Heh, I find this game rather amusing. But I heard the sequel(s) aren't good. Never played them.

As for the game itself. It's a rather traditional-ish RPG... stereotyped characters ("rebel teenager", "scarred treasure hunter", "magical princess"), nothing much in the gameplay area, with regular attack-magic-item-escape commands. The most innovative thing in that area is the make-your-own-spell thing, that's just combining two elements to create a resulting custom spell. Nothing much, though.

The graphics are simply amazing. Not the in-battle ones, that are rather square-ish (and I'm not talking about the company ^^), but I still think it looks better than FF7.
The real amazing thing is the overworld graphs. Towns, dungeons and even some characters are masterfully and clearly executed. Places resemble places much more than usual, to the point of you having to spend 30 minutes of your time just to find your way around in the larger cities. Colorful, dynamic, even those birds that fly over you at the world map are a nice touch. ^^

As far as the story goes, I'm not very much able to tell because I just restarted playing it recently after leaving the game on the shelf for over 3 years, so I don't remember much. But so far, it seems nice. I can already smell religion trickery and god-fighting at the end of the game. Nothing innovative, but again, the way it is executed is an example to be followed ^^

Soundtrack? Unforgetable. Really. Truly truly amazing. In my opinion, anyway ^^
And the game achieves what very very few games managed up to this present day: to show a pre-Start sequence that surpasses that of Chrono Cross. By far. =D

So, anyone else played/plays it? What do you think?

I used to love the game... I liked running around twons and blowing things up with Rudy's bombs, a lot of fun.

I actually have Wild ARMs 3, though I haven't played very far into it, yet.

I'm a fan of the second but I never could find the first on PS1. I have it on PS2 as WA: Alter Code F along with 3&4.
I havn't gotten very far in WA:ACF. I stopped playing it when I got Xbox Live and have yet to return to it. But now you reminded me of it so I will give it a second chance.

Wild Arm is one of my favorites RPGs
I can still hear the whistling in the intro. It's a shame my copy doesnt work properly. =/
I never finished WA2 (but really want to), finished WA3 (didn't like it too much, but havent played WA4

Have you played Alter Code F? Is a remake of the first one with "improved" graphics (they lost their anime feeling, which I dont think is that good) new battle system (combines original one with WA3's if I remember correctly, better dialog (expanded on some ways, localized in other ways) and chance to use characters as [spoiler]the Elw girl whose name escapes me, Calamity Jane and his buttler, Prof. Emma and Zed! Only three of them are permanently recruited tho (Jane, Emma and Zed)[/spoiler]
So far that (and WA2) are the only of the series I own...

... Must have been years since I last played the first Wild Arms; it's almost as old as Final Fantasy VII, after all. Definitely a classic RPG.

I didn't think that the second WA was a very worthy sequel, especially in terms of music and difficulty of battle, but I can say that I liked five of the six protagonists in the party (which is a rare thing for me when it comes to RPG's; I am usually pretty strict on which party members meet my standards of coolness. ^_^) Lilka and Marivel for the win.

I must disagree with Guar, though, as I thought that Wild Arms 3 more than made up for 2. The only serious problem I had with 3 was that it had the absolute most horrible ending imaginable in RPG history, with the possible exception of the special ending in Nocturne (ugh ... just, ughhh). The villains, while usually pathetically easy to deal with, were all fairly interesting, and Virginia is one of the coolest female main characters around.

The introduction sequences to all three WA's were great. I definitely must play the fourth one sometime.

http://pizza.rpgmmag.com/art/totheendof ... erness.mp3

^____^

An old game indeed. I think it was one of my first non FF RPGs too...

Oh, and maybe I was a bit too harsh on WA3. I liked the different intros of that game. Instead of " I didn't like it too much" I was going to say "It wasn't memorable" but now that I remember, I stopped playing the game (can't remember the reason) and when I decided to keep playing, I just continued it from where I was left. I usually restart the game on such ocasions to refresh the story.
I did love the puzzle pyramid thingies, and hunt every single one of them.
And I never said I liked WA2 better. I haven't finished it yet. (And I hate leaving RPGs like that, that's why I really want to finish it)
But about Virginia, I didn't liked her.
I think the reason is that when I saw her in the cover, I thought she would be this serious grown woman. (And she only shows her back in it)
When I finally get the game, it turns out she is one overly optimistic 16 year old girl (She was still a refreshing lead character tho. Can't think of many RPGs where the lead character is a cowgirl)
Ah! thing I didn't like about WA3 was that everyone used ARMs. They didn't seem as special as they were in the previous one.

I've been getting a bit into 4. Nothing I haven't seen before, but it's enjoyable.

Ah, excellent work, Regal. The old whistling intro theme to the first Wild Arms takes me back to the good old days. ^_^

... You wouldn't happen to have a link to the intro themes of either the second or third Wild Arms as well, would you?

Ouch, Eagle... you really hurt my WA2 pride, there. Personally, I liked 2 best... Maybe you should try completing it one day before passing final judgement. yesno?

WA2 definately had the best cast of characters, if anything.

Huge fan of the series. I've played and beaten them all. I still love WA2 the most but WA holds a close second.

The cast of 2 was wonderful. The Cocytus group was a great band of villians. 2 was also one of the more exspansive games for it's time. I loved all the little tools and the characters were fantastic.

2 has an incredible score, with the opening theme being an orchestrated version of the WA1 intro. I also felt that 2 portrayed the dieing Filgaia the best as well. 2 Holds a firm position in my top 5 rpgs of all time.

Here are the first and second openers to WA2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsOIclP2H3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGxVKesK194

And here is the Japanese version of the above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gjObLMX2Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIon0zym8zk

And here is the opener to WA3 (which was nowhere near the caliber of 1 and 2 IMHO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoS9wjlRIyg

P.S. I will fight to the grave over the greatness of WA2

... The Japanese version of both Wild Arms 2 intros as well! Wheeeeee! Thanks, Kajak. I never saw the Japanese versions before.

Call me pedophilic if you wish, but Lilka IS sexy.

... Hee hee .... Lilka ....
(*blushes, swoons, and faints slowly anime-style to the floor*)

I will agree lol. But Kanon is soooooooooooooo much better ;P

... Then shall we compromise and say simply that Marivel beats them both?

(Only problem is, isn't Marivel a vampire? I'd probably spend too much time fearing for my life while being with her on a date.)

... But on that note, which of [spoiler]the Quarter Knights from Wild Arms 1 did any of you like the best? Personally, I really liked only Boomerang. He had kind of a lame name, but at least, unlike the others - Zed, Harken, Belselk, Alhazad, and Ziekfried - he could back up his big talk. You ever try fighting that guy in the battle arena?[/spoiler] Phew, ... no easy task ....

I actually only kinda liked Zieg and Boomerang. Which is part of why I love WA2. I positively love all the members of Cocytus.

In WA1... what the hell was Alhazad? Some horse-goat mix?

Regal, you're my idol =D
That song scores so much over any other opening songs ever. ^^ Really makes me go all chilly just listening to it =P

Btw, I'm trying my best ehre not to read spoilers for WA1... I completely forgot what it was all about...
Though I'm already preparing to enter Lolithia's Tomb... for the first time ('cause my gaming experience tells me there will be more times). So... YES!!
</slow>

heh, glad you guys appreciated it ^___^

unfortunately i've only got that one... but it's a good one, imo ^^

Funny, I have played each game in the series except for the first one. I was first introduced to the series with WA2. Rather liked the game... up until the second disk. Just throw that second disk out the window, folks!

WA3, I found pretty boring actually. I don't know why, it just didn't work with me.

WA4, that is an awesome game. The story was well done, plus it had a whole new combat system. The game wasn't very hard, but practically all of the WA are like that. I also liked how the bad guys weren't exactly bad. They were trying to safe the planet the way they thought was right. Plus it is the first in the series, to my knowledge, that has an actual new game+.


Wild Arms was released in '96 so it is the older of the two.