A solid mix of visual flair, musical excellence, and story-driven gameplay makes this adventure a worthy and long-awaited follow-up to Sony’s notable role-playing series. Following tradition, an engaging story is at the core of Wild Arms 3. Set in the Filgaia world, the game has you follow four drifters who are joined by a mysterious and ancient artifact. As the story progresses, the team uncovers a sinister plot to change their land by using past technology, including the artifact they hold. Indicative of an RPG plot, the team forges an alliance that eventually turns into a colorful bond of idealistic personalities. Better yet, though, each personality touches on the different cultural views of our own real world, including spirituality, environmentalism, and every day living. The story, indeed, unravels like a deep philosophical novel—a plot that all RPGs should follow. Beyond the captivating story, Wild Arms 3 also offers a satisfying battle system. Each character in your group possesses a distinct firearm that is used as a primary offensive weapon. For money, you can upgrade the gun at your leisure, too. But staying in line with previous Wild Arms games, each member of your team can also engage opponents using all types of really cool magic that's based on Force Power. Basically, the more Force Power you have, the bigger and badder the magic you can cast. And the combat system is simple to understand and perform, whether you're fending off ruthless creatures or healing a fellow teammate. The land of Filgaia is enormous. There’s a lot to explore and see across the vast plains, deserts, and mountains, including small detailed towns. Most of your time, however, involves exploring mazes of caverns and ancient structures that are filled with colorful backgrounds and weird-looking beasts. Wild Arms 3’s soundtrack plays in harmonious tune throughout the entire game. Even without voice-overs, the music tells the complete story accurately, much like the sounds you’d hear in a classic Clint Eastwood western. The only minus to this otherwise winning RPG is its linear gameplay. Much of your adventure consists of going from point A to point B without any real exploration or side quests. Still, Wild Arms 3 surpasses all expectations as another solid follow-up to an already classic RPG series.
