Wild Arms

Wild Arms Overview

Wild Arms is a wild west themed RPG that was released for the Sony Playstation 1 in early 1997. While this game is a little dated by today’s standards, it was the first in its series and set the stage for the rest of the series which has grown to gargantuan proportions today. If you are truly a hardcore RPG fan than this is a must play for you!

Wild Arms Screenshots

[Show as slideshow]

Wild Arms Featured Video

Full Review

Wild Arms Review

Wild Arms… Where to start… I’ll begin with how I came across the game. When I think of RPGs I think of the SNES, the console for console rpgs. I think of Final Fantasy 6 (or 3 if you prefer), I think of Chrono Trigger, I think of Lufia II. When I first saw Wild Arms, I thought ofFinal Fantasy 6 and Lufia II.

I was at a friend’s house, let’s call him Pat (since that’s his name). After verbally ripping apart Final Fantasy 7, I wanted to see what other rpgs the Playstation offered and I shown Wild Arms. It opens with an anime-style movie (I’d call it anime-style anyway). The movie features the characters from the game and it’s pretty good, but the thing is I play video games for gameplay. If I wanted a movie, I’d watch one. But that’s just my opinion, like movies in video games? Wild Arms starts with one. Ignoring the battles, the in-game graphics ofWild Arms are basically from Lufia II (the battle graphics are 3D). There’s two ways of looking at the “borrowed” graphics, one was is “Hey, Lufia II had pretty good graphics.” The other, “Why the hell didn’t they get original graphics? I want big bright colors and movies that make my eyes happy!” (If you couldn’t tell, I dislike focusing on graphics.) I, myself, like Lufia II so I was glad to see a game I’d be semi-familiar with. Little did I know that the graphics weren’t the only aspect of the game that I was familiar with..

I soon had a feeling of deja vu when playing Wild Arms. First, the kingdom is called Filgaia. Remember when I said Wild Arms reminded me of FF6? It was because in FF6 there’s a kingdom called Figaro. I said to myself “they’re kind of close, but that’s being picky, ignore it.” So I did and I started playing and learned more about the story. About 1000 years ago, there was a war (Brain: Like in FF6). After the war, one of the races involved decided the humans were too greedy and such so they separated themselves from the humans. (Brain: Didn’t the Espers do that in FF6?) There was a third race, the Guardians, after the war they were forgotten and society rebuilt itself (Brain: Hey..*stabs brain with a cue-tip*). Yes, the story does seem to be heavily borrowed from FF6 but is that a problem? In my opinion, FF6 was the best game ever. So a story line borrowed from FF6 = a good story line to me. I probably should add some more about the story line without comparing it to FF6. There’s 3 characters, Rudy, Jack and Cecilia. Each of the characters have a story, their goals start different but I assume in the end the goals are gonna come together and become one (I didn’t finish the game yet).

Music, what’s a great RPG without good music? It’s nothing, and Wild Arms is above nothing. The music was good, it fit where it was point. Nothing memorable to me like the Aria Di Mezzo Carattere from FF6 (Celes’s Opera scene to non-nerds), but there were pretty good songs in the game (if you can’t tell, I’m not Mr. descriptive when it comes to music). The sound effects? Not much to say. If you base your opinion of a game on the sound effects you need to check your priorities. The sound effects were sufficient. That’s the thing about sound effects, they fit or they don’t, there’s not really an inbetween..and yea, I have no idea what I’m talking about.

Onto gameplay we go. The game starts after you choose which character you want to control first. The characters eventually meet up together as you get deeper into the game. If you go in order, Rudy is first. Rudy uses ARMs, an ancient type of power only someone who could synchronize with an ARM could use (it’s a gun). Next is Cecilia, the stereotypical female magic user. What’s not stereotypical is the system of magic. After you find a magic card (or whatever creates the magic, it’s not deathly important whether it’s a card or not) you take it to a magic shop, pick two categories and you get a spell. The spells can be taken apart and the card used again (but you lose the first spell if you break it down to make a new one). Last is Jack, the swordsman. As you go on, he gets more sword techniques. Then there’s also tools (not to complain more, but the tools are a lot like the tools from Lufia II). One tool resets the dungeon if you screw up one of the puzzles. Hanpan, a tool and Jack’s little companion, can be used for hitting out of reach switches and treasure chests (I think he’s a mouse). There were a few more tools that I don’t remember too well and it’s probably better for me to not make up job descriptions for the tools.

Overall, is the game original? Not very much. Is it enjoyable and entertaining? Indeed it is. I’d recommend it if you can get it cheap, at most 10 dollars (or free from a friend who’s Playstation broke like I did). It was fun but with so many great games out you might want to just skip over this one for a better one. I’d definitely suggest playing FF6 before this one but if you got time to play and the money to get it, give this game a try.