Wild ARMs - Review

Review Breakdown
Battle System	5
Interaction	5
Originality	5
Story	4
Music & Sound	5
Visuals	4
Challenge	easy to hard
Completion Time	20-80
Overall
CG rudy wow

This is the only game that can venture into the deep dungeons of cliché ness and dare to destroy it to bits. I will never look cliché ness in games the same after what Wild ARMs did. They put together the most cliché like game they can find in their stash and threw them all together breaking all the bad clichés into works of art and originality. With an impeccable and exciting battle system accompanied by a range of music makes every battle exciting and worthwhile. And to think this isn't enough the interface and all the maps are extremely smooth, fluid and fast to venture though one of the best I have ever seen. Accompanied by extremely hard extra bosses and a fun fast main plot any gamer can enjoy the game just as much as I did. Even though it is lacking in a few areas this RPG has been the most innovative game since Chrono Trigger.

The story line is very little and almost nonexistent. Well three characters come together in a common goal to save their dying planet of Figara from ancient forgotten demons. Again like the title suggest this story line is no exception. The plot is really just clichés like a fake wedding, and an ancient mystical library strung together by a string of hope, in the begging. At the end the pace gets faster and faster until the end where it bursts though all the clichés at a break neck speed and expands that string called hope into the whole story. With many symbols and metaphors, the ending couldn't have been better explaining everything in a subtle manner.

The characters are regular clichés as well, A lonely swordsman searching for the ultimate power, a princess wanting to be a regular person and a reject because of his power inside of him. But every one of them gets a revelation and changes the cliché of these characters in a way I will never forget. There revelations give a new light into this burned out candles and they burn like never before. With an excellent battle system and innovative personalities this game achieves the best individualism I have ever seen. Each character is distinct from the first moment you see them until the last breath they utter. With every breath they get more distinct and have more emotion. Each of them has likable personalities, clever tools and an in-depth back ground. Any of the characters could be the main character unlike FF6. But because any of the three main characters could be the one main character they are all like one group unlike FF6 again. The secondary characters also play major roles and shouldn't be excluded from the party. Even the secondary characters have major clichés but like always they have revelations and break though the bonds of that cliché forever. On great example of a great character that you grow and love is the Earth golem, after fighting all other 7 golems this one is linked with the princess so ineptly that it joins there party as another member. All the golem wants is not to be treated like a weapon or a symbol of great power it just wants to be loved. This in turn makes the princess to have many revelations one the regular I don't want to be a princess cliché and breaks it with reality and facts. Bonded with clichés individualism and group revelations these characters are one of the best I have ever seen in any RPG.

This game is like so many other games but one thing is incredibly innovative, the battle system. First there are a regular turn based enter attacks first like in Breath of Fire 3 and grouped enemies like in Dragon Warrior 7. The Camera moves around in the fight to get a better angle much like Final Fantasy 7 but 10 times better. When you first start a battle it is like Dragon Warrior 7 all over again with innovativeness and fast paced style as the camera swerves to every angle imaginable to get the best shot. There is also a gauge called a force gauge, which are really a limit gauge from FF7 and the Sprit gauge from Legend of Dragoon combined. You gain force for everything you do in the battle. Each force level you gain 10% more power and when the gauge is full you are in "Condition green" where all your status Aliments get sucked away. Since you can also use this gauge to do more powerful attacks called Force abilities there are many ways to use it to your full advantage, which usually changes once you, get more Force abilities and more better weapons. This adds another dimension in the fighting that has to do a lot with tactics and strategy. With this strategy come many possibilities with many different styles, which eliminates long leveling up before bosses. On to the three different sub designs of this already great game. For the swordsman he learns new sword techniques from hints that come though exploring dungeons and finding special places. Also he can lower the mp cost of the technique all the way down by 1 mp cost by using secret signs, a very rare item. The princess uses magic acquired by experimenting and changing. First you get a choice between 32 magic's that need to be encrypted into a stone tablet called crest graphs also a rare item. Since you have a pick between 32 of 64 possible magic's all the magic's in this class are all the same relative usefulness depending on how you play the game. Unfortunately the magic isn't that colorful or graphical. The reject harnesses the power of the mythical ARM. The ARM is basically a large gun using your own spirit energy infused with the bullet. You get ARMs from various ARM boxes hidden within the game. You can also upgrade your ARM in the areas of power, hit%, and bullets. The upgrades tend to suck up a lot of your gella (money) so you really need to be careful on what you upgrade. All of these help each one of the characters to have incredible individualism beyond that of what we would ever expect and on top of that the style of battling grows and changes just as you get situated into one. Since abilities use force and Force abilities use a lot of force the huge abilities are only used sparsely and just makes the strategy involved more in-depth. Everything that has to do with the battle system is perfect even with the taking from other games.

There are a ton of extra little things in this game. First there is a whole icon-based interface that even a toddler can understand. You can change the whole interface to your liking even the icons themselves. The loading times are impeachable as well as they squeeze it in when ever they can, but still fluid and easily traversed. When you walk around town you can dash in a strait line from when you started. This makes it so much easier and fun since when you stop you skid like a skateboard on the ground and can join many lines of travel together to make one large line of travel. The puzzles in this game are moderately hard but they can give you a hard time. Also with the puzzles come brainteasers using tools you have gathered though your battles. These new turns on puzzles are fun and use a different part of your brain. The difficulty in the regular plot is pretty easy but the extras are well hidden and are guarded by extremely hard bosses. Breaking though all clichés and barriers of the RPG world this game with extreme individualism revelations galore and an airtight battle system succeeds in blowing your mind away.

There are a ton of extra little things in this game. First there is a whole icon-based interface that even a toddler can understand. You can change the whole interface to your liking even the icons themselves. The loading times are impeachable as well as they squeeze it in when ever they can, but still fluid and easily traversed. When you walk around town you can dash in a strait line from when you started. This makes it so much easier and fun since when you stop you skid like a skateboard on the ground and can join many lines of travel together to make one large line of travel. The puzzles in this game are moderately hard but they can give you a hard time. Also with the puzzles come brainteasers using tools you have gathered though your battles. These new turns on puzzles are fun and use a different part of your brain. The difficulty in the regular plot is pretty easy but the extras are well hidden and are guarded by extremely hard bosses. Breaking though all clichés and barriers of the RPG world this game with extreme individualism revelations galore and an airtight battle system succeeds in blowing your mind away.