One thing I'll never understand is the
fascination with Wild ARMs, Contrail's mediocre PSX RPG released in early 97.
While it wasn't terrible, there was just nothing special about the game besides
the intro and the western-themed music. Well Contrail seems to have learned
something from their mistakes, although not much. Wild ARMs 2 has a much deeper
and, dare I say, interesting story than 1, two great intros instead of one,
improved visuals and fewer random battles. But it's still not even a contender.
In WA2 you play as Ashley Winchester, a member of ARMs on a mission to save the
planet two or three times. ARMs is a small squad thats first task is to
eliminate the terrorists Odessa. Besides Ashley, Lilka and Brad (and eventually
three other characters) join the team to battle Odessa. That's about the gist of
it.
Contrail has obviously learned a thing or two from the original, which had one
of the most boring stories ever. There is simply much more to the plot in WA2
than there was to the original - more sub plots, more characters, more of that
self-discovery drivel (which many "enthusiasts" force themselves to
appreciate), etc. The game itself is almost twice as long as the original, so
there's more much more space for the plot to develop.
Things haven't changed much with the battle system. You basically get the exact
same thing as part 1, with the difference being more unique ARMs (two character
use them now), the "Pooka" summoning, and that's about it.
All or most of the battles are extremely easy. And I do stand by using the world
"extremely" as well - they are childs play. If you have enough
curatives, pretty much any battle can be won very quickly using Kanon, Brad and
Ashley, the top Power characters. If not, use Lilka, the magic user/healer. No
enemy - not even bosses, do a substantial amount of damage to the team. Most
bosses can be annihilated with little effort in a matter of a scant few minutes.
With the exception of one or two (including the very last), every boss in this
game is a pushover. This is a major step down from part 1.
The dungeons have been changed somewhat as well. The first had some puzzles
scattered about. With 2, every dungeon is basically one big puzzle. Now I have
no preference over either, but in this case I would have to say its another step
down from 1. All you need is some logic and pretty much every puzzle can be
solved right away. No challenge here - don't fret letting eight or nine year
olds play this game, they won't struggle with it.
Thankfully Contrail has addressed the nagging random battle excess of the
original, which made exploration the worst imaginable pain. Virtually every
other step marked another onslaught of random enemies. This time, a
"!" warns you prior to a random battle, and pressing the circle button
allows you to avoid that battle. I could argue that this makes leveling up a
pain, but what reason is there to level up in this game? Not like the enemies
require any extra leveling up. So I'm glad they made this change.
New to the series are respectable villages and cities. Yes, unlike 1 where every
town was a clone of the one preceding it, 2 has much more variety. Every
city/town has its own distinct style, one of which even looks like a town right
out of a western movie.
I liked the ARMs system in the original. I'm glad they brought it back with part
2, now with two characters (Ashley and Brad) who use the weapons. ARMs are
basically weapons that can be modified up to a specific level at shops within
every town. In battle, they do a lot more damage to enemies than regular
attacks. ARMs can be modified in Attack Power, Hit%, and Bullet capacity. You
can choose to make ten modifications to the ARM in any or all of the stats of
it.
Within the dungeons, there are also several Tools characters can use. These
range from a bomb to blow up cracked walls to using Tim's Pooka to open
out-of-reach chests. The Tools added a lot to the dungeons in the original. This
time around, Tools are almost solely responsible for any enjoyment one might get
out of the dungeons.
Graphics: The sprite-based characters are better animated this time around, and
the anime in the two new intros (one per disc) is absolutely excellent. But ARMs
2 is definitely a generation or, 2, behind most RPGs on the system. The battle
graphics are pretty laughable compared to any FF or even Legend of Legaia. The
attacks look stupid (Lilka attacking with an Umbrella, for instance), the
animation in-battle is jerky as hell (most apparent when the camera circles
around a character) and the summons are clearly bad rip-offs from Final Fantasy.
I would have preferred Wild ARMs stay all-2D.
Sound: Some cool western music, and one or two good dungeon themes, but overall
nothing special. The biggest merit I can give this game's sound is the lack of
voice acting (yes I consider this a good thing).
Overall: 5.9 / 10
While it's an improvement over part 1, in a lot of areas, I still think Contrail
needs to seek more inspiration with this series. This is one of the worst RPG
series ever made, I'll never understand why it gets so much attention. If you
liked 1, you'll probably love 2, and most RPGers shouldn't pass this up if it's
20 or so bucks. Hopefully part 3 will take the series in a better direction.
5.9
