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Has Not Aged Well

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This review was written by James Shea, my son

An RPG series with plenty of unique twists, Wild Arms is generally a good series, and Wild Arms 3 is no exception to this stylistic uniqueness. It has as much in common with a Wild West story as it does with a fantasy RPG.

The story follows four characters (each introduced with their own side-story prior to their uniting) who are on a quest to recover a mystical scepter that will restore order and protect the world of Filgaia. The four characters are Virginia, a young girl looking for her father, Gallows, an ex-priest, Clive, a bounty hunter, and Jet, an unprincipled treasure hunter. The story itself is less important than the setting, which contains elements of Western stories contained in the fantasy elements (shooting monsters with sixguns, for example). The setting is pretty distinctive, and is reflected in the music and level design in the game.

The combat system is a regular turn based RPG system, with a few quirks. Firstly, all the characters use guns (or ARMs), which means they need to reload every so often. This is done by using the guard command; while defending, they will reload their guns. In addition to shooting, there are magical abilities and items to use; standard RPG fare, basically. The only other thing notable about the combat system is that it is possible to cancel moves; this wastes a turn, but may prevent you from doing something you don't wish to (such as accidentally using an elemental attack on a creature that heals from those attacks). While exploring, there are some neat tricks as well. Characters can sprint or sneak, depending on the situation, and there are also special abilities like lighting fires or throwing boomerangs that are used for puzzle-solving. Finally, and most importantly in my opinion, characters can avoid random battles with good timing by pressing the circle button when an enemy approaches (signified by an exclamation point over the character's head).

On the world map, places aren't instantly marked; characters need to get clues and information, and then essentially puzzle out where on the map the place is. This is kind of neat, in the sense that the characters are drifters and need to find out where stuff is, but at the same time it's somewhat frustrating because of the random encounters.

The graphics are cel-shaded, and definitely pretty good for their time, but they haven't held up well. Everything seems kind of bland despite the reasonably cool character designs. The sound has a nice Western motif to it, as mentioned, but there isn't any particularly exceptional music, and there's no voice acting at all. In most ways, it's similar to Skies of Arcadia - this was the game that I kept thinking of while I played this. However, it also lacks a lot of things that SoA had.

This was definitely a good game in its time, but unfortunately it hasn't aged very well. If you are a fan of the series, or a hardcore RPG fan, pick it up. But otherwise, at this point, don't bother.

Rating: 6/10.

Too Annoying to Play

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game gets my vote as the most annoying RPG ever. Combat takes forever, isn't done very well, and the enemies circle around the screen constantly moving the camera, which gave me a headache after an hour or so. But that isn't enough to take the game down, it gets worse.

I hated the combat within five hours of playing this game (enough to collect my party), and then came travel. Not something you'd think would be an ordeal. I never found the next town, I gave up after wandering around aimlessly on the map, using the 'locater' function, only finding enemies of a level far higher than my starting party. Over and over again, for two hours. This wasn't any fun. It had become too much of an annoying ordeal to play. That statement comes from someone who finished ET for the Atari 2600.

Overall, this game reminded me of the Super Nintendo game Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest with a better story, worse movement, and longer pointless combat.

Don't buy this game blind, I don't care how cheap this junk becomes. Borrow or rent first because you'll probably hate it. The combat is bad. Moving around on the map is bad. The plot is slow, I didn't get far enough into the game to judge overall. The second star is for the in-theme music, because the composer did do a decent job.

Pretty good overall.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is alot of fun, it's alot like Wild Arms 1 and 2, yet it has a more complex combat system and better graphics. There are still a few of the more annoying things in the gameplay such as the sonar like symbol finder on the world map you have to use every few steps, but the game is still alot of fun.

Scanning Across the Wastelands

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Wild Arms is an alternative RPG series that managed to move through time. However, seriously Wild Arms is very similar to your standard turn-based RPG but replacing swords, axes and hammers with Arms - literally guns.

Nonetheless, Wild Arms 3 weaved the different aspects of the gameplay together pretty well. Just like materia in FF VII, it managed to have a logical connection between the story and the battle system. The battle system is very similar to all your standard turn based system. In fact the level up system is a mix of FF IX and FF VI - you acquire skills and need to assign points to them but compared ot FF IX you have more freedom of what skills to give to your characters. Also similar to FF VI, you need the summons to help you learn new skills. The difference is in FF VI you permanently acquire those skills but in Wild Arms 3, the skills move with your summons, as in FF VIII's Junction System.

Story wise it started off pretty good but then started to drag after you went to 3/4 of the story. Probably this is a way to prolong gameplay time. One of the worst aspect is that you need to perform scanning around the world to unlock locations. This is really annoying when you only have a rough idea where the location should be then need to go on scanning for hours before you find the location you need to go to. Also, in certain dungeons, the way to solve the puzzles are quite annoying e.g. timing extremely accurately to just turn on several buttons together. These are things that I think should be paid attention to for the sequels.

In terms of side quests, there are a lot for you to do and some of the side quests give you something call EX File keys for you to unlock bonus materials in the future play throughs. However, none of them come in easy, and sometimes actually frustrating. Further the reward with these keys aren't as prominent and useful as one would think they are. So if you are tired of scanning all over the world to finish some of them, you can just move on to finish the main story.

Graphic wise, it is Cel-shaded. The quality is not too bad, but once you enjoyed the Cel-shading in Zelda: The Wind Waker, none of the other Cel-shading games meet that kind of aesthetic quality anymore. The soundtrack is not too bad though certain music were recycled too much and eventually you just switch the music off, particularly in the 100 Abyss (what's up with games nowadays? Some many have those 100 dungeons!)

To sum up, Wild Arms 3 is not a bad RPG and it does have its attraction for you to play through it again in the future. There are certain things that definitely needed to be fixed e.g. story driven locations should be showing up automatically instead of requiring extensive scanning. Also certain annoying puzzle formulars should be revised or removed. However, it is a solid RPG that can take up a lot of hours of your gaming life if you want to do everything in the game. A good buy indeed.

Very smartlly made and fun game...dont listen to the idiots.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have played many RPGs in my time. The animation is great, characters are charming, the batlle system is quick and user friendly. Nowadays there are RPG/action games where you have to continually mash buttons, not good. I hated Final Fantasy X, annoying characters and screwed up battle system. This game doesnt have endless option screens and other useless stuff like Final Fantasies have. I cant really put in in words but it kept me playing and playing. This is the best RPG I have played on the PS2. I loved it...If you like turn based RPGs then you cant go wrong!

Borrowed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'll follow the general concensious and claim that this is a decent game. However having played the previous incarnations I gotta say that yes its better than the 1st sequel but no where near the first (now with its own remake, want something done right gotta do it yourself eh?). It borrows too much from the first game and I mean WAY tooo much they may as well told you that this was going to seem like the first game only done much more poorly. reused Item references from the first game are not only a dime a dozen but wrong, Character redo's (Seigfried = Zeikfreid) are not very consistant (it made me hate him all over again and for the wrong reasons) The story is like taking a very good bottle of wine and watering it down to the point where you can barely taste what it was supposed to be originally. I too can't bring my self to Finish it since every time I pop it in I think of the original game and endup playing that instead after ten minutes of trying very hard to resist the urge to switch. If you like fantasic graphics (ie cell shading, spells and summons) rock on, but if your more into story and well done character development play Wild Arms or Wild Arms Alter Code: F (which will also have very nice graphics) then pick up used or new copies of those games respectivly.

Third time's the charm!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: April 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This WA is by far an excellent addition to anyone's RPG drawer. Unlike SOME people's bland analyses, this WA is unique in many ways in comparison to its previous cousins.

First of all, the story will feel familiar to those of you who played the first WA. A lot of references and names are used in conjunction with this one (including two big surprises in the middle I won't spoil for anyone yet to play this game) and make this game more engrossing. Second, the main character of this game is the first female protagonist for the Wild Arms series and she does a good job of playing the courageous heroine. While she's no Lenneth Valkyrie or Elly Van Houten, Virginia Maxwell performs well fighting injustice throughout Filgaia. To make it more interesting, she is the only female member of the team and the leader of a party that composes males. How's that for girl power? Third, if you loved the ARMS in the last two games, you'll be surprised to know that in this WA, ARMS are your regular weapons and that they are the main weapon of just about everyone you come across in the story. This brings on a feeling of classic wild west since cowboys and cowgirls relied on the same trusty pistols.

Now, for the gameplay stats:

Story-This WA's story is a tad on the huge side, so you must pay careful attention to details as they come. Of course, if you remember any info from the first WA, this won't be a problem for you. Most of the story's content centers around a lot of scientific detail and terms though, so be prepared for complex explanations.

Characters-Your party will compose the same four people for the entire game and each of them develops quite nicely as the story rolls along. In fact, each character has a tough dungeon later on that exclusively stars him/her as the central figure for the plot and helps explain some things that may have confused you before (a.k.a plot fillers, but by no means boring ones).

Music-Michiko Naruke, what a genius! She knows her wild west music. Reading everyone's other comments, I'm appalled by your rudeness and lack of musical comprehension. These are some of Naruke's best pieces to date. The use of strings, whistles and drums blend into some nice wild west themes, especially the many town and battle themes. Don't forget that there are also the traditional dark, sad, heroic, goofy and serious themes.

Battle System-This WA keeps the tradition of Force Points but now has a newer simplified setup. Each character has one unique Force move (ex: Virginia uses Mystic) and two that they all share, Gatling and Summon. Also, a new feature lets you turn monsters into magic gems when defeated by an elemental guardian summon or spell. The gems can be sold for quick money (which is scarce) or used to cast the same elemental spell that made it. Your ARMS can be upgraded and there are countless setups to have for each ally and while quite expensive, can improve your odds against tougher monsters. Each character's gun is unique in its stats, so you must consider carefully what parameters to build (especially since you can reset them but you don't get your money back). Guardians play a bigger role than before. There are 12 in all and each character can equip three. Each one ups certain parameters and gives the equipper four spells to use (sorry folks, no Crest magic in this WA). There are once again, endless setups, but certain Guardians work best with certain characters.

Sound-Magic spells, guns, explosions, horseriding and monster noises all in one game? Quite a coloful bunch of sound FX if you ask me. The gun sounds are especially on the mark.

I give this Wild Arms a 5/5. Buy it and enjoy, it rocks! And for those of you who want an extra challenge, the Abyss is back from WA1, but it's now 100 floors and a familiar face awaits at the end. Good luck!

Bland, Predictable, Terrible RPG, Not worth your time!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 16
Date: February 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Wild Arms 3 is a terribly mediocre RPG that simply never should have been made.
The Good:
Relatively nice cel-shaded graphics. Period. Nothing else.
The Bad:
Incredibly flat characters, predictable and cliched storyline, repetitive and stupid battle system, lack of any good enemies, you can't get any new guns, music is very limited, doesn't sound like the Wild West.
Conclusion:
Wild Arms 3 could've been a good RPG worth 4 stars with some improvements, unfortunately the developers obviously didn't try very hard. Don't even bother with this game. Not worth your time at all. Try Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden 3, or Grandia 2. They are much better than this game.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love RPGs. The PS2 has produced some really excellent games for the genre including Final Fantasy X, the Shadow Hearts series, and Disgea: Hour of Darkness. Wild Arms 3 is not going to be joining this list of RPG awesomeness any time soon. It's not even going to be joining my list of decent RPGs. This game is terrible, and I just could not finish it! Trust me I tried and there was a period of two weeks when I couldn't bring myself to even turn the game on.

I thought a western-themed RPG would be something really unique, but I was wrong. This has got to be one of the most cliched things I've ever seen. It's the third in a series that appears to be rather popular. I did end up hating this game, but strangely I'm not totally put off from playing a Wild Arms game ever again. Maybe since this is the third game, it's just an unfortunate casuality of sequel-itis.

The Good:
The music's pretty good. It's appropriately whistlely and twangy like the fare you'd find in most spagetti westerns and really sets the western tone.

Fighting on horseback! This only unique from a visual point of view. The game still plays in exactly the same turn-based Final Fantasy-esque way as if you were on foot, but it looks really cool as you race across the desert fending off creepies.

Save Anywhere! You can provided you have an item called a Gimel Coin, but luckily those are easy to find.

The Bad:
Cliched plot. It starts out with promise. Your four heroes meet up during a train robbery when some burly gunmen try to steal an artifact belonging to this Indian Shaman tribe called the Baskars. Classic Western! Then the adventurers, called Drifters, team up and take an assignment from the Baskar's head Shaman to awaken the four guardians of the planet Filgaia so maybe the desertification of the planet will stop. It's down hill from there. Suddenly, instead of a Western game, I'm playing a cliched find the four scared elemental crystals/dragons/betamax VCRs quest.... but with firearms! Soon our foursome discovers that this weird demon cult is out to infuse the planet with evil energy and transform it into a demon world or some other rot by using guardians and ancient artifacts. So they set out, to discover why Filgaia is dying and play follow-the-bad guys. It's almost like playing Final Fantasy VII over again, and I never liked that game much in the first place.

Characters that come right out of anime central casting. The characters are very archetypal and never try to break out of their mold. You have Gallows, a ne'er-do-well Shaman, who learns some bland lesson on freedom, heritage, and self-actualization on the journey. Brainy, tough guy Clive, who might have been a better drawn character if his marital troubles were explored in more detail. Jet Enduro, surly anti-social amnesiac, and worst of the bunch Virginia Maxwell. For some reason they make her their leader even though she is the least expirenced of the bunch. She's naive, gulliable, and not all that smart trusting people she should know better than to trust and walking into obvious traps. She's one of those annoyingly perky types and her "Come on guys! Let's do our best for Justice, Truth, and blah blah" is more Big Bird than Clint Eastwood. She's also looking for the dead-beat dad she hasn't seen in 10 years. The anime feel is helped along by the video sequences (complete with corny songs) that sandwich the game when you begin and end it during each period of play. Trust me. It's frickk'n annoying after you've seen them ten times.

Sandcraft battles. During the game you get a sandcraft vehicle. If you run into a monster in this thing, the way the battles plays out is very different than on foot or horseback. That's not good because they battles are so bloody slow that they can last for over five minutes each!

The Ugly:
Healing Items are hard to find. Healing Items are scarce, so it becomes neccesary to ration stretigically. There are some sections of the game that are so hard that having a big cache of heal berries is the only way to stay alive. It adds challenge, but since I didn't enjoy the game it just it that more annoying.

Search system. If you want to find something on the map, you need to get directions first and move slowly across the map sending out some kind of sonar to make the ruin, town, or whatever appear. It's time consuming and also makes the game extremely linear.

Boring Level Design. You'll send more of you're time trekking through the various ruins that litter the landscape. In the ruins, you solve various puzzles ranging from easy to what am I supposed to do here? difficulty. A critic once said level design was key, and Wild Arms 3 makes me see how right he was. All the ruins look exactly the same. I know I'm throwing a switch in the ruin in the North, but I did the exact same thing in the ruin to the South which also had a box puzzle like the ruin in the West. Get my point? It feels like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. I'm not traveling to a Forest of Doom or a Cloud City of Eternal Happiness. It's just ruins and towns, and they all look the same!

Wild Arms 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: September 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

A semi-traditional RPG with a Wild West theme and action elements.

Graphics

The layer of "haze" that occurs between the action on the screen and the screen itself makes you feel like you are really watching an old Wild West film; but don't worry, if a layer of "haze" sounds obnoxious to you, it is only really apparent in close-up views.

Environments are fully 3D and rotateable. Characters are done in a 2D/3D manner; that is to say, they are 2D cel-shaded figures that only appear 3D polygonal, the same visual style they used for characters in Dark Cloud 2. The characters are very anime-ish styled. The atmosphere is that of dusty, desert Wild West world.

An anime "screen-saver" also starts up when you leave the game idle for awhile, and I find myself watching it every time I play the game; it's actually real short, though.

Sound

The music is done in the traditional style of the Wild West, but they manage to through some rock and jazz in there too. A lot of the music is very action-oriented, as you would expect from something Wild West.

There is no voice-acting in this game to complain or complement, except for maybe the vocal song that accompanies the aforementioned anime screen-saver. Although, some voice-acting might've helped, as, when the text proceeds automatically, it sometimes proceeds too quickly.

Gameplay

Battles are very simple and fast-paced: click attack and watch 'em die! Although, there is some strategy involved, too.

Like Chrono Cross, you must charge up to use spells and special skills, in which case, you must hit and be hit to acquire "Force Points" to use said spells and special skills. Each character has their own special skill, and you can equip different spell sets as you like.

One thing that is irksome about the battle system: you can only run away from a battle BEFORE it begins, but not after the battle has begun. And if you have no idea how powerful the local enemies are, you may be dispositioned to either charge in guns blazing, or avoid the battle with your tail between your legs.

Outside of battle, there is a good degree of action, jumping off ledges, avoiding and destroying obstacles and traps, climbing ladders and overhead nets; they let you get some exercise.

Another departure from conventional RPGs is having to "search" for your destination on the world map; press the square button, and you can scan the area around you. This is a double-edged sword; it can force you to study the geography of the land and allow you to get in a few level-building battles, but it can also be annoying when you keep searching the same area for your destination and cannot find it. Just keep searching though, your destination will usually appear right out from under your nose, so to speak.

Overall

Aside from the one point of the battle system, it is a rather well-designed game. You want to play this for the characters and story, the Wild West theme, the music, and the action, if not for the traditional RPG strategy.

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