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Trading in the old West for a dark future. Wild Arms 4 offers enough of what makes Wild Arms, well, Wild Arms but also manages to introduce new concepts to the series. The game introduces some new character skill building and an all-new battle system while keeping the fundamentals in tact.
In the game, you’ll play as Jude Maverick a seemingly typical teenager until he actives an ARM. An ARM is a high-tech gun that attaches itself to a human. With this ARM, he manages to make a hole in his world, giving him the change to look at the world that lays outside. Filgaia isn’t a very pretty sight with very little going on and the whole world looking a whole lot like a wreck. Throughout the game you’ll meet some characters as you run away from angry Filgaia soldiers who want back Yulie, an orphan that they had experimented on. The game does a good job of making you care for the characters and the coming demise of the world.
The game includes a new hex-based battle system. There are seven hexes, each of which can hold at least one enemy or one or all if your party members. The battles start off with your party and enemies being randomly placed in one of the hexes and you’re only able to attack the enemies near you. You need to strategically place your characters since you don’t want to be around too many enemies at one time. Position becomes even more important since there are hexes on the outside of the battle area that contain earth, fire, water or wind. These have the ability to affect the skills. You’ll also have a number of skills that can either cost you magic points to use, or those that don’t or force abilities that take up force points. You can fill your force meter to gain the ability like attacking more times in a given turn. There are many variations of skills available to you and figuring them out is quite satisfying.
Aside from fighting, the game includes some puzzles and item hunting thanks to the dungeons. The puzzles are reasonably entertaining though there are times when you’ll have to backtrack aimlessly which are never too much fun. The dungeons also let you slow down time or use character tools to get through the dungeon. The dungeons also include the ability to save the game. Some of these save areas are not readily accessible so you’ll have to fight your way to do this.
The game’s visuals are solid, if a bit unsettling. A number of the locales in the ground are unsettling including a prison, underwater tunnels, a turned down cathedral, and an abandoned medical facility. Though a good portion of the world is in wreck, you’ll still be able to visit some less depressing areas including some mountain slopes and lava caves. The different environments are rather detailed. The characters are clearly anime influenced, and have decent animation. The animations are at the best with the monster summons.
The game’s audio is pretty good. The sound effects are largely all there and sound good enough. The background music complements the game well and is varied enough. The voice acting is generally good though there are some awkwardly spoken lines, sometimes right after a good one. It’s a weird mix of quality and the unevenness undoubtedly hurts it.
Wild Arms 4 offers enough novelty to make it worthwhile to RPG fans in general even if you weren’t interested in the series before. Though it changed a lot since the previous games, fans of the series will be right at home. The game strikes a good balance of old and new. -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- Feb 26, 2006
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