Wild ARMs-4-?

The Core Video Games Forum
1

I have just bought Wild ARMs 4. I bought the game at EB for 25$. I rarely played the series except for the first game and third game, but I only played the games for like 45min. Well the game appealed to me so great in the store(The cover and the written work on the back) but when I got home to play it, it wasn’t so great that it was in the store at the time. But after a day it seemed better. So what are your thoughts on the game? I recall a little while ago when I was reading a thread that some one said the game sucked. But I could not remember if it was Wild ARMs 4 or .Hack G.U? (I think thats what the new game is called) but I bought the game anyways. The graphics are good, The mouths finally move lol, the battle system is different. It not turn base really, but you get to run around through seven Hexes. Thats what their called.

So I would like your input on the game good,bad,insult it, or praise it. Dosen’t matter. ^^(~~)

2

That was my thread you read, and it was being generous for it. Really. I regretted that game like no other game before. Mostly because, I never regretted playing a game, before that one. If you pay anything over $10 for it, you got gypped. here’s my summary of WA4:

“I think the writers for this game were hung over the day they were supposed to present a script, so they just went online, grabbed some random 13-year-old girl’s fic about how war is bad even though she never experienced it, and used that for the game.”

3

I’ve seen a great difference of opinion on the game. Val doesn’t like it, but I also go to a forum that is full of people who love the game.

4

It’s a good game but it’s too short gor my liking

5

Played it, own it, enjoyed it, though the 3rd was better, I think 4th definately could have been improved on at least by lengthening the game, among other things.

The battle system was to my liking, I will admit.

6

Be happy then that they found that fic. Imagine what it might have been shudders :thinking:

7

Can you send a link to that forum, so I can check it out?

8

I didn’t care for it much. But I had a real uh… medical issue with the game. Whenever you talk to an NPC the background blues out and your oversized portraits pop up on the screen, there something about the blurring which makes me queasy if I talk to too many NPCs in a row. Same problem I had with Eternal Eyes, not that being unable to play that game was any real loss.

9

Although I don’t know exactly what WA4’s story is, a 13 year old’s fic is going to be much worse than any hack writing by professionals. Just look at some of the Final Fantasy series.

10

Wild Arms 4 is one of my favorite games on PS2. The storyline got on my nerves, sure, but the unique battle system and the simple yet effective ways of learning skills were real bright spots.

11

I’m going to come out and make a public admission:

VE, remember I told you the other day I was desperate to play a new RPG? And that I only had like, 20$ bucks to spend?

Yep. I bought a used copy of WA4.

And even more, I’ve been enjoying it so far!:eek:

Yes, the game has plenty of flaws. But it also has several things I enjoy. It’s far from the best game I’ve played, but it’s also not the worst.

I haven’t finished the game yet, but anyway, here’s a quick sum-up of my opinions so far:

Story: OK, whoever wrote this definitely used the chance to criticize a lot of things: War, Human Experimentation, and even Democracy (!!) but I happen to agree with most of its points… what I find annoying is how nearly EVERYBODY in the game gives speeches. Even kids and idiots. It’s a case of putting too many words on everyone’s dialogue. Specially scientific words; several characters threw around hard science terms like they were casual words, and NOT just the scientists! Also, I don’t think the game really has an anti-adult bias… it’s more like, the game also states that being adult doesn’t make you mature- something I agree with. Of course, I have yet to see the ending, and I fear I won’t like it, but so far, I’ve liked the characters, events, and pacing. This is darker than the average WA, and I miss the more colorful and fun ideas of the previous series, but I can’t really condemn the game.

Gameplay: I find the idea of everything in combat being hex-based annoying, but I have to admit I’m enjoying the battles themselves. I’m getting killed a lot, but that may be due to the fact that if you invest a lot of points in abilities, your characters’ HP go down. That sucks, but I can deal with it.

As for non-combat, I enjoy the new version of “Accelerator”- now time effectively slows down while you run, which makes it easier to beat some of the puzzles. My main complaint is that only ONE character gets to jump around/use tools. etc, unlike all the previous WAs. I miss getting to choose which team member to use onscreen most of the time, they need to bring that back. But no big deal. But I do hate, and I mean HATE, the control during jumps- I keep missing my target and getting killed, over and over again. That NEVER happened to me on any of the previous WAs. They made the control waaay too sensitive, it seems.

Graphics: Pretty good 3d graphics, other than the fact that you can’t access some areas that look like you can reach them. The characters’ dialogue is presented in full-body Anime-style graphics… that have VERY limited animation. This is better than the “talking heads” you get in other games, but not as good as FMVs.

Sounds: Normally I don’t care much about voices or music, but this game not only features voiceovers for nearly every character, but for the monsters as well! Further, you can choose to change the frequency of when the phrases are spoken, and change the volume of music, voices and sound FX (separatedly) all the way to 0. Best sound scheme of any game I’ve ever played.

Conclusion: A dark game -not as dark, as say, Digital Devil Saga, but not your average Fantasy RPG either. And I HATE the jumping control, have I mentioned that?? However, the story intrigues me enough to keep me playing (of course, I’m a writer by nature, so I might be seeing it from a different POV than most of you would.)

I’ll give you my full review once I finish the game (I’m currently about halfway.)