Why Wild ARMs Is As Good As A Square Game

by Brian Petro-Roy 

Nine months ago, I made the biggest sacrifice of my life and sold off all of my Super Nintendo stuff in order to afford a PlayStation. With the money I had, I was only able to afford one game, and the clerk working at the Software Etc. where I got it suggested Wild ARMs. I took it home and was immediately blown away, and when I finally finished it weeks later, I had fallen in love with it. And now, after playing FFVII, FFT, and a little bit of SaGa Frontier...my feelings haven't changed a bit, and after reading Jonathan Weng's bashing of the game I feel it needs a little defense.

The first issue that was brought up was the one of originality, as Mr. Weng correctly brought up the numerous overt similarities between the storylines of WA and FFVI. However, he failed to mention WA's own quirks - the personalities and interactions of the enemy leaders plays a huge role in the story, as does the history of Filgaia and the past actions of the three races (I'm not saying that the past doesn't play a big role in FFVI - it does - but in Wild ARMs the role of the planet's history is a lot bigger.) WA also has many other idiosyncracies too numerous to mention. While I will admit that most of the ideas for the plot were taken from other games, Wild ARMs creates its own world well enough for players to accept it as a game on its own.

Next, the issue of characters was ragged on. While Mr. Weng thought that the 'serious lack of numbers' of the characters was a detrement to the gameplay, I happen to believe that it helps the game in the story department by allowing for the most character development I've ever seen. Over the course of the game, the relationship between the three characters overtly changes from three strangers with a common goal to three close friends fighting to save what they care about. At the same time, each member of the party slowly changes in their own way, and the maturation of the each character is so well done only Cloud or Terra can even come close. With respect to gameplay, the lack of characters really isn't that bad of a thing - for in Wild ARMs each character is as individual as can be. Each warrior has his or her own types of attacks and powers, and only one type of ability can be shared at all (Guardian summoning.) As for the graphical issues brought up, that argument holds water about as well as a net. "Drawn with heads as big as watermelons," "look like walking candy apples," "polygons jut out at unsightly angles." Thank you, Mr. Weng, you've just described every single field character in Final Fantasy VII - your point being? I personally thought that the squat, blocky, and just plain ugly field characters in FFVII completely ruined the atmosphere created by the beautiful CG artwork (of course, this is probably the only thing I didn't like about FFVII,) while the superdeformed WA characters blended perfectly with the hand-drawn background art.

As for the third argument, Mr. Weng has defeated himself at his own game. "I see no reason which any new RPGs should still be made without active time battles." Guess Square shouldn't have made Final Fantasy Tactics or SaGa Frontier, eh?

Finally, Mr. Weng brings up the magic of Nobuo Uematsu's music as an intangible factor that Media Vision and Michiko Naruke had no chance against. This is totally a matter of opinion, and I agree with it to some extent, so I will counter his final argument with an intangible that I feel Wild ARMs has that can match with any of Square's games. You can see it in the intro, in the interactions between the characters whether they are good or bad, and especially in the ending - the most touching, beautiful, and satisfying ending it has ever been my privelege to see. That factor is the certain 'charm' that draws you into the Wild ARMs experience, no matter how unoriginal the story, how superdeformed the characters, or how much like other modern RPGs the gameplay is.