is a role-playing video game developed by Media.Vision and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The game was released in Japan in 1996, in North America in 1997, and in Europe in 1998. It utilizes 2D computer graphics for navigating the world and setting, while battle sequences are rendered in 3D.
Wild Arms takes place in the world of Filgaia, a setting which blends both fantasy and Western genres. In Filgaia, bands of miscreants and adventurers called Dream Chasers scour the world in search of excitement and fortune. The player assumes control of a party of three such adventurers. Rudy can operate powerful weapons called Ancient Relic Machines (ARMs), forbidden remnants of a lost age that resemble firearms; Jack is a wandering swordsman struggling with a past failure; and Cecilia is a princess with the power to communicate with Guardians, powerful spirits of Filgaia. The group must use their respective skills to navigate through the wastelands and dungeons of Filgaia, and prevent an otherworldly threat from reviving their lost leader and destroying the world.
Despite its release being somewhat overshadowed by the hype for the upcoming Final Fantasy VII, Wild Arms was a critical and commercial success. There were relatively few RPGs available for the PlayStation in the North American market at the time, giving Wild Arms a clear field. In November 2003, an enhanced remake titled Wild Arms Alter Code: F was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan, with a North American version released in November 2005. Alter Code: F features a new graphical style, an expanded script, a remastered soundtrack, more playable characters, and additional gameplay scenarios.
Gameplay
Wild Arms is a role-playing video game. The player controls the party of three characters, Rudy, Jack, and Cecilia, as they explore the world of Filgaia, navigate its 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. As the game's story progresses, the player navigates through various dangerous areas filled with randomly appearing enemies, as well as set-piece boss encounters. Characters progress and grow more powerful by gaining experience points after a battle, finding ARMs (Rudy), discovering crest graphs used for magic spells (Cecilia), and mastering sword techniques prompted by various events in the game (Jack). Players can also find and purchase a variety of equipment, including weapons, armor, and consumable single-use items.
While exploring dungeons, various situations will block progress until they are solved, essentially serving as puzzles. The party finds a variety of devices called "Tools," unique to each character, which are used to solve these puzzles and continue onward. 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.
Battle system Combat is rendered in 3D graphics. Wild Arms employs a turn-based battle system, where the player inputs commands at the start of each round for each character. The order in which each character and enemy performs these actions is based on their "response" (RES) statistic, which denotes how quickly a particular character can act. Actions include attacking with their equipped weapon, performing unique skills, using items from their inventory, and fleeing from the combat. Enemy units are defeated when their hit points, a numerical representation of their vitality, reach zero.
Each of the three playable characters has a unique set of abilities that can be used to defeat enemies or aid party members. Rudy utilizes "ARMs", powerful attacks involving gun-like weapons, but that deplete a limited ammunition supply. Jack's "Fast Draw" sword techniques can damage opponents in various ways. Cecilia's magic has a variety of effects, including restoring hit points to the party, raising or lowering statistics, and damaging enemies with harmful spells. Additionally, a character can equip special items called "runes," allowing them to summon powerful Guardians to aid them in battle. New ARMs, Fast Draws, and magic spells can be acquired as the main story progresses.
During combat, each character has a "Force Bar" that grows through battle actions such as attacking, dodging, or receiving damage. Characters can spend this accumulated meter on powerful "Force Techniques". Each character eventually gets access to four such techniques. For example, Cecilia's "Mystic" ability allows an item to be used to cast a spell, while Jack's "Accelerator" lets him get a guaranteed first action in the combat round with a slight damage boost. More powerful skills cost more of the Force Bar.
Like normal equipment, Runes can be equipped that improve a character's statistics. Equipping these Runes has the added benefit of allowing a character to summon powerful magic creatures known as Guardians. These effects include attacking all enemies at once or aiding allies with beneficial magic. New runes can be obtained through both dungeon exploration and in certain story events. Most Guardian attacks, like Cecilia's magic, have an elemental designation that is more effective against certain enemies.
Plot Setting Wild Arms takes place in the world of Filgaia, a fantasy world. The technology of the world varies greatly, with some areas resembling medieval Europe, featuring cloistered monasteries and castles, while other areas resemble a frontier loosely akin to the American West. Advancements such as motors are found sporadically. Much of the technology is remnants recovered from the distant past by archaeologists and engineers who refashion it for the present day. Destructive technology such as ARMs (firearms) is seen as a dangerous and therefore forbidden technology that is feared by the general populace.
A thousand years before the main events of Wild Arms, a great war engulfed Filgaia between its original inhabitants, the humans and Elw, and an invading race called the Metal Demons. The Metal Demons had lost their own homeworld and sought to make Filgaia their new home. During the conflict, powerful weapons were developed, including mechanical golems and artificial warriors known as Holmcrosses, which combined metal and flesh. The humans eventually captured the demon's leader, "Mother," and sealed her within a castle in the tundra of Arctica. However, they were unable to destroy her regenerating body completely. With the aid of the Guardians, the protectors of Filgaia, she was imprisoned within a cocoon. Her heart was removed and torn into three pieces, and the pieces of her heart were placed inside three stone statues which were scattered across the world. The war came to an end, with the majority of the Metal Demons remaining either in seclusion or in their dimension. However, the conflict had devastated the surface of Filgaia, creating wastelands and leaving scars which still have not yet recovered in the present.Zeikfried: It's been 1000 years since we came here. The loss of our home world, Hiades... We came to this planet to make it our home... Power rules all. This place will belong to us. (Wild Arms)
If the title screen is left idle, an introductory scene plays depicting the more recent past. A group of metal demons invade Arctica Castle, kills the inhabitants, and reclaims the inert cocoon of Mother. The only seeming human survivors are two Fenril Knights of Arctica, Garret and Elmina, with Garret escaping.Ryan: 'A surprise attack within the snowstorm... Maybe they're after... Chief Coldbird, maybe the demons are after the cocoon?' Alhazad: '... I don't have much time, so let me get to the point... All right? Will you give me that thing you call a cocoon?'
Characters Wild Arms features three playable characters, each with a brief introduction at the start of the game. Rudy Roughnight (ロディ・ラグナイト Rodi Ragunaito; "Roughknight" in Alter Code: F) is a 15-year-old boy from a remote village who was orphaned several years prior to the start of the game when his grandfather died. Under the care of the town's mayor, Rudy worked as a farmhand for his neighbor. In his prologue, Rudy finds and rescues a local boy lost in a cave just outside town, yet inadvertently frees a zombie sealed within the cavern. He defeats the zombie and saves the village but alerts the villagers to his forbidden ARM weapon in the process, causing him to be cast out of the village.Townsperson: I know about you. You possess the ARM. The forbidden power! I know I shouldn't have, but I looked through your stuff the other day. The ARM has brought doom upon us all! (Wild Arms) He is forced into the life of an adventurer and Dream Chaser. Rudy is a silent protagonist, though he does have one line in the game. Jack Van Burace (ザック・ヴァン・ブレイス Zakku Van Bureisu) is a treasure hunter and swordsman-for-hire who is searching the world for the "ultimate power" that will allow him to confront his troubled past. In his prologue, Jack discovers an ancient holographic device within the Memory Temple bearing a warning from the lost race of the Elw, who had developed advanced technology. He sets off to the town of Adlehyde to find more information that will point him in the direction of his goal. Jack is accompanied by 'Hanpan,' a "wind mouse" that speaks and understands the human language and often acts as Jack's moral compass. Cecilia Lynn Adlehyde (セシリア・レイン・アーデルハイド Seshiria Rein Aderuhaido) is a young princess 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 Adlehyde royal family and departure from the school. Before she leaves, however, she is contacted by a mysterious voice who beckons her to a hidden library deep within the abbey. There she confronts and defeats a demon using her fledgling magic skills, and frees a powerful entity known as a Guardian from a sealed book. 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 instrumental in securing the future and reconstruction of the barren planet.
There are also various supporting characters and villains. Supporting characters include the scientist and golem-enthusiast Emma; Jane Maxwell, another wielder of ARMs like Rudy; and the sole remaining Elw in Filgaia, Mariel. The main antagonist group is the Quarter Knights, dedicated to the Metal Demon's cause: their leader Zeikfried, the scientist and magician Alhazad, the warrior Belselk, and the swordswoman Lady Harken. Belselk is later replaced by the demon Boomerang, accompanied by the Guardian Lucied. They are on a quest to revive Mother and reclaim a new homeland for the Metal Demons by re-igniting the war that occurred 1,000 years earlier.
Story