A look back at: Thousand Arms

No it is not a part of the Wild Arms series.

Thousand Arms might just be the single most unique RPG I've seen. It makes its main character an aspiring blacksmith, allowing him to create new spells for several character's weapons, but they require the help of his female companions that help him out, via dating simulation! And it's basically what I end up doing for the vast majority of the game, rightfully enough. But wait, shouldn't this RPG have a plot and a system of battle against enemies? It has those, yes, and the battle system ALSO is unique, but not necessarily to my liking.

So yes, dating takes up much of my time here. Give the girl a present, hopefully she's gonna like it. Take her to a dating location, answer her questions, although these questions sure can be difficult. Maybe a kiss to raise the intimacy level. Not to mention some photographs if possible. The minigames I found to be the easiest way to gain intimacy levels, and surprisingly the most fun thing to do as far as dating goes. Well not all are great and everything. Marion and Kyleen's minigames pretty much have you at the mercy of RNG, and Nelsha's is impossible to effectively even master due to terrible hitboxes. Of course, to get certain spells sometimes the intimacy has to be lowered.

But even then, I wonder if spells really do play a part for the battle system. These battles are mostly one-on-one, using some sort of faux-active time battle system where actions can definitely say quite a bit on how to win most of them. Spells are often mitigated to supporting characters, who also cheer or taunt in battle, and special moves (Summons in Meis' case) are finite in use as well. Unfortunately, those boss fights that the game has are pretty much marathons, since many of them have way too much health. And switching out a character for another one is not a good idea, since it removes them from the EXP pool and you can't unswitch them back. Lame.

Well the plot could be better, just an evil emperor, his five (!) cohorts all cyborgs with different crazy personalities. Also this rival blacksmith who gives himself the ultra-lame name of Dark Master and is oblivious to this one girl who loves him so darn much. I'll admit though, Bolt's death scene was hilarious. And then you get the whole scenes full of cliches. Yes, Meis and Sodina lose their hometowns* but somehow they come back. And Sodina is another case of a "chosen female". Guh, you could've done better just somehow making this game an actual dating sim. But I'll give Thousand Arms credit, it does a lot of things to impress.

*Kyleen does too, the big floating continent thing with balloons. But hell, she doesn't even mention it and neither does anyone else. What gives there?