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Wild Arms 4......

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having come across Wild Arms during the third installment, I was hooked on the Wild West Themed RPG almost instantly. There was something about the game that appealed to the 'cowboy' in me. Out of all the RPGs I've played on the Playstation 2, I consider Wild Arms 3 to be one of the finest RPGs I've ever played on the system. You can imagine my surprise when I began playing Wild Arms 4 and find out it's nothing like the previous installment. Sure, it acknowledges it's six-shooter history but this installment seriously downplays the Wild West theme in favor of a more postapocalytic setting. Not that Wild Arms 4 is a bad game, by any means. In fact, it's a pretty dadgummed good one. It's just if you're coming into it expecting it to be like the first three installments, well- you'll be just as surprised as I was and sadly mistaken. Wild Arms 4 tells the story of Jude Maverick and a group of his friends trying to stop a coalition of congressional knights and save everyone in the process.

I will have to give Media Vision a nod for trying to create a little something new with the series this time around, especially with the new HEX battle system and it's challenging platforming segments(yes, you read that right...platforming segments). The game is a beauty with it's anime style characters, lush environments and whatnot....graphically, the best game in the series thus far. When you're trying to compete with the heavyweights out there, you have to shake things up a little bit to get people to notice. In that respect, Media Vision did quite nicely. The only thing I found wrong with the game is that it's rather short. Depending on if you're a hardcore RPG gamer or not; you can finish Wild Arms 4 in, literally, a day or less. I will point out that I've read many reviews online that state the game clocks in around 40 hours to complete. Either way, it's not too bad.

In closing, I did enjoy Wild Arms 4 despite all the changes made and recommend it to fans of the series, casual or hardcore RPG gamers. However, I hope they return the series to its' roots when and if there is another installment. If you can't wait that long and need another 'Wild West' RPG fix, let me suggest Western Lords...coming to the Nintendo DS real soon.

Not enough stars for this one

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: March 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay, so Alter Code F stunk, right? So this should be no different, right? Wrong to the max! This game is off da chains 30+ hours of entertainment extreme! This was the best game I've played since Dragon Quest VIII, and my favorite Wild Arms ever. I just couldn't stop playing. Fun but simple platforming, innovative battle system, unique characters, and nostalgic enemies galore (gob gob). To the non-WA fan, maybe not so, but to the WA fan, maybe so!

Deserves a high rating

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was completely impressed with this game. As an RPG series, Wild Arms has evolved very well. And 4th Detonator is absolutely an improvement on past installments.

But although Wild Arms 4 offers a great RPG experience, the best part of the game is the story line. You simply can't get this kind of writing from contemporary Hollywood movies.

Anyone who is looking for an alternative to mainstream media should check it out.

Well, it's not bad.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm enjoying this, but I have reservations. I'll dispense with the plot quickly, as it's the standard fodder: A boy with a confused past encounters a sweet and fragile girl with immense powers, whom crazed warring factions plan to exploit for great evil. He decides to protect her and they team up with more characters along the way (including one who knows magic, and one who has great physical fighting skills) and uncovering a plot to destroy the planet and end life as we know it - good grief, are we ever going to get anything new? Still it's serviceable enough so let's just concentrate on the other areas that make an RPG work or fail. So first of all, the battle system.

Well I was quite pleased with this. The new HEX system gives the player plenty of choices to make and you need to approach fighting in this game rather differently to most regular RPG's. For this reason I would warn you that you may well be fairly bewildered at the start and although there is in-game tuition, it really does pay to read the manual properly first - and probably twice. I'm a gamer who hates manuals but I didn't know what to do without it for once, as so much of then game is NOT self explanatory. Just so you know.

Anyway, the HEX system uses turn based play for battles, but you have to take into account the placement of characters on a small field area that is divided into 7 adjoining hexagonal blocks. At the start of each fight, you'll be presented with your team of four scattered randomly into one or more of the 7 spaces, and the enemy or enemies will be similarly placed (Any game screenshot that shows one of the battles will give you the idea). Now, everything that happens is influenced as much by position in relation to comrades and enemies, as it is to strength and ability, and you'll find that moving to the right space is as important as what you decide to do (moving one space takes up a turn in the same was as an attack or item action). Physical attacks can only be performed to an adjacent space, so you have to move to a space beside a monster to attack physically. Of course this means they can do the same to you. Sharing a block with your comrades means you share it's effects, so you could all take damage from an attack, or you could all benefit from one heal item. Furthermore, some blocks can be booby-trapped, or give the person in them extra elemental attack power, or poison them, while other skills can trap you (or the enemy) in one place permanently to become a sitting duck, or conversely you might find a skill permitting a jump to any chosen block for free. The options are attractively complex and I really liked this aspect of the game. I'm not exaggerating when I say it potentially makes every fight unique, as the opening random placements have endless combinations, and without taking some care, even a fight against weak enemies can go very badly wrong. I certainly had a lot of fun experimenting.

Another aspect that the Wild Arms series is good at is making the dungeon puzzles very physical, by which I mean you actually have to execute certain manouvers to get through them, such as skillful platform jumping and timed dashes to hit all switches or reach a gate before a bridge crumbles away. There are also various "tools" about like bombs, sharp instruments and crates that mean you have to work your brain and find out what would allow you to flip that out of reach switch or make it across a wide gap. At these times it's more like Tomb Raider than an RPG game, but I like the fact that Wild Arms games allow you to flex different playing styles rather than just the one.

Ok, now for the bad news. The game plays well but the presentation of it is quite poor. By which I mean the graphics. It's ok when your character is roaming around a dungeon or village, as these are well made with some very nice scenery and buildings - but first of all, you are stuck with a totally fixed camera, which seriously devalues the lovely 3 dimensional locations - you can never look around at will so they may as well have been pre rendered. At least the platforming and puzzle solving aspects have a good character model to play with, which jumps and dashes about in a nicely controllable fashion.

But the conversations and cut scenes...! These are just awful. Any time you approach a NPC, the action switches to a static screen fronted by a non-animated manga drawing of that person, along with a text-only conversation to click through. This also happens when you enter any town building - as none of them have explorable interiors -or have a group discussion, or some important revalation happens - it's like reading a comic book as you look at all these drawings of facial expressions and scroll through the text. Some important exposition is even told in a narrator style with words like "And then such and such a thing happened" being displayed over a blank screen.

On a very few occasions the in-game models of the cast are seen in action, but these 3-D versions are really blocky and primitive compared to what other PS2 games are managing to do these days, and they seriously compromise the supposed emotions or dramatic mood that the scripts is calling for whenever they are on screen...maybe that's why all the emotional conversations are left to the drawings. Which would be fine for a PS1 game, but in 2006, there is really no excuse for 3D character models to look this dull, and you might want to take this into account before buying the game.

My second gripe is that this game is relatively short, in that it's certainly less epic than Wild Arms 3, with a smaller world of locations to explore, easier dungeon puzzles and a shorter overall quest in general. Wild Arms 3 had a large, "playable" world map that you had to traverse and explore, however Wild Arms 4 has cut cut this out entirely, leaving just a static illustration, which you stick a pin into at your chosen destination and the game will take you there. It also has far less side quests and areas, but it does have a few of the more common RPG extras, such as very rare enemies that are very seldom found but worth high rewards to beat, a battle arena where you pay money to fight for prizes, a workshop for synthesizing rare items and weapons, and some optional secret bosses which are harder to fight than the in-game final boss.

Thes extra bosses are tough, and unfortunately this is one RPG where grinding away at random battles purely to level up is very gruelling, as the experience needed to reach the higher levels takes a LOT of perseverance. Once you reach the mid-way mark, it seems like only boss fights are giving you any experience worth having, and even the game's final and strongest regular random encounters will have to be hammered away at many dozens of times just to go up one level. But take heart, because managing your character levels is handled rather differently in this game anyway, and you may be shocked to learn that your final HP level may not be drastically more than it was when you started, due to a very fluid system that works by the earning and deploying of points. As you level up, more of these points are amassed, and you choose the balance between assigning them to either your HP level, your MP level or to nifty skills. Don't worry too much about making bad choices though, as these points can be moved about at any time as required. Which means that you'll be thinking about strategies and which attributes need boosting in relation to whichever boss fight or tricky area is coming up, rather than just buffing everything. It's a good idea, and one that provides a nice bit of diversion that just plain old stat-boosting.

So, with the dungeons and battle system being this much fun, I can overlook the primitive character graphics that seriously hampered my emotional involvement with the story. Plus the save system works quite well - saves are spaced far apart, but all the fights (both bosses and random encounters) allow you to re-start the failed battle from the beginning again if all your team should fall, thus avoiding the dreaded Game Over screen if you fall foul of some unexpected disaster after you have made loads of progress since your last save, as a restarted random battle may have a different arrangement of hexes from the one that killed you. It also helps with the optional bosses, as you can test out different strategies without worrying too much about failure, as you don't have to reload and repeat some long trek from your last save to try again. You will have to reload the save if you need to re-arrange your point distribution though, but if thats the case, you're probably attempting something too early!

In balance, then, Wild Arms 4 has more good points than bad. I've enjoyed it a lot, even though I was initially bewildered by some of it's more quirky aspects. But once I understood all of the features, I was pretty much in it for the full duration, so even though it's not an "A" list RPG, it's still worth playing.

Wild Arms 4 Is Different but Still a Wild Ride

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: January 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The Wild Arms series has always been farily well liked. This time, however, Wild Arms is going into a more futuristic theme. This isn't to say Wild Arms is doing away with the Wild West, it's just getting a nice change of direction. And you'll instantly see it in it's well developed battle system and world itself.

Wild Arms 4 begins with a boy named Jude skipping class and heading off into the forest on his own. It happens to be floating over the rest of the world however. Jude later activates an ARM (a gun, basically) and accidently fires it off and blows a hole in a machine that keeps the world stable. This single-handely brings about a wild adventure for Jude as he enters the world of Filgaia. A wasteland that was ruined by a war. Jude travels with Yulie, a traumatized girl with unique abilities; Armaud, a lonely drifter, and Raquel, a treasure hunter. Together they flee from the soldiers of Filgaia, who have used Yulie as a puppet in a sinister plot.

It's easily said that Wild Arms 4 truly is the most different in all the entire series. While the others relied heavily on fantasy and wild west themes, this one relies more on futuristic themes and scientific technology. This makes up a fairly engaging storyline in the end, with some farily well developed characters.

The most remarkable thing about the game, however, is the battle system. Instead of the same old turn based strategy seen in previous game, it introduces a hex-battle system. At the start of each battle there are seven hexagons on screen and your characters and enemies are randomly scattered through all of them. A single hex can hold up to all four of your party members. For the enemies it depends on their size. You can only attack an enemy that has a hex right next to yours. This adds a lot more strategy and gets away from the boring turn based combat that was in earlier games of the series.

The battle system has a few more kinks to it. You can manipulate hexes in your favor as well. For example, some hexes have elemental properties that can cut the elemental damage received in half. Others you could cast a nasty status effect on and then lock an enemy in it.

And I'm proud to say the one part of the battle system that shouldn't have changed didn't. That's the FP part of the system. FP stands for force points and you'll continually get them as you damage, take damage, evade and score critical hits on enemies. FP is also how you pull off special skills. FP only goes to 100. But the good news is, if your FP reaches 100, you'll be cured of all status effects placed on you.

The battle system does have a drawback, and that's the experience part. Since you get experience bonuses, it's really easy for some characters to level up at an unbalanced rate. It's possible to have characters lag a lot to the point where you'll have to have them kill everything. This doesn't work, considering some battles are tough. Enemies do an alarming amount of damage to you, and they can take advantage of the hex system as well. It may not be worth while to have to defend a weak character like Yulie in combat.

Moving around dungeons hasn't changed much in Wild Arms. That doesn't mean there aren't noticable differences. They're still full of puzzles, but the group shares a set of tools rather than them all having indiviual ones. Also, the game seems to have a bigger focus on the battle system. Some puzzles are cake, some are not. And the ones that aren't are more than just robbing you of fun, they're frustrating, and are rather slow.

They do have save points, which is good. Save points having a glowing gem on them, however. And some of them are dimmed. The dimmed ones you'll have to break, usually summoning monsters (tough monsters) that you'll have to destroy before using it.

Graphic wise, Wild Arms 4 looks far better than Alter Code F did. The characters are detailed, which really helps the look and feel of Filgaia. You'll run across many terrains, and they're all beautiful. The soundtrack will still remind many of earlier games in the series, but it's a good soundtrack. The voice acting is questionable at best. Sometimes it's good, and other times it just isn't. You'll get tired of them quickly in battle, but outside of battle, it's hard to tell if the voice actors are really putting effort into it. It really is nice to see Wild Arms with voices, but you'll also question them a lot.

The battle system is the biggest reason to get this game. It's got some loveable characters, and beautiful graphics, but it's just all out a fun game to play. It may stray from what was coined in earlier installments of the series, but any fan should find the additions and changes to be welcome.

The Good
+Much better battle system
+Great Skills system as well
+Incredible graphics
+Good music
+Engaging story
+Nice loveable characters
+There are still a menacingly large amount of secrets in Wild Arms!

The Bad
-The battle system-while excellent-causes character's levels to be drastically different at times
-Most puzzles are frustrating
-The story doesn't keep a steady pace

Overall a good showing

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Wild Arms 4 does a couple of things that I like, and some things I don't. My review will consist of a review of the game itself and then a pros and cons list.

Wild Arms 4 is an RPG with four playable characters set in the world of Wild Arms, Filgaia. The heroes must face a rising, despotic form of government whose vision of Filgaia's future is very tyrannical. This 3D environment allows the main character, Jude, to jump, stomp, and slide, changing the traditional Wild Arms field movement system.

Pros
-The new Hex battle system adds a level of strategy to the fighting, making you rethink how you heal and plan an attack.
-Each character has a different strength, and this too, adds a strategical challenge.
-I like the music and voiceovers. Wild Arms always has some great Wild West type music.

Cons
-Unlike previous Wild Arms, there aren't a set of tools for each playable character. The main character does all the problem solving.
-Some of the bad guys are kind of hard to take seriously. What makes up for this is how intriguing some of the other villains are.
-I wish it was a little less linear in the beginning.

Overall, I think if you like RPGs and would be interested in one with some Wild West/post-apocalyptic overtones, you will enjoy this game.

Neither hit nor miss...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: January 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Wild Arms fans have had it pretty good over the last few months with the debut of Alter Code:F a few months ago and now with Wild Arms 4. Needless to say my PS2 has not seen this much action since I bought it and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time back in 2004.

As a RPG series, Wild Arms is, and will always be in the shadow of almost everything Square-Enix throws down the pike (a fact so painfully obvious that it has to be accepted by the masses), so if you want to give Wild Arms 4 or any of the previous games a try, you can't, for example, use the Final Fantasy series as a golden standard as far as all RPGs go and use it as a basis for comparison. If you do, don't bother, as you'll ultimately be disappointed. That said, Wild Arms 4 is a solid game, but doesn't even begin to reach the level attained by the earlier games in the series.

For the most part, the changes Media.Vision has made to the basic Wild Arms formula do work, and help layer and mask what was probably one of the most simplistic RPG battle systems in existence. While the hex battle system adds a little strategy to the fights, combat is still simple enough and makes it easy enough to pick up and play. Still, there are a few hitches to be aware of, such as when one of your characters gets KO'ed even before you get a turn due to the random character/enemy grid placement, or having to compensate for uneven character leveling.

Gameplay wise, Wild Arms 4 trades some of the puzzle solving elements the series is known for some side-scrolling elements that unmistakably reminds me of Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot series (which isn't a bad thing at all). Overall this works pretty well, especially considering the excellent brain-teaser like puzzles from original WA have dwindled over the years and sequels into obvious, watered-down solutions (excluding a few certain exceptions, mind you). The fact your characters no longer have a pre-specified set of tools to carry out through the game to solve puzzles, while realistic, is somewhat disappointing (although sometimes trying to get said tool to point A to point B can be a puzzle in itself).

Graphically, one could say that Wild Arms 4 is a step above Wild Arms Alter Code:F. This is pretty much due to the fact Wild Arms 4 was probably build from the ground up by Media.Vision, where as Alter Code:F was basically the original Wild Arms slapped into a Wild Arms 3 shell. Like Wild Arms 3, Wild Arms 4 opts for a darker, duller color palette that emphasizes the war weary world of Filgaia, but many will find it clashes with bright colors used throughout Alter Code:F.

While the above elements of Wild Arms 4 work well enough, there are a few elements that do leave something to be desired. The story, while quite effectively depicting a post war struggle for power, never really creates a since of urgency until the very end. On top of this, the villains, while interesting at the very least, just can't compare to the Quarter Knights/Metal Demons from Wild Arms/Wild Arms Alter Code:F or Odessa from Wild Arms 2.

The most disappointing aspect about Wild Arms 4 would have to be the audio. The series staple composer Michiko Naruke only composed more or less one-third of the soundtrack due to illness, meaning her trademark western favored style from the previous games isn't prominent throughout (you can honestly tell which tracks are Naruke's), though thankfully her involvement is preserved. On top of this, while the game sports a very, very good translation (thank you xseed, eat your heart out Agetech!), the voice acting shows why the Wild Arms series was better without it.

So, if you like Wild Arms, despite the massive magazine review campaign/conspiracy to bash it to end, you will probably enjoy this chapter as well despite the changes.

More Tamed than Wild, but funny enough

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A big fan of "Wild Arms 3" - a great western-meets-tech-and-magic RPG in anime-style - I could not wait until some publisher decided for an European localization of "Wild Arms 4th Detonator"(WA4) and had to get the NTSC-version first hand. Maybe I should've waited and checked more reviews before letting anticipation get the better of me...

It is not only the sky above his peaceful town that shatters for young Jude Maverick when he observes soldiers marching off the invading metal birds' bellies right into his hometown: stranded beyond the world he knew all his life, he and some companions gathered along the way have to take up arms against strange beasts and left-over fanatics from a great war that left the planet Filgaia a desolate place; fanatics who, in their war-twisted minds, intend to shape a new and even more cruel world, giving the motto "survival of the fittest" another dimension...
WA4 tries to modernize lots of aspects of the series but fails to preserve it's charms. For the story and it's characters: the player's party is likeable enough, though fans of the previous instalments may miss some depth in each member's background. The main topic between them seems to be "what (decision/behaviour/etc.) makes you become adult..." - for me, that would be experience and age, so it's not that much of a philosophic point to discuss through hours and hours of play-time, is it?
The opposing group, a crew of gene-manipulated war-veterans, fails to present any stringent philosophy either (apart from slight variations of that "survival-yagayaga"), so, to add a bit of drama, all that's left is a thin brother-sister-theme between the ranks of the two teams. Big yawn.
The consequence is obvious: there's no surprising twists in the plot worth mentioning.

The gameplay is what saved WA4 all the stars it scored with me. The Hex-Grid fights are fast and call for some tactics and ahead thinking - especially with the bosses. Gather the whole party on one Hex and you can, e.g., heal all by using up only one item/action, but a powerful opponent could take that chance and wipe out your party in one go - effects are aimed at Hexes rather than at characters. The battle comments, especially those of some opponents, are funny and varied.
The slight twist towards jump n' run-like basic movements makes dungeon exploration more fast-paced and calls for dexterity far more than for thinking. I prefer the puzzle-like quality of WA3's dungeons, yet there's some challenge in the new ones as well (especially with the "multiplying" money-hunt in accelerator-mode).

WA4 is fun to play and, having said that, it may seem a bit of a harsh judgement only scoring it three stars. So, why? Role-players with some experience (clever use of Lucky Cards, etc.) will be able to face the final boss after about 30 to 40 hours, plus some additional time for the arena, treasure hunt and hidden bosses, say about 10 - 20 hours; that's 60 hours at best. WA3 was fun worth at least 100 hours, the right duration for a full-fledged RPG to be. There's some kind of play-again feature in WA4, but the story didn't thrill me the first time around, so...
WA4 is a good start into the RPG-genre, however. The funny and fast-paced fight/jump n'run -mixture and the straight story/gameplay-basis make it a warm welcome to role-playing; if you have not played something from the Final Fantasy or Wild Arms series before, the lack of twists in the story won't weigh that much.
RPG-Veterans should consider taking on a more demanding "quest".

So many flaws (characters/plot) and yet I love it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When I buy a game, I buy it for the characters and plot. Unfortunatly, Wild Arms 4 had so many stereotypes, that I only liked one of the main heroes from beginnig to end.
Jude-Your typical anime boy. There's nothing special about him.
Yulie-The most annoying character in the game. She was tortured as a kid, but is still the winning candidate for the Ms. Nicey-Nice award. Apoligizes way too much and never does anything semi-mean(minus the scene that introduces Gawn.)
Arnaud-The only character that held my interest the entire game. Along with most of the villians, he makes up for the blandness of all the other heroes.
Raquel-Starts out all OMG FRIENDSHIP IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!!!!1!!1, but gets better as the game progresses.
PLOT
The plot starts decent, but then it melts and turns into a pile of mediocrity, although you might enjoy it if you like predictable storylines.
MUSIC
The western themes may get on your nerves. The opening theme on the PRESS START screen started with good piano music, which I loved. Then, the western thing started and I was all, "oh great, I spent 20 bucks on a cowboy game!?" VERY misleading.
GAMEPLAY
Wild Arms 4 is short (I finished it in 25 hours.) However, the degree of difficulty is alarmingly low (the last boss wasn't even that much of a challenge!)Other than that, the gameplay is fine.
PHILOSIPHY
It starts with "what makes an adult," which is fine, but then, transtions to "the future." This is annoying.
ENDING
I played the game for 25 hoours and my reward was? A cheesy ending...(I literally cried it was so horrible. Not to mention *spoilers* ALMOST EVERYONE DIED!!! Even one of the heroes! *end spoilers*)
OVERALL
Wilds Arms 4 is okay, but not the next Final Fantasy/Okami/whatever.
In the words of Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb, Wild Arms 4 gets a 3 out of 5.

Not a good game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been with the "Wild Arms" series from the ground floor. The first game was very nice for its time, with numerous extras, an interesting story, and an excellent, quick-paced battle system. The second game was incredible, with a search option built in, an number of extras, and a great story which was unfortunately marred by a translation which ceased to make sense on the 2nd disc (in fact, it literally makes NO SENSE at times). The first PS2 offering, WA3, was a very nice game. Although the graphics weren't great, I liked the idea of cel-shading, and the game itself was very fun, and long. The remake of WA, "Alter Code:F", was a disaster, of course, but nevermind about that.

Now, this brings us to WA4. I bought this game immediately upon release, but for whatever reason, I never played it. Now I know why - this game is bad-to-mediocre, at best.

Let's begin with the story, the cornerstone of any RPG. Boring. Unnecessary. Insipid. These are words that come to mind. I don't mind that a game doesn't continue in the exact same fashion as its predecessors (in fact, with the sole exception of the "Suikoden" series, this is generally a sign of a decaying franshise), but there is absolutely nothing interesting in this latest story set on "Filgaia". The game itself clocks in at about 40 hours (less if you can make good use of "Lucky Cards" and the like), and most of it is a dungeon-crawl. There are about 4 towns, TOTAL, in the game, and you get absolutely nothing from speaking with townspeople. NOTHING. They don't add to the story - in fact, their ramblings often make zero sense in the game itself. I won't spoil the story, but it essentially steals from WA2 (in a bad way), and has absolutely nothing that will make you want to play on, other than the desire to get through this stinker.

Graphics. Not as important in an RPG, and actually, I kind of like the graphics here. The outlines of the cel-shaded characters have disappeared, but this shouldn't come as a surprise - it's been years since the last WA game was released. There is little to distinguish the graphics of this game from its predecessor other than that cited above, however, and the game lacks the ability to move the camera, which is an annoyance when trying to spot treasure chests (and by the way, there are only 178 chests in this game, far less than the last offering. This isn't surprising since there are fewer dungeons and towns in this game than in the last one).

Gameplay. It's a disaster. Dungeons are long and boring, and make up the majority of the game. The puzzles are easy, but annoying, requiring long, out-of-the-way trips to obtain tools to light torches, or the like. There is one light here - I love the option of turning off encounters when you fulfill certain conditions. It doesn't really make the game more fun, but it's an innovation I would like to see in more RPG's down the line.

Battle: The HEX system is a great idea that isn't utilized in any way, shape or form. Boss battles tend to be ridiculously easy (cast "Slow Down" and "Lock", and you won't lose), and regular battles are either easy or cheap (basically, if the computer gets to take 4 turns before your characters, you're gonna feel pain. Otherwise, you're in the clear). The strategy aspect is there, but it is rarely necessary. One of the final battles is a nightmare, however, but that's OK - there's nothing that would prepare you for it anyway.

Extras: Totally drops the ball in this regard. The arena has turned into a lot of tedious, single battles, all of which cost money, and none of which give you any feeling of accomplishment. The Sheriff's Star (the best badge in the game) is an exercise in tedium - it take millenia to obtain the necessary ingredients, and the rewards are meager (OK, you are now the strongest character in existence. The regular game bosses are still a joke, and Angolmois is still a nightmare). There are a few sealed monsters (as in all the series), but now it is an incredible pain to open their seals (often requiring a ridiculous amount of backtracking, because you lost the tool necessary to open the seal). I find it to me more ordeal than fun challenge.

There are also a few bugs in the game. It is impossible to find every monster in the game - some of them were removed from gameplay, yet were NOT removed from the monster list. That's unacceptable.

I fear WA4 may be the last in the series. If so, that's too bad - a great series has been marred by two terrible outings. I give the game two stars overall, because in the hands of better developers, there are some excellent innovations here that could really make for some interesting gameplay.

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