After spending close to 50 hours traveling around the world of Filgaia once more in the Wild Wild West setting of the fifth installment to the RPG series known as, "Wild Arms", I have decided to post a review about the game, since I do believe it is deserving of one. So, without further ado...
Graphics: 8/10
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The graphics for Wild Arms 5 are gorgeous in comparison to other installments I believe. I have played all of the installments so far, all the way from 1 to the remake of 1, Alter Code F and I have to say..the graphics shown in Wild Arms 5 are absolutely great. Now, to be fair..the graphics on a whole may not be that intriguing for those looking for top-notch pixels, but for the Wild Arms series, these really shine. All of the characters had great detail put in them, all of the movements were really fluid when attacking, the cutscenes look nice as well, and the world as a whole looks really great, so I am proud to say this installment really is eye candy in this category and if you have played the others, you will be able to appreciate them as much as myself.
Story: 4/10
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I'll be honest. The story wasn't all that compelling. It's a very generic written story of, "This man is trying to erase humanity to create a new world, you must defeat his subordinates, then defeat the man himself in order to stop him". I wasn't too overly excited about the story, since we have seen this done plenty of times before. I wouldn't mind so much if it was executed properly, but really..you're pretty much just blindly saving the world, just because. A lot of things are rather pretty vague, as in, "Oh no! He's going to do THAT! We have to stop him!!". Once again, I wasn't too thrilled about the story in general, so I give it a 4 out of 10.
Characters: 8/10
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I personally thought the cast for Wild Arms 5 was rather interesting and every character had something you could like about them. I believe there's someone for just about anybody in this cast, so you're sure to find a character you like among the six you play as. The main hero, Dean is your typical, "I'll never give up!" kind of guy. You'll hear that line a good 20 times or so through the whole game. In Wild Arms, the hero is always a country bumpkin and in this installment, that has not changed. Dean has the personality of a pretty dense guy, so he doesn't know a whole lot and just goes based on feelings. He's pretty simple, really. You leave town in the beginning with your childhood friend Rebecca, who is always watching over Dean and is a little smarter than he is, then your adventure begins as you find other members to join your party, all the way from a rough looking guy who is pretty tough to a loli (which is apparently needed in ANY roleplaying game). So, as I stated before, the whole cast of six is pretty interesting in their own way and I think there's someone for everybody.
Gameplay: 9/10
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This game uses something known as the "Hex system" which places a bunch of hexagons on the field during battle. You can place all three characters in the same hexagon or spread them about. If you have all of your characters in the same hex, then when an enemy attacks, all of you will take damage, however..this works for you as well. If two or three enemies are in the same hex, then when you attack, you will hurt them all, so depending on how you play your cards, you can take advantage of the system. There are also elements placed on random hexagons. These hexagons are known as, "Ley Points". If you have a skill known as, "Hi-Blast", "Crush" or "Heavy Crush" and you are standing on one of these hexagons, your neutral based attack will then turn into an elemental attack, based on the hex you are standing on. There are also status effects (such as "Def up" or "Atk up") you can place on the hex which will affect all party members that are standing in the hex. You can also perform team attacks if certain party members are placed in the same hex together. You have a gauge which builds in the middle of battle known as, "Force level" and the higher it gets, the better it is for your party, because you can then use say, 50% of the gauge to perform a team attack or 75% for a character to use a skill known as "Intrude" and get two consecutive turns. The hex system was first introduced in Wild Arms 4. I honestly thought it was awkward and didn't like it that much till towards the end of Wild Arms 4, but when I picked up Wild Arms 5, it felt natural and I just came to enjoy it more and more as I progressed further. I believe the hex system is an interesting concept and thoroughly enjoyed this title due to this battle system.
Sound: 8/10
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The music for Wild Arms 5 resembles its predecessors by sticking to the Wild Wild West atmosphere for most of the world. For the places that don't have a Western sound to them, I think they did a fine job with the music for those areas as well. The battle themes were great and I thoroughly enjoy the fact that they left the Japanese vocal songs in the Stateside release. I was surprised at that, but I'm really glad they kept them. If you've played any of the other installments for Wild Arms, that's the kind of music you can expect to hear in this installment as well. As they say, "If it's not broke, don't fix it". As for the dubbing..well, it was alright for the most part, but there were some instances I felt like ripping my hair out. However, I won't go too much into the dubbing. I will say though, if you feel inclined to do so, you can go into the options and adjust every character's voice to a certain level, going from 0 (silent) to 10, I believe. It's like setting priorities for voices. I had Dean's voice set at a 3, since he could get annoying at times. For the character's you do like, you can keep their voices up..OR...if you just don't like ANY of the dubbing, you can just turn all of the voices off. So, seeing as you are given that freedom, I can't really complain about the dubbing too much.
Replay Value: 7/10
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Wild Arms 5 is a rather big game. It took me nearly 50 hours to beat and that was without me completing everything in the game. There a few sidequests to do and some of them are quite time consuming (like opening every treasure chest in the world). Also, you have something known as an EX File you can start after you beat the game which allows you to carry over all of your equipment, money, battle items and key items. However, your levels don't carry over, nor do your team attacks, so you have to re-learn those. Not really a pain, but kind of silly to do over again, regardless. So, after beating the game, if you opened all of the chests in the world your first playthrough, that doesn't matter. You will have to re-open all of them once more on your EX File, if you want to complete everything in the game. I'd say this game has a good 120 hours worth in it, beating it once, then clearing an EX File with everything complete.
Overall Score: 7/10
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The 4 really dragged this down. If it wasn't for that, I would rate it an 8 out of 10. When playing an RPG, people are generally dragged in by the story, so for a lot of gamers, I can see that being the decisive moment for picking this title up or not. If you're looking for something story driven, I wouldn't recommend picking this title up. I enjoyed all of the features of the game, so I was able to overlook such a thing, but overall..if you're a fan of Wild Arms, I'd say this is worth a buy, but if you're just a fan of RPGs in general, just give it a rent. If you think the game has enough potential to keep you hooked, despite lacking a decent story, then you can consider buying it. Other than that, I enjoyed this title and would certainly recommend this to any Wild Arms fan. Dust off that old ARM and get ready for yet another great adventure through the world of Filgaia.
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