Wild Arms 4

As a big fan of the Wild Arms series, I've finally gotten around to Wild Arms 4. I ... don't really know what to say about the game, though. It ... was a good game. I never got tired of it and wanted to stop, but then there was never really a drive to play it. The story wasn't amazing (though, it did have a few really trope breaking moments and a few awesome scenes.. Though, it also has a lot of trope enforcing moments, so I suppose it balances out), I read it, but didn't horribly care. The music was good, but not too special. The tracks that Naruke did stand out, but the rest ... Meh.

Being a Wild Arms game, there are a few things that return to the series, as expected. The horrible forcing of a term to the acronym ARM; the Force Gauge, a gauge that builds up in combat that increases as you take or deal damage (though, the one in this game is party shared); puzzles in the dungeon (though, tools are unfortunately gone). Guardians are gone, sadly.

The combat was fun, though. The normal battle system brings in a bit of SRPG and is set on 7 hexes, a center one, and 6 around it. Your characters start randomly disbursed (for random fights) around them. You can melee attack adjacent hexes and magic and other unique abilities do any square, surrounding squares, or a line of squares. Status effects and buffs affect squares instead of individual units, and you see the exact combat order, as well. It makes for a bit more strategic combat. The system doesn't drag on, either. Random battles go by in about a minute or two, so no longer than in any other system. Unfortunately, one of the characters, Raquel, is absurdly broken, and takes just about all the difficulty out of the game. She's absurdly powerful and has a Force ability that lets her act an additional time per use.

The method of character customization is new in this game, too. Each character has a set of abilities that get learned over the course of the game, in their Crest Graph. However, they have to have a certain number of points allocated to them to be learned. Each level, every skill has a permanent point allocated to them, and you gain another point that can be moved around into any of the skills. However, if you don't use all the movable points, you have more HP and MP. These points are, actually, the only benefit you get from leveling up. You gain stats by mastering a set of abilities in the Crest Graph, 'Class Level Up'. The system only really allows for freedom toward midlevel range, though. There's not that many abilities, though, so there's not that many choices. You tend to just be able to choose what ability you get early.

There's a good amount of post game stuff to do, as well. Optional bosses and absurd synthesize strings and such. It's not a long game, though. I beat it in about 25-30 hours of actual play. Was a very, very linear game, though. I don't think I encountered a side quest in the entire game. There's also no exploration. It is literally just "Go here. Kay, now go here. Kay, now go here." on the world map.

It's a decent game. Fun, but nothing amazing. Fans of the series would like it. Everyone else, pick it up if you see it for cheap.