Producer: Sony
System: Playstation 2
Year: 2002
Overview: The first Wild Arms game was the first RPG I played on the PS1, and while its graphics look primative by today's standards, I still was spellbound, and I still love it today. It did an excellent job combining a fantasy RPG world with the old west. The third installment on PS2 still does not disappoint.
Story: It may be a tad premature to tell the story right now, since I haven't finished the game yet. But so far, I can say this is one of the few RPGs with a female protagonist. Her name is Virginia Maxwell and she has dreamed of being a "Drifter" all her life (A Drifter is pretty much the name for a wandering adventurer, much like the 'Dream Chasers' in WA1). She joins up with three other unlikely fellows and sets off to fulfil her dream. She quickly discovers that being a Drifter isn't all its cracked up to be, and soon finds herself facing the return of the demon race to the land of Filgaia.
Graphics: The other two games used polygons mostly, but this game introduced something a little different: cell shading (those who have played Zelda: Windwaker and Megaman X7 are probably familiar with this kind of graphics engine). Most people don't seem to like cell shading, but I thought they turned out gorgious in this game. I'll admit, they look somewhat cartoony against the well-rendered backgrounds, but I still think they look nice. And they do a great job of capturing the facial expressions of characters.
Sound: Not much to say about the sound. It certainly provides a nice atmoshpere and most tracks certainly empasize the 'Western' amosphere.
Gameplay: This game features several innovations to casual RPGers. Fist of all is the Force system. Now, those who have played the other WIld Arms games are probably familiar with it. In WA2, it completely replaced Magic Points as the medium to cast spells, and that has carried over to this game. You accumulate FP throughout the battle as you attack, dodge, etc. You can then use it in many ways, whether to cast spells, invoke a special Force Skill, or summon. Also, as opposed to other WA games, each character has an ARM (WA term for 'gun'), and it has a specific amount of ammo (as in other WAs, you can modify your ARMs at certain shops). It refills automatically after a battle, but if you run out beforehand, you must defend for one round to reload. Otherwise, you just punch the enemy, which does less damage.
Challenge: As I said, I haven't finished the game yet, but I can still say, this game provides plenty of challenge. Many bosses are tough and some require creative ways to destroy them, besides using brute force (for example, Trask in Ka Dingle; you must crack his shell to damage him by casting a fire spell on him, then immediately follow with an ice spell). Also, the dungeons are laden with clever puzzles that you'll have to use that thing between your ears to get through successfuly. One problem I may have with the game is the fact that enemy encounters seem pretty frequent sometimes. Luckilly, there is a system (I call it the "chicken guage") that lets you skip certain battles by pressing the 'circle' button. This, however, decreases your 'chicken guage', and when it runs out, you can't skip battles anymore until you rest or aquire white crystals scattered throughout dungeons.
Final Rating: 9.5/10 I would certainly reccomend trying this game out. You can find it used in most game stores for under $20. I found it somewhat refreshing to see a female good guy without the romantic subplot or being kidnapped and having to be rescued (it is me or is all that getting to be just a little cliched?). At least it hasn't happened yet. Anyways, I can conclude by saying the Wild Arms series is another great batch of RPGs that was tossed aside by the Final Fantasy games (don't get me wrong; the Final Fantasy games are great as well; it's just that there were so many other deserving RPGs that got run over by it). The fact that Wild Arms 1 came out around the same time as FF7 didn't help things either.
