Wild Arms 4 AKA I feel like a 4 year old thats having Good and Evil explained

[BlueTsunami]

The game is alright so far...the good aspects are good the bad are just downright freaking horrible. I absolutely love the fan service that seems to be going one with some of the in game stuff, calling back to past Wild Arms...but dear god the story... . I'm also not good at these writeups...so if I sound like I'm rambling..its because I suck at writing impressions/reviews...

-

Gameplay: It rocks, I love love love the Hex System. It feels like a quick Mini SRPG battle. Trying to figure out how you want your characters placed for maximum effect rules  and the lay points add a good amount of strategy. None of the characters seem overly powerful...well...except for Raquel...shes a monster and Intrude is a crazy FP ability.

-

Customization: is one of the best aspects of this game. Having to choose between Ability Points or HP and MP makes you think about using up the points. The way the Ability system is setup rocks so much, its real different and it makes you want to level up so you can grab the higher abilities early on...allowing you to expend points for the higher abilites at the cost of MP and HP (also missout out on lower end abilities) is a fair trade off. One thing this is totally awesome is the fact that none of your choices are definitive and you can choose to mess around with point allocation to fit different scenarios.

-

Story: UGH. Oh man...just horrible. I hate it more than Wild Arms 2. Its just not the story either...its how the level designs seemed to be built around progressing dialogue between characters. Meaning, the levels are on rails...so this leads to a sequence of a convo between Jude and the Party between EACH AND EVERY****ING AREA. Its the most horrible thing ever. I mean...I want to get to Buckeye Station at one point and the game kept throwing linear running levels with no chests and lots and lots of boring dialogue...I wanted to kill someone...

The actual main storyline itself is wonky as ****. The whole thing about Good and Evil...the convos about the power the Government should have is just AHHHHH ****EN HORRIBLE. Its not smart at all, it feels like I'm listening to a South American talk to me about these thoughts in his/her broken english. The dude probably is intelligent in his native language but he sounds like a 4 year old when he tries to speak about how he views Good and Evil in English. Worst of all is that each dialogue sequence is chock full o' this shit.

When in game conversations progress like this...

Jude: HES A WAR CRIMINAL WAHHH WAHHHH

Arnaude: GOOD AND EVIL BLAH BLAH BLAH FOLLOWING YOUR HEART MEANS YOUR GOOD EVEN THOUGH YOU SLAUGHTERED PEOPLE

Jude: ...

Arnaude: ...

Raquel: ...

Yulie: ...

NPC: ...

Tree: ...

Raquel: SHUT UP ARNAUDE YOUR NOT AN ADULT SO STFU

Yulie: I'm sorry...

...I want to kill myself

-

I haven't finished the game...the main things that seems to be pushing me to finish is mainly to make my characters Godly, endgame content (optional stuff) and hearing about the actual development of ARMs. Everything else pertaining to the actual world of the game (and the struggles of the characters etc) I'm completely uninterested in.

Hopefully Wild Arms 5 is more bearable (which it sounds to be)

[Himu]

The gameplay sounds so fucking awesome and sold me ever since I saw the first trailer. Sucks about the plot tho.

[MrAngryFace]

Gameplay is broken, Raquel breaks it. After 10 hours in just base every attack on getting raquel up to bat. Chain her intrudes and ignore her special attacks, her default attacks are stupid powerful.

[BlueTsunami]

Gameplay is broken, Raquel breaks it. After 10 hours in just base every attack on getting raquel up to bat. Chain her intrudes and ignore her special attacks, her default attacks are stupid powerful.

Yep, the fact that she can consistently kill everyone on a Hex is crazy. Mix this with Yulie's ability to start off with 25FP at the start of battle = Raquel being able to attack two hex's thus wiping out a good amount of the enemy. Shes also overly powerful when it comes to boss battles.

I still like the battle system though, if WA5 keeps the same battle system but tweaks the balance, it should be awesome.

Note: Yulie's Material FP Ability is kinda crazy powerful too. You can easily wipe out a whole hex full of enemy in the right conditions.

[MrAngryFace]

She once killed this boss in the game when everyone in the team was dead cept her, she had like 200 hp, the boss still had TONS of health, if not a little under half, and I looked away from the tv as I was just pressing attack cause fuck im gonna die anyway might as well get it over with, and I look back, and she had somehow crit the boss and killed it.

I couldnt believe it.

Dont get me wrong, I like the game. And hell, im a lot more tollerant of the recycled japanese war stuff because I guess ive seen enough to not go OMG ANIMU STORY OMG OMG LAME. Final Fantasy 8 was an amazing RPG, but god DAMN if the story made less sense than either Tales of the Abyss or Wild Arms 4.

Hell, I liked Wild Arms 3 ONLY because the main character was determined and hardcore, and that usually sells me on a character.

[BlueTsunami]

I don't know MAF, I may have to revisit FF8 again since I haven't played it in years but WA4 is the worst Animu War storyline I've every had the pleasure of playing through. Throw in the Good and Evil borefest explanations and the childlike interpretation of it and I'm scared that I may become mentally ill after the game.

To its credit, I'm diggin the explanation of what ARMs are supposed to be even though the fact that it was supposed to save the environment was a bit of a Roll Eyes moment.

[MrAngryFace]

By worst, you must mean 'generic' because it IS generic. To me a worse story involves facts, events, themes all becoming so convoluted that it is difficult to tell what is trying to be said.

Wild Arms 4's story knows EXACTLY what its doing and ultimately its judgement comes down to 'I dont like generic animu or discussions on the morality of war'. Japanese just eat that shit up, wanna know why? A-Bomb.

[BlueTsunami]

I mostly agree but I think whats really affecting me is the fact that theres way to many dialogue sequences equally spaced out. It just ends up making everything feel forced (which I hate). I think if dialogue points were set up more naturally instead of putting them in as they did, I wouldn't hate it as much.

Its also the actual dialoge too. It just sounds really infantile to me. Its one of the first games like it that I'm started to develop a seething hate for the scenario. Seeing who did the translation for passed Wild Arms...this seems to be squarely XSEEDs fault.

[MrAngryFace]

Its not forced so much as its direct. Most of us cool cats have seen so much performance art/media that if we dont get some cool clever twist or perspective to our stories we DO yawn and roll our eyes.

Hey, and im with ya there. If I had a choice over say Legacy of Kain storyline vs Wild Arms 4, I would choose the tastier punch, but sometimes a horse is just a horse. Youre playing a Wild Arms game, they arent known for stunning tales woven with the best elements of storytelling.

Beating up B-List RPGs at the B-List Singles Bar is kinda silly.

[BlueTsunami]

Its true, though WA4 feels shallower than standard Wild Arms fare. Which is why its having a jarring effect on me I guess.

Oh and I also dislike the Final Fantasy X type of map system (or like Final Fantasy Tactics). Makes the game feel way to linear..I would rather have a false feeling of non linearity by having a World Map. Would help to be engrossed in the world too...this was a step back for the series. WA5 seems to have a Dragon Quest 8 type of overworld though...which is just awesome...

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Its also the actual dialoge too. It just sounds really infantile to me. Its one of the first games like it that I'm started to develop a seething hate for the scenario. Seeing who did the translation for passed Wild Arms...this seems to be squarely XSEEDs fault.

TRUST ME, the fault absolutely lies in the original Japanese scenario, which is poorly written sub-shonen shit. The English translation is actually a major improvement over the original Japanese.

[Van Cruncheon]

Wasn't Wild Arms 3 supposedly really well written, though?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Wasn't Wild Arms 3 supposedly really well written, though?

WA3 was at least passable, but it was still shonen-level nonsense. WA4 was so bad that even I, a non-native speaker, could tell I was being spoon-fed some really rank dialogue.

[Van Cruncheon]

Man, Kitsune over at Qt3 thought WA3 was some sort of work of RPG authorial genius.

BTW, have you played WA5? Is the resemblance to Skies of Arcadia supposed to be that obvious?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Most works of authorial genius don't suffer from such conspicious furigana. WA3 was shonen, through-and-through. Good shonen, perhaps, but still written at a 6th grade level.

Haven't played WA5--or even know anything about it, really. Does it have sky pirates?

[Van Cruncheon]

No, but it stars the Wild West version of Vyse, Aika, and Fina -- and the character biographies read the same. The Vyse-alike has two swords and is out looking for adventure; his pig-tailed red-haired sidekick is all spunk; and the mysterious Finaesque chick has white hair, a white dress, and is from a mysterious alien culture.

[MrAngryFace]

WA5 and Rogue Galaxy will probably be the closest things to Skies of Arcadia 2 that i'll get.

[BlueTsunami]

Its also the actual dialoge too. It just sounds really infantile to me. Its one of the first games like it that I'm started to develop a seething hate for the scenario. Seeing who did the translation for passed Wild Arms...this seems to be squarely XSEEDs fault.

TRUST ME, the fault absolutely lies in the original Japanese scenario, which is poorly written sub-shonen shit. The English translation is actually a major improvement over the original Japanese.

Nice, then I don't have to be afraid if XSEED takes on WA5

[BlueTsunami]

I finished the game like two days ago and I liked the ending a lot. It was sweet (not as in cool but cute). It left me with a warm feeling in my heart :blush

But yeah, I enjoyed the game...though I ended up disliking, overall, how the game was just contained to this one region. I ended up feeling like I was playing a role in a small aspect of the world instead of venturing out to the rest. I guess its different in that respect...almost like how FFT played out.

The end game content is kinda gay. I mean, the optional bosses are pussies and Ragu O Ragla doesn't give you shit...just experience. Which is corny because in the original WA he gave you the best Left Handed accessory in the game...in this game you get the same item via synthesization...meh