Wild Arms

"A solid old school RPG that is still unable to compare with the genre elite"

By now, it can be considered to be common knowledge that in order to be successful at least in Japan, a new console desperately needs a few good RPGs in order to gain the interest of the gamers, seeing that the RPG is the genre you will probably spend most of your time with. And after all, the total lack of any traditional Japanese RPG on Nintendo 64 ultimately doomed the system in Japan and worldwide, and while Final Fantasy VII certainly is the game that ignited the RPG boom on the PlayStation, there were other, lesser known attempts at role playing in order to boost the sales of Sony´s new console even before Square´s gigantic RPG masterpiece, some of which have only been released in Japan. However, one of the most remarkable of these early RPGs is Wild Arms, a game that fortunately also saw the light in the western world.

The story in "Wild Arms" provides us with a promising start, honestly. At the beginning, you choose between three different characters: Cecilia, the princess of Adlehyde, Jack, a happy-go-lucky adventurer, and Rudy, an ordinary seeming boy living peacefully in his home village. All three characters will actually meet quite early in the game and will continue together from then on, but you´ll first have to play through each characters prologue, which is an interesting idea and also gives you some insight into the personalities of the characters. But alas, from the on, things start to fall back into the usual fare...or even worse. Despite the promising start, character development is almost non-existent in this game, even if I was beginning to hope after the prologue scenarios and the characters felt like they would be quite likable. But due to this lack of true development, they will become some sort of faceless standard characters you only care for because you have to rely on them in battle. And the story itself is very cliched, dishing up the same "young teens save the world from evil super human entity" once again. Okay, that´s not necessarily a bad thing, since there are tons of other RPGs relying on this overused story premise, but they still manage to be exciting because of the way the story is actually being told. And that´s where "Wild Arms" fails. Take the plot driving dialogue sequences, for example. They are notably absent in this game, reducing discussions between the characters to the most crucial info only and lacking any wit or grace - which is yet another reason for your characters to be such stale cardboard cut-outs. This lack of dialogues, the faceless characters as well as the overly reused plot outline make "Wild Arms" a mediocre experience in terms of storyline, unfortunately.

The gameplay in "Wild Arms" is, simply put, overly cliched, reusing all the common themes from other RPGs all over again, lacking the innovation of other titles of its ages like "Chrono Trigger" or "Tales of Phantasia". You´ll be wandering around the world map, visiting dungeons and towns, talking to random villagers, fighting battles...you know the formula. The only slightly innovative seeming aspect might be the high amount of clever puzzles to solve in the dungeons, including a few brain teasers. Another interesting aspect in that regard certainly is the use of your different tools in order to solve certain puzzles, like Rudy´s bombs that can blast away obstacles like stones that are blocking a pathway, or Jack´s pet mouse being able to reach far away points, which allows you for example to open chests you were unable to get to before. Apart from that, the slow pace of the game in general might be the most noticeable "feature". Everything you´re doing seems to be dragging along far too slow, and part of the reason might be the rather high random encounter rate that makes you stumble over enemies far too often, especially on the world map, making your journeys a chore at times. At least in the well designed dungeons and the towns, you have the ability to run, which might be a good thing at first, but you´ll realize quickly that it can be quite problematic at times since you cannot control your character while he´s running, so he can hit a wall sooner than you´d like it. As for the most important aspect of an RPG in terms of gameplay, the battle system...well, the one in "Wild Arms" is rather typical and rehashed. You have the usual commands like "Attack", "Magic" or "Defend", and the only new feature here is the "Special" command that allows your character to use a special technique, like Cecilia´s magic or Jack´s fast draw skills. Unfortunately, there is very little strategy involved in the battles, mainly because of the fact that you only have 3 characters in your party, all of whom have their own personal strengths: Cecilia is obviously the healer of the party, and that´s what you will use her for most of the times (that and casting some support spells), while Jack is the ultimate attacker...so most of the times, you will have your characters sticking to their rules, repeating the same commands for each of them during each turn. You also have a so called "force meter" for each of your character, and you can make the force meter grow a little by using attacks, special commands or any other action. There are four force levels, and the higher it is, the better your stats get, like an increased evasion rate, for that matter. Being a traditional turn based battle system, I also found it quite bothersome that the battles are, just as some other aspects of the game, a little too slow, taking longer than you think they should, and sometimes making fighting what they are not supposed to be: boring. The gameplay per se is not bad at all, but unfortunately, the game simply reuses too many tried and true cliches and also suffers from a low pace.

To say that the visuals are a mixed bag in "Wild Arms" even puts it mildly. Surely enough, one must consider its age, that it has been a first generation PSX title, hence we can´t expect graphics on the same high level as "Final Fantasy VII". Overall, "Wild Arms" is a mix of SNES like bitmap graphics in the regular game and polygonal 3D visuals during the battles. While the 2D character sprites you are looking at from the typical top-down perspective are nicely animated and also have some sort of a personality to them - at times at least - the locations are rather underwhelming and unspectacular, being on the same level as one of the better looking SNES RPGs, even though in general, "Wild Arms" does not even look as good as the absolute SNES RPG elite like "Chrono Trigger", "Star Ocean" or of course "Tales of Phantasia", so the use of the PlayStation as a new-gen console does not show here at all. However, developer Mediavision obviously thought that they had to put in some 3D visuals in order to prove that this game really had to be done on a powerful 32-Bit machine, which leads us to the battles. Yes, the battles are, unlike the regular game, in full 3D, and I can honestly say that they are shockingly bad. The problem herein primarily lies with the presentation of your characters during the combat sequences, since they are a shoddy, pixilated and ugly pile much rather than a polygonal character that is able to capture the charm of its bitmap counterpart. Not only that, the textures on the floor are also poorly done, and Mediavision did not even manage to make the characters appear like they´re actually standing on the ground properly. Instead, you sometimes get the feeling that your characters are actually floating above the ground. And while the hero characters already look quite bad, the enemies are even worse. Their design per se is laughable at times, and the poor quality of their 3D models does not help to make them look better at all - they´re just ridiculous rather than intimidating. As if all this was not already bad enough, the battles are also s-l-o-w...I mean really slow. Whenever your characters are attacking one of your enemies, for example, it looks like they´re jumping at them in slow-motion. Not even the spell effects are anything to talk about, even though they are admittedly more bearable than the actual battle graphics. I am just wondering why Mediavision did try to put in some 3D if the outcome is so obviously flawed and embarrassing. The only redeeming quality about the visuals might be the beautifully drawn and animated anime intro, introducing you the characters. The graphics should have stayed 2D everywhere in the game, in my opinion, since the bitmap visuals certainly have charm.

Unlike the graphics, the soundtrack in "Wild Arms" is just excellent. Emphasizing on the atmosphere of the game, your ears will be pleased with Western-movie inspired tunes as well as more traditional sounding or adventurous RPG music, and each piece of music in this game serves its purpose by creating a great atmosphere that can manage to suck you deeper into the game despite its flaws, with the most notable track being the awesome opening theme, even featuring some Ennio Morricone inspired whistles. The sound quality is also pretty good, thanks to the use of a CD as the medium for this game. Nevertheless, the sound effects are incredibly bad, at least in the battles. Just listen to the roars of your enemies, and you´ll know hoe intimidating they are...or not. But overall, the audio department certainly makes good use of the capabilities of the PlayStation.

Against common belief, I don´t think that "Wild Arms" is an under-appreciated gem that has been a victim to the gigantic hype around "Final Fantasy VII". It´s an above average and rock solid RPG that has its fair share of flaws, but nevertheless ends up being an enjoyable and good experience. Its biggest problem is that it just does not hold a candle against the absolute RPG elite especially on PlayStation, which also explains its lack of success when it was released back in the days. But in the end, every RPG fan who already completed the important and "big" titles should give this game a chance.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06