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> Results: Wild ARMs 4
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So one day you're out skipping school and all of a sudden someone crashes right through the sky. All of a sudden, you're not the only village in the world, and your entire life is turned upside down! Wild Arms 4 thrusts players into a land of dying nations and dangerous new weapons and foes. For years wars have been ravaging the countryside and only a few scattered, battered and dying towns remain.
The 'winners' of this war are the Congressional Knights, and their only goal is to find the Divine Weapon the Global Union was working on so they can become immortal, continuing their reign forever. The Divine Weapon is what is known as an ARM, basically a psychic powered gun, and Jude, one of the main characters of the game, finds himself attached to one very powerful ARM of his own. You control Jude, Yulie, Arnaud & Raquel on a quest to find themselves and to protect each other from the menacing forces of Brionac, the strong arm forces of the Congressional Knights. Wild Arms 4 is split into 2 distinct play styles. The first is a not-so-standard combat role playing game. Instead of lining up enemies on one side and allies on another, you are given a field of seven hexagons or HEXes as the game refers to them. You are randomly spread throughout the field. Sometimes you all crowd into one HEX, at others you'll be in individual HEXes and the same goes for your enemies. Your attacks are limited to the next HEX over for physical attacks, or any of the others for magical attacks.  Magic is split between normal magical attacks that drain your magic points and Force Abilities. Force Abilities use up Force points that only replenish while you are battling enemies, and are at times even more powerful than your magic or physical attacks. When you use certain Force Abilities, you team up with other members that are in the same HEX as you are, getting both a cut scene and a super powerful combo attack. The other part of Wild Arms 4 are nifty little platform-action sections that occur between battles. Where normally in a role playing game you're wandering around the countryside, looking for your next dungeon or village, Wild Arms 4 gives you a little more mobility. Of course you do have a few challenges to face with this new power, but you can jump, slide, slow time, pick up and use weapons and items. You use these powers in dungeons to explore the area finding treasures, getting past traps and chasms, even slowing time to get across a rickety bridge. Some times it's just a simple matter of moving a box, or stomping on a switch. Other times, you have to set off a bomb, hit the time accelerator, and quickly hop up a collapsing staircase. Occasionally you get stuck trying to figure out this particular part of the game, so watch out for these puzzles! The controls in these sections are extremely responsive and not that hard to master. Once you get used to them the difficult part is not the jumping or throwing, but figuring out what to do. The overall presentation is very well done. The leveling system can get you into a bit of trouble until you get used to it. For every level that you gain, you get another chart point. Chart points are used to gain access to powers before you've reached the appropriate level. The one thing they don't warn you is that this takes away from your health and magic points. In other words, you may be more powerful, but if you're not careful, your enemies will overpower you with a single attack of their own.  There aren't any new characters as you progress, but that just makes the inventory and leveling a bit easier. The forced perspective in the dungeons and towns is disappointingﾗyou only get one camera angleﾗ because it prevents you from checking out all the eye candy! Last but not least there's a great feature if you've played Wild Arms Alter Code: F. You can convert your save file from that previous game and start off with higher levels, more money and whatever badges you've collected. The forced perspectives and the lack of multiple characters are the only real problem, otherwise Wild ARMs 4 is plenty entertaining. 
Yeah, this got a T rating, but I don't think it should. The monsters certainly aren't too terrifying. I've seen creepier stuff in E and E10+ rated games. Mild language includes a few "damns" here and there. Commander Farmel has a rather low cut piece of armor, but she is the only damsel who flaunts her stuff to the world.
That's countered by a lot of reading, and a story line that may have some kids wondering about some of the events going on. A lot of role playing games have full voice support, but in Wild Arms 4, most of the script is text. The subject matter of the past war and the continuing violence definitely rings of current events and might even spur a good jumping off point for a conversation with your kids. This skews a little lower to 10+. It's simple enough for beginner role players, but still has enough depth to keep mom and dad coming back for more. You might even play it with your kids if they don't like the role playing sections while they might also help you get past the platform-action sections. This review edited by Dave Long Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "Wild Arms" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Wild ARMs 4 |
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