Okay, now I can't say that I'm a full-fledged Wild ARMs know-it-all/fanatic, but that actually gives me all the more reason to question how good these games REALLY are. I've played LOADS of other RPGs and Video Games over the past 10 years of my life constantly and consistantly, so it's not like I'm some video game noob hahha..

BUT. Wild Arms is NOT as huge of an RPG as some of may think it is. When we think of "The Best Wild Arms", most people think of Wild Arms 2. That was a LONG time ago.

Now i played Wild Arms 2, and I thought it was pretty good. Didn't like the puzzles and gameplay enough to ever finish, but I remembered REALLY liking the climactic scenes in the game from what I saw. Then I bought Wild Arms 3. Thought it was good. But it eventually just became a game I played in between breaks in OTHER games. I haven't even considered Wild Arms 4 because I've heard it's that bad. And Wild Arms 5 I'm going to get this week, because I'm in love with the soundtracks, colors, and the characters I've seen so far.

And so as good as some of these games may be to some Wild Arms fan, as a whole gaming audience, and myself as well, these games aren't anything special unfortunately. But they have a lot of potential. I love these games for their country western/new age feel to them (Specifically Wild Arms 3), but there's tons of other glaring flaws...


The story is the same in nearly every game. Filagia is dying. Great. Whoop-dee-do. Surprise surprise. It gets old. Fast.

The characters aren't bad, but if the game already doesn't have much to offer, then characters should be a must. And I don't know about that. They're good. But nothing particularly memorable.

The gameplay isn't terrible, but nothing exciting/unique. The puzzles get a little old and boring after a while (although it IS better than just running thru some dungeon i.e. FF games and Persona 3). but it does get old fast as well. I heard WA5 has the best gameplay of any of hte WA, and some of the best in any game that's come out this year, so I'm excited for that.

So, I can't really judge WA on the whole, especially without playing 4 or 5 yet (I played some of 1 back in the day), but the fact that most gamers dont really play this and that I dont get into it at least points to the possibility tht these games aren't that great. So what do you guys think Wild Arms should do to make it an elite game/series??

They need to make the story a bit more consistant. While it can get into some really interesting paths, it can often get really cheesy even though they'd totally be able to pull it off in a more serious tone. That was WA 5's problem for me. I enjoyed the characters and the story a lot. How it was building up and such. But many things were handled in ways that I would have done differently. I think the most annoying thing about WA 5 was that it's story actually had a lot more potential. I'm sure many people would kill to be able work with a script like that. And what I mean by that is that the story and the script they created was great for the most part. But how it was directed at times is where I start to wonder what audience they're targeting. They had no problems making very cheesy scenes when in fact you wanted something more epic or serious. And some things in the story were completely left out, or just never came "full circle". Like Dean's love for Golems, or that shining bolt he has. I don't think that's a common problem for the WA series though. But I do think that they could benifit more from keeping the story more consistant instead of making it really interesting, and then all of a sudden make a really cheesy scene.


Yeah, it's usually, or always, a new take on the same story. But I suppose there are so many ways to create that story, that if it's still interesting, I don't mind.






Avril was a really great character. I compare her to Karin from Shadow Hearts 2. I thought her story alone made the game worth playing, and made the story a lot more interesting.
The character development is something that has gotten a lot better in WA5 since they now have voice acting in many scenes. And several good voice actors to portray the characters. That's one of the main reasons I liked the game as much as I did.

But overall, I think if they're going to use the same basis for the story every time, and their audience obviously have grown up a bit since the first WA game, it wouldn't hurt to make the story less cheesy at some points. When they already have so much in the story that's memorable and well made, they might as well go all the way with it.

Completely agreed, and I'm excited to play WA5 cause I think the characters look really good

ive always enjoyed the characters, i think they have always done a good job of making likable characters, the problem is that they dont ever seem to mesh very well with the story. They just always seem alittle bit out of place to me or the story is just so boring that it cant keep up with the good characters... im interested in playing WA5, but I cant see myself dishing out money on it just yet, need to play Soul Nomad first...

Hmmm...
First of all I think they should go back to the roots. The first one was great and all the way till 4th. The tool usage was much more fun and interesting then the ones in 4th and 5th if you ask me. The battle system works fine too but it needs to be refreshed. I don't want to spoil it but lets just say that every character should have unique moves like before. The story, of course, needs to be interesting and not drag around. And they don't have to stick to formula ''from town to dungeon and so on''. Characters need to have a soul making them look alive something that would make them be believable, like the characters from Tales of the Abyss. Others said pretty much the rest.

I honestly didn't like the first two titles and only think the third is just decent so far as I'm playing through it.

As with many JRPG's it doesn't offer anything but the usual standard for the most part... There's nothing truly outstanding about the series in any way, and they don't program the game to have anything that really just jumps out at you. It's very standard fare.

That being said though I don't think the third is bad... But outside of that my experience with the series has left me somewhat unsatisfied. I did buy the fourth and fifth, so I guess we'll see what my thoughts are whenever I get to those titles.

I do agree it needs to improve as a series and offer more than the usual we've come to expect from the generations of console RPG's. A lot of JRPG's could use a booster shot.

Some improvements could be things along the lines of a new battle system... Maybe something that gets the user more involved and definitely get rid of the whole random battle structure ( If that is still present, haven't played beyond 3 ). Also I'd like to see ( As with any new RPG ) fully voiced titles for all characters regardless of their role or at least a graphical overhaul for the series.

Also I think the characters and storyline could go in a new direction but many RPG's suffer from this so I can't really totally fault Wild Arms for doin the same thing.

most of the time, WA characters have been great. only exceptions- WA3's Gallows and Prophets & the entire WA4 cast. the villains in WA5 could have gone with a costume change, but overall they were good.

one of the biggest changes that the WA series can use is a shift in the story audience. a shift to the mature audience or a darker story may change everyone's attitude towards the series. the latest stories have always been light-hearted, where as the first two's stories had a darker atmosphere (Adlehyde being destroyed, Jack and Rudy's past.)