GUESS WHAT I'M PLAYING. also stop killing my cuts, livejournal!

Feb 05, 2010 19:37

Sorry about that, anyone who saw that little mishap!

Today, I got Wild Arms 5 aka "How Many Cameos Can We Cram Into One Game." I am going to blog it because why the hell not. I may or may not actually keep up with this. \o/ Also the encounter rate has been insane so everyone can laugh at my pain.


BAD DECISION TIME
* Janus[games] pops in WA5
that is totally a bad decision haha. OKAY IT DOESN'T SUCK ENTIRELY I can't remember why I stopped playing
...o janus
why do you hate yourself

The two protagonists are very obviously Yuri Lowenthal and Wendee Lee, to the point where I'm calling them "Yuri Lowenthal" and "Wendee Lee." On the plus side, I really like the character designs. I really like them in the series in general, and they hold up well in this game so far. I don't feel like "oh, random cookie cutter character!" or "oh [X] is just a clone of [CHARACTER FROM THE PREVIOUS GAMES]" or what have you. Although Wendee Lee Rebecca's short shorts are a little ... uhh.

I think one of my problems with WA4 (of ... many, but FTR, I liked that game as a whole, but not as a Wild Arms game) was that it was very technologically heavy, whereas with the first three games, technology played a role but it wasn't as prominent or ... well. In the original game, the high-tech stuff is either from the metal demons or the Elw (aka the enemy or the LOST RACE), so it was forbidden and/or lost. It added to the mythos of hthe world, but the protagonists couldn't rely on it? In WA3, technology actually screwed up the world and the game eventually becomes the natural versus the technological (or the "dream," I need to replay yet again and pay more attention to Beatrice). So it felt out of place in the world in WA4, to me. To be really, really fair, I haven't played through the entire game in about three or four years, so I could be missing the point.

So I do like that they've pulled back with the technology in 5 so far. I also like that there's other races in the game! For those who haven't played it, the Wild Arms series tends to play with races - humans and (metal) demons, the elw, the dream demon, the crimson nobles, etc. But what I really liked was that it wasn't so black and white where the demons were evil and the humans were good. The first game in particular did a good job of fleshing the other races out ([With the Quarter Knights not being so cool with Mother's plan in the end. :x]). I am seriously hoping that 5 does something with the Veruni that isn't just "they r EVOL nd rule teh humanz!!1" or whatever.

What I did like about WA4 was that it overhauled the battle system. I love love love 3's system, but I found 4's a lot of fun to play around with and I think in the end, it was a big reason why I kept playing. Basically, the battle field is a giant hexagon. Enemies occupy a certain number of "hex"es and you move your characters from one hex to another to attack. If they're in the same hex as another character, they can do a team attack. It basically requires strategy and it's a lot of fun to mess around with. 5 tweaked the system to make it better, so fights aren't so much of a pain. Except, well.

... what the jesus is with this encounter rate!
Look, I WARNED YOU okay
* Anole has no sympathy you did this to yourself
bitchcakes 8(

And also the enemies are insane and facerape you and sometimes, the bosses are easier than the random encounters. Needless to say, I have been level-grinding like a fiend to keep myself from cursing my head off.

AS FOR THE STORY ITSELF:

- the Wild Arms games draw from the Wild West and related mythos and whatnot, which is cool. Except in this one, "Johnny Appleseed" is apparently important to the plot and I cannot keep a straight face, okay. I keep thinking of, like, this illustrated book I read when I was six with JOHNNY APPLESEED and he was like Davy Crockett with one of those bags-on-a-stick and all. So it is very hard to take this game seriously.

- the main character used his shovel as a freaking pogo stick.

- Drifters are now "Golem Hunters"? Whoops, no, they're two seperate entities as noted later by the Veruni. Drifters don't get train passes; Golem Hunters do. I guess Golem Hunters are more "legit" than Drifters.

- pogo stick.

- The games have this tendency to brow beat you with the moral. In WA2, it was being a hero. In WA3, it was about freedom (aka "WINGS WINGS WINGS WINGS"). WA4 was about growing up and no longer being a child and being respected as an adult and abuse of power and whatnot. WA5 seems to be about OVERCOMING WALLS!!11.

OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
slight sidetrip into being Adult
OVERCOME WALLS
OVERCOME WALLS
If only they had wings

Cameos spotted so far are Kanon from WA2 and Rudy from WA1/ACF. KANON IS MAKING ME HUNT THE DARKNESS FOR HER. damnit kanon. ):

p.s. Wild Arms 3 is only 5 USD at your local Gamestop/EB Games while both Wild Arms and Wild Arms 2 can be found on the Playstation Network (PS3 or PSP) for very cheap. Laugh at WA1 and 2's bad translations! See WA3's totally awesome translation from Square! [/pimp]

bad decisions

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