Cheap Wild Arms XF (Video Games) (Sony PSP) Price

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Customer Reviews of Wild Arms XF

Had the Potential to be so Much Better
Pros: <
>+A Good Storyline <
>+Nice cast of characters <
>+Good soundtrack <
>+Fairly good voice acting <
>+Beautiful artwork <
>+Lots of customization thanks to the job system <
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>Cons: <
>-Limitations of items adds more frustration than challenge <
>-In battle voices are annoying <
>-In battle graphics aren't great <
>-Sometimes sound effects are off and slight hitches in framerate <
>-There really isn't as much freedom as there appears to be; in many missions you must do it the way the game suggests or you'll end up having to restart the mission <
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>The Hex Battle System of Wild Arms 4 and 5 was a sign that Wild Arms would be a good candidate for a tactical RPG. So we get Wild Arms XF. Unfortunately, the jump to Tactical RPG just isn't fantastic. Especially because it has to follow such well done Tactical RPGs such as Jeanne D'Arc and Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness. Wild Arms has some things going for it, but it suffers heavily in the gameplay department. <
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>Wild Arms XF begins in the middle of the action. You're introduced to Clarissa and her brother Felius. They're both confronting a man named Rupert, who has stolen their mother's sword and plans to use it for some evil doings. Rupert gets away and so Clarissa and Felius follow Rupert to the continent of Elesius where a case of mistaken identity gets Clarissa involved in a political struggle over power and rule. The story as you can imagine is filled with a lot of political happenings and jargon. Yet for what it's worth the story actually isn't bad. The problem, however, is whether or not you'll be able to get the story to progress. <
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>The game makes good use of the series Hex Battle system in a tactical way. Like every other Tactical RPG out there, you'll move and execute attacks. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, there's a job system active in Wild Arms XF. However, these aren't the same old "Knight" and "Monk" type of jobs. They're jobs like "Elementists" who cast elemental magic spells and Fantastica that use support spells. You'll start the game with four basic classes. In addition to that, each of the story mode characters has a class completely unique to them. You're able to learn abilities from each of the jobs and use them with other jobs upon doing so. If you're familiar with the job system of Final Fantasy Tactics, then you're already more than prepared to tackle Wild Arms XF. At least you would be were it not for the games shortcomings in the gameplay department. <
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>Wild Arms has generally been a series that tries to separate itself from the crowd. Needless to say XF tries to do so as well, however this is in the worst way. Your characters have a stock of HP and MP, but they also have what is called VP. VP stands for Vitality Points, and it drops with each turn. When your VP runs out, your HP starts dropping each turn. This little tactic was thrown in as a way to make you get through battles faster. However, it becomes more annoying than anything else. <
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>What's even worse about the gameplay is the layout of the stages and the missions themselves. All the missions have certain objectives. Most of the time it is to defeat all the enemies, but on occasion you'll get special missions such as to free villagers from jail or to escort villagers across a map. These missions however, aren't as fun and can sometimes be a test in frustration. <
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>Another major issue with Wild Arms is simply that there isn't as much freedom as the player thinks there is. Before each missions begins, you'll get an overview of the mission itself and hear suggestions on what you need to do. In most RPGs where suggestions are thrown at you by the characters you can usually get by fine without using them. Wild Arms XF, however, almost demands that you do. For example, in one mission you'll fight a series of blobs. The game tells you that blobs are mostly weak versus magic and so you'll have to use magic or else the mission will be an arduous task, usually resulting in the loss of all your VP. In Wild Arms XF if you don't take the battle suggestions, you will pay. It's okay to have suggestions, but it feels downright wrong to punish the player for not taking them. Many of the maps are also set up so that you don't have a choice but to take the game's suggestions. It almost makes you wonder why you're given the choice of jobs in the first place. <
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>In many cases you'll find yourself either restarting or quitting missions because you didn't do it the way the game wanted you to do it. The game can be fun when you are given freedom to use your own strategies and job classes, but this hardly pops up in the story battles. In the free battles it works out well for you, though. This alone makes the free mode battles much more fun to play. But you'll have to get back to the story eventually. <
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>There are also little things in the gameplay that can make it frustrating. The amount of times your attacks will miss some of your enemies is incredibly frustrating. Another aspect is the limitation of items. Characters can only equip a certain number of items when going into battle. This wouldn't be such a big problem if you weren't forced to mow through those items so fast. <
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>At the very least, however, Wild Arms XF does present a good challenge. Much of it is from frustration, but you'll be surprised at the amount of thinking that is required to win each battle. Including the free battles. It's just hard to get passed all the frustrations with the gameplay. <
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>On the other hand, the game does have some amazing artwork. The story is told through cutscenes similar to the ones you see in Disgaea. Usually you'll see a portrait of the characters partaking in the event talking in front of a background. These moments are stunning to look at. There's a lot of anime inspired art here. In battle itself doesn't look too amazing, however. It's very colorful and decorated, with a lot of meticulous attention given to detail, but it hardly showcases what the PSP can do. The game looks like it could've been released on the Gameboy Advance. It also hurts the game that it doesn't run smoothly. There are times when there will be slight hitches in the frame rate. There are also moments when sound effects (notably the character's battle cries) are off. <
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>Despite all that, the game sure sounds good. There's a ton of good music here. There's also some voice acting in the cutscenes and most of it isn't bad. There are some moments when there could've been much more emotion, but often the voice acting isn't all that bad. If you're not satisfied with the English voice overs, there's an option to change the voices to Japanese. Characters also have voices in battle. At first this isn't so bad, but it quickly becomes annoying. Luckily, you're able to turn these voices off. <
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>The PSP has a fair share of RPGs and Tactical RPGs. Wild Arms XF is a game that had so much potential to be so much better. Even die hard Wild Arms fans may not take much of a shine to it. The game has an incredible story, incredible artwork and an incredible soundtrack, but those things can't make up for the dissatisfying gameplay.