Wild Arms

The Good
As one of the Playstation’s first rpg’s, Wild Arms is a good example of old school meeting new, and doing a good job of it. Released before the FFVII hype, Wild Arms still stands out as one of the Playstation’s best.

The Storyline in Wild Arms is an rpg classic, a fantasy world is threatened by the return of an ancient evil,(Does the estate of H.P. Lovecraft get paid for this?) in this case the ‘Metal Demons’. (hmm sounds like a garage band I used to be in.) However Wild Arms still leaves room for originality. For example at the beginning of the game you get to chose which of the three characters you wish to play as first. And the game also successfully mixes Action/RPG elements in to it’s gameplay bag. Yes it is mainly a fantasy world, with just a hint of the wild west, I.e. Rudy’s guns. The story also features A.R.M. s which are ancient weapons that few can wield let alone understand. Except (of course) one of the main characters.

The graphics in the game are also a mix of old and new. The majority of the graphics are a sprite based 2D affair. But in battle things are transformed in to 3D, with the characters retaining there “super deformed” look. The graphics look good considering the games age. The spells and ARM’s attacks all look sweet. There is also the ability to “summon” Guardians that your party acquires. While most of these are impressive quite a few are also weak. There are also anime style cut scenes, these are not very frequent but they look great.

The music and sounds do there job. The music is the stronger of the two, most of the score is quite memorable. The sounds just do there job nothing excels here but this is normal.

The Gameplay is classic rpg with enhancements like using a magic wand in real time to activate a switch, and avoiding traps. There are also an occasional puzzle or two. Battles are unfortunately random, and can get tedious. At some points you will be attacked about every 5 seconds.

The Bad
The bad comes from the tedious nature of most Japanese rpgs. Particularly the amount of random battles. Even having a vehicle does not stop the random battles! There are side quests to partake in but the rewards for such endeavors are generally weak.

The Bottom Line
Fans of old or new rpgs will find something to like here. Pick this one up if you can find it for a reasonable price.