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Unfortunately, Wild Arms 3 comes at a time
when there is a glut of good RPGs either being released for the PS2, or right on
the horizon. It is both a quality game and a worthy successor to its past
incarnations, but it will sadly soon be swept up in the hype for the likes of
Suikoden III and Xenosaga. There may be a little bit of deja vu
happening here: you see, the original Wild Arms was in itself a very good
and satisfying RPG, but it unfortunately came at a time when it was considered
only an appetizer before the monumental Final Fantasy VII was brought to
American shores. It was only seen as being a game to tide you over before the
main course, and sadly, many overlooked the quality of the gaming experience it
had to offer while they went out in droves to pick up the latest installment of
the Final Fantasy saga. I fear that perhaps the same fate may befall Wild
Arms 3, and it definitely does not deserve it.
First of all, Wild Arms 3 manages to keep
much of the great gameplay and charm that made the original so fun to play. It
will not likely blow people away with its graphical prowess, but it does offer
up a deep and fun gameplay experience that will have more than a few gamers
latching on to it. First off, the simple battling format is back again: it is
basically unchanged from the original game. You have your basics: attack, item,
magic, and special ability. Special abilities for each character are determined
by “mediums” that you equip to them. Mediums are basically elemental objects
that you equip to give that character a certain set of powers. They are your
basic elements like water, wind, fire, and water. Once equipped, you character
will have the ability to invoke certain spells, and as your character gains more
experience, you will have the option of adding more strength to various
abilities, like strengthening your defense or offensive attacks.
As you
characters progress through a battle, they will
also gain what are called “force points.”
Force points will accumulate every time your character attacks or gets attacked.
When you have gained a certain amount of force points, you will get the chance
to unleash a particular kind of attack via whatever medium you have equipped.
For instance, if you have the ice medium equipped, you can use your
“refrigerate” ability when you accumulate 10 force points. Abilities generally
do not actually use up your force points, but you must have them in the bank
before you can actually use the ability. Also, as your force points accumulate,
you other, more powerful abilities will open up, such as summons. When you get
enough force points, you will be able to summon a monster that coincides with
whatever medium you have equipped.
Like just about any other RPG, the main gist of
Wild Arms 3 is that you will be traveling the globe from one destination to
another, conquering level after level, with some sort of boss at the end, before
getting back to a village to stock up before doing it all over again. This is
pretty much straight from about every other RPG you have ever played, so no big
surprise there. However, I did get the feeling while playing that this game did
use the same formula over and over a little too much, getting to the point that
you feel like you are repeating the same steps over and over. For at least a few
hours, it felt like I was doing a lot of talking with the other characters, then
conquering a set of ruins, then fighting a boss, then doing a lot of
talking...rinse and repeat. The beginning of the game does not give a lot of
plot elements for you to go on in order to keep you from moving from objective
to objective, so you are basically just going along without any rhyme or reason
for doing it, which does get a little tedious after awhile.
 In
a word, the graphics of Wild Arms 3 are bold. They have decided to take
an adventurous step into the great beyond, and for the most part, the roll of
the dice worked. The look of the game is mainly cel-shaded, or in other words,
all of the characters basically look like cartoons. The backgrounds and towns
are your usual assortment of 3D splendor, but the characters themselves are
filled with rich and vibrant colors that look like they’re straight from Bob
Ross’ paint palette. The idea of cel-shading has taken a lot of heat in gaming
circles lately, with many gamers saying that it makes things look a little too
cartoon-like, and “kiddy.” As the hardware for gaming consoles gets better and
better, cel-shading is something that is coming more and more to the forefront
of gaming, and is being used in more high profile games, like Kingdom Hearts
and Suikoden III. In Wild Arms 3, the cel-shading look is not only
very well done, but it reaches points where it is actually very pretty,
especially regarding lighting effects and spell animations. While the look is a
little jarring at the beginning of the game, I found myself not only getting
used to it after awhile, but actually falling in love with the bold new look the
game was going for.
Sound-wise, I can’t complain. Many of the
western-themed tunes are still here from the original game, only revamped to
make up for the better audio hardware. As you might expect, many of the songs
are western-themed, mainly comprised of acoustic guitars and whistling, much
like the original themes. Everything is very well done, with each town having
its own theme song, and each dungeon giving you its own distinct aural aura. The
in-battle sounds are not all that eye-popping, but when a game goes out of its
way to construct a soundtrack that is like no other game out there, the regular
sound effects take a back seat.
If there is one thing for me to gripe about other
than the repetitive mission structure, its the relatively flat characters. I
found myself trying to like these guys over and over, but there was just not
that much there for me to like. Virginia, the self-described leader of the
group, was naive and far too innocent of a lead character, while the dark and
morose Jet was even too introverted to be a flawed anti-hero along the lines of
a Squall or Cloud. Clive is semi-interesting, but ends up getting pushed aside
in favor of the other two vanilla “leads.” Gallows is big and tough, but really
is there just as a constant foil and abrasive character, a’la countless other
peripheral RPG characters. All in all, with characters that are about as flat as
the screen you are playing them on, and a plot that just has you going from town
to town to town, fans that love in-depth storylines in their RPGs may find this
game a little lacking.
Where the real fun of the game is is in the
dungeon-crawling, just like in the original Wild Arms, which it strongly
patterns itself after. You see, while making your way through the various
dungeons, each character will have a specific set of tools and abilities that
will help you navigate through each area. For instance, Jet carries a boomerang
that can be thrown to activate hard-to-reach switches, Clive can lay down bombs
to blow up walls, etc. You have the ability to change party members as you go
through the dungeons to make the most of their different abilities, so each room
is like a challenge unto itself. You won’t really find yourself zooming through
each room to get through to the final boss, but instead, you will find that each
room is a fun experience with a boss waiting at the end. Nearly every room you
come to will have a puzzle of some sort or another, so just navigating the
dungeons is a game unto itself, coupled with random battles. By the way, you
have the ability to skip random battles, if you want. Your characters will be
alerted before the battle takes place, giving you the opportunity to skip it
entirely. You will only be able to skip so many in a row before the battles
really are random, so use the skips wisely.
All in all, Wild Arms 3 is a complete and
fun gaming experience that is just as good as the original game. It is
unfortunate that the franchise finds itself once again in the wrong place at the
wrong time, smack in the middle of another RPG bonanza, but that is life.
Hopefully the game will gain enough fans along the way and it will gain a
following by word-of-mouth, just like the franchise has gained up to this point
in time. It is old-school RPG goodness at its best, with the gameplay taking
center stage. More RPGs could take a good lesson from the Wild Arms franchise,
with the focus being on fun experiences while playing, instead of storylines
that take up way too much brain power and taking the focus off of the gameplay.
It’s not flashy and its not going to be game of the year, but Wild Arms 3
is a fun ride for those who are willing to take it.
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