Pros: Captivating Story, awesome soundtrack, old-school role playing game!
Cons: Graphically not the best, with a dull battle mode.
The Bottom Line: Worth buying and keeping. A game that is bound to keep you entertained with the story, thinking with puzzles, and keep you happy with old fashioned role playing gameplay.
pink_ninja's Full Review: Wild Arms for PlayStation 1
(Safe Zone: No Spoilers), Gameplay 3.5/5, Navigation 4/5, Graphics 3.5/5, Story 4.5/5, Overall/Replay 4/5,
“Wild Arms” is an appealing game from the moment you turn it on because of the captivating opening. “Wild Arms” was actually the first game I owned for my PlayStation console and the first PlayStation game I played. I felt the introduction (animated movie) is still one of the best out there for video games. The opening didn’t spoil anything. It only gave this wonderful feel of how deep the game was by introducing the characters and their destined encounter.
Not only that, the opening music piece was beautiful. After watching the opening, you want to dive right into the game, which was exactly what I did. From the beginning you get to choose one of the three main characters, and after playing a short prologue for each of the characters, you will be able to join together and become one team.
Gameplay: Old-School is Never Old(3.5/5)
Being a role playing game (RPG), the gameplay style is similar to old school RPGs, like old Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star series. You play the game up to a certain extent, see the story progress, fight monsters to level up, go to new towns, buy new weapons and armors, and you continue this all up to the end of the game. What’s unique about “Wild Arms,” is the tool system. Each of the three main characters have three tools. Each tool is used in different situations to solve puzzles or advance the story. “Wild Arms” is popular or well known for all the little puzzles and tricks within mazes and cities. Some of them must be solved for the story to continue, while the others are game secrets and side quests.
The puzzles aren’t difficult to solve, especially with a strategy guide at hand. For me, I did not get the strategy guide until I finished the game once, so there were times when I was stuck on solving some puzzles. It didn’t really frustrate me (at least in the beginning, it didn’t). I just wished there were more clues given within the game. Sometimes, I would speak to every person in town, or look through every single room in a maze again, just to find more insight on how to solve a certain puzzle. If you do no have the patience for such investigating, this game may get you vexed.
Luckily, once you solve the puzzle, the game easily picks up and doesn’t keep you bored. These puzzles kept me pretty awake and entertained to continue the journey. The battle mode can seem a little redundant and plain though. It’s the typical ‘your turn, my turn’ time based battle mode. Although it seems a little slow at first, the battle mode can be surprisingly challenging at time, especially when you fight enemies that can inflict more than one status effect, such as poison, confusion, silence, and so forth. Due to the fact that each character specializes in different skills, battles are not always so dull. For example, Cecilia is a sorceress and the only one who can cast magic spells, while Jack and Rudy mainly do physical attacks. So, every character has his or her own strong points, as well as weak points that the player must consider while fighting. There are, of course, special boss battles, ultimate weapons, and hidden treasures that can satisfy the RPG master’s curiosities.
Navigation and Controls (4/5)
There’s nothing really special about controlling the characters. The characters can run and walk. Other than that, it’s not too difficult to learn how to open the main menu, check the status of your characters, change or equip weapons, and such. Just by searching or examining objects, the character can lift, throw, activate switches, and so forth. There is also no need for rotating the screen to find hidden objects, since everything is two dimensional. In that sense, it’s simple, which is always a good thing.
Graphics (3.5/5)
The game certainly is not up to date with the best style of graphics, but for its time, I felt it was just nice. Also, the theme of the game, being both fantasy and wild west style, fits well with the menu interfaces, the costume of the characters art, the mazes, and the world of Filgaia. The director certainly had quite a vision, and the character animations were pretty detailed and readable, for being so small and pixelated.
During the battle mode, however, the characters’ figures were quite distorted, maybe since they were three dimensional. Yes, during the battle mode, the environment would become three dimensional. The characters were dressed, colored, and detailed such that the player can recognize who was who, but, they looked a little childish with beady eyes and round faces, it was almost humorous. The battle scene environment were also visually unappealing. There were hardly any details on the walls or their surroundings during the battle, almost single colored with minor dots and specks. Of course, these minor details hardly matter, but when you are in the same maze for more than an hour and fighting a battle every five to ten minutes, you start to feel everything is repetitive.
The text of the game was a little difficult to read at times, being not the typical Arial or its variant. The text looked like the something you may find in ancient books with calligraphic style of writing. It’s pretty, I’ll give you that, but I feel it’s important to actually read the text and not just see it. So even if the dolls and the characters were well defined for two dimensional graphics, the three dimensional graphics could use some improvements.
Story (4.5/5)
While the graphics and the gameplay may not appeal to most people, the story and the characters of “Wild Arms,” was excellent. Perhaps it was because the characters were not the typical ‘hero’ material, that made the characters so lovable, or maybe it was because the story was filled with exciting plot twists and unexpected moments. I feel the story can definitely compete with most RPGs out there today. You see secrets of the characters that you did not realize from the beginning of the game. As you play the game, you see all the characters grow, mature, and change for the better like most RPGs today. So it may seem all "typical" at first, but most of the characters have problems and issues that normal people face today, such as insecurities, fear of rejection, guilt, and much more. I believe it’s the fact that we can understand these characters that we start to get drawn into the story. And I do believe, this story, will be worth playing.
Overall/ Replay Value (3.5-4 / 5)
I recommend this game, especially to youngsters, from kids to young adults. Maybe with some time in your hands, you may actually want to replay the game to relive the adventure and the fun moments. I certainly did. The hidden secrets and boss battles aren’t the only incentives, but certainly helps to keep the old adventure new and fresh.
The soundtrack of the game is also great! One of the best there is. It’s a bit classier, I feel compared to some of the Final Fantasy music I’ve heard. I’m actually playing the newest remade version of “Wild Arms,” called, “Wild Arms Alter Code: F,” which I’m dying to review as soon as possible.
Even while playing this remade version, I want to play the original PlayStation “Wild Arms” all over again. It does have a special place in my heart and memory. This game is a real classic and one of the most memorable RPGs that I’ve played. This is THE original game that started the series, after all. I feel, it’s still the best in the series and the one most true to its original theme. So, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have when I first played it. God Bless You! Happy Gaming!
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