Wild Arms 5 Review

So, we come to the end of Wild Arms. Yeah, there are a few spin-offs, and some sketchy accounts of a sixth game, but it really ends with Wild Arms 5 (The Vth Vanguard). Now, if you’d been playing them like I did, you’d be totally hooked by now. So I might be a bit more biased than usual with this one. That said, I still intend to give this game a fair score, even if that means remembering the things that were not so good about it.

Wild Arms 5 is the story of Dean, who wants to be an adventuring archeologist. Basically, as he’s exploring near his hometown, a weird something or other falls from the sky, nearly crushes him, and a hot chick pops out. What’s rather interesting is that the plot does not then become saving the world. Or, it does, but not saving it from destruction. No, we’re saving the world from racism! Corny as it sounds, it’s not too bad. Then again, it lives up to being pretty corny too. I guess I’m saying it’s so-so.

The characters in this game are okay, but not great. Dean is a stupid idealist hero, which is more annoying than anything else. His childhood friend Rebecca is much more likeable, being grounded and yet still a little naïve. Avril, the girl from the sky, is a classic ice queen, and yeah, that’s not so great. Greg, the revenge seeking maverick dude, is moderately cynical, but really, not enough to make up for the naivety of the entire rest of the party. They’re all voice-acted, which is mostly okay, except Carol, the loli, has the most annoying voice ever. Have any American games ever had a good loli voice?

Battles in this game are pretty similar to those in 4, but in this game, classes are something that you can move around. Basically, your summon medium is you class, with similar leveraging capabilities based on your accumulated levels as in 4. With a three member battle party, and a total party size of six, you end up with a moderate amount of redundancy in classes. Still, they’re varied enough that you will want to use all six of the classes when you get them. And, while any character can be any class, the special abilities of certain characters lend themselves to certain classes. For example, Dean does a lot of extra damage on critical hits, so having him be the physical attacker makes sense. Also, while the normal hex pattern returns for random battles, in boss battles, the battle space is frequently deformed. There are always seven hexes, but they might be arrayed in a straight line, or with a bottle neck of one hex separating two groups of three. It makes strategy more interesting, but frequently makes boss battles a little easier.

Puzzles in this game take two forms. There’s the puzzle boxes, which are essentially identical to those found in 3, and there’s the dungeon puzzles. Instead of each character having tools, or finding tools lying around, Dean’s gun can equip different ammos that do stuff, like freezing or grappling onto something or whatever. That’s about it for differences, the puzzles are mostly decent, with a few really hard ones and a number of moderately easy ones.

The replay value on this game is not particularly high. You can customize your characters well enough with the mediums, but you only get them gradually over the course of the game, so it’s not much to look forward to. Plus, this game is easy. You can get to the maximum level with little difficulty, spend those levels away for items at a particular shop, and bounce back up in no time. There are a few tough fights, but nothing to get excited about. Pretty much a case of “sure, you can try again if you want to troll the game by purposefully using sub-optimal combinations, but why bother?”

The overall rating on the game. Well, yeah, the battle system works pretty well, the characters are mostly decent, the story’s… okay, not a lot super special. I’d say that the most important thing about this game is that it is fraught with references to the previous games. Cameos of previous playable characters, bosses, even alternate costumes for the main characters. It’s not going to influence you if you haven’t played the rest of the series, but if you have, it’s excellent fan service. Okay, enough on that tangent, the rating is 8.3. It’s a solid, fun game, but nothing too exceptional. A good end to the series, but not the best game out there.

Fun Fact: All but one of the playable characters in previous Wild Arms games (including Alter Code: F) make cameos in wild Arms 5. Even the characters who only join your party temporarily. Who’s missing? Well, I’ll give those of you in the know a hint. It’s one of the characters from Wild Arms 2.

Quick Tip: There’s an accessory that will let you know with a tone when you move onto a hex that will have a treasure at the end of the battle. Find these immediately when you enter a boss battle. It’s usually well worth it.

If you enjoyed this game, you might like one of the following games. Well, pretty much the entire Wild Arms  series, honestly. Those cameos will start to make sense as you play through the series backwards I guess. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories have some great puzzle action, as well as grid-based combat. For no particularly good reason, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King might be fun, because it has a similar exploration vibe to it, and equipment utilization can be fun to balance.

Wild Arms 4 Review

 

So, you know what I said about striking a balance between staying true to the previous games in a series and bringing new mechanics to a series? Well, Wild Arms 4 (The 4^th Detonator) goes pretty far to the new end of the scale. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just be prepared for a lot of explanations. After all, a series can’t just recycle the same old stuff or it would get pretty boring.

The story of Wild Arms 4 starts off in an idyllic little town, following the adventures of Jude, an energetic young boy with a taste for adventure. Pretty soon, the sky cracks open, and a bunch of military forces invade the town. By using a powerful gun, Jude is able to escape, but is left completely lost on the world below, hounded by the military forces who invaded his home. Hilarity ensues. Yeah, not too much to go on here, but at least it’s not a mission based storyline. The story definitely isn’t the main draw of this game.

I wish I could say that the characters are that main draw, but it’s only half true. Arnaud, who you may recognize from our cutest boys feature, is a high note, but his girlfriend Raquel, is impressive too. She wields a massive sword, is the main tank, and has to deal with some very sobering problems about her own mortality, and yet somehow manages to be moderately upbeat. On the other hand, Jude is pretty bland, being an impetuous brat and all, and Yulie is just another dumb healer chick. Oops! I almost forgot to mention this is the first game in the series to feature American voice acting. This is… not exactly a good thing. Listening to Jude shout and grunt while running around the map is moderately amusing, but it gets old fast. None of the main voice cast is particularly bad, but I’m not sure that it adds much to the game.

I suppose the most impressive feature of the game is the completely overhauled combat system. Instead of lining up, or even running free-form around the battlefield like in previous games, you fight it out on a hex-grid with six hexes placed around a seventh central hex. Instead of targeting individual enemies or allies, you simply target a hex, and anyone in that hex gets targeted by the effect. For example, status effects are targeted on hexes, so all you have to do to avoid poisoning is move to another hex, which uses up you turn. Enemies and allies can’t occupy the same hex, but enemies get the same benefits you do, so it’s usually not a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. Other additions include the class system, where everyone has their own class, and gets abilities as they gain levels. You can see every ability you’re going to get, and you can even leverage yourself up to get abilities that are higher than your level, at the temporary cost of max hp. It’s a neat system, but customization is somewhat lacking.

Puzzles in this game are handled rather differently than in any of the other games in the series. For starters, you don’t have any tools built-in. Instead, you’ll find the tools necessary to solve puzzles just lying around somewhere nearby. While this might make it seem too easy, since the game is basically telling you what tool you need for the job, there are several out of the way puzzles where you’ll need to carry a tool from several rooms away. Also added to this game are the ability to jump, slide, and slow down time, which adds a certain amount of platforming action to the puzzling. It’s a nice touch, and you’ll even get a sidescrolling minigame to test your skills.

This is about where I get around to replay value. This is going to be a short paragraph. Rating: “Nil.” Linear story, basically no customization opportunities, and no new game plus features.

Getting right down to it, this wasn’t exactly the most stellar title in the series. It did some interesting things with the battle system, and had some refinements on the leveling and puzzle systems, but really, most of the material was underwhelming. It gets about 7.7 out of 10. It’s not a terrible game by any means, and definitely has its moments, but a lot of its mechanics were not particularly well executed.

Fun Fact: It’s impossible to 100% complete the game in the American version, so don’t bother trying. Two enemies were taken out of the game, but not the monster list.

Quick Tip: If possible, split up your team so they take up four hexes before finishing a battle. This increases the likelihood of getting an item drop, some of which can be very good, like the weapon I got for Arnaud that made his attack power comparable to Jude’s.

If you enjoyed this game, you should give one of these games a try. Wild Arms 5 is the only other game in the series to share the hex-based battle system. Wild Arms Alter Code: F on the other hand, has carry-over data for this game, so if possible, you should complete it before playing Wild Arms 4. I guess Star Ocean: Til the End of Time has a somewhat similar style of story-telling, though it’s more action oriented. Honestly, you might find that a full-on SRPG like Disgaea: Hour of Darkness floats your boat pretty well, considering that the Wild Arms series ended up going off into the strategy genre after the main series was completed, and this was the game that started things going in that direction.

Wild Arms 3 Review

You know, I think I’d never played the third game in a series after having played the previous games before. Playing the second after the first, yes. Quite frequently. But not the third, with the exception of Wild Arms 3 (Advanced Third). Perhaps this is a function of the fact that few games make it to a third installment. Once you get a third game, you can start to make claims at being a real, ongoing series. Perhaps it’s our obsession with the power of three. In any case, a third game is an exciting game for any fans of the series. Wild Arms 3 is no exception, so let’s get right down to it.

The game starts off with the now familiar split prologues for each of the main characters. Virginia is a strong girl of 18 who’s looking for his long-lost father, following in his footsteps as a drifter. Gallows is a lazy guy trying to avoid his duties as the latest in a long line of shamans. Clive is a sniping bounty hunter who has to deal with the loss of his mentor/father-in-law. Finally, Jet is a cold guy, who suffers from amnesia. They’re not 100% original, but they’re what you’ve got. You’ll end up pretty attached to them after a few battles.

Battles in Wild Arms 3 follow some of the basic conventions of the previous games. You enter commands at the beginning of each round, and act in order of speeds. Also, like in the second game, though battles are random, you can skip them at the press of a button. However, you can only do this a certain number of times before resting. Another thing that has changed is that you don’t have any equipment besides your gun. You upgrade your guns, adding to the max bullets or  increasing the attack power. For other types of abilities, you have a different system. You put accessories on your mediums, which grants that medium a personal skill.  You can then move the mediums from one ally to the next. This allows for a good amount of customization. Unfortunately, once you attach a skill, that’s it, unless you want to delete it entirely. So, if you accidentally attach a unique skill to a medium you find doesn’t synergize the way you’d like, you just have to deal with it.

The story is pretty traditional, going back to the basics of the first game. You gain the ability to wield the guardian’s powers in battle, and journey to halt or reverse the environmental decay that plagues the world. You discover that there’s an ancient conspiracy that involves great evils. The form is pretty standard, but the details are actually pretty surprising. The surprise is augmented by the game’s multiple openings, which change depending on how far into the game you’ve progressed.

Puzzles continue to be one of the high points of the series, and take much the same form as in previous games. Each character has tools, and those tools allow you to do various things, like freeze objects or travel rapidly in a straight line. Making its first appearance in the series are the puzzle boxes, side quests which have nothing to do with the main plot, but everything to do with making challenging puzzles. Essentially, you have to line up two or more of the same color blocks, which makes them disappear. Disappear all of the blocks, and you get a prize the first time. Since you can’t use your tools, the puzzles are pure mindbenders.

Replay value on this one is pretty tough. There are some extras you can unlock at the end of the game by completing certain tasks. There are also a fair number of ways you can set up your team. Really, I wouldn’t give this game more than “one well-explored play through,” but that’s no negative reflection on the game.

Overall score for this one is easier. It’s a solid game, with lots of good features, solid translation, and a lot of things to explore. No, it doesn’t do anything particularly excellent, except for the puzzles. It gets about 8.4. It’s still not quite as good as the first game, but through no fault of its own. It’s following the formula, and it follows it well, with minimal kinks. One thing is for certain, I’ve noticed that it’s frequently available in used game stores for cheap. I suspect this is because it was overproduced. Whatever the reason, it’s great value for the money.

Quick Tip: Finest Arts is the easiest way to deal a lot of damage. However, to activate it, you need to be out of bullets. Sooo. Give the Finest Arts to a character who doesn’t have a lot of bullets to get rid of. Like Clive.

How I Broke Game: Well, it’s not a particularly impressive set, but I’ve got two minor tales. One is that you can duplicate an item that you only have one of. Some enemies can steal items. If you kill them before they get away, you get the item back. However, if another enemy steals the same item, you get one more over what you had before. Totally useless. The other fun story is that I bypassed an entire puzzle by moving across block diagonally at just the right point.

If you liked this game, you should try one of the following games out. Wild Arms: Alter Code f is the game that is closes in system to this one, and also has a few names and characters you’ll recognize. Grandia II has a little bit of a similar system of skills, and it also takes itself moderately seriously. Dark Cloud 2 has about the closest you’ll get to a western feel in another JRPG, and happens to also have a cell-shaded style and puzzle elements.

Wild Arms 2 Review

Being the second game in a newly created series is pretty tough. It’s a fine line to walk between alienating the fan base with too much innovation and not attracting any new players with new features. Wild Arms 2 (The 2nd Ignition) tends to err on the side of the former. There are some changes, but most of the gameplay follows pretty directly from the first game. For all that, there is a totally different approach to the story. With a mix of old and new, it’s an intriguing game to look into.

The story starts off, like the first Wild Arms, with a separate intro for each of the three main characters. Ashley gets his stuff together as a dungeon explorer, Lilka shows off as the puzzle solving magical girl she is, and Brad tries to escape capture for the war cries he didn’t really commit. Say what? Yeah, in an attempt to keep up interest among older players, there’s some really darker themes in this story, with more nuances to the villains than there were in the previous game. Not bad, considering the villains of the previous game were a diverse lot. And there’s all sorts of political maneuvering in the story of Wild Arms 2. The main problem with the story is the format it takes. Rather than have players follow a relatively straight path, wandering from objective point to objective point for most of the game, Wild Arms 2 casts you as the members of a paramilitary organization, Operation Arms. As such, you get orders from your direct superior/founder of the organization, Vincefelt. You do everything from stop terrorist organizations to unearth ancient artifacts to, yes, save the world from destruction. This makes the pacing pretty choppy, as you frequently don’t see the link between one mission and the next. There’s also the issue of an extremely poor localization. Grammar, spelling, and syntax are strained beyond credibility in a fair number of instances, leaving you wondering what is really going on in the game’s complex storyline.

On the other hand, the characters are excellent. Boasting the largest roster of characters in the main series (if you include guest characters) and tied with the remake, the game’s eight characters are all moderately well developed. One of the most notable is Brad, who is a gristly old war veteran from the losing side who might just be gay, but certainly has some deep issues to deal with. Kanon is a bounty hunter who has replaced nearly all her body parts with cybernetic implants in an attempt to live up to the feats performed by her highly renowned distant ancestor, Anastasia the sword princess. Even Maribel, the optional character, has development regarding her loneliness as a crimson noble (read: vampire) who has outlived all her friends by hundreds of years. She even has the only cameo in the series before the fifth game came along.

Each character has a number of interesting attributes. They have their own force abilities, usable at the expenditure of 25% increments on the force gauge. They also have their own set of special attacks, which are learned in different ways for each character. Ashley finds his in chests, Lilka combines two elements together on each crest graph she obtains, Brad gets his out of chests that only he can open, Maribel sucks the blood of certain enemies enough times to learn a spell, and Tim learns his by defeating enemies with a certain medium equipped. The mediums make a return, acting as summon spirits. However, each also has its own custom command, like steal, invincibility (for one turn) or a killer blow (which does double damage if it hits). The only catch is that mediums can only be summoned when Tim is on the battlefield. You can only have three members out at a time, so you have to switch party-members in and out of battle to succeed. With magic points abolished, a character’s force level is what gives them access to special attacks, giving a little bit more strategic management to the combat system. All in all, it’s a lot more of a strategic affair than the first game, which had a relatively simple battle system. Apart from these changes, the basic format of battles remains much the same. You enter all your commands at once, and then they play out in order of the response attribute of the combatants. Unfortunately, since you can skip random battles around 75% of the time by pressing a button, the strategy is to some degree optional.

Each character also gets three tools, which function for puzzle solving much like they did in the first game. However, because there’s so many characters, there are a lot more tools, and a lot of them only get used a couple times. Even so, the puzzles in this game are excellent, and in some cases even a little more interesting than the puzzles in the first game. One particular example comes to mind, which involves the gods after whom the days of the week were named. The word puzzles you encounter can be really tricky, and add an element of difficulty to an otherwise pretty easy game (not counting optional bosses, who are custom made to be extremely difficult).

The replay value in this game is pretty limited. Despite the mission format of the story, it’s pretty linear until the very end. You do get to give your characters certain abilities when they level up. Basically, you get a certain number of points to spend on passive character enhancements like increased attack power or resistance to poison. That’s all fine and dandy, but it has little effect on the game. Especially since there’s only a few good options. Hmnmm, I could get an ability that blocks physical attacks, which basically every enemy in the game uses, or I could be immune to this one status ailment I’ve never seen before except in one boss fight, when said boss only rarely even used the attack. So, I’d say this game’s rating is “Replayable only for the truly obsessive or the criminally bad at managing.” There’s really no point in playing the game again, apart from nostalgia that you can get for any game.

Overall, Wild Arms 2 somehow just doesn’t fare as well as the first game. Maybe it’s the poor localization, maybe it’s the pacing of the story, maybe it’s just that it’s no longer a fresh concept. It’s still a great game, and has some of the best characters in the series, but it’s just not quite as fun as the first game. It ranks in at 8.0. Solid, dependable, and pretty much the middle point of what you get in an RPG. Better than mediocre, but not great either.

Quick Tip: The blocker skill is really useful. It blocks physical attacks with certain probability based on the level of the skill. Though it’s a good choice for all characters, it’s a must for all you squishy omnimages.

Fun Fact: In an unusual multigenre crossover, Ashley has a poster of Vash the Stampede in his room. The creators of Wild Arms have admitted that Trigun was a creative influence for the series.

If you liked this game, you should try one of these games. Wild Arms: Alter Code f  has just as many playable characters and a pretty similar battle system, while Wild Arms 5 has cameos from playable characters in Wild Arms 2. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete is in a lot of ways a sister game, being an evolution on the first game in its series that added a significant amount of content. Final Fantasy VIII has some its share of unique character attributes, and also has a similarly sci-fi world.

Wild Arms Review

 

I’ve missed a few weeks now, but to make up for it, I’ve got a special feature. This week, I’m going to review the entire Wild Arms main series, back-to-back. Today starts off with Wild Arms. This game came out for the Playstation in 1997. It was the first rpg on the system to use 3d battle graphics. The story follows a protagonist who, though largely silent, speaks a little bit over the course of the game. This shows that this game is not exactly your older brother’s jrpg. The plot runs that the planet is dying, due to the loss of mystical energy necessary to sustain life. In addition there’s an ambiguous stranger who at some points helps the party, but ultimately helps an extraterrestrial terror, whom he addresses as “Mother,” in her attempts to destroy the world. Sound just a tad familiar? Well, Wild Arms came out before Final Fantasy VII (well duh, given when FFVII was released). Yep, all of those “revolutionary, never before seen” story elements in FFVII were already out. Was Wild Arms a better game? I guess you’ll just have to find out.

When you begin the game, you do a brief prelude with each of the game’s three playable characters. Rudy, the blue-haired protagonist, saves a town from a horrible monster, but in so doing reveals his terrible power. Jack, the treasure hunter, narrowly escapes from a ruin filled with traps, helped by his companion Hanpan, the spirit mouse. Cecilia, princess of Adlehyde, undergoes a test of her magical power, ingenuity, and compassion in the Curan Abbey. It’s a cool way to introduce the three characters, and also gives you a tutorial for various gameplay elements, as well as introducing the various segments of this Wild West themed world. Rudy does a lot of dungeon crawling, Jack has to deal with traps, and Cecilia has a lot of puzzles to solve. In honor of these preludes, I’m going to look at each of the aforementioned sections in turn, taking a break from  my usual format.

Dungeon crawling. Most rpgs have some. Battles in Wild Arms are random, so you’ll get into a fair few during your romps. The way battles play out is that you enter commands for all of your characters at the beginning of the turn, and they act in order of their Response attribute. In addition to basic attacks and items, each character has force abilities and special attacks that they can use. Special attacks involve attacking the enemy with magic, sword techniques, or guns, respective to Cecilia, Jack, and Rudy. Force abilities are a little more complicated. As you take actions in combat, the force gauge increases. Successful attacks, dodges, and parries all increase the force gauge. The higher the gauge, the more powerful your character. However, you can use the force gauge to power certain abilities, which consume 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of the gauge. For example, Jack’s 25% ability, accelerator, ensures that he acts first in combat, and also powers up his special attacks. At 100% force, each character enters “condition green” and all their status effects are cured.

Traps. This game has them. To avoid them you’ll need a decent amount of skill, which gets this game its dubious “action rpg” reputation alluded to on the case. It’s not really an action rpg, but the traps add a minor action element. To run, you hold down the x button, which charges up, and release, which starts you going. You can only run in a straight line, which makes things pretty difficult at times. Still, it makes thing interesting when you’re not even in a battle.

Puzzles. Ah, now this is where the game shines. Each character has an assortment of tools, which allows them to perform certain tasks. Rudy’s bomb’s blow stuff up, Jack’s grappling hook gets him across gaps (only when there’s a hook shot post nearby) and Cecilia’s pocket watch reverses time, resetting traps and boxes. Plus, each character can throw boxes, allowing for “hit the crystal” puzzles. There’s also a fair number of word-based puzzles, but a number of those are optional. Most puzzles are reasonably doable, but some are pretty tough. Expect to scratch your head over some puzzles for quite a while.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at the replay value on this guy. There’s no new game plus, or even bonuses at the end of the game, but you can set your characters up with different accessories and summoning mediums. But really, this game gets “play it once, and then, if you feel like you want to play it again, play the remake instead.” It’s solid, but the remake was made especially for fans, so take advantage of it.

Time to get to the thing I’ve hinted at since the beginning. Is this game better than Final Fantasy VII? Well, the short answer is no. Wild Arms is a fun game, and has a lot to recommend about it, but it’s not really comparable to Final Fantasy VII except insofar as the latter has a plot that is suspiciously reminiscent of the former. Wild Arms ranks in at about 8.6 out of 10. The story, while pretty good most of the time, occasionally has some stutters and transration moments. And, when you get right down to it, battles are a bit on the slow side.

Quick Tips: Early in the game, there’s a girl in the middle of the fair grounds who sells tiny flowers. Buy 99 of these immediately. Go out and fight battles till you have enough gella. They increase luck, and after a certain climactic point early in the game, they are exceptionally rare.

How I Broke Game: There’s an Item duplication glitch. If you only have one of an item, when you get into a battle, you can have the first two characters use heal berries on themselves, then have the third character switch the place (in your inventory) of the heal berry and the item to be duplicated, and then attack, you’ll get 255 of the duplicated item. I did this, and beat Ragu Ragla. The final boss was unfortunately easy after this. It’s cheap, but it is the only time I’ve ever beaten Ragu Ragla.

If you liked this game, you should try out one of these games. Wild Arms 2 is almost exactly the same system, with exactly the same font J. Wild Arms Alter Code: F is the remake of this game for the Playstation 2. It’s completely faithful to the original, the story isn’t changed significantly, and has more playable characters. Wild Arms 5 is basically filled with nostalgic sidequests involving older Wild Arms games, so that’s another good choice. As far as other series go, well, Final Fantasy VII is basically the same plot with a different setting (sci-punk instead of sci-western), and is an excellent game in its own right. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete fall into a slightly more traditional battle system, but in the end not so different that you can’t see the similarities. Tales of Destiny is a completely different battle system, being an action game and all, but the storytelling mode is not too far off.