Wild Arms Reviews

Role-playing games. Final Fantasy VII. A genre and the game that was destined to define it. Final Fantasy and role-playing games may have been available in North America prior to it's release late 1997, but you could have easily fooled anyone the opposite was true when Final Fantasy VII went on sale. The rest of the narrative pretty much writes itself: Final Fantasy VII opened the floodgates, Final Fantasy VII proved to Americans that RPGs and anime could be pretty rad, Final Fantasy VII proved RPGs no longer had to sacrifice in superficial areas to compensate for their lengthy duration.

Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII. Yeah, I enjoyed it during its heyday. Hell, I enjoyed it way past its heyday when my friends and I had (pointless) competitions to see who could get their limit breaks at the earliest point in the game. It's an important title and still is. Would I have gotten into the genre without the marketing blitz and buzz that surrounded it? Probably not. Still, beyond Squaresoft being the obvious "breadwinner" when it came to RPGs during the 32-bit era, I can't say they produced my favorite offering. That crown belonged to a small development studio called Media Vision who produced a title called Wild Arms, a game that beat Final Fantasy VII to the market by a mere four months. As small as that window of opportunity seems, Wild Arms would need every second of it to get any kind of a jump on Square’s impending behemoth and be of any relevance.

So what's so special about Wild Arms? Why should anyone care that it was eventually overshadowed by a perceivably superior title? Well, I'm not really saying anyone should care, but I believe the game has something to offer even the most jaded fan, and this is coming from someone who actually played it after playing Final Fantasy VII. One of the biggest sins people try to peg on Wild Arms is the fact that it a majority of the experience seems to be built upon cliches. I absolutely love this argument because, in a nutshell, they’re correct. Why would I utter something that seems to defeat the point I'm trying to make? Because I've yet to play an RPG that doesn't conform to the vast body preconceived notions that comes with the territory. It's like watching a horror movie with good dialogue; does such a thing even exist? Save the world fare it may be, something all RPGs quests eventually boil down to, there’s something devilishly alluring about Rudy, Jack and Cecilia's quest even though we've seen it all before. Wild Arms manages to do that thing that all good games are capable of, making the familiar feel fresh. I love the inner turmoil Rudy faces in being a stranger in a stranger world, the initially selfish desire of Cecilia to be seen as more than a symbol and Jack’s ability to eventually overcome his darkened past. As I said, it’s been done, but it’s the manner in which it is accomplished that speaks volumes beyond the archetypes at play.

Of course, some people will have issues with the way Wild Arms accomplishes its goals. Wild Arms is a first generation PS1 title and, as expected, looks like a first generation PS1 title. Combat is presented in full 3D and the models look antiquated even when compared other early games. I’ll admit I’m not too crazy over the super deformed, bobble-head characters or flaccid design that reigns over the game’s non-boss combatants and summons but the sequels wouldn't improve on this either. Wild Arms does get what matters correct however, and that’s the look and feel of the game’s antagonists. Really, outside of Odessa from Wild Arms 2, Media Vision has found it impossible to match the power, intensity and soul of these characters and it’s not hard to see why. Wild Arms 3’s Prophets? Please. Wild Arms 4’s Brionac. Whatever. Wild Arms 5’s pathetic attempt at class/race warfare? Laughs. The Metal Demons (and Odessa) are on a completely different level than the previously mentioned forces of evil and it’s not hard to see why. Unfortunately for Media Vision, I’m no longer willing to lie to myself about what those games lack compared to the first two PS1 entries.

Another area that’s ripe for criticism is the simplicity of the combat engine. Again, I won’t deny it has little to nothing over the systems seen before it and the force system is hardly revolutionary but we’re dealing with an era before the advent of materia. People love to tout FFVII’s materia system as the be all, end all magic system but I don’t see how materia is that different from the previous game’s Esper system. In fact Espers may actually be a bit superior in my opinion. Regardless, simplicity is not always the vice people make it out to be. Sure, most battles play out the same, Rudy assaulting bosses with his ARMS, Jack nailing bosses with Fast Draws (eventually backed by Hyper) and Cecilia having a hard time striking a balance between attack and support magic the closer one gets to completing the game.

Such daggers aside, Wild Arms will probably look a lot better out of combat where its Zelda-influenced gameplay takes hold. Unlike combat, exploration of the game’s world takes pace on an overhead, two-dimensional plane. In dungeons, players will overcome puzzles with the aid of tools, objects that are unique to each character. Some of these are as simple as gunpowder bombs or as complex as Hanpan who helps you reach otherwise inaccessible switches and items. Dungeons are also teaming with traps that can inflict damage to a characters hit points as well. Going from typical JRPG combat to action-RPG like game play outside is handled with an extreme amount of care, the seamless transition easily being the game’s major calling card. Still, there are other areas of Wild Arms that are sure to impress like Michiko Naruke’s western influenced music score. While Naruke would struggle to varying degrees with games that followed, Wild Arms’ audio would prove to be an essential part in driving home the steampunk setting the game takes place in. I can’t say it’s one of the defining scores of the 32/64 bit era but for fans of video game music it’s pretty much essential listening.

I’m sure to many I've failed to offer a compelling argument as to how Wild Arms can hold it’s own to previously mentioned kingpin known as Final Fantasy VII. Despite the multitude of comparisons above, taking Final Fantasy VII down a peg or two was not my intention even though it ended up being that way. Still, while people champion Final Fantasy VII for all the things touched upon in the opening paragraph, I found Wild Arms did the exact same thing for me – perhaps even more so - despite lacking the pedigree of its contemporaries. I also think the game contains more heart than a majority of the games it was put up against back in 1997 or exist today, and quite honestly that’s something you can’t put a price on.