Wild Arms 3

"*SHOCK* It's the best RPG for PS2"

I can't believe it. Wild Arms 3, my ''most unanticipated RPG''... the game that I only played AFTER I got my fill of all the other RPGs like FFX, Xenosaga, Suikoden 3, DC2, BOF5, and .HACK. Imagine my surprise to discover that Wild Arms 3 is better than them all.

WA3 is like the epitome of RPGs. It feels like the people who designed the game looked at every good thing about RPGs over the past 10 years and then collectively put all that good stuff in WA3... and on top of that, they looked at some of the reoccurring flaws in RPGs and fixed those too! As a result, Wild Arms 3 isn't great because of one big gimmick or feature; it's great because of all the little things that have been done to make this RPG more refined and better designed than any RPG I've played. Like DC2, WA3 is overflowing in game design genious. WA3 feels like the true next generation RPG, whose model should be imitated by many future RPGs to come.

Allow me to point out a few of the small things that made a big impact on me. First, WA3's battle system has a nearly perfect level of challenge that's based on strategies more than tedious leveling up. When you encounter a boss that completely kicks your butt (and there will be many), the most realistic choice is almost always to just continue and fight the boss again. This is because, for the first two or three chapters (there are four chapters in total), leveling up is slow and expensive! Healing is only efficient through using items and resting at inns, but both are very costly. Enemies on the map and in dungeons don't even offer a lot of experience points; most of the major exp you get in the game is from beating the bosses. So when you meet a boss, you pretty much need to beat him, and you have to win using smart strategies.

''Strategies?'' you say? Don't be deluded by RPGs that you've played in the past. I'm talking about strategies that go beyond ''use all your strongest attacks, then heal''. Heck, there are plenty of times when using heal berries won't even heal the damage you received in the last turn! Each of the four characters has very distinct characteristics and abilities, which are also variable depending on what you equip them with. You need to use them. Often, their functions are so integral to each other that you have to keep them all alive if you want a chance of winning. The enemies themselves often have gimmicks to make each one interesting. Maybe one enemy is immune to physical attacks... and the other one casts spells that seal off your magic ability! It's really great to have an RPG battle system that's actually stimulating, intense, and requires some mental work.

The dungeons themselves are also interesting. They're actually nothing but a collection of simple puzzles that can only be solved by using the special abilities of your four playable characters (each will eventually get three abilities in total). Like the battle system, the challenge in these puzzles is perfect. Plenty of puzzles were challenging to me, but I always felt the answer was in my grasp without the aid of a FAQ.

Another small but great feature of WA3 is the ECN meter. Like most RPGs, WA3 has random battles as you're walking around the world map or dungeons. When you're about to get into a battle an exclamation point appears over your character's head and you have the option of using some of your ECN meter to avoid the battle if you want to. The amount of ECN meter you use up is dependent on how powerful the enemy is relative to your characters' strength, so weak enemies won't require any ECN meter to avoid while avoiding strong enemies could take up more than half your meter. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but this system completely eliminates tedious battles against weak enemies that don't give you much exp. You no longer have to be afraid of back-tracking through old areas for fear of running into an endless stream of weak monsters (a huge problem in Suikoden 3).

WA3 also shines when it comes to sidequests. There are A LOT of sidequests (just check out the WA3 FAQs section on this site) and most of them are interesting and lengthen the games play time considerably. It took me close to 50 hours to complete this game and there was still one sidequest I didn't complete (curse those 100 random battle Ariochs!).

The story in WA3 is good enough, but is weakened by some of its overboard sci-fi concepts. The real strength is from the likable characters. Everyone in this game has lots of personality, and there is quite a bit of ''rivalry'' between heroes and villains in the game. You'll fight many of your foes more than once, and the only thing bad about it is when those stupid villains pull the ol' ''Hahaha I lost but I'll teleport away'' trick over and over again. -_-; The great characters are very much credited to a great translation, but I've read that the translator knew nothing of past WA history and failed to translate some major WA references. So points taken off there.

Now we come to the weaker parts of WA3. Graphics and sound. WA3's graphics are really weak. Maybe not as bad as Suiko3's but far below FFX or Xenosaga. Mediasoft's smart game design can't substitute for the millions of the dollars in artistic talent that Squaresoft can shovel into one of its games, and WA3 simply can't compete. I'll leave it at that. Sound is average, but I give the sound team props for successfully composing music with a western feel to it.

In terms of game design, the only bad thing about WA3 is the radar-location-discovery system. The world map is initially blank and you have to find key locations by constantly emitting these radar waves from your character while wandering around. The good part of this is that it opens up the possibilities of finding tons of secret areas or items. Unfortunately, whenever you're told to go somewhere to progress the game it's usually really vague like, ''The sanctuary is in the southeast.'' My tip is, use the Location FAQ when traveling (but try not to use a FAQ when playing the rest of the game!).

And that concludes my excessively long review. To summarize: WA3 owns and you must play it if you like RPGs. That, and I must throw in some complimentary western-themed blabber. ''Giddyap, partner! Saddle in for some wild, Wild Arms 3!!'' *rides off into the sunset*

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/04/03, Updated 07/04/03