The introduction of Wild Arms 4 for the year 2006 pretty much marks the last Wild Arms games for the Playstation 2. Any future Wild Arms games will probably be seen on the Playstation 3. Wild Arms 4 also is a change of direction in how the game is set up and played. In the last 3 previous Wild Arms games, the gameplay have pretty much been very similar to one another, continuing the Wild Arms gameplay tradition fans have come to love. However Wild Arms 4 definitely takes a more liberal approach to the gameplay by introducing an all new battle system in the gameplay. This is an attempt to shake up the series in fear that the same old gameplay after gameplay for each new Wild Arms game will get stale for fans. Will this new approach work for Wild Arms 4? Will a change in direction be good or bad for the series? Let's find out.
STORY
The faces of a new evil.
A lasting friendship.
While picking berries outside his village of Ciel Shelter, Jude Maverick witnessed a tear in the sky, with several aircrafts flying out of it and landing nearby the village. Deciding to investigate things further, Jude made his way to the area where the aircrafts have landed. Here he finds an unknown army group making base in the area. With the commander of the army group gathering troops to head to Ciel Shelter for an unknown reason, Jude decided to go into the army base to take a look around. While inside the army base, Jude discovered two locked prisoners, Arnaud Vasquez and Yulie Ahtreide. Having freed the two prisoners, the group headed off toward Ciel Shelter where they discover the village being sacked by the army group and the villagers including Jude mother being taken prisoners. Angered by this, Jude mysteriously unleashed a power within him that is known as the Wild Arm against the army that had invaded his village. This incident caused the near destruction of his village by the Wild Arm resulting in the evacuation of everyone from Ciel Shelter in escape pods. Jude escape pod landed in an area known as the Forsaken Road, where Jude to his surprise, discovered that the world that he had lived in, Ciel Shelter, was nothing more than a sealed off village in an enclosed sphere from the outside world known as Filgaia. Filgaia is a war torn planet that has been savage by wars between two governments in the past years. The people who had fled that war had build Ciel Shelter to escape the war and the harsh environment of Filgaia. Wishing to learn more of this hidden Wild Arm power within him, Jude enlisted the aid of Yulie, Arnaud, and another drifter name Raquel to find and free his mother from the army that had taken her and the other villager's prisoners as well as to find the true intention of the army when they invaded Ciel Shelter. This journey will take Jude and his friends into a discovery of Filgaia past and its possible future. The four friends will take a path of self discovery of their own identities and their paths to becoming an adult. The journey for adventure begins.
Okay now on the surface the story looks interesting enough but however as the story progresses deeper and deeper into the game, you start to realize that this isn't so much about a story on saving the world but more about a story that tries to put the different contrast between how adults view things more seriously while children tend to view things more innocently. At this point, the story becomes more of a bickering of back and forth between the adults (villains) and the kids (main heroes) and why they don't understand each other. Every single story cut scenes all result in the same old dialogue of adult vs kids theme over and over. It just becomes a major annoyance and takes away the focus of saving the world. Honestly I did not want to be reminded about how adult are different from kids each and every single step in this game. The result of all of this is that the story becomes more of a bored than anything else. Half way into the story, there wasn't any sort of interest in wanting to learn more of the Wild Arms 4 story and the characters of Wild Arms 4. It was more of let's get this game over with so we can look forward to another rpg game. And that ladies and gentlemen is a good indication on just how interesting or uninteresting the story is.
Score 6/10
CHARACTERS
We will fight to save the world.
Wild Arms 4 has a very small cast of four main characters. The rest of the characters are your villains in the game. Outside of the main characters and villains, there aren't any support characters in this game at all since the story mainly just focuses on the four main characters. The four main characters are Jude, Arnaud, Raquel, and Yulie. The age of the group range from 13 to 19 years old. Jude, the main character and hero of the story is 13 while Raquel is the oldest at 19 years of age. The age group pretty much fit the story theme of a children point of view when looking at the world versus the adult point of view. However the bad part of this is that it does sort of divide the gamers into two age groups too. This can result in a negative feeling for the characters in general. As a gamer that is over 20 years of age, I found all the characters to be annoying and very unappealing, especially the main hero, Jude whom I can't literally stand in this game. I found the group view points and opinions in the game to be too kiddy for my taste. And I'm pretty sure there are many in my age group that has the same feelings. But then again while the main characters seem to be too kiddy for me, they may have a better appeal to the gamers who's age is in their early teens. The development of the main characters in terms of their background and personality is done very nicely as the story progresses. But you need more than just having a good background history to characters to make them good characters, you need the appealing factor too which these characters do not. The main characters wasn't the only thing that has little appeal, the villains in the game come off very weak and without much purpose in the game. In this game, the villains have no real affect in the story other than just bosses for you to fight. You don't really sense a villainess about them as you should. Good villains are villains you want to fight and beat as a challenge to save the world. You don't get that sense of feeling at all in this game. The overall affect is that you have a very unappealing and lackluster cast of characters that have no charisma. To get straight to the point, the worst Wild Arms cast ever. This is the one Wild Arms games where I hope all the main characters would just die or shut up. And that's not a good thing. For future reference, do not put a 13 year old kid as the main hero and character of an rpg story. It's not very believable and end up more annoying than helpful.
Score: 6/10
GRAPHICS
So how do we look?
The graphics and artistic style of Wild Arms 4 is a very different from all previous Wild Arms games. In most cases, this is an actual improvement in my opinion. The environmental background graphics are design beautifully with exceptional attention to details in a 3-D setting to semi 2-D setting. Buildings, houses, roads, trees, rocks, sky, and sun all look very realistic. The game designers took great care in making sure every thing look as real as possible and it shows. Even the character designs are done in an artistic anime style way with movements that resemble how real people would move around and react to different settings whether they are falling or jumping off a ledge. The CG movie cut scenes are beautifully rendered with the Japanese anime style but in a very soft but yet colorful scene sequences that make it a treat to watch. The one bad spot is that while the gameplay and movie graphics are excellent, the story scenes are left a bit dull with large character artworks popping in and out that take up the entire TV screen. These story scenes seem to be out place when compare with the gameplay graphics and movie scenes. Visually speaking it would have been better to keep the gameplay image and have small characters avatars on the bottom side with bubbles depicting what these characters are saying to one another like with most rpgs indicating a story scene taking place between two characters instead of just having fully blown artwork that takes up the whole screen. The fully blown artworks aren't too appealing to boot as well. But from an overall look, this is definitely the best looking Wild Arms games to date, not counting the story scenes of course.
Score: 8/10
MUSIC
The Wild Arms journey begins..
There are two new exceptionally well written and sung English songs introduce in Wild Arms 4, the opening movie song and the ending movie song. Unfortunately you only hear both songs at either the opening of the game or at the ending of the game. Those two songs alone can't carry the weight of the entire game music though because the in-game music is a little above average at best. You don't really notice too much of in-game music as it plays in the background as you do from previous Wild Arms games. There aren't any memorable battle tunes or story tunes that will grab your attention. Most of the tunes are passable ones that you don't really pay much attention to at all. That's not a good thing by the way since you want music to be grabbing the attention of the gamers and getting them into the mood of an exciting adventure. The only really noticeable tune is the remix of the main Wild Arms tune. The remix theme doesn't seem to have the same effect as the original theme though as it's a bit too low in volume and play too softy in the background. But then again on the bright side, the remix of the main Wild Arms theme is the only musical theme that you'll notice in the game when playing Wild Arms 4. The sound effects and voice acting in the game is very good though. It's not a far fetch when I say that I'm having a hard time trying to think of one good musical tune from Wild Arms 4 that I can recall other than the two English songs.
Score: 7/10
GAMEPLAY
We call this fighting Hex style.
A treasure in our Hex.
Game Information
Genre: Traditional Rpg
Publisher: XSeed
Disc: 1 DVD Disc
Memory: 27 KB
Players: 1 Player Mode
Analog Control: Yes
Digital Control: Yes
Vibration Function: Yes
Rating: Teen
Release: January 2006
Taking the gameplay to a new direction is what Wild Arms 4 is all about but still keeping some of the traditional Wild Arms elements around. The gameplay has been simplified in a way where it's easier, more linear, and less puzzle solving. What you have is an rpg game with a new HEX battle system with elements of platform mix into it. With the exception of the new HEX battle system, most of the elements in the game are pretty easy to learn and get into really quickly. Traveling on the world map is very straight forward. Just follow the line to your next destination. If you arrive at a town you can go inside and talk to the local folks to decide on what to do as well as stock up on supplies. If you arrive at a dungeon, you go inside and make it to the other side of the dungeon to re-exit out into the world map again. Dungeon exploration for the most part is pretty easy. It does however from time to time require a bit of platform jumping and some small elements of puzzle solving using your tools. The difference this time is that the tools are more or less party tools instead of having each character with their own unique personal tools that only they can use like in previous Wild Arms games. Battles are done in random encounters and the rate of random encounter is fairly even. You do have an option to turn off random encounter at save point though. The skills system has been change a bit too. In this reviewer opinion, the gameplay has been change in a way that it is more marketable to the younger and beginners rpg gamers than those that are of the older audience. Whether or not this is a good move down the road will be decided on sales chart and word of mouth from others who have played this game. There are some unique features in the game that are worth a mention and we'll be looking at them now.
HEX Battle System:The HEX Battle System is going to be the main focal point for the gameplay. Battles are still done in a turn base random encounters but once a battle begin, your party members and enemies will be place into a seven HEXes battle ground. The placement on which HEX each individual get place into is random. From there you take turns on using your commands. In most cases when using commands such as attack, you can only attack enemies in the adjacent HEX. But if you are using something that has long range such as magic, you can pretty much attack any HEX regardless of distances between the HEXes. During your turn, you can also move to other HEXes to get into closer range to attack the enemy or heal your party members. Each movement of course will use up a turn. Now the interesting thing is that when you take an action on a HEX where there are multiple targets on the HEX, your action will affect all the targets in the HEX. For example, if you attack a HEX with 3 enemies on it, you are basically attacking all 3 enemies. This is a good way to take care of large group of enemies in one shot. However this also works for the enemies too. Getting use to the HEX Battle System isn't hard. You basically are doing the same thing you always do in an rpg game which is to attack, use magic, or items on enemies or party members. Only difference is that everyone is spread out on a HEX. Ley Points:Ley Points are really HEX that has an elemental attribute. This is important because when a character or enemy is standing on a Ley Point, their special ability changes to that elemental attribute. This is the only way to use an elemental magic or elemental attribute attack. In other words, if you want to use fire magic, you need to move your magic user into a HEX Ley Point that has the attribute of fire. Original:Each character or party member has an original special ability. These original special abilities are non elemental base. Their function can change however if a character is standing on Ley Point since the Ley Point will give the Original an elemental attribute from a non elemental attribute. Force: Each character has their own special force ability once the Force gauge reaches the required amount to activate the Force ability. Keep in mind that Ley Point can also affect or change the Force ability that a character original has by adding in an elemental attribute. In this case it only affects Yulie since Yulie Force ability is to summon Guardians. What sort of Guardians Yulie summons depends on the element or non element of the HEX that she is standing on. Combination Arts:Combination Arts are a special Force ability attack where 2 to 4 party members may learn and perform together during the game. The characters need to have the require Force Points as well as standing together on the same HEX to learn and perform a Combination Art. Personal Skills: Each character has a set number of skills that they can master as they level up. You can turn on and off these personal skills individually in the skill menu if you wish. Even though you can master these skills once you reach the level requirement to master them, it's possible to master them ahead of time before the level requirement is reach by using your GC points. GC Points: Growth Customization Points is a very unique feature in this game that allows a character to master a particular personal skill ahead of time by spending GC Points to master that skill. Each time a character levels up, he or she will earn GC Points. Now each personal skill has a set amount of GC points that is needed to be spent on in order for that personal skill to be master. This is assuming that the level requirement to master that skill hasn't been reach. By spending GC points on a personal skill, you are basically jumping ahead of time and mastering the skill first before achieving the level requirement to master it. Once you reach the level requirement to master that skill, the GC points that you used to master it will be return to you so you can use those GC points on another skill. Break Points:Break points are found in villages and dungeons. Break points have many functions to them. You can easily call break points as your save points because that's what it really is. You can save your game, customize Jude's Arms, have party meetings, and purify the break points at Break Points. The purpose of purifying a Break Point is that once a Break Point has been purify, you can have the option of turning on or off random encounters in the dungeon. Methods of purifying a break points however varies with each dungeon.
Despite some of the features in this game, it's hard to put a feel into the gameplay overall. On one hand, Wild Arms 4 gameplay is very different from the other Wild Arms games. It doesn't feel like a Wild Arms game that you are playing. This however doesn't mean it's bad just because it doesn't feel like a traditional Wild Arm game. The gameplay just lacks any sort of challenge because it is a bit too easy and lacks that overall world exploration that you would expect from a Wild Arm game. Fans would probably like to see more of a world exploration where you can travel on land from a vehicle or fly around the world with an airship or even run around trekking across the world map. They probably like to see more towns and villages too, more interaction in the game. This game lacks all of that. It's a bit too linear. The introduction of the new HEX battle system isn't bad but at time it can be a bit of an annoyance too having to move party members to be on the right hex to attack or cast a certain magic. But the one main feeling that the gameplay seem to be missing is the fun factor. You play video games for fun. Did I have fun playing this game? It's hard to say. I didn't outright hate it but then again I didn't exactly enjoy myself. I think what hurts the fun factor in the gameplay is due to the uninteresting story and characters of this game. What set rpgs aside from other games is the fact that rpgs are about stories and characters and not just pure gameplay. This is why we play rpg games. And if the stories and characters aren't interesting, it sort of defeats the purpose of playing an rpg game. This is what we have here, where the story and characters are so annoying and boring that it takes away the motivation of playing this game and ends up hurting the fun factor in the gameplay. Sure there are some rpg games where the gameplay is so good and fun that it can rise above average stories and characters, but that's not the case here in Wild Arms 4. In order for Wild Arms 4 to be good, all of its components from story to characters to gameplay need to complement each other. Unfortunately that doesn't apply here.
Score: 7/10
EXTRAS/REPLAY
Hey look.. a mini game.
The one steady thing you can always count on from the series is that it's always loaded with extra stuff to do. Wild Arms 4 continues to keep that tradition going. Although when compare to the other Wild Arms games, Wild Arms 4 isn't as loaded as it can be. However there are still tons of side stuff that you can do. You have the Battle Arena were you can fight numerous battles under certain conditions to win prizes. You also have the many optional bosses that you can fight. You have the mini games in the Extra Challenge Roms you can find in the game. And lastly you have the Ex File option where you can unlock certain features in the game if you meet the condition in collecting an Ex File. The draw back is that this time around, there aren't any extra mini game puzzles to do or finding items on the world map. Truthfully most of the extras are more heavily base on fighting optional bosses.
There is an EX New Game+ mode that you can unlock and use to replay the game again, but this time around your Gella, Combination Arts, and items in your inventory will get carried over to the new game. So in the end, there still plenty of extra stuff that will keep you entertained in the game, just not as much as the previous Wild Arms.
Score: 9/10
To put it bluntly, Wild Arms 4 is a bit of a major disappointment for Wild Arms fans. It's safe to say that this is the least popular Wild Arms game in the entire series. Two major factors work against this game. The first factor is that the story isn't very interesting at all. The whole story theme of the difference between how adults are different from children comes off more of an annoyance than an interesting story about saving the world. The second factor is the fact that it's safe to say that this is the least interesting cast of characters ever introduced in the Wild Arms stories. The main characters aren't as appealing as they can be to the fans and the villains come off more pathetic than villains that people should fear. There's also the fact there's no strong supporting cast of characters in the game. The new Hex style gameplay is unique and interesting but the overall factor in gameplay is a bit too easy and not as fun. The old Wild Arms gameplay tradition of major puzzle solving and using each character tools as key components which made the Wild Arms games famous seem to have been left in the background of the gameplay instead of being the major focus of the gameplay. The end result in all of this is a game that is less of a Wild Arms game and more of a kiddie rpg game. Is Wild Arms 4 a really bad rpg game? No. But it's not as good as the other Wild Arms games that many have come to love.
