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Wild Arms 4: 4th Detonator
PlayStation 2
Wild ARMs + New Battle System = ?
4/5 stars
In its marketing materials, "Wild ARMs 4" promised a new battle system and several other 'advances' over the previous three games in the well-liked series, one of which was toning-down the Fantasy Western setting. I personally didn't think "Wild ARMs" needed any gameplay improvements over "Wild ARMs 3," and I thought the Fantasy Western setting was an excellent change-up from typical RPGs that are either strict High Fantasy or Space Opera. I was annoyed by these arbitrary changes and thus put "Wild ARMs 4" on my list of 'Great RPG Series Ruined by Too Much Innovation' and ignored it for many years. Recently, I saw a used copy for $12 and figured it was worth it to see if my predictions of doom were correct.
Presentation
"Wild ARMs 4" cheats a lot with its graphics. The back of the box states, 'Characters with realistic facial expressions,' as a bullet point. The characters are all anime-style, however, so their facial expressions are only as realistic as that particular art style allows – that is to say, not very. This fact doesn't bother me, though, as I strongly dislike realism in games; preferring instead stylized art or the previously-mentioned anime-style. Unfortunately, the biggest graphical cheat comes from the fact that the character models are barely used at all for cutscenes. Instead, static 2D anime-style portraits of the characters pop-up and spout text dialog. There are several portraits of each character to represent their various emotions, but this method of story exposition is still incredibly limited. One very stylish and visually interesting aspect of the portrait-based dialog is that each character appears within a black-outlined box. These boxes change size and location throughout the exposition sections, making the whole process seem a bit like a moving comic book.
What is visible of the 3D character models does look pretty good and matches the 2D portraits well. It is difficult to see much detail most of the time, as the camera is situated a fair distance away from the action. The camera location is good and bad at the same time. It's good because it makes it easy to keep tabs on what's going on and makes exploration less of a chore. It's bad because any work done to make 3D character models look good is almost entirely wasted.
The audio in "Wild ARMs 4" is quite solid. The music keeps the traditional Western theme of previous Wild ARMs games without recycling very much. The character voices are appropriate, with no one standing out as annoying or abrasive. However, there are many lines of spoken dialog that sound awkward, like they were done in a single take. Inappropriate pauses and misplaced emphasis abound, making the whole thing sound a bit unprofessional. There is some great voicework, however, for the monsters, who occasionally mutter to themselves or make comments as they die about how badly they have failed.
The setting in "Wild ARMs 4" isn't nearly as non-Western as I was expecting based on previews and marketing materials. It is a bit more post-modern than other Wild ARMs games have been, but it is nothing egregious. There are still many 'drifter' characters wandering around wearing cowboy duds and there are still Western-themed locations, like an old train station and a desert. The Fantasy Western has obviously been played-down in "Wild ARMs 4," but not eliminated.
Story
The story of "Wild ARMs 4" is fairly linear. The player is not given the ability to backtrack until the very end of the game (shortly after entering the final dungeon).
The story starts off with a kid named Jude who lives in an idyllic town cut off from everything. His world is shattered when a group of soldiers, clinging to the tattered hem of a war that ended a decade ago, appear in Jude's town looking for an ARM. Jude ends up discovering that he has the rare ability to wield an ARM and meets a girl (Yulie) who can regulate ARMs as well as a flaky drifter (Arnaud) who has been hired to protect said girl. When the military operation in Jude's town goes sour, he, Yulie, and Arnaud must make their way in the world at-large to avoid those who would use their powers to reignite the war or worse. Along the way, the characters are joined by an angsty swordswoman named Raquel and are pursued by a variety of colorful villains from an elite military team. Many of the villains are incredibly silly and not particularly strong for the “best of the best.” I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be funny or if they were just incredibly faithful to certain ridiculous anime archetypes.
There are a few plot twists and insinuations that make the story of "Wild ARMs 4" interesting to watch. A significant portion of the story is dedicated to cheesy dialog about the differences between children and adults, which was groan-inducing for me, but might be enjoyable for a younger audience. The story is also painful to read at times because of interesting syntax choices and punctuation quirks. I wouldn't call it a 'bad' localization, but I wouldn't call it 'good' either.
Gameplay
The new battle system, the Hex-Grid, introduced in "Wild ARMs 4" was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting it to be horrible, but it actually works fairly well, with a few minor problems. The Hex-Grid System places seven hexagonal (6-sided) spaces on the battlefield. Three of these hexes are always Elemental Ley-points, which means an elemental power is focused on them (either Earth, Air, Fire, or Water). Characters don't attack individuals in battle, but instead attack an entire hex, which means a normal attack can hit multiple enemies, provided they are all in the same hex. Normal attacks can only hit adjacent hexes, so characters and monsters will occasionally have to move in order to take action. Some characters have attacks that draw power from Elemental Ley-points, placing a strategy element in where to stand in battle. The whole Hex-Grid System gives me the impression that he designers wanted it to be 'Tactical RPG Lite.' It includes the placement and strategy of TRPGs without the excessive stat-crunching and worries about facing that can drag-down that sub-genre. Battles in "Wild ARMs 4" are fast-paced and enjoyable. I was concerned that having attacks affect hexes instead of characters would result in excessive healing after each battle. I was pleasantly surprised that character HP is returned to full after each battle, as long as the character wasn't KOed at the end of the battle. KOed characters are automatically revived with a percentage taken off of their max HP (which can be restored with an item or at a save point).
The two major flaws with the Hex-Grid System are entirely luck-based. First, if the random distribution of characters at the start of a battle places all four characters in one hex with monsters surrounding it, there is a high probability that the entire party will be killed before any of the characters is allowed to take a turn. Thankfully, this flaw is ameliorated by the merciful continue system, which allows the player to restart any battle that resulted in the death of the party. Since character placement at the start of battle is random, with the exception of boss battles, dying and continuing can place the characters in more advantageous positions. Players will almost never need to worry about dying and having to replay a significant portion of the game.
The other severe flaw in the Hex-Grid System is the implementation of random item drops from enemies. Not only does the random number generator need to decide that an enemy is going to drop an item, it also randomly assigns a hex in which the item will appear. If a character isn't standing on the correct hex at the end of a battle in which a random drop appears, the player misses out on the item. Even getting an item to drop is hard enough and relies entirely on luck. Adding another luck-based aspect to collecting items from enemies is just ridiculous.
The Force Gauge returns in "Wild ARMs 4," with a solid lineup of Force Abilities for each character. The most useful are Raquel's 'Intrude,' which lets the normally slow powerhouse take two monster-smashing turns back-to-back, and Yulie's 'Material,' which is "Wild ARMs 4's" take on the Guardian summoning system. Yulie can summon a healing Guardian when on a non-elemental hex or an elemental attacking Guardian with the same attribute as whatever Ley-point she's standing on.
The overworld has been excessively simplified in "Wild ARMs 4." Not only is the world incredibly small, it is presented as a parchment map with colored dots noting the explorable areas. I was not impressed with this simplification at all. A simplified world map leads to fewer interesting secrets making their way into the game.
Dungeon exploration in "Wild ARMs 4" has also changed significantly from previous games. Characters no longer have specific tools that they find and keep for solving puzzles. Now all puzzles are self-contained. Jude can pick-up tools within the various dungeons that can only be used in specific areas of the dungeon in which they are found. The player is prevented from taking these tools out of their designated areas by the fact that Jude can't jump while holding one.
Perhaps the best new gameplay feature in "Wild ARMs 4" is the introduction of side-scrolling platformer-style areas in many dungeons. This kind of gameplay is entirely unexpected in an RPG, but it works incredibly well in "Wild ARMs 4." Jude can double-jump and use a skill called 'Accelerator' to slow-down time. These skills, combined with excellent level design, make the platforming sections of "Wild ARMs 4" more fun than many dedicated platforming games.
Lastly, the bonus content in the game is incredibly frustrating. There are several optional boss monsters, like in every other "Wild ARMs" game. I found these bosses incredibly difficult and that there is no easy way to grind levels or equipment in order to overcome them. The best equipment in the game must be forged at a workshop by combining many other weapons (many of which are rare and must be bought with experience levels or obtained from enemy item drops) and large quantities of money. This kind of grinding is tedious and not necessary to complete the main game, so only the incredibly bored or the min/maxers would enjoy it.
Overall
Overall, "Wild ARMs 4" is a pretty solid game. It lasts about 30-35 hours without bonus content. While the story may be a bit cheesy and the presentation a bit two-dimensional, it's worth a play just to experience the superb platforming sections and the new Hex-Grid Battle System. Wild ARMs fans have nothing to fear from the changes introduced in this game. With a bit more refinement to these new gameplay elements and a stronger dose of the Fantasy Wester theme, the series could approach perfection. I recommend "Wild ARMs 4" to RPG fans, platformer fans, and anime fans.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Overall: 4/5 (not an average)
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