Playing through Wild ARMs PSX made me appreciate the depth it had for an early Playstation game. The story is pretty generic, with Rudy, Jack and Cecilia saving their western world (Filgaia) from a band of demons, led by Queen Mother, Ziekfried, and some other interesting personalities. While most of the game revolves around traveling through caves, towns, and so on while helping the locals with their particular demon troubles. The party comes across ancient Elw temples and powerful Golems along the way (though Wild ARMs is mostly linear until the end). Many of said golems are to be conquered late in the game as sidequests however. Assuming you’re not leveling up an outrageous amount, you should find many bosses to be quite challenging (Angol Moa, Lolithia, and Raguragula come to mind).
Battle is turn based, with each character having a Force meter that builds up that allows them to use unique actions throughout the battle. Your three characters join up early on and stay together throughout the rest of the game (although there are plenty of solo-only quests along the way). Cecilia is the mage that binds Crest Graphs into magic. She can be dominant, namely with her higher-level spells and her second and third Force attack. Rudy attacks with powerful ARMs and Jack is a more versatile fighter that uses Fast Draws and is the best character statistically. Each character is a Dream Chaser, fighting for different reasons that are more apparent as the game draws on.
There is quite a lot of action outside of battle (random battles appear quite often, by the way). Each character has four items they can use as they walk around to solve puzzles and move throughout caves / areas. Maneuvering throughout stages might be the most entertaining part especially once you get Rudy’s skates and can motor across without battles. Finding treasures is essential in this game for keeping up with armor, magic, duplicators, etc. Each item takes some getting used to as far as figuring out how to utilize them best but the controls are pretty easy.
Lots of laid back town music, and I like the cave / tower / etc music. The boss music is pretty sweet also. One thing that annoys me though is the regular fight music. I advise you listen to something else while leveling up I guess, if it bothers you too. The translation is entertaining and I found myself talking to random citizens just for amusement – unfortunately there are a lot of poorly translated moments as well.
Graphics – 7 / 10
Gameplay – 9 / 10
Sound – 7 / 10
Storyline – 7 / 10
Overall – 8/10
This is a fine PS1 RPG if you can get over the silly story and the slowness of battle. However the pace of the game moves fast and there aren’t many times where you’re confused as to what to do – there are enough auto scenes throughout the game to keep you up to date on the story. The challenge along the way is a plus, as are the multiple optional bosses and quests at the end.
Wild ARMs is now on the Playstation Network for your PSP or PS3. Or, buy Wild ARMs on amazon for the lowest prices.
i would like to thank you for your in depth detailing of this kickass game. i have it for my psp and the original for my playstation as well. i thought that i had the upper hand on knowing about the side quests and optional bosses but i soon found out that was a no. nly knowing half of those listed and those that i knew also were stumbled on by accident. thanks again and i will keep this starred as a favorite from now on.