Almost a year ago, I was reading up on this title through a Famitsu review. I know that Japanese have a different taste than Americans when it comes to gaming. That taste has been different since the video game industry was born. Different expectations and different ways to play have always led to this difference in opinion with final product. So, when Famitsu published their score for White Knight Chronicles as a 29/40 it didn't give me any reason to be concerned. Quite frankly, what the Japanese like we usually don't like as Americans, and vice-versa.

Level-5 must be doing something right.  It's not every day Square-Enix hand picks a (relatively) unknown developer to take the reigns over their most lucrative franchise.  Apparently they knew what they were doing; the risk paid off and Dragon Quest VIII was a massive success on both sides of the planet.  Level-5's previous effort, Dark Cloud 2, earned a similar amount of critical praise, as did their last PS2 title, the underappreciated Rogue Galaxy.  What's really intriguing is that these guys don't seem to be letting up.  Even under the banner of different publishers and systems, their small library of titles are completely inundated with quality.