[PS2] Wild Arms: Vth Vanguard

I loved WA4 and didnt really care for the 1st or 2nd one "cant remember which it was, it was long ago. So I'm glad its gonna be like 4, now if they can just make another Dragon Quest game like 8.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153748.html

Most notably, in the last paragraph the 5th game's writer says that he'd enjoy doing a Wild Arms 2 remake, time permitting. Actually, I'd love to see a remake of the second one -- the translations errors and often unpronounceable words in the second game made it a tad difficult to follow the story at times, however the second oen remains my favorite of the series so I'd really like to see it come back.

How ya doing, buddy?

From what I've seen, diehard Wild ARMs fans seem to love the second game, but those who're interested in RPGs in general hate it. I would love a remake, personally.

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

It's funny that I could never get entirely into 1 or 3 (I gave up on 3 somewhere in the last chapter because it just dragged on like crazy), but the pacing of 2 was JUST perfect. Just when I was starting to get bored with a section (the lizard parts were kind of random), the story would take a nice turn or some new character would pop up. I remember it had some good puzzles in there as well and a good final dungeon/boss encounter...Aside from that one horribly translated puzzle which I had to get an FAQ for. And dammit...Ashley, Brad, Lilka and the assasin chick (forgot her name) showed how to do stock RPG characters the right way. Virginia and Co. never did a thing for me once the game got rolling, but I liked the WA2 cast from the moment they were assembled.

A remake would do wonders for the music. I'd actually settle for a rip with looped tracks, but an all-out redo would be highly appreciated as well.

Graphically though...This game is screaming for an overhaul. I know graphics aren't everything, but the battles were just an eyesore.

Personally, I would jump at the chance to play an updated version of WA2. This game sits on the outer cusp of my favorite RPG list and I wouldn't mind revisiting it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm the exception to that observation. I dislike WA2 because it was so ugly when I finally got the chance to play it. The controls annoyed me too so I traded it in prematurely. Therefore I'd like to see a remake of WA2, but possibly with voice-overs unlike Alter Code F.

Other than WA2 though, I'm just nuts for the rest of the series so far, and hopefully V can add an ever nicer reiteration to the Wild Arms feel.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I love every game in the series equally -- save maybe for Alter Code F -- but Wild Arms 2 just kinda struck a chord with me I guess. I really preferred it's battle system and multiple character setup to Wild Arms 1 (and ACF). I also liked that the main character was not the only wielder of an ARM, as Brad was too.

I also liked the deeper in-game mythology, and transforming in Lord Blazer was awesome.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by SouthJag

I also liked that the main character was not the only wielder of an ARM, as Brad was too.

True, but Lilka kicked everyone's ass because she had unlimited ammunition. Fireballs and Freeze spells for all!

This thread made me pop in the old game for a bit tonight. I had forgotten it was mostly sprite-based, outside of the battles. The characters-in-battle designs look like...the creators tried their best to come up with something, but just couldn't make ends meet. The characters are so messy, but they seem to have so much detail...Very strange seeing after so long away from it.

Technically, I guess this one would be considered "old-school" now.

How ya doing, buddy?

Quote:

Posted by Summonmaster
Therefore I'd like to see a remake of WA2, but possibly with voice-overs unlike Alter Code F.

Ugh, I hope not. Wild Arms 4 would be better off without any voice acting at all. "My flashing blade will pierce the darkness!" is only cool the first 50 times Raquel says it, then it gets annoying fast. And I don't know who this woman is who voices every child character in every last anime and video game ever, but I wish they'd quit hiring her. I keep hoping Jude will fall in a meat grinder, he is so annoying to listen to. Death to child protagonists everywhere.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

"Jump!... One More!"
I turned my voice frequency to max, since I didn't mind. I forgot whether you could turn it off completely in the options screen or just put it to a minimum. You're right though about how it loses it's effect and she's still saying it at the end of the game. Finest Arts distracted me from noticing too much.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If WA2 was remade, I wouldn't even give a damn about the game. I would gobble up the soundtrack like a rabid turkey. Most fans don't like 2, but most people agree that it had a stellar soundtrack.

I think a WA2 remake would be a good thing. WA2 was an underrated game with some minor flaws, and it had a lot of potential.

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

I haven't played the fourth Wild Arms, so I'm not in a position to comment on this so-called Hex system, but it looks to me that it's a welcome change from the traditional system that the games use.

As for the whole WA2 game, I'm still playing that one (just finished the first disc), and it's actually a pretty nice game, if you don't mind some of the localization errors and the horrible, horrible graphics. I've heard people complain more about the second disc, so I'll hold my judgement until I finish that.

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

After playing around 30 hours of WA4 and getting around to the last dungeon (I got far enough -- like one screen over -- to get back into the world map), I can thoroughly say I was disappointed with this game. Although the only other WA game I played was 3 (I only played like a half hour of 1), it seemed like the story of 4 was some bad anime script left on the chopping block. I liked 3 a lot better in comparison to 4.

I can rant much more (probably do so when I actually finish the game), but here I'll start on the Hex system. Talk about horrible. Simply horrific. I didn't like it one bit; there leaves little room for flexibility and more room for sheer annoyance. Yulie dies pretty much half the time unless I on purposely draw her into a corner (despite her attack which can deal more damage than Arnaud). And if you just Intrude with Raquel you pretty much got the battle to your grand advantage. Not only that, I never felt the need to level (which was great, actually) since the boss battles were extremely easy. Extremely easy. Sometimes they are tricky, but after the first couple of moves you understand what little magic trick or whatnot to get over this small obstacle. All I do to "level" was throw a Lucky Card and I'm game for the next area.

Now the story... hoooo. It's like a deflated balloon. Firstly, I dislike main characters who are within the age range of 13-18; unfortunately 99% of RPGs follow this "rule". More often than not I found it very juvenile with classic anime-ish plot twists (character dies, noooo, character dies, noooo). I never really connected with any of the main characters, sadly. They were all very one sided. Lambda was also dry.

Good things: Side view. That was pretty interesting. The ACB or whatever thing you activate with R1. I liked that. Some of the puzzles in WA4 were fun.

Bad things: Things described above. Probably a few more things I couldn't think of now. Also... the voices! GAHHHRHHRHH. "Razor sharp intellect! What's above my head!" It was almost as annoying as SO3. And I felt sometimes when the antagonists read dialogue it was painfully slow and clear that they were just reading the script in front of them. It was sad.

I know I'll probably get blasted for this, but now I know where the bad reviews come from. WA4 couldn't hold up. It had the Suikoden IV (S4 was truly a bad game) phenomenon, the "Huh? That's it?" Time to begin Suikoden V.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Revive, playing the import. Actually not half bad, and it looks great in motion. I can't approve of these cheesy-ass animu story sequences, though. I will never play this damn game in front of anyone. They got rid of the traditional overheard world map (they might've done this in Fourth Detonator, but I never played it), and went with a Dragon Quest VIII-ish behind the back type deal.

To my surprise and slight disappointment, Dean doesn't end up using a shovel. Once you get through the first (real) dungeon, he ends up breaking it after whacking the boss on the head. Instead, he uses dual ARMs that have these weird, glowing blade/baton things sticking out of the butts. So he uses melee attacks, but fires the guns as he's doing so.

Another really neat feature is the field boss. From what I can tell, each dungeon has a purple orb thing near the end. If you inspect it and beat the optional boss, you're given the option to flip encounters on or off in that entire field. Very useful, and a fairly innovative feature. That orb turns white and I think heals you if you inspect it again, but I never checked it out.

All in all, pretty promising. I'd be pretty surprised if nobody picked this up.

EDIT: Oh yeah, this game's opening has some of the worst fucking engrish I have ever seen. My God.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Quote:

I can't approve of these cheesy-ass animu story sequences, though. I will never play this damn game in front of anyone.

Aw, come on it wouldn't be Wild Arms without a massively cheesy story and characters.

The world map was basically removed in WA4 and replaced with a Final Fantasy Tactics style map so the behind the back style is something new. The encounter avoidance system also sounds exactly like it was for WA4 and one aspect I enjoyed.

Quick question though. How is the character dialog handled? In WA4 they did this comic book style cut-in for the dialog which did nothing but chop up the flow of the game making them extremely annoying.

FELIPE NO

Dialogue is played out through real-time cutscenes. Nothing at all like a comic book. The voice acting is a little weird, just because it only seems to be used during important sequences. Otherwise, conversations are silent (with the exception of an occasional grunt/cheer, ala Skies of Arcadia).

Music's solid as expected, but I haven't liked any of the battle themes thus far.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm loving the game myself...

While still very Wild Arms, it also gives me a Skies of Arcadia vibe, which is most certainly a good thing.

Gameplay wise, this is pretty much the best the series has to offer. The hex system returns with a few new twists, battles are more challenging, and the game is simply fun to play. I do appreciate the fact that you are healed after each battle, that random battles do not occur overly frequently (and can be disabled within each dungeon after purifying the sol niger within each dungeon), and that each battle is challenging in and of itself. Most normal enemies could potentially wipe out your party in just a couple turns, if you aren't careful. The game encourages you to take full advantage of everything you've got. Boss battles also take advantage of different battle fields with layouts that add strategy to the whole ordeal. Add in the continue system when you die, and I can say that boss battles have been a highlight here.

Like the 4th Detonator, you are able to run, jump, slide, etc. throughout the environment. This time, however, the game offers a free camera (right stick) and active ARM usage during exploration. The world map has taken a more DQ8 approach and is fairly expansive. The search feature has returned, but is only required for the location of treasure (though there was one item earlier that you had to search for, but the game told exactly where to look so it wasn't a big deal).

The story and characters here are HUGE step in the right direction, though. I'm enjoying the plot so much more than the previous games. They have done a much better job fleshing out the characters this time around and all of them are very likeable. I believe a Japanese sci-fi novelist was actually responsible for the story this time around as well. They do a fantastic job capturing the various dialects and accents in writing here and it makes for some enjoyable scenes.

I actually like the presentation as well. Yeah, it's straight anime, but it's entertaining. Of course, the fact that the writing and character building is much stronger than the previous games in the series really helps as well.

Quick synopsis (very light spoilers)...

Spoiler:

Once again, we are in Filgaea (or however you want to write it), but only in name. It seems that there are things known as Golems scattered about the world and they are believed to be a part of a lost technology. The main character, Dean, has been obsessed with them ever since finding his first bolt when he was a young boy. He idolizes a famous Golem Hunter (the name escapes me) and hopes to one day become one himself. He lives in a small village with a number of folks including his good friend Rebecca. Dean and Rebecca go out exploring one day and Dean approaches her about leaving the village in order to follow his dream, but it's clear that she isn't ready just yet. Things heat up while they are out when a large piece of a golem comes crashing down into a cave. Upon investigating, they find a girl sitting in the hand of a golem's left arm. Dean manages to scoop her up just before the floor collapses. She remembers only two things; her name (Avril) and the name "Joney/Johnny Appleseed". After a conversation back home, Dean decides to start his journey by helping Avril. Obviously very fond of Dean, she decides to join up. The trio reminded me very much of Vyse, Aika, and Fina from Skies of Arcadia, of course, but there is much more to them. From there, you end running into all sorts of characters including a fellow hell bent on destroying every golem he finds as a sort of revenge, a golem hunter who you help out of a pinch, and plenty of others. There are, of course, additional factions who you are often given a peak out (clearly of a different level of technology) who are also searching for J. Appleseed as well as Avril herself. I've just arrived at the technologically advanced city of Lailabel with about 13 hours on the game clock. There is, of course, more to the story (as there are TONS of scenes throughout), but I don't wish to spoil too much.

Oh, and the audio is fantastic. Unlike Generic Badass, I really love the soundtrack. Nearly every track has been memorable and every battle track rocks. I'm sad to see Naruke go (though she is credited with 3 tracks in the manual), but the results here are incredible. This might just be the best soundtrack yet (in the series).

Visuals are solid as well. Great models and clean backdrops abound. Dungeons, battle scenes, and town are all 60 fps while the overworld map and cutscenes are 30 fps.

Still have a ways to go (as I said, I'm only 13 hours in), but thus far, I'm going to say that this is far and away the best game in the series.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by dark1x

I do appreciate the fact that you are healed after each battle,

So it doesn't work like in Alter Code F where they had the VIT gauge then? I always felt annoyed whenever it went empty, and the enemies start to chip away at your actual life.

I really hope that the story stays as cheesy as always because that's one of the main reasons I am drawn to Wild Arms, for the cheesy "teamwork beats everything" mentality. Although I loved the "comic book" presentation in 4, I think cutscenes in 5 would also be very welcome as well.

I'm currently addicted to Nana Mizuki's "Justice To Believe" which is the opening theme I think? I hope the rest of the music has as much of an impact as that. I look forward to what each boss battle song will sound like.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm almost finished with this game, and I strongly recommend it. For me, it surpasses Wild Arms 4 in almost any way (except for the really annoying box puzzle that took me 20 minutes for no reason, but that's just me being stupid).

My favorite theme is already enough of a spoiler, but it's listed below. The spoiler will tell you one of the cameo's in the game:

Spoiler:

I'm in love with the Knight Blazer re-mix, which you don't actually get until AFTER the game, when you unlock the cameo.

The battle system is very strategic, and the speedup option in the game really speeds up the battles. The graphics are amazing, and the plot is a lot longer.

But, really, the best part of the game is in the music, and I've already found a ton of different types of music in there, from synth to heavy metal.

It's time for Rebecca's deep Engrish thoughts:

chuck looked as if he mingled sentiments,
he couldn't stand between the two, so his pride can't stand to give her our trouble anymore.
But I can well appreciate Dean's feeling, but I'm little jealous of avril, because all those things are for her

At this time, I was able to make great friends to Avrial really, She is a person necessary as the same with Dean for me. I would like be with her forever.
But, I had not understood Her resolution yet, therefore, I was sad and tears did not stop when I understood her words. Nothing could be absolutely much for Her Resolution.

Just a taste of what you're missing out in the Japanese edition.

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

Ah yes, the Engrish is pretty bad, isn't it? I pretty much ignore it and listen/read the Japanese instead. It's pretty bizarre that they even bothered with it, but hey...

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

It gives stuff flair. That's why you find it on all sort of items in Japan.

Anyway, I just got through the Abandoned Path. I'm a little reluctant to dive into this just because a localization is still not all that unlikely.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Generic Badass

It gives stuff flair. That's why you find it on all sort of items in Japan.

Anyway, I just got through the Abandoned Path. I'm a little reluctant to dive into this just because a localization is still not all that unlikely.

You've been playing without being able to understand it or would you just prefer the English?

I can't imagine playing through an RPG like this without knowledge of the language it is written in. I did attempt a Korean RPG a couple years ago and gave up very early on as it just wasn't any fun without understanding it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

A little bit of both. My english is far better than my Japanese, and as such prefer it.

I feel the same way about the second part, unless there's great motivation to play through the game.

FELIPE NO

Can anyone help me? I am already in the floor 9 of the sector O but i can't solve the puzzle. I also read the faqs in gamefaqs.com but I can't too. Please help me! Thank you first.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Onyx

If WA2 was remade, I wouldn't even give a damn about the game. I would gobble up the soundtrack like a rabid turkey. Most fans don't like 2, but most people agree that it had a stellar soundtrack.

I think a WA2 remake would be a good thing. WA2 was an underrated game with some minor flaws, and it had a lot of potential.

I agree with you. And I also like the WA2 story.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

There was a short quote in the February 2007 issue of EGM stating Wild Arms 5 will be coming to the US this summer. No word on who is handling the localization.

There's nowhere I can't reach.