Wild Arms 3
My Father's Sin

Review by Chi Phan

Back in the early days of the Playstation 1 and before the release of Final Fantasy 7, there were few true rpgs to be had. So when Wild Arms 1 first came out, true rpgers were rejoice with joy as the game offer true rpging adventure for all rpgers. But a couple of months later, Final Fantasy 7 came out and overshadow all rpgs before it and Wild Arms was lost in the shuffle. But Wild Arms didn't die as it remain in the hearts of it's loyal fans and soon those fans grew to a small cult following. And with the release of Wild Arms 2, the series quickly became a hit to the new rpg fans out there that never experience the first rpg game. So with great anticipation, Wild Arms fans eagerly await the release of Wild Arms 3 on the Playstation 2. How does this game compare to the 2 previous Wild Arms games? Pretty good, people.

A Dungeon to explore.. Wanted Dead or Alive! Wild Arms 3 story starts off like with any other Wild Arms game. You begin with different prologues from the main characters. Giving you an insight on how they got to the point where they became a team. Once they become a team, is where the main plot begins. The 4 main characters are Virginia, Clive, Jett, and Gallows. I don't want to get into the details of each of the characters prologues so I'll give a brief description of how the story starts off when the 4 characters meet up with one another. The story starts off on a train carrying an important item called the Ark Sceptor. The Ark Sceptor is a device or medium that allow a person to summon a Guadian of Filgaia. Each of the 4 characters are Drifters, those that choose to wander the wasteland of Filgaia looking to fullfill their dreams and adventures. Or whatever. LOL. Nevertheless, these 4 drifters have the same goals and interests in the Ark Sceptor for their own purpose. Upon meeting with one another on the stage train that holds the Ark Sceptor, the 4 drifters are met by another group of drifters led by a rogue named Janus who was employed by a mysterious group to steal the Ark Sceptor. With the same circumstances facing one another, the 4 quickly joined together to fight against Janus and his gang. After the battle, the 4 introduced themselves to one another and quickly befriended one another. From here, Clive revealed that he was hired by the Baskar tribe to protect the Ark Sceptor and delivered the Ark Sceptor to Baskar Colony. It just so happens that Baskar Colony is Gallows home village so the four decided to head over to Baskar Colony and decide where to go from there and possibly finding out more about the Ark Sceptor. Once arriving in Basker Colony, Gallow's little brother revealed that he had a vision of evil and Filgaia being destroyed. With this vision, Gallow's Aunt advised and suggested that the four drifters seek out the many ruins in Filgaia in search of more Ark Sceptors so they can gain the power of the Guardians to help save Filgaia. So the four Drifters set about exploring the various ruins scattered across Filgaia. During their journeyed, they encountered other groups of Drifters including the mysterious group that hired out Janus to steal the Ark Sceptors for them. As the story get's deeper and deeper, we soon learn more and more about the world of Filgaia and how it became a wasteland. This is an interesting and deep storyline with some interesting plot twist. In fact there's quite a few plot twists in this story. But despite the deep storyline, the story fail to really captivate gamers to a point where it was intended. Some of it is due to the fact that it tries to hard in some areas. First the game tries too hard to fool us with the various plot twists in making it look like the end of the story. It becomes pretty transparent that we know it's not really the end of the game. Second, the relationship between Virginia and her father comes off very weak and not believable. I think the game put quite a bit of stock into that part of the story as it's emotional cord to the gamers. Which isn't really a good idea. The original plot was pretty good but then they try to make the plot even bigger than what it originally was. The bottomeline is that the story became kind of bogged down and less interesting. In the end, the story just didn't come off as great as it was intended to be.

I'm gonna eat you! The story pretty much overall covers the 4 main characters. The game does put more focus on Virginia than the others characters. But as the story progresses deeper, each of the 4 main characters will have their turn in the spotlight allow them equal time for character developement. So without a doubt, each character have a unique personality to them as well as their own background story. It's really good that the game takes it's time developing these characters. Support cast comes from the second drifter team led by Maya. As well as a supporting character from Virginia's father. The supporting cast are developed nicely as well. As good as a developement you can get from a support cast anyways. I have a fondness for Maya, the leader of the second drifter team. The only thing lacking in terms of developement is that they should spend a little more time developing the bad guys. The game also seem to be missing that one cool character. I don't know, maybe Jett fits that role of a cool character but not for me. Great character developements but there's just something missing that would make these characters great and memorable for long time to come.

Look who's back? I have mix feeling on the graphics. Sometimes it looks really nice while other times it's kind of shady and dull. The background world of Wild Arms 3 is made up of 3D with a mixture of brown colors for the world. The background colors for the most part look very brown since it's the main theme that the world of Filgaia is one of desert wasteland. The colors can be quite nice on areas that require bright and different textures of colors. Magic spells and Guardian summon spells aren't very elaborate or interesting like say the Final Fantasy kind of magic spells. The only key feature here in terms of the graphics are the character designs which are now done in cel-shading. Cel-shading as you know is the new craze in graphics these days. It's cheaper to do and can look good at times as demostrated in this game. I still have mix feeling on cel-shading. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. The thing about cel-shading is that the characters tend to look very 2D like. Now the problem with this is that it doesn't blend well with a 3D background. The characters look even more 2D and with the black color outlines around them, it makes them look like they are drawn in cardboard. The coloring of the characters doesn't help too. The characters do have a nice coloring effect but it's very semi-transparent and it looks like the coloring was done in crayons. The good part of the cel-shading character designs? Well if you look very carefully, you can fully see the details of the characters including their facial expressions from their mouths to noses. Also the overall character designs has that anime look to them. Which I really like. And I believe that can only be achieved with cel-shading. Overall the graphics isn't the greatest but it's good enough for you to enjoy the game. Clearly if history shows us anything, graphics was never a strong point in the Wild Arms series and it's pretty much the same here.

Cowboys & Indians.. "I love the music in this game." Let me say again.."I love the music in this game." Where to begin? The main theme of this music is a western guitar theme with some whistling. I love it. The number of tunes available is immense. If you visit one of the town in the game with a jukebox, you can see a list of all of the songs available and listen to them. The number of tracks available is off the chart. I always say that if a game has a really sad overture music theme that can move the gamers and really help define the sad moments in the story cutscene, then it must be really good music. And let me tell you, there are quite a few tunes that are really sad tunes and perfect with the guitar overture. Then you have both the main english and japanese main song themes. Both version are very good and sung excellently. Wild Arms always had good music and it's no different here. I can't really say anything bad about the music cause there's nothing bad about it. "I love the music in this game."

I'm an innocent person. You think you can take me? Game Information    Genre: Turn Base Rpg    Publisher: Sony Entertainment    Disc: 1 Disc DVD    Memory: 35 KB    Players: 1 Player Mode    Vibration: Yes    Dual Analog: Yes    Digital Control: No    Rating: Teen    Release: October 2002 The gameplay is very similar to the previous Wild Arms games. They've added a few improvements here and there but overall Wild Arms gameplay theme is still here. For the first half of the game, the quest is pretty straight forward. But once you get into the second half of the game, this is where things start to get a little difficult for gamers as it becomes alot harder finding out where to go next and what to do next. The basic gameplay is still there. You start off the game with each of the characters prologue quest. Once you complete each of the characters prologue, the characters meet together and form a party. From here the real gameplay begins. Like with traditional rpg gameplay, you progress through the game by talking to the various townspeople to find out where to go next. Usually a dungeon to explore and fight the dungeon boss to progress the storyline. As you explore these ruins/dungeons, you may be required to solve the various puzzles that are laid before you. Some are easy while some are hard. Most puzzles will require you to use each of the individual characters key tools to help solve the puzzles. As with previous Wild Arms games, each Wild Arms character comes with 3 set of key tools that they gain during their adventure. These key tools are used to help solve the various puzzles in dungeons. That's the basic of the gameplay. A few added notes before we move onto the battle system. Weapon Upgrades are done in Arms shop. Each character comes with their own default weapon. It's the only weapon they will use. Now each weapon has it's own stats such as Bullets, Hit%, Shot, ect. You can upgrade an individual weapon stats at the ARMS shop. There however is a limit on the weapon upgrade. A weapon start at level 1 and goes all the way to level 15. Each time you upgrade a stat, the weapon goes up a level. With a limit of 15 levels, you have to decide carefully on how you want your weapon to be upgraded so planning ahead is good. That's for the weapon upgrade. You can buy various stats healing items at shop but when it comes to healing berries, you need to grow them. It's sort of like a mini game. Later in the game, you get a farm of your own so you can grow healing berries. This is a pretty fun mini game but yet in a sense not really a mini game. Moving along to the skills point system. Skills are now integrated with Guardians(medium). Basically these stats skills help boost each characters individual stats to certain elements. Such example of stats skills are Ice Ward, Confusion Ward, Auto-Reload, ect. These skills help increase your defense to certain elements as well as adding some elements to help increase your fighting capabilities. In the end, these skills are invalueable so it's best for gamers to learn how to use these skills effectively. Each Guardian comes with their own skills but you can attach a certain number of skill to the Guardians as well. The fighters inherit whatever skills are on the Guardian that is equipped to them. All that's left to explain is the battle system. The battle system hasn't changed much from previous Wild Arms games. It incorporate the FP gauge into the use of special abilities, magic, and summoning of guardians. The commands are as follows: items, force (Guardian & Special Abilities), attack, and Arcana (magic). I don't think I have to explain what the item command is used for. Attack is a little bit different in terms of normal attack. Each fighters begin using their Arms as normal attacks. The number of times you attack with your Arms depends on how many bullets each fighter's ARMS contain. Once you used up your bullets, your attack will then be done by physical hand damage which would do less damage then by using your ARMS. You can reload by simply defending each turn. So that's for regular attack. Arcana and Force Ability commands will depends on the amount of your FP on your FP guage. Each time you attack or are attacked, you gain FP on your FP guage. The higher your FP, the better your options are for Arcana (magic) and Force Ability. The type of magic you can cast depends on the amount of FP available to you. Just like with Force Ability (special abilities and guardians), the type of special abilities depends on the amount of FP you have. And while you can summon Guardians with a low FP guage, the damage or effectiveness that the Guardians will do to the enemies depends on the amount of FP guage. The higher the FP guage, the more damage you will inflict and vice versa for a low FP guage. The battle system is pretty much the same as previous Wild Arms game. Special abilities are similar as before. Extension, Lock On, Acceralor, ect. Overall the gameplay is pretty simple and basic for any Wild Arms veterans. The only down part is that the gameplay lacks innovation. If you're looking for something different from previous Wild Arms game, then you won't find it which might disappoint some gamers. The gameplay is still fun but if the series keeps going down the route in offering the same gameplay over and over then it might hit some bumpy road ahead. But for now this is still one of the best rpg game for the holiday season.

Score: 9/10

I'm gonna kill you! Good heavens are there alot of extras and side quest in this game. Just like with the 2 previous Wild Arms games, there are hidden bosses for you to fight. Over 7 of them I believe. Then you have the 100 floor deep Abyss dungeon to do. There's also the Gunner Heaven's tournament to take part in which also feature some hidden bosses. To add to all these, there's the millinuem puzzles quests where you can travel around the world map and solve 20 millinuem puzzles to gain items from each of the puzzles. If that's not enough, then there's the Telepath Tower/UFO side quests. And finally and not the very least, a mini-game/sidequest where you can raise and grow your own garden of Heal berries at the Secret Garden. Oh yeah, almost forgot. There's also the EX File Key side quest to do as well. Once you complete the EX File Key quest and finish the game, you can unlock certain extras like all the opening and ending movies with your EX File keys. Very cool. Good lord is that alot of extras or what?. Add all that up and you get one enormous amount of extra & replay value. Once you finish the game and have obtain at least 2 EX file keys, you can then unlock the EX mode of the game where you can start a new game but maintain your Gil and Levels of all your characters in the game from the previous game. A little incentive for those that want to replay the game again. There's no denialing that when it comes to extras and replay, this game is rich in them. You can spend over 10 hours on all of these side quests. A perfect score I tell you.

There's no question that Wild Arms 3 is a good to great rpg game. And it should please all dedicated Wild Arms fans as well as rpg fans around the world. If you're a true rpg fan then it's a game you would definetly want to pick up for the holiday season. The only concern is where the future of this series may be heading. I think inorder to please new fans and even current ones, they need to introduce some innovative gameplay to this series. Other than that, this is still one of the best rpg series for Sony. Final Score: 8.5/10 Time to complete: over 50 hours for a complete game. Difficulty: Medium Favorite character: Maya Best music theme: Opening English Theme Most useful magic: Extension Heal Best fighter: Clive Best Move: Finest Arts Best advice: Learn to upgrade Arms correctly for each character. Also try: Wild Arms 3 Up next: Suikoden 3

STORY An interesting story with lots of plot twists on who the real enemies are. Downside is that the story can lose focus because of that and sway from the original plotlines. 8 CHARACTERS Characters are perfectly developed with unique background. Missing a standout character though. 8 GRAPHICS Pretty good use of cell-shading and character designs. Colors are a little bit dull though. 8 MUSIC/SOUND One of the best rpg musical score around, period. 10 GAMEPLAY All around perfect gameplay in terms of pure rpg elements. Just missing that innovative gameplay element. 9 EXTRAS/REPLAY All the goodies that you can want and need. 10