[Multiplatform] Enchanted Arms.

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by lightgem

Nice review MoO. What about the music though?

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.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

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

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?)

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

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.

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

Originally Posted by El Ray Fernando

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

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The live really feels incredibly slapped-on at the last minute. The casino does, too, both of them are filled with really weird menu decisions and an abundance of typos. Definitely low on their priority list.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?