The game has a unique setting to it, but a few things about that bugs
me. While it's set in some world based off of the Wild West with guns a
tootin’ and deserts, there's only one character that actually uses a
gun. Actually that gun is more like a bazooka / laser gun, not really a
pistol like shown on the box cover. Another thing, his primary weapon
is actually a sword, and so is Jack's, and Cecilia uses a magic staff.
There's also giant Golems, aliens, castles, planes, magic users, huge
towers, etc... Not exactly stuff from the wild wild west, actually all
that stuff is from typical RPGs. While it has a different setting that
most people might be use to at this point, it's still no different than
any other Sci-Fi or Fantasy RPG out there either. The story isn't all
that exciting. The battle system is a typical turn based system with a
ton of random encounters. Nothing new or fresh here, but it's still fun
atleast. The World Map is kinda lame, and the graphics are pretty
dated, but still charming.
With all of that said and done, I still enjoyed the game alot. The
puzzles were really fun to do, leveling up or gaining money wasn't
hard, I was never stuck for an extended period of time either. The
music is freaking great. So in the end, Wild Arms is a really good game
that doesn’t really try to hard to be different in the end.
----------Battle System----------
Wild Arms is a standard turn-base RPG that plays out in rounds.
For example, you set all your characters moves in a row, then watch the
round unfold. The character or enemy with the best agility should go
first. You only play as 3 characters, no more or less with ever join
your party. Each character has a slew of different abilities to keep
the game fun. Cecilia can use White and Black magic that she learns by
gathering Chest Graphs and magicians in towns will bind them to create
the spell. Jack gains various sword techniques by getting "Hints",
either reading about them on a stone wall or fighting a duel. After you
get these "Hints", they show up in Jack's battle page as "???", you
then keep using these "???" until you hit the right one in the right
place then you unlock that special attack forever. I only figured out
about half of them because the "hints" weren't enough help. Rudy is the
only character that learns ARMs in the game. You can find these ARMs in
special treasure chests that only Rudy can open. Once you find them,
Rudy can go back to town and buy upgrades that can hold more bullets,
more power or better accuracy for each ARM.
Throughout the game you'll find Runes, each character can equip
these Ruins that will boost various stats. You can Summon these ruins
into battle when your Force gauge is up. The Force gauge moves up in 4
levels during battle, then restarts after a battle. You gain force each
move of the battle, and each character will learn 4 Force attacks.
There are a ton of boss fights in this game, but alot are
repeating bosses you'll fine over and over again. Some boss fights are
rarely harder than normal random encounters you'll fight in dungeons.
Boss fights don't even give you alot of experience after their battles,
some don't even give you money.
The absolute best thing about this game is the puzzles in the
dungeons, almost on a Link to the Past level of fun. While the dungeons
aren't really long or challenging, some of them did stump me for a
short time. Each character will gain 4 Tools in the game, that help
them solve the various puzzles in the game. For example, Rudy can set
bombs, Jack can shoot a grappling hook and Cecilia can put out fires.
You have to switch through each character with their various skills to
solve the dungeons, which was extremely fun for me. Some instances
requires your team to break up and you have to control one of them
through a short maze until all 3 characters link up again. You'll have
to hit levers and push blocks to make your other character advance,
almost similar to a Lost Vikings game how those characters work off
each other.
----------Characters / Story----------
You play as Rudy, a silent protagonist with a shady past that is
shunned from his hometown. He'll meet up with Cecilia, is a dull
Princess / Magic student that must go on a quest to save the Guardians
of the world. Jack is your final character in the game that is a
treasure hunter / expert swordsman with a pet talking mouse traveling
the world to seek ultimate power. The team eventually bands together to
fight the evil alien race that is trying to destroy the world.
Yeah, not exactly a moving, original, or groundbreaking storyline,
but it does have an original setting for an RPG. Although the story is
not quite as fleshed out Final Fantasy 3 or Chrono Trigger, the story
is still solid enough to keep you motivated until the end, even though
it’s a pretty short game. The dialog can be humorous at times, some of
it is really bizarre, like "This isn't the USS Missouri!". Some of the
best dialog scenes require you to answer quizzes about stuff that has
happened in the game, to make sure you're paying attention. Although it
only happened a few times, I enjoyed that alot.
----------Graphics----------
The towns, dungeons and world map are still stuck in the 2D pixel
SNES era. Not that this is a bad thing, but at times games like Chrono
Trigger and Illusion of Gaia outclass Wild Arms in the graphics
department with only a couple exceptions that the SNES probably
couldn't pull off. The battle system is the only thing that separates
itself from the 16 bit counterparts. When in battle the game becomes 3D
with various changing camera angles. I eventually got sick of the
various camera movements, because it was a total overkill, so I set it
with one angle that I enjoyed. The character look and move like puppets
modeled after "small people". The enemy models aren't anything to
special either, a few of the enemies looked cool like the big dragons,
but for the most part everything was blocky to the extreme. Not quite
as good looking as Blazing Heroes for the Saturn that predates this a
year earlier. The game opens with a really cool anime cutscene, and it
ends with a bunch of grainy looking anime still shots. Really cool
stuff for the time.
----------Sound----------
The music is wonderful stuff that will stick with you even after
you shut the game off. They use real instruments which is cool. There's
no voice work, but some monsters squeal like a cat or a bird when they
get attacked, which gets really repetitive.
----------World Map----------
The map is a classic Final Fantasy styled overview map. There's
not alot of variation on the map. There's an winter continent, a desert
continent, and the rest are plains. The towns, towers and castles all
look like the same on the map with a couple exceptions. You'll find
bottles in the sea that hold treasures or hints, and on land you'll
find caravans that sell you items.
You will eventually gain a Golem that will walk over shallow
water, a ship that will transport you through deep seas, and plane that
will fly you across the map. Cecilia will also learn Teleport that will
warp you to any town you've visited before. You can't save on the world
map, but rather in towns by talking to a parrot (or in a special
occasion, a monkey) or in the middle of dungeons you'll find a 6-sided
star that will save you progress.
One thing that really bugged me about this map was there wasn't an
actual map displaying your location or the town locations you've
visited, so if you need to go someone and forget exactly where it is,
then you'll be walking, sailing, or flying there for a long time until
you happen to accidentally roll by it.
----------Time to Complete Game (last save before final boss)----------
28:33
The game doesn't save after you beat the game, so you can continue
from your previous save point and go back to level up, find sidequests
or anything else you want to do. The final battle was kinda long and
the ending story was even longer, plus the credits was extremely long,
so you can add about an hour to that time and there you have it, a 29
hour game. Then again, I leveled up for a few hours before I entered
the final dungeon, so it's barely even a 29 hour game.
