Wild Arms 3

"The black sheep of the Wild Arms series"

This game is the third installment in the Wild Arms series, and it has nothing to do in terms of story with the other two games released. If you haven't played any Wild Arms games before you will find this game a decent RPG - mixing the Western elements, and it will feel like an original game. However, if you have played the other two Wild Arms games, this game will feel very water downed and dull. I have experienced the latter and this will be reflected in this review.

Story: 7/10
This RPG takes place in the deserts of Filgaia. It feels like a Western movie. The game follows an adventure of four Drifters - lonely souls that fly with the wind all over the world, thirsting for action. These four complete strangers unite by coincidence and embark on a journey for adventure and money. They really have nothing in common with each other, except that they are Drifters and each one is caring an ARM. With an attitude let's go and see what happens and constant arguments this group is hard to follow throughout the game. What makes it even tougher that these four are it. There is no one else is introduced to the party unlike the other Wild Arms games.

Graphics: 7/10
Well done, but there are problems. Environments are detailed, and distinctive. Enemies are also detailed. You control the overhead camera. The transparent over world map view is hard to make out, which is practically useless, unless you train your eyes. During a battle the Guardian animations are plain and awful, and there is no way to skip them. Also at times there is slowdown, and it can get so bad that you think your PS2 froze, but it did not. Never experienced those problems in the other Wild Arms games.

Sound: 8/10
Sound is great. Nice Western tunes - entertain you throughout. Sounds of hits, and firing of ARMs, guardian summons all make distinctive noises. There is no voice acting, which is sort of surprising since this is a PS2 game.

Game-play: 7/10 (Broken down into several sections)
PS SYSTEM: Throughout the game you acquire Guardians that you can assign to your characters. The assignment is not permanent, as you can switch them around even during a battle. You can assign a max of 3 Guardians per character. Each Guardian by default comes equipped with some PS Skills. For example Fire Ward. This Fire Ward has strength levels, that you can use to built up resistance to fire by spending the levels you gain on them. So if you are level 3, you can assign 3 levels of Fire Ward to built your resistance to Fire. If the Fire Ward is maxed out, then you are fully immune to fire attacks. This makes this game very easy. These level assignments can reset, so you can spend your points on some other PS Skills. You also can acquire items, which while equipping on a Guardian, makes the Guardian learn a PS Skill. Problem with that is that it is permanent, unless you delete it, which in that case you lose the item.

MAGIC SYSTEM: Guardians in addition to PS Skills grant the character 4 spells, and the spells get stronger as the character levels. This is different from the previous Wild Arms games, where you basically had a pool of spells and can choose which spells you want assigned. There is no MP, but a character can only use a spell if their Focus Points (FP) are equal or less than the spell requirement. The battle starts with the FP being equal the character's level and it grows, as character hits and evades the enemy. Each character can summon a Guardian, it is an FP based attack that unlike magic depletes the FP bar. Guardian can be summoned finite number of times, which increase as you use the guardian over and over in a battle. When you sleep the counter resets.

BATTLE SYSTEM: It is a turn based RPG. You have your typical fights with characters, but there are also vehicle based fights - sandcraft and while flying. In typical fights you basically set commands which are ARMs and Special Abilities (FP based - they use up FP), regular fight, block, or spell casting (FP based - but do not use FP). Every time you fire an ARM you use your bullets and if those run out, you do melee attack. To reload you have to block. Regular attack, evading a hit, or getting hit increases the FP gauge which maxes out at 100. If you have a status inflicted like poison, when your character reaches FP 100, this is called the Green Condition and all status effects are removed. The order of attack depends on character speed. If all party members die you can continue using a Gimel Coins which are found in a lot of places, and drop from enemies. At the end of a fight, sometimes a booby trap chest appears, and depending on your luck level you can successfully disarm it and retrieve the item, or fail and pay the consequences. The fights are very boring because of the limited number of attacks (you don't acquire special attacks like in Wild Arms 2). Sometimes the damage inflicted to you is not visible, so the only way to see how much damage you hit is to look at your HP bar. Also after a fight your life is filled back up using VIT gauge, which can be replenished by collection crystals, using items, or sleep. Also there are instances where you fight on a horse. The only difference is that you cannot use melee attacks. The game also gives you the option to auto attack, by setting comments, this can tell you that you do not even have to look at the screen to win. The sand craft battles, are basically your sand craft versus an enemy. HP is very high and damage of 100k+ is common. What happens is that there are predefined a series of actions, including enemies actions and how you decide to spend that action allows you to push the enemy attack further, for example fire a harpoon and capture the target. You cannot summon a Guardian or use spell attacks here. Special abilities do exist, but they correspond to the sand craft. While flying the battle system is similar to the typical one with far less options. You have four turns each one corresponding to the attack of your party members, and their speed. HP is also very high. The ARMs and sand craft can be upgraded in special shops.

LEVELING: you have the standard typical leveling, but it is enhanced meaning for every PS activated in a battle the amount of experience you get is exp received x (1 + (number of bonuses received). This is fun because you can level very fast if you spread your PS skills the right way. There is hidden a Guardian usage leveling, if you kill with a Guardian common enemies the counter goes up, if it reaches certain threshold guardian usage increases, so you can summon the guardian more than before.

EVERYTHING ELSE: new locations on the map are opened up by talking to NPCs or looking over a certain item. The way you get the location to appear is you search the coordinates (directions based) and use a scanner, then the place is revealed. NPCs also utilize the unique Contact System - you can end the conversation of ask about a specific item, for further explanation. Saving is done using Gimel Coins which drop from enemies or are found in chests, anywhere in the dungeon or using memory guys in tows. Towns deploy a stupid logic of traveling salesman, so sometimes you need let's say Antidote there is no way to buy it from anyone, you have to sleep, sleep, sleep till he comes to your town, and sleeping can get expensive if you are in a far away town and no way to get back to your home. While traveling in dungeons, towns (indoors) your characters can use 3 abilities that they acquire, for example freeze, fire, jump higher, teleport. These abilities are used to progress and to solve ton of little puzzles encountered in dungeons which can get annoying sometimes. The enemies in the dungeon are usually of two types which really gets boring if the dungeon is long. There is a tracker that tells you what floor you are on, but this is found so late in the game, which is practically useless. This means that the gameplay is not balanced as items are introduced so late, that means that there was a poor planning on the part of game designers. Also this game has tendencies to throw same bosses on you over and over and over, with same stupid attacks, making for a boring fight. Also optional fights which are available later are truly unchallenging and boring, and the lock of excitement is created as you are forced to do 100 of things over and over. On the world map you can travel by foot, sand craft, air, train, using teleportation items. Map has basically three views, as it becomes available small one that you can view while you walk, large one and transparent one. The random encounters can be controlled using Migrant Seals and Booster Kits. If an encounter of enemy falls beyond the Migrant Seal level, you can skip it without penalty if it does not your Booster Kit count goes down and if it goes to 0, you have to fight - Booster Kit is replenished while you sleep or collecting white crystals. You also have surprise and fight alone condition.

Final Impression
It is hard to play this game, as the story is weak, gameplay is watered down and optional content is excitement locking. If you played the other Wild Arms games this is like a slap in the face, and you will dismiss this as an average, even mediocre RPG. If you haven't played it, it will keep you engaged but you will notice that there is nothing great about it - constant repetition, lock of enemies, weak characters and so so story, with what can be considered one of the worst endings ever. When you finish the games and collected enough EX Keys you can start a new game+ where your level basically gets carried over, but there is no need. As the difficulty is almost none existent, so there is no replay value. If you do not want to do the optional content it can take you around 50 hours to finish. With the optional content it can run you close to 90 hours.

I'll give it 7/10 (However, if looking from a perspective of never playing other Wild Arm games it gets 8/10)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/07