Wild Arms V. “You can do anything if you don’t give up”. If you buy this game, prepare to hear that phrase a lot.
Early on, you’re just with Dean and Rebecca, two young ones from a small town. You’ll see Dean at his extreme here; childish and fawning over all things golem. If you can’t bear his attitude just wait, he tones it down a bit later. Anyway, the two of them come across a peculiar character, Avril, who later turns out to play a more important role. Starting off though she has no memory, so the three characters wander around looking for the only thing Avril remembers – she is to find Johnny Appleseed.
At this point the wandering goes on for a while and they meet some other characters that join eventually – Chuck, Greg and Carol. The game’s plot doesn’t really pick up for a while, not until Mt. Chug Chug where you learn more about the human (Nightburn) who is close to the Veruni.
The story is slow moving but the gameplay is engrossing enough along the way. Caves / dungeons are usually 15-25 areas with puzzles to solve and generally a few bosses per dungeon as well. Dean gets to shoot different types of guns (flame, fire, power, etc) along the way. Only one major complaint and that is with the world map treasures taking hours to find in each section. This is until you get the Monowheel (device that allows you to drive around Filgaia with no random encounters).
Battle is strange, as your health restores every time after battle. Unfortunately, magic costs a ton to cast so this makes up for it. Boss battles are generally hard at some points but getting on the correct ley spot is the key.
If you look in the art book that comes with Wild Arms 5, you’ll see all the other characters from older Wild Arms. They are in this game too and they generally help you or at least have some advice.
As stated above the game doesn’t really peak until Mt Chug Chug where you get a true understanding of what is going on. Then you gain more freedom with a pass to ride around Filgaia freely. The most entertaining part of the entire game imo are all the sidequests; extra dungeons, puzzle boxes, tons of extra bosses and other things to do pretty much everywhere. Though by the end of the game I was thoroughly burnt out from all the level farming needed to get all the necessary badges and such to defeat Ragu o Ragla.
Fereydoon, Persephone, Elvis, Kartikeya and Volsung are your main enemies. They are Veruni that wish to dominate humans, and Dean lives to break down the wall. Really though, they’re all good people besides Kartikeya, who is a true evil presence. Volsung seems the part but he also doesn’t seem to have control of himself. Anyway, the end of the game consists of going through a tower to fight each of them and then eventually going off to fight Volsung one last time.
Graphics – 7 / 10
Gameplay – 8.5 / 10
Sound – 6.5 / 10
Storyline – 6 / 10
Overall – 7.5 / 10
The music in this game is definitely vintage Wild Arms. Some tracks (like the Puzzle Box and random battle tunes) can drive you nuts after a while though. The gameplay will provide challenges all along the way, whether it be puzzles to solve with your gun or bosses scattered everywhere. Graphically, this game looks like Suikoden III (made several years earlier) to me. Good enough to get by and definitely not as problematic as the story. For the first 20 hours it’ll seem pretty bland, going dungeon to dungeon. Then it picks up for a bit, only to fall right back down at the end. Because you can do anything if you don’t give up. Thus talking to villagers is the most entertaining dialogue in the game. But regardless of the negatives you’ll likely keep coming back to venture through more dungeons, and once you get the Golem Hunter Pass and Asgard the game will completely open up. The game really is massive with all the sidequests but not quite the monster FF12 is.