Wild Arms: The Arms,
the Fast Draw, and the Magic

STORY

The world of Filgaia has fallen on dark times. The metal demons are about to descend on Filgaia and claim it as their own once again. The great Guardians of Filgaia has summon a call of help to three brave warriors, Ruby, Jack, and Cecilia, to help save the planet. At the start of the story, each character are on their own little separate quests. This helps introduce the main three charaters one by one to the gamer. It is done excellently. After completing each characters quest and guiding them to the town of Adlehyde. The three members will merge to form a group party. From here on the main focus of the story will take place. Wild Arms story is excellently told by the gamemakers with small plot twist along the way. The quest will take you on a long journey throughout the world map with many different dungeons with puzzles to explore. The storyline is a very strong point in this game.

Score: 9/10

CHARACTERS

Wild Arms main focus is on their three main characters. There aren't that many secondary characters feature in this game. Despite all that, the characters that are feature in this game are developed excellently to the point that we care about them. Each of the three main characters have a hidden past about them that will be revealed as the game progresses. You get to have a good look at what makes them who they are and why we should care about them. A good story must have good characters and Wild Arms definetly have good characters.

Score: 9/10

GRAPHICS

In terms of graphics, the game looks and feel like a 16 bit game. There two kinds of graphics in this game. A battle graphics which feature de-formed polygons characters in a 3-D environment and a 2-D background environment with sprites in the world exploration scene. The world graphics is okay but the battle graphics is less than average. It's certainly a game that can use better graphics but who says graphics are everything.

Score: 6/10

MUSIC

Ahh, the music. Wild Arms certainly have excellent music. A large number of selections with great tunes to go with it. Good rpgs should always have good music to compliment them, and Wild Arms does not disappoint.

Score: 8/10

GAMEPLAY

In terms of gameplay, Wild Arms provides an excellent array of different gameplay. There are many things to do with secret stuff all around. First off, the gameplay of Wild Arms is very hard for some rpgers. While the main focus is still a traditional rpg, the game does consist quite an abundance of puzzle solving from the action rpg genre. Some gamers will have trouble solving them. The random encounter rate is extremely high as well. It's like every 4 or 5 steps then a random encounter. This can be very frustrating sometimes when you're trying to run around solving puzzles.
Now each fighters has his or her own tools. These tools can be found in certain dungeons. What are tools for?? Well, inorder for certain puzzles to be solve or the advancement of dungeons to take place, you need these tools to help you solve the puzzles. Each characters also has his or her own special attack. You can learn these attacks throughout your journey. The game also uses Guardian Crest. Basically a Guardian Crest is your summon spell. Other than these points, the game is your basic traditional rpg with attack, magic and dungeon explorations.

Battle System: Now the battle system is very similar to that all most rpgs. You have three members in your party, each taking turn attack or healing. There are two things to note here. Inorder for you to activate your special attack, you have to miss a few turns. The longer you miss a turn the higher the level of special attacks level can be use. Now this also applies to the use of Guardian. Each Guardian has different levels of spells. The longer you wait to use them, the higher the level of spells available.
In the end, Wild Arms gameplay is very immense despite having only 3 party members. There's so much stuff to do that you can really do it all in one game.

Score: 10/10

EXTRA/REPLAY

Replay value comes from the pure enjoyment of the game. Believe me, once you played it, you'll want a second chance at playing it again. As for extras, there are so many extras in this game that I can't really name them all. Extras goes from hidden bosses to hidden guardian crest to hidden stages in the game. There's no way can you play a complete game the first time around which is why an instant replay is a must.

Score: 8/10

Till this day Wild Arms is still considered to be a great classic rpg for any rpg fans out there. It's no wonder that gamers are impatiently waiting for the release of the sequel, Wild Arms 2. Hopefully the sequel is as good as the first one.

Final Score: 8/10

~Chi