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.
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