Wild ARMs II - Review

By: CLOUDBOND007

Review Breakdown
Battle System	8
Interface	8
Music/Sound	8
Originality	7
Plot	9
Localization	9
Replay Value	9
Visuals	9
Difficulty	Easy
Time to Complete	60 hours
Overall
Criteria

   This is a sequel to Wild Arms, a game released several years ago also on the PlayStation. As you would expect from a game released so much later than it's predecessor, there have been many changes. However, many of the same Gameplay elements remain, and there are plenty of new ones added. This makes for an enjoyable game all around. Onto the review...

   The battle system itself does have some similarities with the original. The game relies heavily on FP (Force Points). Every time a character gets hit, or hits an enemy, his or her FP increases. The FP are probably the most important part of the battle system. Two of the game's characters can use ARMS... Powerful weapons that can be upgraded to an extent. These require a certain amount of FP to use, and you can only take so much Ammo, as well. Other characters have different abilities that are unique to them. And so, this makes battles more strategic. You need to decide which characters are best to use for a particular fight. You are actually able to change your party around during combat, so this makes things a little easier. One final thing to mention about the battle system is that there are usually several sections to a Boss. You might see one with the main body, a left arm,. and a right arm. You can not bother with the arms, but you get less experience and gold. But fighting them does make the battle longer and harder. It's all up to the player. The one problem here, if you want to call it that, is that the difficulty of the game isn't really too high. It's not as easy as, say, FF7, but you won't really find yourself losing all that often. I would have preferred more challenge.

   In many ways, the interface is a lot like some of the classic RPG's from the past. In the dungeons and other areas, there are usually many puzzles. While the puzzles are not difficult, they can still be interesting and fun to solve. This is partly because of the wide variety of tools available in the game. There are 6 playable characters, and each can get up to 3 unique tools. Examples of tools would be the Hookshot, Fire Rod, Skates, etc. In some of the dungeons, puzzles are found in basically every other room. The camera angles usually must be changed around a little so that you can see the whole picture. Many times, you might think to yourself that a lot of the puzzles are just too easy. But sometimes you see some clever ones that make in interesting, again. Personally, I'd rather have lots of fairly easy puzzles than a long, boring dungeon with no puzzles at all. There are random battles, but if you are stronger than the enemies around you, you are given a chance to completely avoid the battle. This makes it no problem at all to complete areas that would normally be frustrating. One final thing to mention is that many people may be annoyed by the fact that there is no Analog or Dual Shock support.

Anime style

   If you want to compare the music with the original Wild Arms, you'll probably find that the music in the sequel is not as good. I did like much of it, though. One of the main problems, I think, is that a lot of the songs are repeated too many times. I believe there is one theme done in three or four of the towns. A lot of the dungeon areas have the same music, too. To sum it up, I'd say that the game is a mix of very good music and average music. There really isn't much at all that I could consider bad. As far as sound effects, there really isn't much to mention. There isn't any voice acting in this game, and any other effects, such as spell effects, are done in an average enough way that they aren't really noticed very often.

   Wild Arms 2 is not really an original game. It has many of the same features as the first Wild Arms, and also borrows heavily from many other RPG's. Most of what you'll find in this game has already been done before. I don't consider this to be a problem though, as it doesn't seem to make the game any less enjoyable.

   I can almost guarantee that what you find yourself doing on the second disc is not at all like what you would have predicted when you started the game. If I were rating the story overall, I'd say that it's a little bit better during the first half than the second. But I enjoyed most of it. One important thing to remember is that you can't expect anything very innovative. Mostly everything here has been tried before in other games. Still, dialogue is interesting, and you will likely become very interested in what happens to the game's characters. I should mention for fans of the original, that the stories are not connected. Much like different games in the Final Fantasy series, some of the themes and names are the same, but the characters and places are all different and no real connections with the original are made.

   I can't recall seeing many localization problems. I can't say that there weren't any, but I simply cannot recall any specific instances where I noticed them. There weren't many blatant spelling mistakes. There might not have been any at all. I'd say that the localization was pretty impressive.

Puzzles

   This game has signifigant replay value. Aside from it being an overall fun game to play with an interesting story, there are also many hidden items and extra dungeons and other places to visit. Most gamers won't find themselves getting tired of it too quickly. The only thing that hurts replay value is that the game is longer than average.

I was really impressed by the graphics when I was finally able to play the game. From all I had read, I was expecting something really poorly done. The game is most similar to Breath of Fire 3 and Grandia. Not 2D like FF4, but also not realistic with odd camera angles like FF7. Dungeons and towns are large and most have a lot of detail. The dungeons have enough differences between them that it doesn't feel like you're doing the same thing again and again for 40 hours. Also, It might sound strange here, but one of my favorite things about the game's graphics is having the ability to fully rotate the camera. For most of the puzzles, it is neccesary to move the camera in some way. I didn't find it to be an annoyance, though. Some people might. If you've played the first Wild Arms, you can expect a big improvement with the battle graphics. The characters are still somewhat deformed looking, definitely far better than in the original. The battle graphics don't surpass those of games like FF7, but they are decent, and the camera movement is pretty good. Contrary to what I've heard, these battles do not seem to bear too much resemblance to those in the original. Spell effects are much better, as well as overall character movement and designs of the enemies and bosses, and appearance of your party in battle, as well.

The game wasn't really very difficult at all. There were some bosses that were more challenging than others, but for the most part, it is pretty easy. Especially for those who take the time to level up. When leveling up, all characters (Even ones who aren't in your main party) gain levels. This makes it pretty easy to level up for a boss or a newdungeon.

Odd weapon

It took me about 42 hours to complete this game. However, I did not do all of the side-quests and find all of the hidden items. Doing those things could make the game take 50 hours, or longer. I do suggest that those who played and enjoyed the original should try this game out. Those people are the ones who would probably get the most enjoyment out of it. I found this game to be one of the most enjoyable I've played in a while. It has some flaws, but it's still an excellent game, in my opinion. So, I do recommend the game to RPG players who don't mind that the graphics aren't too "realistic".