| abstract | - 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 PlayStation 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.
* Zero-Percent 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
* 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.
* Black Eyes of Evil: Emperor Madoras combines this with Eyes of Gold. He has golden irises and black sclerae.
* Black Market:...is located in downtown Greede. It's more of an auction than a market though and you need a pass to enter.
* Blade on a Stick: The Dragon Knight.
* Blood Knight: Shapur became this after stealing the Black Knight.
* Bonus Dungeon: Vellgander. Madoras comes back to life after the plot of the second game concludes just to drag it out of the water and challenge you to clear it. It's Nintendo Hard.
* Boss Subtitles
* British Accents: The Phibianacci people talk like this. Eldore too.
* By the Power of Grayskull: To activate the Knight, a pactmaker has to recite a short incantation. Each Knight has a unique incantation but all of them follow this general structure "O name, descriptive title, X of the ancient Y, grant me your power. Verto!".
* The Call Knows Where You Live: Hello? Oh, one moment please. Hey, Leonard, Yulie, and Princess Cisna? There's an evil midget and a giant Walking Tank on the line. They're asking for you.
* Cast From Hit Points: Inverted with the Knights, whose simplest of physical attacks eat up mana instead. At the same time, partially supported, in that if a Knight runs out of MP, they revert back to human form.
* Cat Ears Lawyer: Let's just say Fambroise doesn't give the impression of someone who is able to piece her own Knight together.
* Catgirl: Fambroise.
* The Cavalry: In spades in the second game. Both Faria and Greede come to Balandor's aid in the Final Battle against Yshrenia. First the Farian navy shows up to help break through to Redhorn Isle, and then the frickin' Demithor appears out of nowhere to help out too.
* Somehow it managed to shake Greede off its back before lumbering into battle...
* Chainmail Bikini: Not all armors but some of them take on a more Stripperiffic form when worn by women.
* Character Customization: Not just your Digital Avatar, but your whole party up to a point. You can choose to make Leonard a healer but he'll have a much easier time with a sword or axe.
* The Chessmaster: Ledom manages to play two sides of a war against each other in order to fulfill his own goals. It works. Flawlessly.
* Childhood Friend Romance: Two of them:
* An Unlucky Childhood Friend one for Yulie.
* And a Victorious Childhood Friend one for Caesar and Kara.
* The Chosen One: The Chosen Five, specifically.
* The Unchosen One: The Avatar, the unacknowledged Sixth Ranger to the Knights quintet.
* Cool Airship: The Magi's Monoships, and the party's Shagna
* Convection, Schmonvection: Redhorn Isle, being the local Mordor, has this.
* Conveniently an Orphan: The five Pactmakers. Being stolen from your parents, shoved inside giant suits of armor, and then shot forward in time 10,000 years will do that to you, though.
* Cutscene Incompetence: Ok, granted there wouldn't be much of a plot if the heroes did everything in their power to save the princess during them. But, would it kill them to at least try? It's funny and silly at the same time. Especially when they half-assedly "rescue" her, only to have the bad guys re-capture her two seconds later.
* Cut Short: The ending to the second game smacks of this.
* Dances and Balls: Gets crashed by the Magi and Pyredaemos.
* Dangerously Genre Savvy: Kara, to the point where she dick-punches a person as he launches into a bout of Evil Gloating. Turns out he wasn't evil, only messing with them. Kara didn't care.
* Dark Magical Girl: Kara.
* Deadpan Snarker: Caesar, Kara.
* Demonic Possession: How the Gigantes are created.
* Emperor Madoras also hijacks Leonard's body.
* Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Paraphrased by Madoras in the post-game of White Knight Chronicles II.
* Design It Yourself Equipment: The Arc Knight. It's almost on par with Armored Core in terms of customization potential (once you unlock everything, that is).
* Development Hell: The first game was announced by Level5 as a PlayStation 3 launch title. It was released in Japan ... two years after the PlayStation 3's debut.
* Digital Avatar
* Drowning My Sorrows: Cyrus.
* Dual-Wielding: The Sun King, Cyrus and every playable character who learns the Twin Blades skill.
* Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Avatar
* The Dulcinea Effect: Leonard for Cisna like you wouldn't believe. Somewhat alleviated if you consider they met extremely briefly years before.
* Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats Ice, and for some reason Ice also beats Fire. Likewise, Wind beats Earth, but Earth beats Wind.
* Eleventh-Hour Superpower: The Avatar gets his or her own Knight at the very end of the second game, just in time to go into the final dungeon.
* While its not overtly stated, the Arc Knight is the only Knight not tied to Emperor Madoras, and is thus the only Knight that is usable against the Final Boss when all the Yshrenian Knights are destroyed. Plot-wise, this allows for you to finally be the hero of the game ... and still get zero credit for it.
* This might be because some gamers might have decided to wait till after they beat the game to try and get their Knight and did not necessarily know the were going to lose the others Knights right before the Final Boss. Level 5 might of realized this as well, so they decided not to include the Arc Knight in the story at all.
* Empathic Weapon: The Moon Maiden is shown to have a mind of her own and within the White Knight resides a Phantom that may or may not be Emperor Madoras.
* Energy Bow: The Moon Maiden's bow. The laser arrows it fires are quite small but the effects are massive. One shot is enough to down one of Yshrenia's aircraft carrier sized airships.
* Enigmatic Minion: Shapur, for much of the first game. The twist is, he's not conniving, just crazy.
* Escort Mission: Most of the guests that join your party at random points can't die. If they do, it's considered a Game Over.
* Everyone Went to School Together: The "Sinca Five": Leonard, Yulie, Caesar, Kara, and Setti, aka the Pactmakers.
* Everything's Better with Princesses: Literally, in the second game--Balandor is able to function again once Princess Cisna's restored to the throne.
* Evil Chancellor: Sarvain. To both sides! Not only did he manipulate and murder King Valtos; he also advised and helped Grazell set up the the whole plot to revive the Sealed Inside a Person Shaped Can Bigger Bad Emperor Madoras.
* Evil Armor Switch: The White Knight takes on a more demonic form after Madoras took control of Leonard's body.
* Eyepatch of Power: Shapur sports one of these.
* Failure Hero: Leonard--to the point where the "hero" part is highly debatable.
* Failure Knight: Cyrus and Eldore. They handle their failures quite differently, though. Eldore leaps across time to forcibly redeem himself, while Cyrus becomes a wandering drunkard for a game-and-a-half.
* Fetch Quest: Phibianacci's errands. The search for the Goddess statue. The search for the Insignias. Errands in general. ...Hell, both bloody games are giant fetch quests.
* Five-Bad Band: The Yshrenian Knights were intended to be this. However, two and a half of them turned out to be good guys.
* Five-Man Band:
* The Hero - Leonard
* The Lancer - You
* The Big Guy - Eldore, doubles as The Smart Guy
* Action Girl - Yulie
* Sixth Ranger - Ceasar
* Sixth Ranger Traitor - Kara
* Flaming Sword: The Sun King wields two of these.
* Flying Seafood Special: The fish-type mooks introduced in the sequel.
* Foreshadowing: In the very first camp Miu advises against overusing the Knight's power because she senses something sinister beneath it's metal surface and it only gets more obvious from there. The game takes every chance it gets to remind you that something is very wrong with the White Knight.
* Forgot About His Powers / Gameplay and Story Segregation: This is at play a lot in the first game, particularly regarding the party's hapless attempts to rescue Cisna. Leonard (and Ceasar) often flat-out do not transform into their Knight forms until after the Magi throw a similarly sized Rent-A-Zilla out to keep them at bay.
* For Science!: Framboise's Modus Operandi.
* Gadgeteer Genius: Framboise, the scientist Catgirl who built your Knight.
* Genre Savvy: Yulie.
* 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.
* 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.
* Hundred-Percent 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
* 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.
* a gauntlet and dagger for the White Knight
* a black sword and scabbard for the Black Knight
* a vermillion belt for the Dragon Knight
* a gold and silver mask for the Sun King
* a blue bow for the Moon Maiden
* a small metal sphere for the Arc Knight.
* 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.
* 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:
* Swords, Maces, Knives, Spears, Greatswords, Katanas, Axes, Hammers, Bow and Arrows, and Staffs.
* 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.
- White Knight Chronicles (白騎士物語 -古の鼓動-, Shirokishi Monogatari: Inishie no Kodō, lit. "White Knight Story: Ancient Heartbeat") is a fantasy role-playing game developed by Level-5 and Japan Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for Playstation 3. It was released December 25, 2008 in Japan, February 2, 2010 in the USA and February 26, 2010 in the PAL region.
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