Wild Arms 3

"Sometimes mediocre isn't a bad thing"

Being a veteran RPG player, I wasn't hoping for the greatest RPG of all time when I brought Wild Arms 3 home from Blockbuster. I just wanted something different, fresh, new. Although I was sadly disappointed, those looking for a ''classic'' RPG may not be. Dragon Warrior fans rejoice.

Story: 6/10
Just barely above average. Why? The game gets 5 out of 10 for its tired and cliched characters. The plucky young lass Virginia, out in the big bad world looking for justice. The amnesiac wily-haired sword... er, gunslinger Jet. He doesn't care about anybody but himself. At least, not yet. Sound familiar? We move on to the comic relief Token Ethnic, Gallows. He can't shoot well either. Finally, we have the wise old voice of reason, 30-year old Clive, a cross between Auron from FFX and Seta Seta Noriyasu of Love Hina fame.

A motley crew of villians you won't care about after you turn the power off to stand against you don't add much to the story except for someone to fight in boss battles (repeatedly).

Classic ''the world is dying, collect the XYZ number of mystical trinkets before the bad guys do, or they'll unleash that durned evil power... oops they did it. Oh well we'll collect these other trinkets and show them a thing'r three!''

One bonus point is added for the way the story started off. I was impressed with the four-way opening (you'll see what I mean). I had high hopes, but the hopes vanished when the four characters joined forces for no reason whatsoever other than to leave us shaking our heads in disbelief.

Like I said, this is average stuff. I was disappointed, but if you're looking for ''classic'' RPG fodder, this is right up your alley.

Gameplay: 3/10
This is below average gameplay. The developers spent too much time making little shrines and not enough time making it worth your while to trudge through them. As I was saying, the battles are standard RPG fare, with ARMs (guns) instead of swords and arcana (magic). Force points give you special attacks. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's not unplayable.

Unfortunately, if I see another little ancient shrine I'll go nuts. If you like dungeon crawling and annoying puzzles, you'll like this. If you don't like little ancient shrines, don't apply here. The first ancient shrine I went through I says to myself, ''Cool little level.'' After tromping through six straight ancient shrines, I says to myself ''I AM THE KING OF GRULIA, I RULE YOU WITH THE ENCHANTED STICK OF MARSHMALLOW! HAHAHAHHAAH!!!'' After my wife slapped me, I says to myself, ''I think I've seen that cool little level four times too many already.'' Seriously, the world design is comprised of very, very small towns that act as the center of the wheel, surrounded by 3-4 ancient shrines as spokes you must plunge into before moving on to the next town. Very, very repetitive.

Let me mention, lest I forget, the biggest complaint I have about the gameplay: healing. If you don't tediously level up your characters (thus nullifying the nice feature of being able to avoid random battles), you're going to be hurting very soon in this game due to lack of healing items. ''Lack of items?'', you says to me. ''Why?'' Because you can't buy a stinking cure potion to save your life. The ''item guy'' will sell you magical toy hammers to cure everything from amnesia to heartbreak to smallpox but he won't give you a cure potion? Bleh. ''Heal Berries'' are your main source of healing in battle, and they're far and few between. You can only get them from monsters. Yes, monsters are smarter than people in this game. At least THEY know where to get healing items.

Money is also a problem in this game. There's never enough of it. You get hardly any for winning battles, and the price of staying at the Inn (yes, the classic way to heal is EXPENSIVE) is so high you'll possibly spend every dime you earned on that last level-up spree just getting back to 100%.

Speaking of monsters, I hope you like EACH and EVERY one that was developed. Because you'll be seeing them often. The shrines have two enemies apiece. Yes, you heard me. Two. At least one of them has only one enemy. The only variation in your battles is whether or not you were ''ambushed'', or simply how many of them there are to fight. And you better like the bosses too. Because you'll be fighting most of them more than once. Possibly 3-4 times. In the same level. Think I'm joking, here?

Graphics: 8/10
Cel shading isn't a novelty anymore, but it's done well here. The anime-style intros and outros are very well done, and almost draw you in to the story. Not much else to say here.

Sound: 7/10
Above average music with a western theme. Quite well done, but nothing you'll care to rip to MP3 to take in your car. The english singing on the intro song was done excellently.

Replayability: N/A
Can't really put a score here, since I didn't finish it. But if I had, the score would probably be pretty low. There's not much variation in what you can/cannot do. Maybe upgrade your ARMs differently.

Overall: 6/10
If you can overcome the faults mentioned in the gameplay section, and haven't yet grown weary of RPG cliches, you're in for a good time with Wild Arms 3. If you're tired of wily-haired amnesiacs and save-the-planet-crystals style plots, skip this one. Definetely a rental before buying.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/03, Updated 02/24/03