Wild Arms
Wild Arms is a series that has always intrigued me. It’s JRPG in a western setting, with some futuristic elements. In my collection I’ve got all the Wild Arm games except the PSP tactics one, yet (as embarrassing as it is to say) I’ve barely put time into any of them. I haven’t even tried 3, 4, and 5. I figured I’d get around to them after beating 1 and two but never did an other series (*cough Final Fantasy, Suikoden *cough) just took up most of my time. So I finally got around to finishing off Wild Arms 1!
First off, even though these old PS1 RPGs are typically expensive and tough to find. But in this case (as well as the awesome Suikoden 1) you’re in luck because Sony has added Wild Arms to the PSN store for $5.99.
It’s pretty far back to remember, but my recollection at the time was that Wild Arms was the second RPG for the PSX (I’m probably wrong, but that’s how I remember it). The first was the completely forgettable “Beyond the Beyond”.
The first couple hours really makes it apparent that Media Visions (the developers) set out to create a truly amazing RPG experience. Not only is there a ton of innovation here, it’s obvious that they looked to the past to see what worked well in previous best selling RPGs. A lot of influence from some of my favorite SNES RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3(6) shine through.
The audio for the game is great with a wicked soundtrack, and the graphics hold up with the exception of the monsters and character sprites during battle.
The game starts off with an anime cutscene that shows off the characters and the world. Today this isn’t very impressive, but at the time I remember being awed by it. Following that you get to choose one of 3 characters. Rudy, a traveler who’s currently helping out in a small village, Jack a treasure hunter (and his companion mouse) who’s searching ruins for clues to a treasure known only as the “Power”, or Claudia a princess who’s finishing up her studies at the magic academy.
Once you’ve selected a character you start off with their storyline. At any save point you can choose to switch to one of the other characters and start or continue their story as well. Once you are done the introductory missions for each character. You can travel to the nearby town where the real game starts. You’re tasked with gathering a group and clearing out a nearby ruin of monsters. The group is of course the 3 members you’ve been playing as so you have to walk each one to the town and talk to the each other to form your party.
The battle system is your typical turn based battle. You can attack, use a magic spell or unique ability, use a character specific force move, or use items.
Dungeons usually have some puzzle solving elements to them. Step switches or levers, as well as movable blocks, make up the puzzles that you need to solve. You can also dash and bash into things by holding the dash button which can be used to solve some puzzles).
Another unique feature of the game is the tools system. Each character starts with a tool (and eventually gets 4) that helps them progress through areas. Rudy has bombs that can blow up obstacles, Jack has his wind mouse that he throw across pits to activate switches or collect treasure, and Claudia has a tear drop that opens some sealed doors, and a stop watch that can rewind time in certain situations (usually to reset puzzles you’ve messed up on). You can switch to any character and item at any time using the start button.
After clearing out the ruins you return to the kingdom for a festival showcasing all the futuristic machines, called golems that have been excavated. The festival is very Chrono Trigger with several minigames to do. Eventually the sky opens up (in a very 16bit final fantasy like cutscene) and the kingdom is attacked by demons looking to take the golems and Claudia’s tear drop for themselves.
Ordered not to leave the castle by the King, Claudia decides to sneak out and trade the tear drop for the lives of the kingdom. This involves an interesting though frustrating scenario of dashing through the castle avoiding guards. After trading the tear drop the demons leave and in true Final Fantasy fashion (at around 2 1/2 hours) the game starts with a credits sequence and a pretty moving scene depicting the after effects of the battle on the kingdom.
Now you’ve definitely noticed me pointing out where this game is borrowing elements from Square’s SNES games (and are probably pretty tired of it). But I want to say that I’m not faulting Wild Arms for that, in fact I’m praising them. Square’s 16 bit RPGs (including Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 4-6, and Secret of Mana) are among the best RPGs ever made. Wild Arms does an amazing job to taking inspiration of what these games did well, and make it work well within it’s universe. Everything about Wild Arms works great and though it’s a bit simple by today’s standards it does everything well.
Onto the flaws. There aren’t many and they’re small but they’re worth noting. First off, sometimes you just don’t know where you’re supposed to go. Talking to enough people will eventually put you on the right track, but it’s frustrating to have to go talk to every single person to know what to do next. Another thing is when you DO know what you have to do, but the game won’t let you do it until you’ve talked to the right person about it. For example, in Claudia’s opening scenario there’s a set of statues you have to push to face each other. It couldn’t be more obvious, but you can’t do it until you talk to a random NCP (who’s several screens away) who tells you there’s a switch on the statues back. This drives me crazy every time I play this game. The only other thing is that some parts like the sneaking out of the castle scene is crazy annoying, especially if you don’t know where you’re supposed to go. There’s only one route you can take, but there’s other ways you can try to go. Each time you screw up you’re sent back to the beginning. It serious took me about 20 tries to get through that part.
All in all, it’s a fun game with a lot of elements still not seen in many RPG’s. The story is memorable and captivating, and it only has some minor flaws. I recommend this game to every RPG fan. It’s only $6 on the PSN which is a steal. It’s a great game to play on your PSP too, so that’s a bonus for getting it on the PSN. If you’ve never played an RPG before it would be a good game to get started with, but there are some better ones (Check out Suikoden 1).
Here’s hoping they’ll add wild Arms 2 to the PSN soon!
Like this game? Order it online
