Enchanted Arms.
 

This game is so sexy. I feel like seeing a FF's sequel. As the key feature in the official site/ states, the battle system is turn base but we can move our characters. So it may be Grandia alike. I can't wait to listen to the OST, and folks, the game is available NOW (it's just release yesterday, Aug 29th.)

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*Images are from Gamespot.com

This game really makes me want to buy a Xbox 360 so bad. Come to think of it, two other games of Sakaguchi will be on 360. Phantasy Star universe, Golden Axe and Magna Carta 2 will also be on 360. I think it's worth it.

Interesting. I looked up some info on the game, and it has about 50 hours of gameplay. That's pretty damn good if you ask me..

Magna Carta 1 was pretty but every other aspect of it failed something miserable.

It's odd though, there really hasn't been much hype for this since pre-E3, and considering how it's the only JRPG out for the system, you think it would get a little more fanfare than it did. *shrugs*

Mo0 is buying this today, and I'm waiting to see if I'm going to buy it based on his opinion, since he's right about most things.

Yeah I'd like to hear more about it. I'll have an Xbox 360 soon enough and this is on a very short list of games that I'm keeping my eye on. It's pretty no doubt, but it seems to be a bit interesting on top of that.

I'll have a review later today. As of now the only thing I've done is rudimentary tutorial stuff because a friend came over and wanted to play Dead Rising and was going to rip my head off if I didn't let him play.

However, the first immediate thing I liked about it was a save-anywhere feature. At least, that's inside of a friendly non-random-encounter area, I haven't been on overworld stuff yet so that could very well change.

Also, Makoto is gay.

Very, very, very gay.

VERY VERY GAY.

Well, it's very flashy and looks like the second coming of FFX in some of those screens. Too bad the faces are all funny looking. It's also too bad that I haven't played an RPG using some new and revolutionary battle system that was actually good in a while, so naturally I'm not too very excited about this one. I'll probably pick it up here in the upcoming months, sometime after playing XenoSHIONDIES III, VP:Silmeria, and possibly five or six minutes of FFXII.

So far, Enchanted Arms has felt like a surprisingly solid, if derivative, RPG that should satisfy just about any fan of the genre, especially turn-based whores like myself.

I really can't comment TOO much on the story, but I can tell you that if you've played a Final Fantasy game, especially 6, you've seen this story and know it all too well. The difference is that the characters are all engaging and actually interesting to listen to, and the game is VERY slickly presented. This game really takes advantage of its next-gen hardware and presents a very vibrant (if, again, derivative) world that looks stunning.

One thing that some people may not enjoy is the fact that you can save anywhere in this game, and that your HP and EP (this game's MP) recharge themselves after every battle. During my time playing the game this didn't necessarily make things easy, as certain characters can run out of EP in as little as two attacks and are then forced to use an item or sit out a turn or two. Also, as characters take damage, die, or simply participate in a battle, they lose VP (Vitality Points). When they run out, the character starts every battle with 1 HP and 1 EP, essentially making them useless. There are recharging stations scattered at reasonable intervals across the dungeons, which is good, because the battle rate is, on a scale of 1 to 10, about a 7.

The battles themselves take place on a pair of 4x3 grids; one that your party stands on and one that the enemies do. Every single attack has an applicable range to it. Some of them hit everything in a column in front of the character, some are X's, it's all different and requires you to position your characters right to be able to hit with all 4. The game is turn-based in the sense that FF1 was turnbased. You select all of your party members in the order you want them to act and choose their actions, then they go through them in that order. This means if you tell someone to move on the third part of the turn, they won't move until their turn pops up, so it's possible to heal a character and then have him move into another position to attack. Thankfully, the battles have a fast forward button, which does exactly what it sounds like it does and makes all of the battle animations and stuff go by twice as fast. The battles really feel like they have a lot more strategic depth than they really do; in essence you're still just mashing attack at the enemies most of the time, but at least you have to think to do it.

I only have a couple of gripes with the game so far. First off, the English voice acting isn't all that great, but the gay character is voiced in a wonderfully overacted lisp that I personally think is hilarious. The Japanese voice acting, though, really isn't all that much better. Sure, you can't understand what they're saying, but the fact of the matter is neither VA cast apparently really knows how to inflect properly sometimes. So I kept it on English because I like the gay character's voice.

My other gripe is that the game holds your hand incessantly at the start of the game. You seriously get a fourth-wall breaking tutorial on just about EVERYTHING. Including such rudimentary conceps as pushing switches and climbing ladders. They take up no more than a minute each, but they sure as fuck add up and become annoying. In the context of the game they make a little bit of sense, as the main character is rather dense, but you still shouldn't be subjected to being told you have to push A at a ladder to climb up it.

I haven't gotten too much into the whole Golem-creating thing yet. Golems are these things that are, in essence, Pokemon, except you create them rather than catch them. Really not too much of a difference, but some of them are actually rather powerful, AND swapping them out can give your favorite characters more VP for later.

I'd give Enchanted Arms a 8.5/10. For the first game of its kind on the 360, it's not perfect, but it's a LOT better than the original XBox ever saw.

Nice review MoO. What about the music though?

I'm assuming you aren't including KOTOR in this assessment, because I've killed people for less blasphemy.

The only reason I'm giving this a second look is because it's an RPG on the 360. Honestly, I'm not sure if it's worth it. I'll wait for more reviews.

I think what the fat man is comparing it to is the JRPG showing on the original Xbox.

If he is clumping KOTOR with the crap Jade Empire and Fable, then yes, he deserves a grand old impaling with a large, stiff, gorilla penis.

Mo0 do think this game is a buyer or a renter?

I'm so undecided, on one hand it looks great and is a proper RPG for the 360 but on the other hand it feels kind of like a cheap FF knock off to simply fill a niche that the 360 has failed to do so thus far.

So, I might count the game out from that video alone.

I'm not sure I'll be able to stand that guy for more than an hour.

Yeah. It's not even that he's gay, just that he's so stereotypical and flambouent. I can see how that could get obnoxious quickly.

Anyways, I wouldn't be able to play it unless it came out for PC, which isn't alltogether impossible.

The music is not something that will be discussed as legendary years from now, but it's a very good soundtrack. I withheld comment because, as I've only played the game for a few hours so far, I really haven't heard much of the soundtrack. The battle theme is interesting, it's a haunting melody but it's not as fast as I like my battle themes.

Yes, sorry for not clarifying that. I wasn't comparing it to KOTOR, Fable, or whatever, I was just pointing out that this is the best JRPG to appear on a Microsoft console. (The only one?)

Change the voices to Japanese. He's MUCH more tolerable that way.

Depends. If you're desperate for gamerpoints and love JRPGs, I'd say buy it. If you're not a huge JRPG fan or if you've already got a bunch to play on the PS2 (Which, between Xenosaga 3 and Disgaea 2, among other recent releases, is quite possible) I'd say rent it to see if you think it's worth buying.

The long and short of it is that this game really is worth playing.

I laughed so hard when watching that footage. This is hillarious.

OF COURSE IT'S GONNA BE SOMETHING NASTY!

:tpg:

pure LMAOness and cringing at the same time. Only HE can accomplish that for me. <3

apparently enchanted arms has just been comfirm to have a PS3 release. (I'm not sure about this, I've only seen the news on one website for now)

Well enhanted arms was one of the few games that I wanted to try, but I don't want to buy a 360 for it, so I guess when I'll have a ps3 I'll try it ^^ (but on 360 enhanted arms doesn't really have a competition in term of RPG but on the PS3...)

Well, if this game is strong enough to live well within a year, there will be two RPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi on 360 (Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon I think) for it to compete.

I watched a friend play the game for about an hour. Seriously, this is the worst RPG I've seen since Legend of Dragoon.

It's pretty... but that's about it. The plot is derivative, the characters are extremely irritating, the voice acting is abominable, the dialogue is hokey (and goes on and on and on and on) and the music is trash.

Apparently it's selling well though. It was the last copy there when we picked it up.

Alright I need information.

Gabe on PA says that the really annoying gay guy is only in the first three hours of the game as part of a tutorial group.

Is this true? It could mean the difference between a purchase and no purchase for me.

A character in the game is actually preventing you from shelling $60 for it?

And it's pretty much true. If he does appear again, it's not until later.

I can't stand gay stereotypes.

Not near as funny or endearing as black stereotypes.

I bought this game today and played it for about 15 minutes. Seems like it might turn into something fun. The battle system seems like its trying a little too hard though.

Highlight of the game? WHEN MAKOTO LEFT THE PARTY. Sorry for the spoiler, but I couldn't resist.

I'm enjoying the game, thus far. It's nothing spectacular or anything, but I feel it has enough solid features to appeal to a lot of RPG players.

Mo0 and I were having Golem Battles over Xbox Live a few nights ago. It was an interesting experience, especially since it was 2:30AM and we both were sleep deprived zombies. Multiplayer is just as linear as Singleplayer, though, and the only thing I was this game had was some kind of hidden extras or live achievements to flesh-out things out.