User Reviews (1 - 11 of 17)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

First XBox 360 Traditional RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me say that I'm a huge role playing game fan. I have been for as long as I can remember. One of my main gripes with Microsoft's XBox was that there was a huge lack of good RPGs. It seems with the release of Oblivion, which was an action RPG, and the release of this game, which is a turn based RPG, they are off to a good start with the 360.

The battles in this game are fun and strategic. Your characters are placed on grid-like terrain, and it's your job to move them around and position them to be able to attack the enemy. The enemy is also on the same grid, opposite of you. The positions of which your characters are placed at the start of each battle are random, so it does require strategy on your part.

Another huge part of this game is golemn collecting. Think of it as a Pokemon-like collection experience. Many of these golemns have unique powers that will be of great help to you on your journey. Golemns that you can collect are different from normal enemies in that they actually show up visibly on your map, as opposed to the random battles you will enter into to fight normal monsters.

The story is the best part of the game. It starts out slow for the first few hours, and then after a certain event that happens to you in the game, it's full steam ahead.

The main character, Atsuma, is your average meatheaded student who doesn't quite pay attention in class. Throughout the game, his learning curve doesn't seem to improve too much. He's always the last character to figure out what is exactly happening around him. His arm is what ties this story together, as it is the source of a mysterious power. Throughout the game, more backstory about his arm will be revealed to you. At first you will be joined by two characters, Toya and Makoto. Toya is more like a mentor to Atsuma and takes him under his wing at the beginning of the game. Makoto is the game's over-the-top stereotypical gay guy. He's madly in love with Toya and claims himself to be the president of Toya's fan club. Makoto is the source of much of the game's great comic relief for the first few hours of gameplay.

Later in the game, you'll be joined by Karin, Raigar, and Yuki. Karin is a headstrong woman who is part of a group called the "resistance movement". Raigar is Karin's personal bodyguard, who reveals himself to be freakishly strong. When you first meet him, he doesn't talk much, but he'll open up as the game progresses. Yuki is a selfish little girl who's main goal in life is to become the most famous golemn hunter that ever lived. She's also the source of alot of the game's funny dialog as the game goes on, because she has something to say about everything.

Speaking of the dialog, it's suprisingly fresh and natural. It never tries too hard to be funny, and in return you'll find yourself laughing aloud many times throughout the game.

I would love to reveal more of the story to you, but since it's the greatest part of the game, you'll have to get it and see it for yourself. Overall, Enchanted Arms is an enjoyable experience that has a good few fun sidequests to enjoy along with it's main storyline, which should keep you busy for many hours. I'd personally suggest this game to anyone who likes turn based-style battles or anyone who enjoys a fulfilling RPG story.

Enchanted Arms

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The A.I. has improved alot, in recent years this game has proven that.
Though i wished they had of gotten rid of the term based fighting system.
real-time fighting is the wave of the future.

Ventura

Strong story, solid RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well I'll start with a little recommendation, if you do not like RPG's do not buy this game. Secondly I will say that this is a very traditional and mildly interesting game with a fresh battle system and some interesting content. Contrary to what other reviewers have said, the dialogue is fresh and often very funny and the storyline itself, though simple, is solid and, often stemming from its simplicity, enjoyable. To those accustomed to the open play style of Oblivion and other open-ended games this will be quite a change as you are guided from level to level and are forced to back-track through relatively boring environments on occasion, in the style of metroid prime. All and all this game is an enjoyable experience that I highly reccomend you partake in.

What a game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed this game. It brought me back to the style of play I first experienced with the Final Fantasy series. Something about the mini battles and the turn based fighting is a welcome change to all the real-time combat every other game in the world incorporates.

A RPG that Wins by Default

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off, I really liked this game for the fact that i'm a big turn-based RPG fan. So warning to the buyer, Enchanted Arms is an RPG in the truest sense of the phrase. I will start by saying that if you aren't a turn-based RPG fan you should probably rent this game first to see if you like it, it's definitely worth a rental!!! This is a genre that the 360 was missing, though there are other RPG's for the 360, none are Turn based. So let's get started!!

Graphics, Great!! I'd say definitely better than Xbox or PS2, but not Amazing, but I would say "Great". The graphics shine the most in my opinion when in a battle, magic spells and skills shine vibrantly and beautifully!! There are also extra extended skills which are loosely similar to the FFVII limit breaks, which look amazing!! Are the graphics Next-Gen? I would say yes!! Do they compare to other graphically amazing 360 games like Fight Night 3 (just one example)? No it doesn't but at times the game does show 360 power.

Sound, Okay, nothing amazing here at all! Voice over are average, they are good but I have seen better. Background music is typical of your average RPG.

Controls, Great. For a turn-based RPG that is. I mean it is turn based so it controls never get complicated, Menu navigation is really easy and standard I was able to figure out how to upgrade skills, equip, and synthesize golems without ever looking at the manual.

Gameplay, okay this is where and why I decided to give this game a 4 instead of a overall 3. The gameplay is pretty fresh, because of the addition of Golem creating and using them in Battle, which I will touch on a little later. But first the battle system, which is a pretty good combo of Turn-base/strategy, cause your team is place on a grid where you can only move your players anywhere within the grid, of course movements are limited to spaces available and how far a specific character can move. So strategy comes in to play by trying to put yourself in range to attack, heal others, and defend. What really impressed me was the use of Golems, which I can only compare very loosely to Pokemon. Golems are used similar to how Pokemon are used, i.e. to help you fight, heal, protect, etc. This feature adds another level of gameplay to this game which raised this game from "mediocre" to "Very good". Simply because you can capture parts of golems you have fought or randomly find parts to create your own Golems to fight for you. Building different golems is pretty easy and quite addicting, thus far. I am only in the first 25% of the game right now and I am already addicted to creating golems from parts I have found, I only imagine this feature getting better with the ability to build stronger and more interesting golems. Without this feature this would have been a really mediocre RPG. So overall the gameplay holds this title together and great gameplay is what we all look for in a game right?

Story, the story so far seems to be average, like I said I am only 25% in to it so I am hoping this will improve as the game goes on but for right now there is nothing amazing here as far as the story goes.

So overall, if you are a turn based RPG fan and you own a 360 then you will definitely want to pick this game up. But this game is definitely not a ground breaker and definitely not a reason to run out and buy a 360 (there are other games that warrant that). But all in all I can't think of a reason to tell any XBOX 360 turn based RPG fans not buy this game, especially since it is the only one of its kind available for the 360. For others though I would only suggest waiting for a demo or a rental to see if you like what this game does.

I personally am a fan of lots of all Genres of games, with the exception of a lot of strict car driving games, so I thoroughly enjoy this game so far. I could definitely understand an argument for this game not being even close to one of the best RPG's ever, but for the first turn based RPG for the 360 I think it fairs pretty well.

Highly recommended if..

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Normally i dont write reviews for games but this game does deserve one so here i go. I would explain the story itself but thats for you to find out besides its in the back of the box and in most game descriptions so let me get to the point.
1. YES!! Just so you all know one of the characters is indeed gay, really really gay (i, personally, dont have any problems with other's sexuality, some people say if you fear them you like 'em but who knows) But seriously, at the beginning i was susprised, as you know, its not something common in games, but his/her dialogue adds for some of the funny moments of the game. Besides if you dont want him/her to fight you can always remove/change him/her.
2. The graphics seems like out of one of the latest xbox games or early 360, which is great. And as Most RPG's there are a lot of FMV's which would let you wanting to know what happens next.
3. As most RPG's the story is long and immersive.
4. The gameplay requires strategy so it goes far from using your best summon/attack constantly unless you are fighting weak enemies, which as in pokemon or FF can be found almost everywhere.
5. The Golems (think of them as pokemons just so you can understand) are incredible. In the really beginning you have acces to a wolf which is really nice. So as many said before me, you have to collect them all, either by "building them" or fighting with them (and then building them) And some of them are not part of the story, some of them you have to look for, so they really add hours of gameplay and replay value.
6. Some people have mentioned really extensve tutorials, well thats because afterwards nobody would tell you where to go or what to do, so you better pay attention. Besides you can always press A and just skip them, its not that hard, so it really isnt something to complain about.
In conclusion, if you like RPG's -Golden Sun, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, just to name some- you would most likely enjoy this game.

It Gets Better as it Goes

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As other reviewers have said, this is basically a complete Final Fantasy rip-off, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and its buggy in that the game tends to crash at odd times, which is a bad thing

Other bad things include the complete linearity of the early levels, where you can't turn left or right at all, you basically just follow a narrow path to each encounter, and also the very very slow save/load menu, which gets slower the more saves you have. I would reccomend just saving in maybe 2 slots because of that, and over writing one or the other whenever you save (which should be often)

Now on to the good: the game gets ALOT better if you stick with it. There's a little indicator that shows how far along you are, and I almost gave up on it in the 15-20% range because of the many problems, but for whatever reason i stuck with it and it got much much better 40% or so

The levels opened up and you could back track and explore sections you might have skipped earlier. You got more choice about what order to do things in too. And finally the story line kicked in, and by the 50% mark i was pretty much just playing it to see what the characters would say and do next in the cut scenes, which is a tribute to the story if not the game play

Another really over looked element is the humor in the voice acting. Its cheesy and silly but I really did laugh out loud in several places. So give it a chance and you might be surprised at how much better the middle is than the beginning

ENJOYABLE

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: September 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me just start off by saying Atsuma is NAAASTY in terms of how strong he can get towards the end of the game. I'm about 80% done with the game and this guy is flat out amazing. I was skeptical about buying this game at first b/c of all the bad reviews but i took a chance and bought it. Boy am i happy that I did b/c this game should NOT be overlooked. I found it pretty funny that the beginning of the game has a lot of Naruto similarities. Atsuma vs. Toya, Naruto vs. Saske, all the girls r in love with Toya and Atsuma gets angry over it haha. There are other comparisons but i won't get too much into it.

Some of the stuff that I don't like about the game is that it's too linear meaning everything is pretty much straight forward. There isn't much exploring to do and the traditional world map is non-existant. A lot of the players will like the fact that there isn't much exploring to do b/c a lot of players hate seeing 5 different doors that they have to go thru in order not to miss out on anything important. Furthermore, the game's dialogue is a bit tedious; I didn't like millions and millions of small reactions such as "ahhh", "nooo" over and over in one converation, it beocmes a drag after awhile. DO NOT PLAY this game in English dialogue!!! just a warning b/c Makoto will make u NOT want to play this game early on haha. This guy just sounds ridiculously gaaay. OMG...he got on my nerves haha. He sounds much better in Japanese and rest of the characters do too. I didn't really like the music either. I love when I enter a battle and music kicks in; that's hardly the case for E.A. Music was dull and a little boring i must admit. Think of FF7 and how pumped up you would get entering a battle...AHH...haha, I wish there was a way of substituting music, at least the battle music from games to games.

I was really hooked on the battle system. Creating new golems, weapons and what not was really awesome and still is haha. Strategizing on the grid and doing the combos is fresh and "fawk yeah" worthy. Once you see all 4 of your characters connect on the combo can be truely viscious. I'm curious what's the highest damage others have gotten on their combos, I WANNA COMPARE!! haha.

Well I hope my review was somewhat helpful, if you have any other questions...feel free to email me at Ned006@aol.com and I'll be more than happy to answer.

I like turn based RPGs, but this one has a few minor flaws ...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I like turn based RPGs, so I will admit straight away that this review may be a little biased. Enchanted Arms has quickly become one of my favorite games, but it has a few minor flaws to it which prevent me from giving the game a 5 out of 5 rating. Specifically, the flaws ...

1: there does not seem to be a hit/miss system - all attacks always hit for a predetermined set damage - though there are effects when overkilling your foe.
2: location of a battle has no impact upon damage types - for example, fighting in a volcano has no effect on fire or water/ice attacks; fighting in an ice field has no effect on fire or water/ice attacks.
3: enemies are not level adjusted - you can go wasting a lot of time fighting very weak enemies when traveling back to previous game locations, especially when searching out for secret items.
4: your own allies do not provide cover for direct attacks into a melee through their squares - in this game, enemy cover counts as soft cover for half damage for the target with cover.
5: the battle field grid is always the same size: 4 wide by 6 long - this limits variability in the battles, makes the game more repetitive.
6: the RPG aspects have limited variability, where you can only select one of two options when choosing conversation options.
7: the audio dialog sometimes drops out during conversations, leaving you with only the text and the character's avatars moving lips.
8: the puzzle aspects to the game are limited to merely the A button and sometimes the left thumbstick - not especially challenging.
9: one of the characters is so over the top flamboyant - of course, he dies during a cut scene about 2 hours into the game.

If you are into turn based RPGs and can get over these minor flaws, this is the game for you.

Not the best but it serves the purpose

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: October 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Overall it was not a great game. I am glad I played it, the combat system which I at first did not like grew on me. I found it very linear which is not a problem for me. I avoided most of the side quests so I could just finish the game. So it filled a void where I did not have a RPG to play, so it gets 3 stars from me.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions