Famitsu has a short two page spread on White Knight Chronicles 2 this week. But included in the update is confirmation of some things that have needed confirming for quite some time.
First up, that whole thing about the inclusion of the original White Knight Chronicles. This was leaked out by retailers weeks ago but was never fully confirmed by Sony or Level-5.
Famitsu confirms that the latest version of the original White Knight will be included in full. In White Knight 2, the original White Knight, Inishie no Kodou, is referred to as "1st part" while the sequel, Hikari to Yami no Kakusei, is referred to as "2nd part." 1st part will include the 130+ pieces of content that were distributed as online download content. Additionally, the graphics and gameplay systems have been updated to 2nd Part standard, giving you access to some of the new gameplay features.
The magazine is a bit vague on what happens when the two games, the original and the sequel, attempt to interact with one another. It seems that players of the sequel will only be able to interact with other sequel players. Same goes for players of the original. Sequel owners will have access to quests for both games, but owners of the original will only have access to quests for the original.
Famitsu also has details on another feature that was first confirmed through slightly unofficial sources (in this case, Twitter). In the first White Knight, your avatar character was unable to transform into a giant Sin Knights. In White Knight 2, your avatar will be able to transform into a knight -- although not a Sin Knight like the knights Leonard and friends transform into. Instead, you transform into an "Arc Knight," a man-made knight that was created by the fine researchers of Barandel Kingdom.
You'll be able to customize and strengthen your Arc Knight by heading out to a Sin Knight Factory and changing equipment and parts. You can also set color, material and other superficial areas, although it seems that some of these will need to be unlocked.
During the game's online "live part" mode and 2nd part's story mode, you can form parties of up to six members (1st part's story mode is limited to four member parties). So can everyone transform into an Arc Knight at the same time? The number of players that can transform simultaneously is actually dependent on the quest. Famitsu does not say if you'll able to ever get six giants on screen simultaneously -- although that would certainly be a sight!
There are a few things left unclarified in the Famitsu article regarding the inclusion of the first game. If Level-5's update schedule holds up, we'll probably get additional details later this week.