Enchanted Arms

"A solid JRPG for the 360!"

Enchanted Arms is a Japanese fantasy role-playing game for the Xbox 360 in which you play as Atsuma, a young student at Yokohama University. Atsuma quickly becomes entangled in a plot involving monstrous deities known as Devil Golems, and yes, you guessed it, meets an eccentric cast of characters on his journey to save the world from disaster.

The plot of the game is nothing new. Anyone who has played a Japanese RPG will be able to figure out the twists long before they happen. There aren't too many surprises, and the story is extremely simple, but charmingly so. The characters that join Atsuma in his quest are at first annoying, with the exception of Raigar. By the game's midway point, however, players will love Karin and Yuki, the two female leads. At first, these two characters are constantly angry and obnoxious, but as the plot progresses, they loosen up and display their motives for traveling with Atsuma.

The music in Enchanted Arms is hit or miss. Some of the tracks, particularly the ending theme is beautiful, while the battle theme is pretty bland. The main issue with the battle music is that it never changes. I fought over 700 battles, and the same song got very grating. Thanks to custom soundtracks however, this issue is a minor detail.

The graphics of Enchanted Arms are gorgeous for the most part. The environments, while not too interactive, are beautiful to traverse through. Touches, such as lens flare and crystal clear water add to the overall production value. The outdoor environments are much better looking than the indoor dungeons, however. Some of the various caves and towers could have used a little more work, as many of them consist primarily of long corridors. The graphics during the battles are great, and use motion blur very well. If you are playing on a standard definition television like me, some of the numbers (HP values, and so on) can be hard to read. Overall, the game is one of the best looking JRPGs available.

The gameplay is where Enchanted Arms shines. Every battle is fought on a 9x9 grid, and similar in structure to the battles found in games such as Arc the Lad or Disgaea. Positioning your characters is of extreme importance, as every skill in the game has a certain range and area of effect. What is the best part of the battles? The fast-forward button. Players can hold down Y during battles to progress them faster than normal. This makes random encounters, of which you will get in to a lot of through the course of the game, not such a big deal. Battles net you EXP for leveling up, the game's currency, TB, and SP (skill points). Skill points can be used to learn skills the characters have acquired and to increase the parameters of a character (HP, Attack, etc.).

Another thing that sets Enchanted Arms apart from many of its competitors is the sheer amount of party members that can aid you in your quest. Throughout your journey, you will receive “Golem Cores”. These cores can be bought, won through battles, and found through other means. At any of the various crystal points throughout the world, you can synthesize these Golems using gems and TB acquired through battles. The Golems can join your party in place of one of your human comrades. The drawback with this system, however, is that most of the games Golems are inferior to the humans. They can't learn new skills which can restrict them severely. By the final dungeon, my party consisted of only the main characters. It was still fun to try each Golem out and try to “collect ‘em all”.

Closing Comments: Enchanted Arms is a fun, traditional turn based game that is recommended to anyone who is trying to get their fix for a solid JRPG. It will definitely satisfy. It took me about 40 hours to complete the game, but there are very few sidequests. There isn't much replay value, but since the price for Enchanted Arms is around thirty dollars, I highly suggest you pick it up if you are a fan of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/07