A look back at: Wild Arms 3

In what is the best example of its kind yet, I look back at Wild Arms 3.

This game gets the setting perfectly, where the world of Filgaia is now actually a full-blown wasteland of deserts, saloons, and horses I guess. But very little in vegetation this time around apart from some secluded areas. Gameplay was pretty much exactly like Alter Code F, but enhanced to further accomodate what Wild Arms 2 had provided. It all works out in the end. Sure, it's pretty annoying having to search for things and handle personal skills to survive in many battles. But it all works out fantastically when you can have a very good strategy for just about anything in the game. Who would think that using Gallows' Extension force power along with the Valiant arcana would break most battles? And then you have the sandcraft and Lombardia used in this game, the latter of which also appeared in Wild Arms 2. But here, we actually get battles with both of them, and they are fun. The Abyss is back, and pretty good overall, and there's also an alien sidequest that is done oh so well for a Western-themed RPG. Fantastic.

And hooray, every playable character here has plenty of importance, enough for their individual intros and the plot itself. Virginia and Clive get the most overall storyline. And if that weren't enough, all four are gunslingers, very much appropriate for what we are dealing with in terms of setting. One thing that really sets apart Wild Arms 3 from many other JRPGs is a complete lack of romance subplot, which is often a shoehorn every time it is used. The only real glimpse of romance I can think of in this game involves Clive and his family, but since Clive's already married and his family is supportive of what he does, he doesn't really need to feel all wishy-washy about anything here. Gallows has Shane, his brother, and Virginia feels close to her own father Werner, while Malik wants to resurrect his dead mother, but there's no real romance to go by at all with any of the important characters. That in itself is actually quite admirable.

And yes, the villains in this game are very much memorable. Wild Arms as a series tends to reuse boss battles a lot, and Wild Arms 3 is actually the most blatant. It fledges out a lot of character for these boss battles, all of which somehow end up unique. Still though, fighting Janus no less than eight times is quite tiring and you wish he'd die already or something. You can tell the degrees of villainy or rivalry in each the villains though. Maya and her posse are quite the charming foil for our main heroes. Janus at one point tried to do this but ended up as a puppet for the three prophets, each one with their own goals in mind but the same overall ambition. A few returners like Siegfried (originally Zeikfried) and Asgard are pretty well done, and naturally a behind-the-scenes villain in Beatrice also proved interesting in her own right.

Admittingly enough, I gave this a lower score than the other Wild Arms games I played, which may be because I play things in order and get used to the styles of each game in the franchise. But looking back on this one, it really does show itself as the one true game that exemplifies what Wild Arms really is about, a JRPG with a Wild West setting and guns. A perfect specimen.