A look back at: Wild Arms 4

 

It's been a very long time since I played any Wild Arms game, now I come back to the series with this. Again, RPGenius's blog played a big part in what I thought of the game when I played it, again I did not necessarily have high expectations. I gotta admit though, I wasn't really expecting to be done with this game as quickly as I did, and that's even with all the extra stuff like the arena and hidden bosses. Is it as bad as he says? Well...

There ARE some neat ideas, and many of them were so neat they end up being too weird. That hex battle system, honestly I guess it's fine, the only real problem is you can't move and attack at the same time unless it's Raquel. Speaking of, wow. Raquel is far too overpowered and makes the game way too easy, I was able to one-shot bosses with her, and the way experience gets distributed means she gets the most. Kinda problematic? Nevertheless, this battle system still allows for some serious strategy placement, especially given the elemental hexes (or ley points), as well as giving certain hexes statuses and buffs to do the important stuff.

Not too much of a fan of navigation. We really didn't need to have a "select destination" world map in hindsight, it's much less fun. Platforming mechanics aren't really that bad and puzzles are fine. The linearity of the game is quite a minus though, maybe this is the reason why it's too darn short. I actually did have an Alter Code F save, which, well, it just gives you more gella in chests and gives better starting levels for the characters (I sorta cheated with my ACF save because I wanted to get all Ex File Keys, and some require a character to be at Lv100 so what else but gamesharking to reach that, it then impacted the starting levels and power of the characters here in a way).

I'm not into the whole theme of the plot and characters though. I just don't understand things, considering how the children and the adults are always at odds, we see these Gazel Ministry-like weirdos who are creepily obsessed with retrieving Yulie, but are then killed off by Mr Bishonen bad guy Lambda who's still pretty meh on everything. Jude acts like a spoiled child and Arnaud isn't anywhere close to smart in my opinion. Yulie and Kresnik's sibling relationship is cliche as heck, and Tony is an annoying underling. While I was annoyed at fighting the same bosses over and over in 3, the Brionac lieutenants had barely any character whatsoever and you fight each of them once before they end up dying in various ways. And Gawn, well he is the kind of character you wished would be playable because he seemed to be the only one aside from Lambda and maybe Farmel who actually had a "character" in some sense. Instead Kresnik tags along only to rescue Yulie at one point and then later when he and Jude get separated, and neither of those times are really that long to justify whatever he even does.

If anything, Wild Arms 4 is a very political game in all the wrong ways. Children just don't understand politics at all, as well as what's at stake in just about any known world. What do children do when things don't go their way? They whine. It's so similiar to how kids with social media accounts always whine about politics that don't fit their favorite things. Adults had the time to grow and realize just what is wrong with things on different sides. Some like Lambda take stupidly drastic measures as a "solution", which frankly is reminiscent of how politicians come up with "solutions". Others are just trying to make a living doing their everyday jobs no matter how they struggle, somehow these people are sidelined for the main plot of "this crazy political crap is happening and kids are trying to stop it".

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.

A look back at: Wild Arms: Alter Code F

And yet when I look back here, I see a very nicely done remake, with the simple concept of having so much more to do overall. That's the kind of thing I expect remakes to end up doing, which is fairly standard.

So yes, translation errors are fixed, cutscenes are done better, battles are a lot more interesting, and you get to control more than three of the main heroes this time around. The encounter series is quite advanced, and several new enemies like the apples help in building up characters. The Abyss in this game is the toughest one I can find in the entire series to date (bear in mind I played this before Wild Arms 3). And of course it's not the only sidequest the game offers, there are lots more with very good rewards throughout.

Yet still the world in Wild Arms: ACF remains the same, except inverted in a way. But still there's no real Western connection provided in this game, which Wild Arms 2 at least tried with some locales. Still disappointed in that despite the rest of the advancements, that setting remained. On the plus side Rudy isn't the only gunslinger in the game, experience can be tweaked well, as can encounters, many enemies are interesting to combat, and I'm always a big fan of puzzles, so a puzzle minigame is a worthwhile thing to see here. I guess it was worth the long trek through this good enough reboot.

A look back at: Wild Arms 2

Potentially the lamest Wild Arms title yet, but then again, having not played Wild Arms 4 at this point, I can't say for sure if it is that bad. It has some redeeming features though. Not really gameplay-wise if you must, since much of it is similar to before, force abilities, two members being able to use guns, eight elements, the usual stuff. There seems to be even less Western-styled setting in this game than its predecessor, although Damzen City and that one border town seem quite nicely done for locales, especially with the music AGAIN being center-stage as the crowning best thing about Wild Arms 2. But this one has quite a lot of greenery, perhaps moreso, and more swords and weird magic going around. Oh yeah, and the whole deal with FP required for certain things such as magic itself is quite taxing if you utilize Force powers a bit too much. Some actual improvements are better tools to use, better dungeons to go through, a rotatable isometric view, and an interesting take on encountering enemies where you can skip some if needed, also a few of the ambushes in this game make a character stand alone against the enemies.

So yes, I don't like this game nearly as much though. The idea of ARMs being an anti-terrorist organization rather than, you know, people with guns is pretty pathetic. Also only two characters, Ashley and Brad, seem to employ the guns, the others use daggers and cybernetics, staves, weird robot things, and an umbrella. And in Ashley's case, he uses a gun-blade...thing. Urgh. It's so weird how Ashley's plot plays out too, a ceremony goes completely wrong where everyone turns into demons, Ashley included, but being a main character means you get access to a sword that will basically make you a better demon in Lord Blazer. His companions he gets on the journey are mostly nothing special, the most interesting ones are the war criminal Brad and Kanon, who actively seeks him out, attacking him multiple times before joining eventually. The villains for the first half of the game are the members of Odessa, bringing order to oppression and conformity, apparently, they are mostly anti-heroes in a way. Antenora's probably the most interesting one, an ACTUAL anti-hero against the leader Vinsfeld. Also Judecca is just an ass, Caina is a weird case of a character gender-swapped in translation, and Ptolomea in reality is just a general who looks out for his men.

But you know who stands out above everyone else in terms of character? Irving. He's probably the one character that after playing the game, I ended up hating most. His actions are the ones who actually make everything seem so damn grim overall when the events unfold. He directly helps out the heroes in ARMs, but also apparently was responsible for funding Odessa, so he's basically the mastermind of both parties. For what cost though? Basically whether it was ARMs or Odessa who win against each other, the winner would have to deal with the even bigger evil that made up the second part of the plot. Yep, all his plan, and to make matters worse he ends up giving himself and his sister up to that evil just so the heroes can defeat it. Really now? Oh yeah, and Lord Blazer was actually put in place for Ashley because of him. I play through the entire game just to realize how senseless this character ended up being, and how much of a "hero" he is.

Now notice the last word I said there in the quotes, "hero". This is the one thing I loved about Wild Arms 2 the most, the idea of a hero that of course usually gets stretched by JRPGs to mean someone does good to all, potentially at a cost. Naturally, every character who's name isn't Irving is opposed to the idea of a hero. Ashley ends up opposed to the idea eventually. Brad hates it due to it potentially making him a criminal. Judecca flat out mocks the idea of a hero. Hell, even an early part of the game has Ashley being sent to prison so he and Lilka can apparently rescue Brad. As early as that, the idea of a hero is pretty much embellished and foretold. Well done with that aspect Wild Arms 2. I can't respect you for some things, but that right there is a huge plus.

A look back at: Wild Arms

You see me doing all these look backs and are wondering why not revamp your original reviews, well I kinda want to keep them as they are. The look backs are what I remember most about these games. Wild Arms is an example of a JRPG series I wanted to quickly get at after looking at it for the first time, and it's mediocre at worst but rather good at best.

Right off the bat, I will say Michiko Naruke did a fantastic job with the soundtrack, capturing the adventurous feels of the overall game and the general atmosphere of the towns and dungeon treks. As for everything else, we've got the standard turn-based RPG mechanics, a few puzzles using different tools that different characters can use, quite a few good sidequests to accomplish, yeah it all seems worthwhile. Though one thing does bother me, only one of the three playable characters here is a gunslinger and there's not a whole lot else on the other character's parts, being both a swordsman and a mage. They try to do interesting things to make up for it, like using MP for Fast Draw moves or spells, and two collectables allow players to get more uses out of them. Meanwhile, Rudy's got to keep ammunition stock in good shape all the time for his numerous weapons he gains.

Plot-wise, it's pretty complex. Jack has this awful past being a failed knight, then there's Rudy's exile from his village just because he has a gun. They end up meeting Cecilia at a wrong time, where there's always that one thing that the apparent enemy always seems to seek, her tear drop, so they terrorize the entire kingdom, not to mention a few other towns in-game. The rule of four applies to the main enemies, although Mother along with Zed don't necessary qualify due to one being the leader and the other being a comical low rank. I have to hand it to Alhazad for being the most devious, especially with the body horror thing done to humans and dogs in one particular part of the game. Unfortunately that and a few other parts are basically failure setups, in that the heroes are too late to reach what they need before the villains get there first.

I guess one thing I liked was how the four demons found out that Mother's intentions weren't what they had expected, and that she just flat out told them her plan after she was resurrected. It's pretty much agreeable for the demons that it's better to conquer rather than to destroy, they then use the obvious plot of setting the heroes up to take down Mother for their conquest. Other neat things? Well there's the whole Elw dimension, Rudy losing his arm to Zeikfried, and the prospect that even after being saved from yet another giant satellite, Filgaia is essentially still a wasteland.

Yet despite all these things, Wild Arms seems to be a Western-styled JRPG in name only. Apart from the gunslinging that Rudy or Jane does, most everything is typical faux-fantasy style with dashes of technology and it really shows. The setting of Filgaia honestly needs to be more Western in nature if I were to enjoy it more. At least it's not too bad.