Wild Arms - PS1 - First Impressions

[[Lizard Wizard]]

I'm staying off the regular internet so this will have to go here in the Steam forums so I can vent a little.

I recently found an interest in the video games of my youth so like any of you would do I quickly set up an emulator and got building my old collection again. I fiddled around with Spyro, Tomba, and even Medievil which were all wonderful especially Spyro but then I decided to do something different, I was going to play Wild Arms and that is where my trouble began.

See I don't do tactical RPG. Final Fantasy? Never played it. Ogre Battle? What's that? But at some point in time I found Wild Arms in my collection. As a child I had no clue what I was getting into to. I remember booting the game up and being wowed by it's anime esque opening movie and really wanting to play...until I discovered it was one of those games where you and the enemy take turns smacking each other. To save on time, I was twelve and had never played an RPG before like Wild Arms. I'd heard of such games but never took much interest in them. Can't say I made it farther than the introduction chapter back then.

Here I am now though playing Wild Arms like a wild maniac. I'm already eight hours in and so far the game has been a blast...for the most part. And that is what I wanted to complain about all the little mistakes I see so far in this game that while not major flaws annoy me personally to no end.

First things first: The Guardians.

OK Guardians...I don't believe you protected the land before I came along at all. Every time I have enough focus to use a guardian summon they pittle on screen and gravingly waft the back of their hands softly upon the cheeks of my enemies before ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ back off to whatever Eldritch nightmare they live in. THESE THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE FRIKKIN PROTECTORS OF THE LAND AND THEY MISS ALL THE TIME AND MY WALKING STICK DOES MORE DAMAGE THAN THEM!.

That isn't to say they aren't useful going up against monsters with weaknesses but that brings up the next big issue...

Who is weak to what and why: The Monster Problem

Most of the monsters in this game do have weaknesses or resistances which I am not opposed to. What I am opposed to is how these weaknesses are applied across the board. You'd think any creature from the forest, made of wood/leaf, or somehow dry looking would be weak to fire, right? No...turns out a lot of them are immune to it. More often than not most mobs seem to fall prey to water and toss of the other elements like they are nothing.

To add onto this I don't like the spawning system either. Running into level appropriate monsters is all fine and dandy but loses it's appeal quick when the battle music is always the same, many moves share the same animations, and you begin to run into monsters WAY lower than your level, wasting your time and just being an annoyance. Plus when you do run into a strong monster hope your spells are in order because you're never going to know in advance what is weak to what so being prepared isn't really a thing. You die and come back with the right spells after you learn through defeat...imo poor game design.

The spells...the spells...the spells. I'm positive they must be used later in the game because for the moment I have Cecilia on permanent healing and blast duty. Most monsters die so quick there is no point to putting them to sleep or disabling their ability to parry and the debuffs DO NOT seem to work on any boss at all. Period. So what is the point to half the spells? I'm not done yet so I'm hoping they will come into more play.

Mind this is an extremely short first impression because I'm not anywhere near even the half way point of the game. At my age giving an old school RPG a try is honestly a little of a hassle because my mind has been trained on years of ARPG's and Puzzle Platformers. Here is hoping I'm willing and able to finish this game soon so I can say, "Yea, I beat the first Wild Arms. Took me forever...but I did it!"


Any Wild Arms fans out there care to weigh in on my assessment? I'm 100% positive my first impressions are off given that I haven't gotten so far into the game yet.

For reference to my progress at the time of writing this impression I am at the Pleasing Gardens near the Ship Graveyard.

TL;DR: Wild Arms is really fun and I'm loving the story. The guardians though feel way too weak, the monsters are too weak/strong, and the spell system is bloated/confusing.

[King Of Nothing]

This is not where you post reviews.

[tomkin]

go to ign or create an edgy post in roblox ranting about how garbage your experience on tumblr was

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by Raven the undying:

This is not where you post reviews.

First it's not a review it's an impression secondly this is the off-topic for him I can post anything here within reason

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by toni:

go to ign or create an edgy post in roblox ranting about how garbage your experience on tumblr was

I never said my experience was garbage and why would I go there I already said I'm avoiding regular internet sites and I'm exclusively using the steam forums besides I'm not trying to be edgy I'm just giving my first impression of the game I've never played if you don't like it you're welcome to go comment somewhere else specifically not this thread.

[Dogui]

Despite being a huge PS1 JRPG nerd, i was never too fond of Wild Arms series at all.

WA1 had fun exploration on cities, interesting puzzles on dungeons but it's pretty mediocre combat wise. The real gamebreaker for me was the rate of random battles tho, as they really got annoying when they just happen while you are solving puzzles. Never finished, probably never will.

WA2 also had most of the first game's problems, and the pacing of the plot gets terrible by the second half.

There's a lot of great stuff in the genre to recommend for PS1. FFs, Valkyrie Profile, Breath of Fire III/IV, Legend of Dragoon/Legaia/Mana, Lunar 1/2 remakes, Suikoden 2, Chrono Cross...

Dunno if you would digest a PS1 game nowadays without some nostalgia factor. But if you do, there's lots of gems to catch.

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by Dogui:

Despite being a huge PS1 JRPG nerd, i was never too fond of Wild Arms series at all.

WA1 had fun exploration on cities, interesting puzzles on dungeons but it's pretty mediocre combat wise. The real gamebreaker for me was the rate of random battles tho, as they really got annoying when they just happen while you are solving puzzles. Never finished, probably never will.

WA2 also had most of the first game's problems, and the pacing of the plot gets terrible by the second half.

There's a lot of great stuff in the genre to recommend for PS1. FFs, Valkyrie Profile, Breath of Fire III/IV, Legend of Dragoon/Legaia/Mana, Lunar 1/2 remakes, Suikoden 2, Chrono Cross...

Dunno if you would digest a PS1 game nowadays without some nostalgia factor. But if you do, there's lots of gems to catch.

I'll keep these recommendations in mind. I actually really enjoy playing older games, I find a lot to enjoy in them. I missed out on a lot in my child hood/teenage years so I'm catching up now. Plus some of them are still down right pretty to look at, considering the time they came out.

[Kremlibot]

The first actual RPG I played was Phantasy Star 4.

It was a pretty cool game, the story went something like this:

There was some evil dude named Zio, unironically, he was a hardcore Zionist. I put together a ragtag crew of /pol/ members, which included a couple robot people, a cat girl, a priest, a wizard, a professor, an ICP fan with an axe, some chick with a boomerang, and a warrior try-hard. After we smacked Zio about his gills, we found out he was working for the Illuminati, who was run by an evil god named Dark Force.

So we took our coterie of memetic combatants around the solar system, and we put the smack down on this Dark Force in the name of all that is good. Turns out, like the evil Zionist Jewish person, Zio, this Dark Force was also an underling.

What we had to do next was blow a massive hole in the ground, because the Earth is hollow (duh), and took on the Profound Darkness, who happened to be a female. So we got together and triggered her with sexist comments, and fat shamed her. Profound Darkness ended up committing suicide. It was a totally unwinnable fight otherwise.

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by Pepe:

The first actual RPG I played was Phantasy Star 4.

It was a pretty cool game, the story went something like this:

There was some evil dude named Zio, unironically, he was a hardcore Zionist. I put together a ragtag crew of /pol/ members, which included a couple robot people, a cat girl, a priest, a wizard, a professor, an ICP fan with an axe, some chick with a boomerang, and a warrior try-hard. After we smacked Zio about his gills, we found out he was working for the Illuminati, who was run by an evil god named Dark Force.

So we took our coterie of memetic combatants around the solar system, and we put the smack down on this Dark Force in the name of all that is good. Turns out, like the evil Zionist Jewish person, Zio, this Dark Force was also an underling.

What we had to do next was blow a massive hole in the ground, because the Earth is hollow (duh), and took on the Profound Darkness, who happened to be a female. So we got together and triggered her with sexist comments, and fat shamed her. Profound Darkness ended up committing suicide. It was a totally unwinnable fight otherwise.

Part of me thinks a Meme themed RPG is somewhere in the distant future for us.

[Legostyle03]

Is this a new copypasta?

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by Legostyle03:

Is this a new copypasta?

No, I typed that out. Is there something unusual about what I said?

[Legostyle03]

Originally posted by TimTheGrim:

Originally posted by Legostyle03:

Is this a new copypasta?

No, I typed that out. Is there something unusual about what I said?

Its super long

[[Lizard Wizard]]

Originally posted by Legostyle03:

Originally posted by TimTheGrim:

No, I typed that out. Is there something unusual about what I said?

Its super long

Yea man words amirite?