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You have press square constantly, it becomes less than an inovative concept and more of a gun to the head. The game stays true to the original, while adding new graphics and gameplay. The only complaint I had is the world-map scanner. Battles have been greatly improved with the added Stamina bar and having the Force Powers add to specials for the most devastating attacks.
I just wished they'd waited and worked out some of the issues before releasing this game.Updated 12/4/08: When I first played this game, I reviewed it right after completing it without going back to the original, so my fond memories of the original did effect my overall scoring with this game. The music was great, although I still wished for voice dialog. When you search for a town or dungeon or item on the map, sometimes the screen ends up getting cut off and you are unable to proceed forward unless you enter a town or dungeon. In fact, the event file key you find in the outfield allows you to play back the movies you've seen, except this time they are without any dialog (scripted or spoken). They could have had access to these characters spaced out better throughout the game. In addition to that, you no longer have the advanced magic that was part of the original.
I still think this game had some hurting flaws (especially considering the amount of glitches present in the game), but the game itself was very impressive. New puzzles, new locations, advanced storylines, and some of the best movie sequences I've seen in a long time, just to name a few, make this game worth the time. With that said this remake is definately above average, and should be a model for other remakes.But as much as I wanted to give this game a 5-star rating, there were some serious flaws that I could not overlook.1) The infamous glitch. The story was much more detailed, the characters were well developed and deeply involved, and the layout was very well detailed. All of your magic can be discovered in the first town (whether you have a crest graph or not), so there's no mystery as to what you will get later on. At least Jane has the Follow Me command to ensure you're first in battle, and Emma's Great Booster will really pump up Rudy and Jack's attacks.Don't get me wrong. This would lead one to believe it was voice was intended, but never included.3) Battles are very tedious and overlong, and building your characters (with the exception of Jack and Emma) just was not as fun as the original. But this late into the PS2's life.
There's also issues with the screen shaking from time to time, especially during cut scenes.2) Lacking voice dialog in the FMV sequences. First of all, I've played the original several times, and it's one of my favorite RPG's. I could forgive the original PS and even the early days of the PS2 for leaving off voice talent. There's still potential here and this game is worthy of the remake it became.
I'm a sucker for remakes, namely so that I can relive the experience in a whole new perspective, and when done right remakes can even surpass the original. Overall, my opinion of the game has certainly increased, and glitches aside (as this has more to do with the developers than it does the game), I give this 4 stars. Group enemy attacks are now done through a Guardian, which is fine, except you don't find this guardian until late into the game and you are forced to watch the Guardian movie each time you use the attack in battle, until you find the key that allows you to turn the Guardian movies off.5) I can understand that each character has a special weapon/ability, so naturally they removed the weapon shops. This in itself isn't so much a major flaw as it is annoying, but when you are hanging onto a thread of your life and have just traveled several paces, only to realize there is a (well, I guess you'd call it a blue box of some sort that prevents you from moving forward), the last thing I want to do is try to run back the way I came and see if I can avoid potentially powerful monsters only to find the town I just passed and make the glitch go away. However, the actual movie sequences should have been voiced. In fact, part of the joy in Wild Arms comes from reading the various books and speaking with the locals to gain knowledge on Filgaia's past.
But what about an armor shop to help increase your defense.6) You find your secondary characters so late into the game they're almost worthless (not that any of the secondary characters were worth the hassle to begin with). Part of the fame of the original was getting sucked into battle just to see it unfold in 3-D, which was quite a treat back in the days when 2-D was the rule outside of battle.4) Cecilia know longer has the ability to use magic outside of battle. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind reading. This requires that you now use your hard-earned items for healing, and you are not able to use magic to exit dungeons. Some of the gameplay was certainly awkward (not being able to use magic outside of battle and not being able to escape from dungeons, no higher magic, no upgraded weapons or armor, not having to fight to learn your new sword techniques, missing dungeons and villains from the original game), but other aspects of the game were well improved (acquiring multiple characters, being able to swap them in and out of battle at your convenience, the ability to walk to avoid certain traps or plummeting over an edge, each character having their own set ability and/or fighting style.
Plays well. Not as mechanically fun as the original, but still a great game in it's own right. Additional playable characters also make it interesting.
9/10 Gameplay. One huge minus is that you have to search the world map for your new towns, dungeons and treasures. The main characters Rudy, Jack and Cecilia must find out why. Graphics. They have been overhauled from 2D top down to full 3D environments. Turn Based similar to Lufia and Lufia 2 from the SNES.
7/10 Battle System. There have been some major updates to this game. Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: TRC Wild Arms Alter Code F, published by AgeTech, for the Playstation 2, PS2, is a great remake of the classic Wild Arms for the original Playstation 1 system or PSX. The planet started dying 1,000 years ago after the Great War. Overall I give this unique game an 8/10 Filgaia, the planet, is dying.
Also, they give you a handy dandy map that shows you where to start searching. 7/10 If you are looking for a game to tie you over until Final Fantasy XII hits the U.S. On the plus side, the puzzles in this game are a lot more difficult. With the 3D upgrade it adds a whole new dimension to the puzzles in this game, 8/10 Sound. You must find a race of people called the Elw before it is too late to stop the demons from taking over Filgaia. The "wild west" feel to the music in this game truly sets Wild Arms Alter Code F apart from all the Sci-Fi RPGs out there.
this is it.
The dungeons, although they maintain their original names and significance to the plot, have been entirely reworked to fit with the new 3D exploration system.Another element that has been added to the mix is the ECN gague, which allows you to avoid random world/dungeon encounters, based on a meter located at the top of the screen. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical at first of the idea of Media.Vision doing a remake of the cult classic, Wild Arms. This system originally made its debut in Wild Arms: Advanced 3rd.All in all, it is a wonderful remake for fans of the old game, or it is an introduction into the world of Filgaia for a newer, younger generation of games. Michiko Naruke, the talented game scorer of the original series, returns here to remake and remix most of the original songs of the first game, giving them a new, polished feel (putting old wine in a new bottle, so to speak, but not in a bad way). But rest assured, this remake definitely lives up to the original.This game manages to stay very close to the original, maintaining all of the original storylines, the original characters, and even the original dungeons. Media.Vision even went so far as to keep in the original translation errors that were introduced in the first game (Fargaia = Filgaia; Jack Vambrace = Jack Van Burace; etc).As for the new elements that have been added to the game, you are now able to play two extra characters in battle, Professor Emma and Calamity Jane. Either way, it is well worth the money.
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