Wild Arms 4

"This blows any other RPG I have played in the past few months out of the water"

After hearing about the Wild Arms series in the magazine Game Informer, I was immediately interested. My first true experience playing the games was when I bought Wild Arms 3. I was left feeling kind of cheated and sorely disappointed. I decided to give the franchise another chance and stumbled upon the gem that is Wild Arms 4.

Now We're Talkin!

As soon as the games boots up, fans of the original Wild Arms series by SCEA may notice a new feature. There are voiced cutscenes! And these aren't cheesy, mediocre VO's either; they're quite high class. Other new features brought into the game include the HEX battle system and the action platforming element, which I will discuss later.

The Glory That is the Story

You are immediately introduced to Jude, a spunky 13-year old living in a glass domed town over the barren wasteland of Filgaia. But, one day, the military breaks into the dome, looking for something called an ARM. Jude is a witness to this and sees a girl and a drifter-for-hire get thrown in jail. Curious Jude pokes around the military's ships and rescues the two prisoners, named Yulie and Arnaud. From there, Jude finds out he can wield an ARM and uses it to fend off the military. But, the glass dome ends up breaking and Jude, Yulie and Arnaud plummet down to Filgaia. And so begins an epic adventure.

The story has quite a few plot twists up its sleeves and some things aren't what they seem. The characters are varied and are extremely likeable (especially Gawn and Kresnik), and while the "baddies" may have flat personalities most of the time, the rest of the cast makes up for that little flaw. I became attached to the main characters and that increased my enjoyment of the game immensely. Thre's a lot to find out about the main cast and the story reveals key info at just the right time.

Overall, the story deserves an A-

Music to My Ears and Graphics Which Can Be Overlooked

The music in this game defies expectations and goes above and beyond. The songs have a distinctly Western feel and a vast majority are worthy of downloads. The battle themes are a real treat and fit the mood of a fight well enough. Sounds are not something I usually paid attention to, but this game has your standard gunshots, snappy quips when people attack or are attacked, and the grinding of gears as machines move around on the battlefield.

Overall, the sound gets a worthy A

Graphics are normal and don't do much to defy expectations. The character models are well polished, though and enemies vary, though you'll see palette swaps used throughout the game for certain types. The battlefields are just average: usually a cliche desert or grassland or cave. Battle animations are cool to watch and dont consume a chunk of time, like WA3s did. You could skip some animations, too , if you wanted.

Graphics get a B+

Gameplay Takes the Cake

With the new HEX battle system, gameplay has improved significantly. Let me describe this from of battle first. Seven HEXes (hexagon shaped tiles) are arranged on the field, with ley points (elemental HEX) placed on the ouside rim of HEXes. During their turn, a character can either move or take an action. Whose turn is coming up next shows at the top right, like Final Fantasy X's battle system. What I find most fun about this game are that you can now use originals, or skills unique to each character, instead of being limited to Force abilities (no, not like in Star Wars). These originals look cool, and are necessary to achieve victory in battle. Force abilities are still there though, but the force gauge is shared by all characters; each character does not have a separate force gauge as in past Wild Arms games. You fill the force gauge by attacking and using originals; when it reaches a certain level, force abilities becom available. Force abilities play a big part in battles. For example, one character's skill allows them to take 2 turns in a row.

Another new thing in this game is combination arts. These are force abilities using two or more characters that have various effects. You can win most battles without their use though, except for a couple exceptions. Outside of battle, gameplay takes on a mode simitlar to a platforming game. You can make Jude run, double jump, slide, stomp, and pick up and utilize objects. Puzzles can be very straightforward or complicated to the point of throwing your controller and smashing it. Aggravating puzzles take fun out of the game and waste time! Besides platforming and puzzles, there is a world map, but not like in Dragon Quest 8 or the past Wild Arms games. The map is just a flat 2D representation of Filgaia with dots marking various destinations. Before I end, let me say that there are random encounters in this game, but by A: Solving a hard puzzle or B: fighting a group of monsters you acquire the optin to toggle them on or off. That is a relief!

For all the innovative things Wild Arms 4 does, gameplay gets a solid A

Control

OK, no snappy header to the section this time. Control is very good, with the issue of springboards (if you decide to get this game, you'll see what I mean) and not knowing that you're in a sidescrolling area and flailing around wondering if there's any new paths or treasures only to discover that your character is trapped in a very thin space. Those are the only two issues I have with controls. Jumping is fun and accurate; I wish they would have added a ledge grab feature, though. The game is relatively glitch free and there should be no issues with moving or controls in battle.

Control gets an A-

So, to sum it all up

Fun stuff:
Voice Acting
HEX battle system
New personal skills
Great main characters and character development
Difficult enough to keep hardcore RPGers satisfied while making room for those who are new to the genre
Excellent score
Well-paced

Not-so Fun stuff:
Aggravating puzzles
Flat villains
Little control issues
You may not like the simple world map

Overall Score: A-

Okay, so that's it for my first review. This game might be hard to find in stores, so buy it off of Amazon or any other online retailer, since it might be hard to find rentals for. However much money you spend on it, it should be worth it. If you decide to buy this game I hope you have a good time playing it. Until next time!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/05/09

Game Release: Wild Arms 4 (US, 01/10/06)