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Wild Arms 4 earlier thoughts

B

Bebpo

Banned
[23:46] Bebpo: ok, WA4 is all sorts of wierd and wtf
[23:46] Bebpo: like all I remember about WA3 was it was a wild west rpg
[23:46] Bebpo: WA4 is like Rahxephon
[23:47] Bebpo: which is like wtf
[23:47] Bebpo: and there are crazy ARMS weapon materializing things
[23:47] Bebpo: and MATERIAL which shows huge CG FMV summons of DRAGONS which turn into DATA
[23:47] Bebpo: I have no clue wtf this game is about
[23:51] Bebpo: so like WA4 is almost a DVD9
[23:51] duckroll: almost?
[23:51] Bebpo: but WHERE IS THE VOICE ACTING!?!
[23:51] Bebpo: there's like 2 lines of voiced for every 30 story line
[23:52] Bebpo: but WA4 uses the XS way of cutscenes
[23:52] Bebpo: real-time engine
[23:52] Bebpo: FMV
[23:52] duckroll: hahaahahhahahaha
[23:52] Bebpo: the hex battle system is ok
[23:52] Bebpo: it's still a shitty WA battle system
[23:52] Bebpo: but there's a little more depth in it
[23:52] duckroll: so WA4 sucks?
[23:53] Bebpo: dunno, the intro was kinda boring
[23:53] Bebpo: the fights are kinda slow and boring
[23:53] Bebpo: it's a wild arms game
[23:53] duckroll: :\
[23:53] Bebpo: the only thing keeping me interested is that the world view is wierd
[23:53] Bebpo: it's like a total RX rip
[23:53] Bebpo: so I'm curious to see how it plays out
[23:57] Bebpo: the game isn't bad but it's the definition of average
[23:57] Bebpo: the battle system is just slow and meh
[23:57] Bebpo: the dungeon side-scrolling parts are meh
[23:57] Bebpo: the lack of voice acting is dumb
[23:57] Bebpo: and the dialogue is long-winded like WA3
[23:58] Bebpo: oh and yea so in battle the girl has a material command
[23:58] Bebpo: depending on what hex you use it on you summon a different CG dragon
[23:58] Bebpo: that's like a FF7 length summon
[23:58] Bebpo: all FMV
[23:58] Bebpo: pretty nice CG
[23:58] Bebpo: and then the dragon turns into data streams
[23:58] Bebpo: and the enemy gets attacked
[23:59] Bebpo: and it seems to do insane damage and kills all enemies in 1 hit
[23:59] Bebpo: and I don't see any downpoint to using it
[23:59] Bebpo: so yea...
[23:59] Bebpo: the best part about the hex system is that it adds elemental stuff to attacks. Like the 2nd guy has an explosion spell. But if you use it on a blue hex it's a water spell/ red hex = fire spell
[00:00] duckroll: sounds broken

sounds like

WA
-----

Yea, umm I'll give it some more time tomorrow. But I think it's safe to say that if you didn't like WA3, WA4 won't do anything for you. The only major improvement so far is no location searching on the map.
 
you are saving me 7000 yen Bebpo... us English teachers can't afford to buy games we won't play!
 
Well Bebpo also described the worldview and intro in the game which sounds really really cool as far as the plot goes BUT this is a Wild Arms games so it'll probably most be wasted anyway. :(
 
duckroll said:
Well Bebpo also described the worldview and intro in the game which sounds really really cool as far as the plot goes BUT this is a Wild Arms games so it'll probably most be wasted anyway. :(
Click to expand...

Yea I left out the description of the opening hour (which is a really interesting start for a plot) because I don't want to spoil it for people. It's a neat setting, but that won't mean much if the game is ends up being average.
 
good comments thanks. I eagerly await your future impressions. I didn't enjoy WA3 due to the weaksauce and slow battle system this doesn't sound much better.
 
Sony makes the best damn trailers for the WA games... esp PS2 era... I thought this was going to be the bomb when I saw the trailer playing in the game shops... that's how they got me with WA3
 
john tv said:
You just described the entire Wild Arms series in 10 words. Nice work!
Click to expand...

I thought the first one was *REAL* good... not as good as Lufia 2 but some interesting plot twists and awesome awesome music. The second one just felt very 'meh' and I've had the 3rd one sitting on the shelf, still shrinkwrapped, for like 2 years now :P
 
how is that like rahxephon? ^_^;;

(i hate rahxephon so you've set off my alarms)

this game actually looked interesting. way, way more interesting than alter code F... oh well. like i need more RPGs to play anyway.
 
Bebpo said:
Yea I left out the description of the opening hour (which is a really interesting start for a plot) because I don't want to spoil it for people.
Click to expand...


Can you type that out with spoiler tag please? I'm really curious on what the story is about. Is it related to WA1 at all?
 
The first Wild Arms was quite good I thought.

Well, the gameplay was kind of average and the story was kinda good, but...

...that one twist, I didn't see it coming at all. It was just such an awesome scene and I was geniuely suprised.
 
ferricide said:
how is that like rahxephon? ^_^;;

(i hate rahxephon so you've set off my alarms)
Click to expand...

For you and Jiggle.

Game starts off with the main kid living in a little foresty happy town. The NPCs of the town talk about how life is nice and it's like 'time never moves'. One day the kid goes to pick berries and he looks up and the sky shatters like glasses in a section and a mechanical ship crashes down. He investigates and finds the other playable guy and then finds the girl locked up. The main guy says 'I've never seen a girl before' Anyhow he gets back to his town, the army wants the ARM that the town is hiding in a coffin, the kid ends up touching and a gun comes out and he goes nuts destroying the town's generator like thing. The adults of the town freak out and put him and the other 2 playable characters in an evacuation shuttle thing (which you assume they will launch in the sky), and then after they close it the other guy is like "how is this a [launch] shuttle IF WERE ABOVE THE SKY!!" and then big explosion and you see pieces of the dome thing falling from the sky. The kid opens the shuttle's door and their in a huge ocean that is in a post WWIII looking world. At the island they arrive on there are old destroyed tanks. And then you have the summons being dragons that turn into data streams, so you get the feeling from the intro that the game's world premise is definitely not 'normal' and you're curious about what the story is. But.....the dialogue is long, heavy-handed, and boring! So that kinda kills it.


this game actually looked interesting. way, way more interesting than alter code F... oh well. like i need more RPGs to play anyway.
Click to expand...

Yea, we were hoping this was like the WA team waking-up and trying to better themselves. But in the end it was just a nice trailer and the game is actually just like WA3.

I actually realized that my biggest beef with WA3 and now WA4 is something kinda simple and stupid. THERE ARE NO HIT SOUND EFFECTS. Like when you shoot a beam or a gun or do a spell there is no hard sound of it actually hitting the enemy, I find that personally grating for some reason ^^;
 
A bit off topic bebpo but did you try out Bleach on PSP yet ? I"d really like to hear if its a decent game becuase I love the show and the screens made it look good.

Tis a shame about wild arms the trailer made it look somewhat fun.
 
'cause it just is'nt Wild Arms without a festering dose of mediocrity! Shame, early previews made the game out to be a bit interesting. Though im not surprised its still same ol WA :lol
 
Pachinko said:
A bit off topic bebpo but did you try out Bleach on PSP yet ? I"d really like to hear if its a decent game becuase I love the show and the screens made it look good.
Click to expand...

I made a thread, but rather than read it I'll just tell you it's not a good game. Good fighting engine but long 15+ sec loadtimes + 30fps or below framerate + only 6 characters(story only goes up to about ep15 of the anime, vol.5 of the manga) = rip-off for $50 even if your a big Bleach fan (I am). Bleach 2 for a real console at 60fps, quick loading, and 20+ characters featuring all the taicho/fuku-taicho will be the best anime fighter to date if it gets made.

Tis a shame about wild arms the trailer made it look somewhat fun.
Click to expand...

Sony is good at pumping out fun looking trailers, but nothing can save Contrail as an rpg developer. They seriously seem like they haven't improved/learned anything since WA1 so many years ago.

Legaia 2 was probably their best game in retrospect even if it had problems and was slow.
 
Bebpo thanks for the impressions. News of being similar to Rahxephon in ways and hearing the game is average took it completely off my radar.
 
Been reading 2ch threads on this and Neo and it seems like WA4 is short at around 20 hours long, easy battles, not many towns. :\

Also seems like WA4 sold 90k, SFN 30k.
 
Bebpo said:
Been reading 2ch threads on this and Neo and it seems like WA4 is short at around 20 hours long, easy battles, not many towns. :\

Also seems like WA4 sold 90k, SFN 30k.
Click to expand...

Because they make great trailers!
 
ferricide said:
the chances of WA4 coming to the US from SCEA seem increasingly slim. OH WELL i stopped caring several posts ago. HOORAY!
Click to expand...

if it comes out I hope you get to review it
 
So now that WA4 is officially teh suck, anybody japanese or american got some Alter Code impressions for me :(
 
So to sum up, Wild Arms still sucks. To the Bargain Bins, Robin!

like all I remember about WA3 was it was a wild west rpg
Click to expand...

Up until you get your horses maybe. Then here come the
genetic experiments
and the
alien spaceships
and other shit that has absolutely fucking NOTHING to do with the wild west and are just the result of the developers binging on too much Evangelion and Trigun
 
I got about halfway into Alter Code F, it was alright, but didn't quite recapture the feeling I got when I went through the original. It's worth picking up if you're a fan of the original though.
 
Oof, 20 hours? That's ass.

If there's a slim chance of it coming here, I guess I'll pick the JP version when it goes cheap over there.

I'm still rather optimistic about the battle system personally. I swear though, it's like only Drinky and I enjoyed the last 3 games (barring ACF which honestly, really was mediocre) on these forums. I've also never really seen eye to eye with Bebop on RPGs so what he's saying doesn't really bother me much. The low-budget feel that JF's impressions touch on do worry me though =P.
 
Shouta said:
I'm still rather optimistic about the battle system personally. I swear though, it's like only Drinky and I enjoyed the last 3 games (barring ACF which honestly, really was mediocre).
Click to expand...

It's worth noting that 4th Detonator is the renamed "Another Code F," which was announced alongside "Alter Code F." You can load Alter data into 4th Detonator for bonuses, etc... I didn't play ACF myself, but 4th Detonator seems to have been cut from the same cloth.
 
Yeah, I know that. I was just expecting a notable improvement from what I was reading on it in some publications. Then again, I'm somehow not surprised in some ways. ACF was terribly medicore while the previous numbered WAs were pretty good despite flaws so the conenction between the gtwo games should've been my warning siren.
 
Shouta said:
Yeah, I know that. I was just expecting a notable improvement from what I was reading on it in some publications. Then again, I'm somehow not surprised in some ways. ACF was terribly medicore while the previous numbered WAs were pretty good despite flaws
Click to expand...

I liked 1 and 3, myself (never played 2 or ACF). They are, as Douglas Adams would say, "mostly harmless." I think 1 isn't nearly as good as some folks make it out to be, and 3 isn't nearly as bad, but both are decent, playable RPGs. That said, from the five hours I put into it, WA4 is pretty awful. (although, if it's only 20 hours long, maybe I should soldier on to the end ;P)
 
WA2 was pretty neat for the time. I loved the characters (barring Lilika, stupid useless girl) as well as the first half of the game but man, that second half was absolute garbage from a story standpoint. Character development was actually kind of nice in the second half though.

Anyway yeah, WA1 is a tad overrated (I can see why it stuck in most people's minds though), and WA3 is underrated. WA3 did have that horribly dumb second half though, just like WA2 >_<.
 
Shouta said:
Oof, 20 hours? That's ass.

If there's a slim chance of it coming here, I guess I'll pick the JP version when it goes cheap over there.

I'm still rather optimistic about the battle system personally. I swear though, it's like only Drinky and I enjoyed the last 3 games (barring ACF which honestly, really was mediocre) on these forums. I've also never really seen eye to eye with Bebop on RPGs so what he's saying doesn't really bother me much. The low-budget feel that JF's impressions touch on do worry me though =P.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I really liked WA3. I thought the dungeon mechanics were neat, the story light, but in a good way, and I was into the overall aesthetic. A few things were kind of annoying, but I ultimately found it quite enjoyable. I'm just a sucker for RPGs with fun, interactive dungeon mechanics and the battle system felt more strategic than past WA games.
 
WA3 really shines in its customization systems which, although limited, were really well-designed and a ton of fun to tinker with. The battle system itself was kind of standard comparatively. The battles that the designers setup were really good too if you ask me.

On the mention of WA2, I felt compelled to change my avatar. :lol. Back to my favorite female RPG character to date.
 
Hey Bebpo, whatever happened with this? Did you finish it? Was looking for one of your patented reviews, but couldn't find anything aside from this thread.
 
john tv said:
Hey Bebpo, whatever happened with this? Did you finish it? Was looking for one of your patented reviews, but couldn't find anything aside from this thread.
Click to expand...

Well at first I was just not going to play it because there were much better games released quickly afterwards. But then a dry week came between games and I started playing a little bit here and there. Got about 8 or so hours in and then something good came out so it kinda disappeared into the shadows again.

Basically WA4 is not a bad game at all from what I could tell. It's just not a good game at all either. The story/characters are a bore but the cutscenes aren't too lengthy so you can't really be upset about it. The dungeons are a little fun but not very exciting and interesting. The battle system is actually pretty enjoyable but it's also jokingly easy and kinda slow paced. The only reason I didn't shelve it permenantly is because I hear it's about 20 hours total. So I've designated it as my side-rpg that every few months if there is a gap between releases I'll put in a few hours and should eventually finish it. The game is basically fun if you have no other rpgs to play ^^; Otherwise there's no reason anyone should be playing it. It's a C or whatever you give the absolutely average score in ratings :P

Though I still like it a bit better than WA3 which landed on the permanent never-touch-again shelf after 10 hours. WA4 dropped the ridiculous location finding, and the stupid-run-around-for-no-reason battle system which helps make WA4 more enjoyable. Then again I think WA3 had much better music and the dungeons were a lot more lively and puzzle-filled.
 
The platforming elements of WA4 looked so interesting, though. Did those fail to work out in the end?
 
Wild Arms, don't pull a Suikoden on me!

And come on, it has to be a totally Wild West world, that's the schtick!:)
 
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