Wild Arms

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This article is about the first game in the Wild Arms series. For the series itself, see Wild Arms (series).

Wild Arms
Developer(s)	Media.Vision
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
Designer(s)	Akifumi Kaneko (lead designer) Yoshihiko Ito (character designer) Michiko Naruke (composer)
Release date(s)	JPN December 20, 1996 NA April 30, 1997 PAL October 6, 1998
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) / E (Everyone)
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Media	1 CD-ROM
Input	PlayStation Controller

Wild Arms (Japanese:ワイルドアームズ,, "Wairudo Āmuzu"^?) is a role-playing game developed by software company Media.Vision and originally released in Japan in 1996 for the Sony Playstation video game console and was later translated and released in North America in 1997 and Europe in 1998 by Sony Computer Entertainment.^[1] It is noteworthy for not only being one of the first role-playing video games on the PlayStation,^[2] but one of the few to feature an Western American setting and motif. The game features two-dimensional graphics for normal game play, while battle sequences are rendered in 3D.^[3]

Taking place in the fantasy world of Filgaia, Wild Arms follows the adventures of a band of miscreants and adventures called Dream Chasers who scour the world in search of excitement and fortune. The player must assume control of a young boy named Rudy who has the ability to operate powerful weapons called ARMs ("Ancient Relic Machines"), forbidden remnants of a lost age that resemble guns. Along with his companions Jack and Cecilia, the group must use their respective skills to navigate through the vast wastelands and dungeons of Filgaia and prevent an otherworldly threat from reviving their lost leader and destroying the world.^[4]

In November 2003, an enhanced remake of Wild Arms titled Wild Arms Alter Code: F was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan, with a North American version produced two years later in 2005.^[5] In addition to enhanced graphics, Alter Code: F also features an expanded script, remastered soundtrack, new characters, and additional gameplay scenarios.^[6]

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Battle system 1.2 Guardian system 2 Plot 2.1 Setting 2.2 Characters 2.3 Story 3 Development 4 Audio 5 Reception 5.1 Critical response 5.2 Legacy 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Wild Arms is a traditional console role-playing game that involves the player controlling up to three characters, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia, as they progress through a number of environments, battle enemies, and solve puzzles. The game is presented in a top-down two-dimensional fashion where the player has an overhead view of all the action taking place on a particular screen.

In order to advance, the player must overcome a number of story-based scenarios and sequences that involving navigating through harsh dungeons while fighting monsters and other enemies that appear randomly every few steps. Characters progress and grow by gaining experience points after a battle and thereby gain levels, giving them better statistics and making them able to battle increasingly more difficult enemies. Progressively more powerful armor and weapons can be purchased for each character from specialized shops in towns throughout the world, and new skills can be learned to help the player complete tougher challenges.

Special devices called "Tools" unique to each character allow the player to transverse otherwise impassable situations while not in battle. These items are obtained at certain points in the game, and allow hidden areas or pathways to be discovered, as well as destroy objects and solve puzzles. Rudy's bomb tool, for example, can demolish large rocks and other impediments, while Jack's grappling hook allows the party to cross large gaps and chasms while avoiding traps.^[7]

[edit] Battle system

Unlike normal gameplay, where all character and background graphics are two-dimensional, combat is rendered entirely in 3D. Wild Arms uses a turn-based battle structure where the player inputs commands at the start of each combat round and the designated actions take place. The order in which each character and enemy performs these actions are based on their "response" (RES) statistic, a numerical designation that denotes how quickly a particular character can act. The higher a character's response, the more likely they are to act before an enemy.^[8] The player has the option every round to either use a restorative item from their inventory, use a special skill, run from combat, or attack. Enemy units are defeated when their hitpoints, a numerical designation of their vitality, reaches zero. Hit points can be reduced by attacking an enemy, either with standard attacks or spells.

Each of the three playable characters have a unique set of abilities that can be used to defeat enemies or aid party members. Rudy utilizes "ARMs", powerful yet limited attacks involving gun-like weapons that rely on a set number of bullets, Jack's "Fast Draw" sword techniques can damage opponents in a variety of ways, and Cecilia's magic can either benefit the party by restoring hitpoints and raising statistics, or damage enemies with harmful spells.^[7] Additionally, a character can equip special items called "runes" that allow them to summon powerful Guardians to aid them in battle. New skills are acquired through normal gameplay, completing certain objects, or purchasing them from an in-game shop.

During combat, each character has a "Force Bar" divided into 4 equal-sized sections called levels. As the bar's level increases, the player is given access to one of four "Force Techniques", made available through different areas of gameplay. These techniques allow a character to perform a special action each time they attack or use a skill, adding to their overall effectiveness. Cecilia's "Mystic" ability, for example, allows an item used by her to affect all characters instead of one, and Jack's "Accelerator" gives him the option of acting first in the next combat round, regardless of his or the enemy's speed.^[9] The more effective the skill, the more Force Bar levels the move requires.

[edit] Guardian system

Like normal equipment, Runes can alter a character's statistics to make them more proficient in certain areas of combat, such as raising their "strength" (STR) stat, thereby increasing the damage caused by normal attacks. Equipping these items has the added benefit of allowing a character to call upon powerful magic creatures to attack all enemies at once or aid allies with beneficial magic. Runes can be obtained either in hidden areas within dungeons, or simply whenever the story wills it. Each Guardian's attack, like Cecilia's magic, has a certain elemental designation that is more effective against certain enemies.^[7]

[edit] Plot

[edit] Setting

Wild Arms takes place in the world of Filgaia ("Fargaia" in the original Japanese version), a fantasy world modeled closely after the American Old West and Medieval Europe.^[6] The Wild West motif is present throughout the entirety of the game, and though several different landforms and climates exist across the entirety of the world, vast deserts, wide gorges, canyons, and sparse grasslands make up the majority of the landscape. A number of towns and villages exist, some containing old-world European architecture and castles, while others resemble early American frontier towns and trade posts. Technology at the time of the game is set around the early Industrial Revolution, with advancements such as motors first coming into use. A recurring theme throughout the game is destructive technology such as guns and firearms being seen as dangerous and therefore forbidden technology that is feared by the general populace. Since most of the world's most advanced technology existed centuries before the start of the game, archaeologists and engineers are essentially one and the same; rediscovering old technology as they find new applications for it.

[edit] Characters

In addition to several supporting characters and villains, Wild Arms features three playable characters.

Rudy Roughnight ("Rody Roughnight" in the Japanese version^[10] and "Rudy Roughknight" in subsequent English translations) is a 15 year-old boy from a remote village who was orphaned several years before the beginning of the game when his grandfather Zepet passed away. Under the care of the town's mayor, Rudy worked as a farmhand for his neighbor until the day a local boy, searching for medicinal herbs to heal his ailing father, became lost in a cave just outside of town. Rushing to save him, Rudy eventually finds ands rescues the child, yet inadvertently frees a demon sealed deep within the cavern's inner sanctum. He is able to defeat the demon and save the village, but alerts the villagers to his forbidden ARM weapon in the process, causing him to be cast out of the village and live on his own, adopting the life of an adventurer and drifter.^[11] Rudy's character exemplifies the role-playing game archetype of the silent protagonist, and is meant to act as the player's extension into the Wild Arms game, thus having no speaking lines of his own.

Jack Van Burace ("Zakk Vam Brace" in the Japanese version)^[12] is a treasure hunter and swordsman-for-hire who is searching the world for the mysterious "ultimate power" that will allow him to confront and sort out his troubled past. Upon the discovery of an ancient holographic device within a ruin, Jack learns of the long lost race of Elws who had developed several forms of high technology. He then sets off to the town of Adelhyde to find more information that will point him in the direction of his goal.^[11] Jack is constantly accompanied by his partner Hanpan, a "wind mouse" who is able to speak and understand the language of humans, and, though arrogant, often acts as Jack's moral compass.

Cecilia Lynne Adelhyde ("Cecilia Raynne Adelheid" in the Japanese version)^[13] is a young apprentice magician who has spent most of her life studying at the Curan Abbey magic school. Her 17th birthday at the beginning of the game marks her official ascension into the Adelhyde royal family and departure from the school. Before she can leave, however, Cecilia is contacted by a mysterious voice who beckons her to a hidden library deep within the academy's halls. It is there that she confronts and defeats a demon using her fledgling magic skills, and frees a powerful entity known as a "Guardian" from a sealed tome. The Guardian informs Cecilia that her royal blood allows her to be a medium between the real world and the spirit dimension occupied by the avatars of all the world's elemental forces, and that she will be detrimental in securing the future and reconstruction of the barren planet.^[11]

[edit] Story

A thousand years before the events of Wild Arms, a war raged between the inhabitants of Filgaia and demonic invaders seeking to turn the planet into their new home. After a fierce struggle, the humans managed to capture the demon's leader, "Mother", and sealed her deep within a castle in the tundra of Arctica. Unable to completely destroy her constantly regenerating body, the people of Arctica imprisoned her within a chrysalis, keeping it closed with a magic seal maintained by three stone statues which they later spread across the world. With their leader gone, a majority of the demons disappeared, with only a few remaining in seclusion over the next few centuries, eventually launching an attack on the castle to reclaim the incapacitated body of Mother.^[14][15] Succeeding in their mission, a small band of demon warriors known as the Quarter Knights kept watch over the body of Mother in their massive fortress hidden behind a force field, and began gathering information as to the whereabouts of the guardian statues with the hope of one day reviving her and claiming Filgaia as their own.^[16]

As time passed, talk of the ancient invasion began to dwindle, though stories of demonic weaponry such as "ARM" guns and robotic soldiers still persisted in the minds of many. When a mysterious child named Rudy was left in the care of the mayor of the small town of Surf, he came with an ARM at his side. The mayor, fearing for the child's safety, hid the weapon and raised him as his own.^[17] Until he was 15, Rudy lived a quiet life in Surf until it was discovered that he had the ability to psychically link with and operate his forbidden weapon, a trait only attributed to a few people, and was cast out of the village from fear of misfortune.^[18]

Making his way to the city of Adelhyde, Rudy meets Cecilia, a magician-in-training and successor to the Adelhyde royal family, and Jack, a headstrong treasure hunter. The trio teams up for the first time as hired muscle for a local engineer named Emma, who is researching ancient technology in a nearby tomb and believes a remnant of the Demon Wars may be inside. Upon discovering the object, a deactivated robotic creature called a "golem", the three adventurers escort Emma and their discovery back to Adelhyde to exhibit it at the town's annual festival.^[19] During the event, where several other golem creatures are on display, a small army of demons led by the Quarter Knights precede to burn the town, steal the golems, and critically injure Cecilia's father, the king. In order to spare the remaining people of Adelhyde, Cecilia gives the Quarter Knights her family heirloom, a pendant called the Tear Drop that has magic properties which the demons believe can be used as a catalyst for reviving their leader.^[20] When the invaders recall from the town, Rudy and his friends make a pact to stop the Knights from taking control of Filgaia, and to restore balance to the weakening elemental forces of the world that have been in decline since the demons' initial invasion.

Traveling across Filgaia, the heroes make their way to the long-abandoned Guardian Temple to gain the alliance of the mystical guardians who maintain the forces of nature across the planet. Once befriended,^[21] the Guardians tell Rudy and his companions that the demons have already begun to revive their leader, and have only to lift the seal on her cocoon-like prison by destroying the three scattered statues that lie across Filgaia.^[22] Utilizing ancient Elw technology in the form of teleportation devices, the group travels the world to stop the Quarter Knights from destroying the statues, but fail in each attempt. The consequent resurrection of Mother occurs, yet the demons are informed by their leader that it is her intention of destroying Filgaia rather than subjugating it, and tells her followers that their own deaths will follow soon after.^[23]

Realizing that the only way to defeat the demons is to confront them in their stronghold, the Protosphere, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia gather the necessary materials to enter the tomb of the last remaining golem, Asgard. Convincing him to aid them in their struggle,^[24] Asgard destroys the protective seal around the Protosphere, granting Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia access. With the aid of a mysterious hooded figure, the heroes are able to re-acquire Cecilia's Tear Drop, now acting as the power source to the entire fortress, and confront a weakened Mother directly, destroying her body just as the Protosphere sinks into the ocean. Thinking the worst to be over, the trio begins to depart for Adelhyde when they are confronted by the Quarter Knights, who inform them of their plan to take over Filgaia in their maniacal leader's absence.^[25] The demons then attempt to disrupt the planetary ray line which runs under Filgaia in an effort to destroy all humanity, but are stopped at the last moment, with Zeikfried, the Quarter Knight's leader, being thrown through a rift in space at the battle's end. Finding himself transported to the underwater wreckage of the Photosphere, Zeikfred is met by a deformed visage of Mother, who consumes him.^[26]

Once inside the demon's newly-arisen stronghold of Ka Dingel, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia confront what remains of their adversaries before reaching the teleportation device to take them to the lunar base of Malduke. Within Malduke's deepest sanctum, they confront a weakened Zeikfried, who completely transforms into a revived Mother. This new being, Motherfried, confronts the heroes with the intent of using Malduke's primary weapon to destroy Filgaia, yet is defeated.^[27]

With Malduke's cannon deactivated, and Mother's dark influence on the world gone, the Guardians are able to pool together their strength and revive the world. Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia board the teleportation device to be transported back to Filgaia, only to be stopped in mid-voyage by what is left of Zeikfried's body. The weakened Zeikfried launches a last desperate assault on the heroes, and, though defeated in the end, warns that they may not make it home without the energy of the teleporter tearing them apart.^[28] Narrowly escaping through the portal to Filgaia, the trio arrives at Ka Dingel just as it collapses, with the golem Asgard arriving to shield them from the falling debris. With the demons defeated and nature beginning to revive, Jack and Rudy set off on a new journey while Cecilia remains in Adelhyde to fulfill her duties as ruler. In a letter she writes Jack and Rudy, she tells them that she will send them a surprise to help them on their future adventures, and shows up shortly after to join them on a new quest.^[29]

[edit] Development

Wild Arms was developed by Japanese software company Media.Vision and initially released in Japan in late 1996. New to the role-playing game market, Media.Vision had previously released the "run and gun"-styled shooter game Rapid Reload for the PlayStation a year before Wild Arms's debut. Under the direction of producer Takashi Fukushima and game designer Akifumi Kaneko, Wild Arms was developed to be a traditional console role-playing game that would incorporate an American Old West theme with anime-styled story elements and action sequences.^[30] Character designer Yoshihiko Ito was responsible for all major character designs.^[31]

First appearing as a video demo on the promotional PlayStation Jampack vol. 1 in January 1997,^[32] the full English version of Wild Arms was made available three months later in March 1997 by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Being released just before the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) updated their video game ratings system, the game thus received two separate North American ratings: first, "Kids to Adults" (K-A), and later "Everyone" (E) for copies released after January 1, 1998, though both versions contained the same software and catalog number. Wild Arms was later translated to both French and German for its release in the PAL region in late 1998, published by Sony Computer Entertainment's European division.

Wild Arms features an opening sequence by Japanese animation studio Madhouse,^[31] with accompanying music by game composer Michiko Naruke titled "Into the Wilderness". The song was arranged by Kazuhiko Toyama and features melancholy whistling by Naoki Takao.^[33]

[edit] Audio

Main article: Wild Arms albums

Wild Arms' soundtrack was composed entirely by Michiko Naruke^[34] and is heavily inspired by American westerns, featuring instrumentation from mandolins, acoustic and electric guitars, finger cymbals, trumpets, and whistling to produce an Old West sound to fit the game's setting and stylistic approach. A classical theme is also present in many tracks, with the melody being provided by string instruments and deep drums to heighten the mood or increase tension.^[35] The game's overworld theme "Lone Bird in the Shire", contains the melody from Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstasy of Gold" originally from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.^[35] The Wild Arms Original Game Soundtrack was initially released in Japan on January 22, 1997, and was re-printed two years later.^[36] This version contained only a one-disc sample of the game's music, and after the release of the enhanced remake Wild Arms Alter Code: F and its arranged soundtrack, a complete version of the original Wild Arms soundtrack containing all of the game's music titled Wild Arms Complete Tracks was released on April 6, 2006.^[37]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Critical response

Wild Arms garnered a reasonable amount of respect upon its release in early 1997. An issue of Game Informer magazine stated it was "by far one of the best action RPGs of the year"^[38] praising the game's use of 3D battle graphics in addition to a colorful 2D graphics of normal gameplay. An online GamePro review in 2000 remarked that while the game's graphics had not aged well three years after its release, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable game, earning it a perfect "fun factor" score and an Editor's Choice award.^[39] The game maintained above-average reviews on both GameSpot and IGN websites, and received an above-average score of 8.75 out of 10 in Electronic Gaming Monthly, earning it a "Silver Award", a distinction given to games with a score of 8.0-8.9.^[40] The game maintains an 83.3% average rating on Game Rankings, pooling reviews from 14 separate online sources.^[40]

Major criticism of Wild Arms comes from its myriad of puzzles and mini-games that resemble those found in an action game, described as being "extremely action oriented, which may be frustrating to RPG fans who don't have the quickest of reflexes".^[41] The game was also heavily compared to the blockbuster role-playing game Final Fantasy VII, released five months later, which in turn led to Wild Arms being designated as a game that would "suppress your appetite for Final Fantasy VII".^[4] GameSpot would additionally declare that Wild Arms graphics, though impressive, were not the industry standard at the time, remarking: "Although it's no Final Fantasy VII, Wild Arms looks great."^[41]

[edit] Legacy

Main article: Wild Arms Alter Code: F

The Wild Arms series has grown to several games since the original title's release, with a fourth sequel released in Japan in December 2006, mobile phone adaptations, a manga,^[42] and a Wild Arms anime distributed by ADV Films.^[43] While none of these directly follow the story of Wild Arms, or expand upon its characters and time line, they are all part of similarly designed worlds that feature many of the same landscapes, themes, and motifs. The original Wild Arms is also the only game in the series to have its own enhanced remake, Wild Arms Alter Code: F, released in November 2005 for the PlayStation 2.^[44] This version, while retaining the original's characters, story, and plot, expands upon them with a revised and expanded game script, additional story sequences, and game mechanics restructured from the ground up.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wild Arms at IGN
• Wild Arms at MobyGames
• RPG Dreamer, Wild Arms page
• Filgaia.com - An unofficial Wild Arms fansite

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