchased the first run in Japan; the armor looked like the White Knight - helmet and all.
  • Henshin Hero / Humongous Mecha (It's kinda debatable on which this actually is. Probably an affectionate mix of both.)
  • Heroic Mime: The Avatar. He or she will grunt, groan, scream out the names of his companions if they're near death, and say "Verto!" when transforming, but is otherwise mute.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: The Demithor turns itself to stone in order to halt the advance of Garmatha.
  • Hero of Another Story: The Avatar in multiplayer mode
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted. You have many different weapon-type skill sets to choose from for each character (although some characters can't use some specific weapon types). Your Avatar can use every type, however.
  • The High Queen: Cisna, in everything but title. Seriously, she's never technically coroneted, even a year after her ascension to the throne.
  • Horned Humanoid: The Farians. Men have deer-like antlers while the women sport ram-like horns.
  • 100% Adoration Rating: Princess Cisna.
  • Human Sacrifice: Kara's sister was sacrificed in order to fuse three Gigantes into one creature.
  • Idiot Ball: Leonard and the rest of the heroes spend most of their time in the first game asking the villains to release the princess, and then make no move to stop them when they make good their escape.
  • Indecisive Parody: The main plot is "serious" enough, but when you sit right down and look at it, most of what happens is actually pretty goofy.
  • An Interior Designer Is You: The georama
  • Item Crafting: Called binding. Absolute necessity if you want to tackle quests.
  • Jerkass Facade: Count Drisdal[3]
  • Jiggle Physics: The Succubi's breasts flap around all over the place.
  • Jumped At the Call: Leonard.
  • Just in Time: A staple of the first game's plot. Even though the Magi have an airship, and you're on foot, and you're in a race against them to get to the next Plot Coupon point on the map, you always arrive right as shit's about to go down, even if you've spent nine hours Level Grinding. It seems like a huge coincidence, until Belcitane straight up tells you he sits around and waits for you to finally show up because he needs you there because the aforementioned shit going down is all a part of the plan.
  • Kamehame Hadoken: Cisna, of all people, whips one of these out to kill Madoras. Doesn't stick, though.
  • The Kingdom: Balandor
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Leonard, figuratively and literally.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Eldore and Kara. In Kara's case, it's about as literal as Leonard's, one example up.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Lots.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Osmund. His men would prefer it if his "plans" would include more sneaking and flanking and less "full-speed ahead" or "death before dishonour".
  • Legacy Character: General Dragias, whose current incarnation is Kara
  • Light Is Not Good: The Sun King
  • Like a Son to Me: The relationship between King Valtos and Cyrus.
  • Load-Bearing Boss: The Black Usurper and Emperor Madoras. Both appear to hold up the first and second game's final dungeons, respectively.
  • Lost Technology: See all that stuff the Magi are using like the airships, tanks, attack drones, the flying fortress or the giant cannon? All of that is already 10,000 years old.
  • Loyal Phlebotinum: A Knight's Ark can only be used by its pactmaker and will violently reject anyone else upon contact. The only way to claim its power is to kill the current pactmaker and make a pact with the Incorruptus yourself.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The White Knight.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Ledom aka Sarvain.
  • Magic Knight
  • Maybe Ever After: Leonard and Cisna.
  • Merchant City: Greede
  • Mordor: Redhorn Isle
  • My Greatest Failure: His failure to prevent the king's death and Cisna's abduction hits Cyrus hard.
  • New Game+: The first game allows you to start a new game with all the items and gear (except storyline items) you have aquired and your level reset to 35. The world also features new chests which are filled with Guild Rank 7/8 weapons and gear that allow a smooth start into online questing. The second game let's you keep items, gear and levels but doesn't offer new chests like the first did.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: The Knights are indestructible, capable of routing entire battlefields alone. The Sun King takes it a step further as it is even impervious to the attacks from its fellow Knights. Until you get Falcyos.
    • The Netherwyrm as well. The "deathless" part of its boss subtitle wasn't just for show.
  • No Export for You: White Knight Chronicles: Origins and the Avatar Story DLC never made it to North America.
  • Nolan North: Cyrus
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Magi were largely derided as a backwards-looking kooky cult ... before they launched a sneak attack on Balandor that decapitated its leadership.
  • Not Quite Dead: Madoras. Twice.
  • Now It's My Turn: Said word for word by Ceasar
  • Obviously Evil: Belcitane, Shapur, Sarvain. Grazel also abandons any pretense of, ah, well, not being evil in the second game when he shows up in black spiky Evil Overlord armor.
  • Ominous Floating Castle: The flying fortress Garmatha is a mix between this and Floating Continent.
  • One Game for the Price of Two: Inverted. The sequel includes an Updated Rerelease of the entire first game (with the second's graphics and gameplay), making it two games for the price of one. That said, the second game reuses every location from the first game with only six new visitable locations, so the Enhanced Remake of White Knight Chronicles I came about by default.
  • One-Man Army: Every pactmaker as demonstrated by Shapur who conquered Albana thanks to the power of the Black Knight.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Phibbianacci and his guards.
  • One-Winged Angel: All over the place. Every named character and mook who has a summoning card can and will do this.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Grazel spends the majority of the second game sitting on his enormous Cool Throne and gloating over the puny efforts of his adversaries.
  • Perpetual Molt: The Black Knight whenever it busts out its wings
  • Pimped-Out Dress: As a princess, Cisna has a rose colored dress with white gauze trimmings As queen, she has a dress that is practically a Battle Ballgown.
  • Poisonous Living Weapon: The Netherwyrm constantly emanates a purple mist that is the cause of a deadly sickness called Pyrexia.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Ancients used newborn infants as the first Pactmakers
  • The Quiet One: Princess Cisna, initially. Begins the first game as a Shrinking Violet who hasn't said a word in close to a decade. Ends the second game as a full-blown Lady of War, who has no quams about giving impassioned speeches, ordering soldiers to their deaths by the boat-load, and telling off the ancient Humanoid Abomination Big Bad.
  • Rags to Riches: Cyrus started out as a homeless orphan and worked his way up to captain of the castleguard. End credits seem to suggest that he has taken Sarvain's position.
  • Really 10,000 Years old: All of the original five pactmakers, plus Eldore and Sarvain/Ledom.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Kara, she's cleansed of the Black Knight's corruption.
    • She's back in the second game as Scardigne.
  • Redemption Demotion: Kara, again. Though she comes back in the second game, she spends much of her time as Scardinge, so you can't change her equipment aside from her weapon, and she loses her ability to transform into the Black Knight. Not that you could use it in the first place.
  • Reincarnation: Princess Cisna is the reincarnation of Queen Mureas of Athwan.
  • Reluctant Warrior: The Moon Maiden refused to take further part in battle and sealed herself inside Father Yggdra. She changes her mind for Yulie.
  • Retcon: Happens in-game. Initially it appears that Kara killed King Valtos in the guise of General Dragias, making her look like a Complete Monster sociopath. Its later revealed that while Kara is General Dragias, she wasn't the Dragias that killed Valtos. Who was really in the armour at the time isn't revealed until the second game. And, suprise! It was Evil Chancellor Sarvain, the guy everyone's always hated anyway.
  • Retired Badass: The legendary mercenary "Iron Fist" retired from his job and now works as wine merchant in Balandor.
  • The Rival: The Black Knight to the White Knight.
  • Rocket Punch: The strongest attack of the Golems.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Royals are a diligent bunch in this game. Handling administrative affairs, fighting evil armies and disease spreading AttackAnimals is all in a day's work for them.
  • Samus Is a Girl: The Black Knight is none other than Kara
    • She does it again in the sequel
  • Save the Princess
  • Say My Name:
    • Leonard - Princess!
    • Princess - Leonard!
    • Leonard - Cisna!
  • Self-Disposing Villain: Shapur.
  • Self Insert: The Avatar.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Madoras, who's soul is locked in the five Knights, but mostly inside the White Knight.
  • Sequel Difficulty Drop: The first game isn't exactly diffacult, but Origins is very very easy, and even for the more difficult bosses, the strategy of "add more + to your equipment, and go into Power Ranger mode before you die" will get you through them.
  • Sequel Difficulty Spike: The story mode in the sequel is much harder than in the first game. Monsters are more numerous (including giant mooks), have more HP, hit harder, and your final line of defense, the Knights, are much weaker and there are several stretches near the end of the game that leave you without any Knights at all.
  • Sequel Hook: Both games end on one:
    • The first game ends with Grazel's declaration of the New Yshrenian Empire, and Cyrus and his knights drunkenly stumbling towards the Farian boarder.
    • The second game has two: the setup for the Avatar Story, and Madoras turning up alive and well.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Lagnish Desert
  • Schizo-Tech: The world as a whole is set in medieval european fantasy but the city of Greede seems to be in the middle of the industrial revolution, Yshrenia's army is flying around in giant airships while deploying tanks and attack drones on the ground and the farians outfitted their ships with beam weaponry.
  • Shoulders of Doom: Every Knight and some heavy armors
  • Smug Snake: Shapur.
  • So Long and Thanks For All the Gear: Thanks to a mounting series of plot contrivances, there's a good ten-hour stretch of the second game that leaves you without any character who is able to transform into an Incorruptus. Cue several vicious boss fights.
    • The first game does this too, though not as egregiously, as Kara and Eldore are the only two playable characters who never get (usable) Incorrupti.
  • So Proud of You: King Valtos assures Cyrus of this with his last breath.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Grazel is seen rocking these in the second game. General Dregias has them too, to a lesser extent in the first game.
  • Spiritual Successor: To Level-5's unreleased True Fantasy Live Online, from which it (probably) borrowed it's character creation system.
  • Split Personality: Setti created Grazel as a reaction to Medius trying to kill him
  • Sticks to the Back: Played straight with longswords, two-handed axes and spears. When wearing certain form-fitting pieces of armor, said weapons even levitate visibly away from the character's body a slight bit.
  • Superpower Meltdown: The Black Knight goes out of control creating the Black Usurper when Shapur murders Kara and steals its Ark from her. He manages to get it under control after he's defeated, but his mental health takes a huge hit from that point on.
  • Sword Beam: Three attacks in each of the axe, short sword and long sword skill trees are blade beams. White Knight, Black Knight and Sun King can do this as well.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: Talion, the only sword that can properly damage the Knights' armor
    • the sequel gives us the Sword of Falcyos, the new "only sword able to damage the Sun King"
  • Take Your Time: This is at play through both games, but it becomes inescapable at the end of the second game when your given the opportunity to walk away from the Final Battle for the fate of the world while its raging around you to go do sidequests and run errands for the peasantry.
  • Telepathy: With the Dragon Knight's Knight Arc Caesar gained the Dragon Sight which lets him look into the hearts of people, revealing their true colors. It's not fullblown mindreading though and some people can block it.
  • Temple of Doom: The Dogma Rift Palace
  • Tin Tyrant: General Dragias
  • Time Skip: Between Part I and Part II. Cisna says that it has been a year has passed since Grazel reclaimed his ark and declared that he and his followers where the second coming of the Yshrenian Empire.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Yulie, Cisna, and Miu in the sequel. They each become a Knight, a Queen, and an Archduchess respectively.
  • Time Travel: The Retrospecticon allows Leonard and the gang to go into the past. They find that they can't actually change history, however, but they can take objects with them back to the present.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Played with as you can still get hit while performing the incantation, up until when you say "Verto!"
  • Transformation Sequence
  • Transformation Trinket: Each Knight has one which acts as proof of the contract between Knight and pactmaker.
  • Traitor Shot: Sarvain is introduced with one of these, for gods sakes! Kara also gets a lot of these in the first game.
  • Turns Red: Every Giant Mook except for the golems. Those turn yellow instead.
  • Twenty Bear Asses: Lampshaded by a Farian scholar who is baffled by human behaviour.

Fidel:"Holy Walnuts! You did it! You went right out and brought me a bunch of random crap, even though I didn't promise you anything."

  • Two-Part Trilogy: Inverted ala-Xenosaga. Though the second game wraps up the dangling plot threads from the first game, it still seems like it's the second act of a three act story.
  • Undying Loyalty: Ledom for Emperor Madoras.
  • Unexplained Recovery Kara gets one of these, as does Bigger Bad Emperor Madoras, after he loses, no less.
  • Unusable Enemy Equipment: Despite Kara being in your party for the majority of both games, you never get the chance to control the Black Knight. You sure fight it a hell of a lot though.
  • The Un-Reveal: A roundabout example: It's never revealed to anyone but the audience that Sarvain killed Queen Floraine, not some Farian assassin, as was assumed.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: At a point late in the game, Setti makes the other characters believe that Eldore, who they met early on, had been setting up their acquisition of the Knights as an attempt to unite them together and take the power for himself. This causes Eldore to teleport away. However, when they set up camp later that day, all the playable characters, including a returning Eldore, confront Setti, revealing that they knew what Setti was up to, as well as who he really is--Grazel.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "The don's got his fingers in every pie in town."
  • Villains Act, Heroes React: The heroes don't have any motivations beyond "Save Cisna" in game one, and then "Stop Yshrenia" in game two. The villains motivation is slightly more active, but still consists of "Take Over the World", of course.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: The most intricate character creation system ever... created.
  • You Monster!: Cisna to Dragias.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Princess Cisna, who's kidnapped four times in the first game. Once she's rescued, however, she stays rescued in the sequel.
  • Weapon of Choice: The game has a surprisingly wide arsenal of equipable weapon types:
  • What Could Have Been: Compare the 2006 TGS announce trailer with actual gameplay footage and see if you can spot any differences.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Kara's sister who wasn't actually her sister is largely forgotten about after the party moves on from Albana, as is the fact that she wasn't really her sister.
    • This also happens to Brimflamme, who's last seen tearing away from the Yshrenian fortress on Redhorn Isle before the Garmatha lifts off. In this case it's more like What Happened to the Eldritch Abomination?
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Everyone seems to have roughly North American accents; except for the Farians, who sound vaguely Spanish; Eldore, who's incredibly British; the Toads, who are shockingly Cockney; and the Papitaurs, who sound ... weird.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Grazel.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Shapur's mental health took a turn for the worse after he stole the Black Knight. He develops Blood Knight tendencies and goes apeshit when the knight was taken from him in the final battle. His addiction to the Knight's power is what costs him his life in the end.
  • World Tree: Father Yggdra, the giant sentient tree in the midst of Faria.
  • Wutai: Faria.
  • You Are Too Late: Grazel had already aquired the Sun King when Leonard and the gang arrived on scene to stop him from doing so.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: While the Retrospecticon allows you to go to the past and take some things (like the Insignias) with you, it doesn't have the power to change events of the past. Miu and the party learn this the hard way.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: One of the first things Madoras does after his revival is kill Grazel. He makes it quick and painless because Grazel was a useful pawn.
    • It's a bit of Laser-Guided Karma on his part, seeing as how he pulled the same move on Belcitane halfway through game one.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: The only way to aquire an Incorruptus that already has a pactmaker.
  • Zettai Ryouiki and Detached Sleeves Detached Sleeves: Yulie, full stop.
  1. ↑ For example the swordmage set worn by a man consists of black and purple armor worn over a darkbrown full body suit. The same set worn by a woman gets rid of the fullbody suit, revealing the leg armor to be nothing more than a metal thong with kneesocks-esque greaves. The chest armor is ommitted to make way for a big Cleavage Window which combined with an extreme case of Absolute Cleavage allows a genereous view of the female character's bust. All in all it gives the wonderful impression of the character being completely naked under the armor.
  2. ↑ Once an area has been cleared, the party whiz back and forth from one end of the map to the other in the first game. On foot. The Shagna, the supposed Global Airship is acquired by the party at the end of the first game during the ending cutscene, and is only used in the second game as transportation at the beginning and end of the game.
  3. ↑ He pulls this on his own son Caesar in a Thanatos Gambit to try and get him to act responsibly. He kicks Caesar out of his house in a fit of rage after learning he'd fashioned a (pretty damn good) replica of a statue that was responsible for him meeting his wife, more-or-less saying I Have No Son. Then he goes and dies without ever reconciling with Caesar. And then Caesar finds a letter from him telling him he knew the statue was a fake all along, and he actually treasured it more than the original because it was Caesar's own handiwork, and he threw a shitfit... just 'cause. Come to think of it, scratch the "Facade" part off--the Count's a bona-fide Jerkass.
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