Wild Arms 2: 2nd Ignition

STORY

The story begins with the special force known as ARMS at a special ceremony. During the ceremony the members of ARMS started to turn into demons under a spell called demon summon. All except one person name Ashley was spare from this spell. With Filgaia special forces turned into demons, a man name Valerie started to rebuild a new and smaller ARMS with the last surviving member (Ashley). The new members of course is made up of Ashley, Brad, and Lilka. Their mission is to stop the terrorist group known as Odessa whom had used the summon spell on the previous ARMS. Odessa goals is to unite the countries of Filgaia under it's rule. And thus your story quest begins.
Now despite the introduction of the story, Wild Arms 2 story is really divided into two parts. One for the first disc which involve Odessa and the second part on a greater threat to Filgaia in disc 2. The problem here is that both story parts don't really gel into one story very well. The second story part in disc 2 is kind of weak. Even though you're told as a greater threat than Odessa, you don't really understand it or even grasp the greater threat. Some gamers may end up confuse with the story behind this great big threat. The endings really help save what was a weak plot in disc 2. They should have just kept to the Odessa storyline instead. Still overrall it's not a bad story. Just a little confusing sometimes. The game has one of the best endings I've seen.

Score: 8/10

CHARACTERS

Now unlike the first Wild Arms, Wild Arms 2 doesn't just focus on 3 main characters. It now focuses on 6 main characters. With 6 characters in the game, the character developement takes a hit somewhere. It's easier to build a strong and solid background with 3 than with 6. While the 6 characters all have good background, you don't have the sense of caring as you do with the 3 characters of the first Wild Arms. It's done nicely but you do wish it could have done better. Some characters that could have used a better background include Marivel and Anatasia.

Score: 8/10

GRAPHICS

The graphics has improved somewhat but not by much. It's not bad but it could have been done better. First the game now uses a 3-D background with an artwork background included sometimes. They do look nice but not to the point where you are stunned. The characters are all sprites. Now the biggest improvement are the monsters in battles. The first one uses deformed polygons in battles but here the polygons aren't as deformed. They're still not as good as you what them to be though. Better than average but not enough to warrent a big rating here. The anime intro sequences for both disc 1 and 2 are nice.

Score: 7/10

MUSIC

Ahh, the music. What can I say?? If you love the music in the first Wild Arms then you would definetly love the music in the sequel. In the coming months there'll be a whole bunch of midis from this game available on website including this one. It's a job well done from the people behind this game. My personal favorite is the Access theme.

Score: 10/10

GAMEPLAY

Most of the gameplay is borrowed from the first Wild Arms, however there are a couple of new added stuff worth mentioning. On the world map, new towns, villages, and dungeons have to be discovered before you can enter them. Simply walking on the world map isn't enough. You have to search for them using the world map radar. Once a town is discovered only then can it be seen visibly at all times. It's not too hard to find them though. Next is the cancel encounter action. While exploring, just before a random battle occurs, there's an exclamation mark that appears to tell you ahead of time. The red exclamation marks means you can't cancel the random battle while a white exclamation mark means you can. Basically white exclamation marks comes from enemies that have weaker levels than your fighters. This makes exploring dungeons much easier and quicker. Now aside from these new things, the game is pretty much the same as the first one. Go to your next destination, explore the dungeons and solve the puzzles. Each fighters once again have their own special tools that will be needed inorder to solve some of the puzzles. The game itself is very straight forward most of the time. If you're lost and need to know where to go next, you can call HQ for clues or travel to the next green dot on your world map radar. 90% of the puzzles are fairy easy with a few exception. The game bosses themselves are very easy if you know what you're doing. Only the extra secret bosses are hard. Very hard to be exact.
Battle System: The battle system is exactly the same as the first one. Three party members in fights on a traditional turn base system. Each fighter has his or her own special attack. The Guardian Crest are back but this time they're called medium. The Guardian magic spell themselves aren't as valueable as they were in the first one. The reason for that are that:
a: you tend to use the fighter's special skill attack then the Guardian magic attack as the special skill attack is as good or even better then the Guardian magic attack and
b: you can only use the Guardian attack if one of your fighter (Tim) is in the party.
The battle menu is exactly the same. You can switch equipment and such before each round of attack plus you can now switch party members between each round of battle. This means you basically get 6 lives if you know how to use the switching of party members properly to your advantage. The FTP is back. After each round of attack, your fighter FTP goes up allowing you to use their special attack available. The higher the FTP, the better selection of special attack becomes available.
Overrall the gameplay is fairy easy and basic. Only the secret stuff can be hard. I'll get to that next. Still it's pretty fun playing this game. What makes it nice is that you don't have to worry about the getting into a random encounter every few seconds like with the first one.

Score: 8/10

EXTRAS/REPLAY

Now one thing about Wild Arms 2 is the huge amount of extra stuff available to do. There are extra Guardians scatter throughout the game plus there are a quite a few extra bosses to fight. Now these bosses are tough as nail and I mean it. Still it's worth a challenge to fight them. The replay comes from the pure enjoyment of this game. Let's face it. You have to play this game at least twice to get the full satisfaction of it.

Score: 8/10

The question isn't whether or not Wild Arms 2 is a good rpg. It's "Is it as good as the first one??" And the answer is no. And the reason for that is the first one had a great emotional story. Jack, Ruby, and Celcilia are great characters with their own surprising little secrets. They made you care about them. Here, you don't tend to care too much about the characters. Still, the game does possess one of the best ending around and it's still a good rpg but not as good as the first one though.

Final Score: 8/10

Favorite character: Marivel

Character you feel sorry for: Anatasia

Best fighter: Ashley

Coolest theme: Access

Toughest boss: Ghost of Odessa

Best Attack: Rail Gun