A Look At: Wild Arms

After Suikoden, I’ve been playing Wild Arms, another playstation RPG from the system’s early years. It’s the first game is what has since become a series (the sequels, especially #3, my favorite, I’ll cover later). The series has always had a sort of fantasy western feel to it. While its light in the first game and more of a “desert punk in the second, the third is also filled with it.

Wild Arms feels a more like a tabletop game than many other RPGs. You have three members in your party throughout, and their personalities develop through the story. Each has a different type of abilities they can use, with how they gain them varied as well. Most uniquely, each character gains different tools that are available outside of combat, and are used for the many Zelda-esque puzzles in the dungeons. There are bombs, grappling hooks, treasure locators, watches that turn back time, and so on – there’s an actual element of problem solving, rather than just exploring areas filled with nothing but random encounters.

The three characters in the game are Jack, a swordsman, Rudy, a gunslinger, and Cecilia, the mage. Rudy, the toughest of the group, can use the artifact guns of the game called ARMs, which require some sort of psychic link. ARMs can be found in different dungeons in special chests, and it’s always a rare, happy event to find one. Each ARM has different attributes, and has its own bullet counter, that can be refilled for a tiny bit of cash back at town, or through the use of a Bullet Clip item which is very rare. There are also shops where you can upgrade each ARM, in damage, accuracy, or ammo capacity, also for money. 

Jack, strongest and fastest, uses special sword techniques called Fast Draws. There are different events through the game that give Jack a hint for a new technique (many are hidden) – running into a pick pocket teaches him how to steal from enemies, or feeling the blowing wind on the mountain path inspires him to be able to make wind strikes that cut through enemies. These abilities are all on a typical mana-point basis, although there are rare scrolls which can reduce the MP cost of an ability of your choosing.

Finally, Cecilia learns her spells by finding Crest Graphs. There are two separate 4x4 grids, one for light magic, and one for dark magic. Each grid has the four classic elements along each side, and you choose where to place the graph, learning the spell for that location. WindxWater on black gives a thunder attack spell, while the same combination on the white grid is a dodge-up buff. You can see what spells will do before you gain them, and are freely allowed to switch them around in town. All of the spells are on an MP-basis. The really neat thing is that you’re allowed to freely name the spell whatever you want. While there’s a “default” name, you can call the fire attack Flare, Inferno, Torch, or whatever. It’s a little thing that goes a long way towards adding a lot of flavor.

The game starts in a memorable, unique way – the three characters are presented, and you pick one to play. That character gets an intro, and then you pick the next, until all three have had an intro adventure. These intro adventures do a pretty good job at setting the tone for each of the characters, and provide a nice bit of background. The best by far, however, is Jack’s. He’s exploring an ancient ruin for treasure, when he stumbles upon just a few traps – as the intro music plays, and the text gives some detail as to who he is, he’s dodging spear traps, running from multiple Indiana Jones style boulders, and dashing over collapsing floors, until he finally falls down a pit, and reaches an area of safety where he exclaims “Damn, that was cool!” If you want to show that a character is a danger-loving adventurer, I can’t think of a more effective means to do so. After each character’s intro, they’re brought together on a basic quest to help excavate a giant golem to be shown at a local fair (the “Ruin Fair”). Later, while they’re enjoying their time at the Ruin Fair, the fair is… well, ruined, when the main quest arrives and causes chaos. It’s an effective way to start the game. In a tabletop game, it's probably not enough just to have each player have a solo session before the main game. If you do do a solo session, consider summarizing each player's session, or at least the part that made their characters cool, somewhere the others can see it - maybe right before you start the first group session, if the solos pertain to the main plot. That way it helps the player understand and establish his character better, but also lets the other players in on understand that character's concept and powers.

The character backgrounds are also handled well – each has a background that’s used in the story, and the only one we’re told about up front is Cecilia, who is a princess, which isn’t the interesting point of her background – it’s how she views her title and role, which is revealed later. Rudy is a wandering outcast who can’t seem to find a place to belong (and we learn why later), and Jack is seeking the ultimate power so he can obtain revenge (and we learn why later). These backgrounds are hinted at in the intros, revealed a bit further in an early dungeon (through the classic “illusions testing your character” trope), and played on through the game. Every time they come up, the character gains some sort of new ability, further emphasizing that this was “their thing”, and that they’ve learned and grown from the event.

Changing subjects for a moment, many of my readers have likely seen Frank Trollman’s game design flowchart, on how to design a roleplaying game’s setting, and do a lot of the groundwork. The very first thing was “Name the party” – are they adventurers, shadowrunners, heroes, etc? -  a seemingly odd thing to ask for the first question, until you really think about how much that describes the mood. In Wild Arms, the adventurers aren’t called adventurers. They’re called Dream Chasers. They’re not out for money; they’ve got their own goals they’re seeking. It’s a nice touch.

Throughout the game you collect different “guardians”, ancient spirits that protected the earth and used to be wildly worshiped. Each guardian is attuned to a different element, concept, or emotion.  They give you runes which you can equip that boost your stats as you’d expect, and if you’re equipped with a guardian’s rune you can summon them in battle. I’m going to cheat a bit, and mention that in Wild Arms 3, which guardians you equip determines which spells you can cast. Each character can equip a lot of guardians, but each guardian can only be equipped by one character. This is an interesting idea for tabletop when you consider trading who can cast what spells for each adventure, or having worshiped based abilities. What if in a religious heavy fantasy game, worshiping the god of the sun gave you a bunch of fire and anti-undead abilities, regardless of class (fire spells or flaming blades equally OK!), and worshiping the god of strength gave you a lot of might-based or might-boosting abilities? It seems a good concept to base a campaign or system on.

Part 2.