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Had the Potential to be so Much Better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: March 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
+A Good Storyline
+Nice cast of characters
+Good soundtrack
+Fairly good voice acting
+Beautiful artwork
+Lots of customization thanks to the job system

Cons:
-Limitations of items adds more frustration than challenge
-In battle voices are annoying
-In battle graphics aren't great
-Sometimes sound effects are off and slight hitches in framerate
-There really isn't as much freedom as there appears to be; in many missions you must do it the way the game suggests or you'll end up having to restart the mission

The Hex Battle System of Wild Arms 4 and 5 was a sign that Wild Arms would be a good candidate for a tactical RPG. So we get Wild Arms XF. Unfortunately, the jump to Tactical RPG just isn't fantastic. Especially because it has to follow such well done Tactical RPGs such as Jeanne D'Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness. Wild Arms has some things going for it, but it suffers heavily in the gameplay department.

Wild Arms XF begins in the middle of the action. You're introduced to Clarissa and her brother Felius. They're both confronting a man named Rupert, who has stolen their mother's sword and plans to use it for some evil doings. Rupert gets away and so Clarissa and Felius follow Rupert to the continent of Elesius where a case of mistaken identity gets Clarissa involved in a political struggle over power and rule. The story as you can imagine is filled with a lot of political happenings and jargon. Yet for what it's worth the story actually isn't bad. The problem, however, is whether or not you'll be able to get the story to progress.

The game makes good use of the series Hex Battle system in a tactical way. Like every other Tactical RPG out there, you'll move and execute attacks. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, there's a job system active in Wild Arms XF. However, these aren't the same old "Knight" and "Monk" type of jobs. They're jobs like "Elementists" who cast elemental magic spells and Fantastica that use support spells. You'll start the game with four basic classes. In addition to that, each of the story mode characters has a class completely unique to them. You're able to learn abilities from each of the jobs and use them with other jobs upon doing so. If you're familiar with the job system of Final Fantasy Tactics, then you're already more than prepared to tackle Wild Arms XF. At least you would be were it not for the games shortcomings in the gameplay department.

Wild Arms has generally been a series that tries to separate itself from the crowd. Needless to say XF tries to do so as well, however this is in the worst way. Your characters have a stock of HP and MP, but they also have what is called VP. VP stands for Vitality Points, and it drops with each turn. When your VP runs out, your HP starts dropping each turn. This little tactic was thrown in as a way to make you get through battles faster (or for the sake of being more realistic, I don't know). However, it becomes more annoying than anything else.

What's even worse about the gameplay is the layout of the stages and the missions themselves. All the missions have certain objectives. Most of the time it is to defeat all the enemies, but on occasion you'll get special missions such as to free villagers from jail or to escort villagers across a map. These missions however, aren't as fun and can sometimes be a test in frustration.

Another major issue with Wild Arms is simply that there isn't as much freedom as the player thinks there is. Before each missions begins, you'll get an overview of the mission itself and hear suggestions on what you need to do. In most RPGs where suggestions are thrown at you by the characters you can usually get by fine without using them. Wild Arms XF, however, almost demands that you do. In many cases, if you don't, the mission doesn't just raise up a little in difficulty, it actually goes sky high. Some missions can't even be completed without taking their suggestions. It's alright to give suggestions, but it seems downright wrong to punish the player for not taking them. Luckily, you can always restart a mission. And you'll probably have to. The game doesn't just encourage you to use certain classes in a mission, it actually demands that you do. Using certain classes feels more forced, especially early in the game.

An even bigger problem is probably that some missions seem more like they're dependent on trial and error rather than actual strategy. Not luck, just trial and error. Wild Arms XF clearly has a right and wrong way to do things but there isn't much variation in how you can do those things. It's takes the game's suggestion or bust. While some may like this idea of trial and error, memorization and brain teasing, others may feel restricted that there isn't much freedom to go about the mission the way you see fit. It just seems wrong that not doing what the game suggest means you could fail a mission or have to restart. It brings about an unusual imbalance to the games structure.

There are also little things in the gameplay that can make it frustrating. The amount of times your attacks will miss some of your enemies is incredibly frustrating. Another aspect is the limitation of items. Characters can only equip a certain number of items when going into battle. This wouldn't be such a big problem if you weren't forced to mow through those items so fast.

At the very least, however, Wild Arms XF does present a good challenge. Much of it is from frustration, but you'll be surprised at the amount of thinking that is required to win each battle. Unfortunately, each battle feels like a test, and it makes Wild Arms XF far less fun to play than other Strategy RPGs.

On the other hand, the game does have some amazing artwork. The story is told through cutscenes similar to the ones you see in Disgaea. Usually you'll see a portrait of the characters partaking in the event talking in front of a background. These moments are stunning to look at. There's a lot of anime inspired art here. In battle itself doesn't look too amazing, however. It's very colorful and decorated, with a lot of meticulous attention given to detail, but it hardly showcases what the PSP can do. The game looks like it could've been released on the Gameboy Advance. It also hurts the game that it doesn't run smoothly. There are times when there will be slight hitches in the frame rate. There are also moments when sound effects (notably the character's battle cries) are off.

Despite all that, the game sure sounds good. There's a ton of good music here. There's also some voice acting in the cutscenes and most of it isn't bad. There are some moments when there could've been much more emotion, but often the voice acting isn't all that bad. If you're not satisfied with the English voice overs, there's an option to change the voices to Japanese. Characters also have voices in battle. At first this isn't so bad, but it quickly becomes annoying. Luckily, you're able to turn these voices off.

The PSP has a fair share of RPGs and Tactical RPGs. Wild Arms XF is a game that had so much potential to be so much better. Even die hard Wild Arms fans may not take much of a shine to it. The game has an incredible story, incredible artwork and an incredible soundtrack, but those things can't make up for the dissatisfying gameplay.

A very very great game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: March 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Do not be afraid of this game. the issue some people have with this game is that every mission it tells you how you need to win and some objectives you need certain classes. You arent just swapping classes left and right. I have only changed my classes due to mission requirements twice. I have done about 10 missions since the last time. Due to the multi classing system in this game, you can create some extremeley potent characters. When you change classes, you can equip skills from your previous class. For instance a tier one class the elementalist has simple elemental spells. When I change the class to sacred slayer and equip the elementalist spell skill, I get a much more powerful blaster. The sacred slayer gives me a big AOE attack compared to single target. also the sacred slayer has higher magic attribute(more damage).. other awesome aspects.....
If you lose a character in your party due to the story, the game will unequip them and you will keep the items, compared to losing the items.

The missions are not simply eliminate the enemy type. You have to plan how to get the upper hand, my last mission i was outnumbered 3 to 1 by enemies higher level than me, but when you take advantage of multi classing, you can catch the enemy by the boo boo.

You can synthesize to get high powered items.

all of your characters regardless of whether you are using them in battle receive experience points. I have about 10 main party members ( only can use 6 at once) but they all get xp when you win a battle.

when you lose a battle, you dont go back to where you last saved, you have the ability to retry and reorganize, which is where you can change classes, equipment, items etc...

When traveling on the map you choose when to enter an encounter, it isnt random like final fantasy tactics. When you need to level you choose, if not you are not burdened.

This game has a ridiculously huge amount of skills. Every class and their spells have completely different uses and effects.

There is formation arts, and combination arts... formation arts are when you and another comrade are in front and behind an enemy, you get more damage. combination arts....you instead of attacking the enemy, lock on to them, get as many of your party to lock on and then attack with one. The more you have locked on the bigger t he atack. Also it is an attack that has 100percent hit rate. This game is huge on that. some enemies are hard as hell to hit or do damage to. some are only weak to magic and vice versa.

U have a good look into the idea of this game. go for it/

Wild ARMs XF

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

this game is like ff tactics but with more fun factor. Even though its a strategy rpg,it still has the wild arms feel and the music is about 60% familar. Ive read the other 2 review and it somewhere in between. Im not sure how well it is as far as a strategy rpg, I normally play turn-based and action rpgs.I was hesitant to buy this strategy rpg But since then im totally satisfied

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