Sony recently updated the official website for Wild ARMS: The 4th Detonator with details regarding story and battle elements of the game. Also added to the website are a few facts about the game's system and interface.
The premise of the story sets up Filgaia as a battered and scarred world of strife. Though the war that tore the world apart ended 10 years ago, evidence of the destruction caused by the fighting can still be plainly seen almost anywhere. Enter Jude, a young boy fortunate enough to have grown up in one of the few places in Filgaia untouched by the aftermath of the war. His world is turned upside down, however, when shortly after his 13th birthday, a military ship crashes near his home village. Curious, as young boys often are, Jude investigates the crash. For the first time in his life, he meets up with someone near to his own age, a young girl by the name of Yulie. It turns out that Yulie was being hunted by some powerful organizations. Instantly smitten with the young girl, Jude decides that he wants to protect her. While doing so, he will end up discovering many things about the world and history that he had purposely been hidden from.
In battle, Jude will have a special ability called "Accelerator", which he will be able to use to help turn the tables in his favor. To veterans of the Wild ARMs series, this ability should be no mystery, as at least one character in every game of the series has possessed a skill by this name. In The 4th Detonator, however, Accelerator will be used to cause the speed of the entire party to increase, making objects in the surroundings of the battle appear to slow to one-quarter of their normal speed. Time, unfortunately, is limited as Jude can only use this ability so long as his Accelerator gauge is full.
In a departure from the rest of the series, the save points in The 4th Detonator will receive a few changes including a name-change to "break points." Not only will games be saved at these points, but also meetings can be conducted to talk with any or all of the characters in the party. Also present at these break points will be a black light, which is directly connected to the monsters roaming around in the area. By defeating certain traps or monsters nearby, the player will be able to shut down the light at the break point, effectively reducing the number of random encounters in the area to zero. Once this is achieved, the light will become a switch that the player can toggle with the R2 button, turning the random encounters on or off at will.
Players can expect a lot of new twists on old themes in The 4th Detonator, aside from save points. For instance, while in dungeons, players will have the option of toggling a "route conductor", which places on the screen blue arrows pointing in the directions of unexplored areas, yellow arrows pointing toward the explored areas, and a red arrow pointing in the direction from which the character had previously come. This system was designed to cut down on getting lost and having to back-track through dungeons.
Lastly, it was mentioned that on the map, "?" and "!" markers will appear, similar to other RPGs of late, to denote something of interest. Pressing L1 in addition to the X button near a marker will allow the player to trigger the point without having to come in direct contact with the object.
Wild ARMs: The 4th Detonator is still on schedule for a March 24 Japanese release. There is still no word on the possibility of a North American localization.
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