Decided on Wild Arms, First Impression

First off, I changed the margins a bit to the blog. Before it was way too narrow and just unappealing. Since I tend to write a lot I figured this would be better. Let me know if you like this set up.

On to the games...So I ultimately decided on Wild Arms 1 as my next game to play. Before even playing it I thought it would have more of a "Wild West" theme to it. It has about as much of a Wild West theme to it as Final Fantasy Tactics does. One guy has a gun that they call an "Arm". That's about as Wild West as it gets, so far.

The one thing that I REALLY like about the game so far is the action puzzle-solving dynamic. There are three playable characters each with their own unique tool to use in the game. One has bombs to blow up walls, boxes, etc. One has a lighter to light candles and set things on fire as well as a pet that can move long range to hit switches. Lastly, there is a girl that has a clock that can move back time. Outside of reseting a puzzle it's kind of a pointless tool so far.

Overall the graphics are okay. They're kind of blocky in the battles, but  remind me a lot of Harvest Moon characters. The back grounds are nice, but everything seems to have an earth tone to it which is a bit ugly a times. I just would like some more color.

The battle system is typical. Turn based system with each character having unique abilities to level. Although each characters' abilities can be customized and upgraded. Rudy has a gun that you can customize by adding a  bigger clip size, more power, or more accuracy. Cecilia uses magic and when you obtain a "graph" item you take it to the magic shop to create a new spell. It's cool because after you create it you have the option to re-name it if you want. So far it remains to be seen if Jack's attacks are customizable.

The last thing that I want to say that's pretty annoying so far is not knowing where to go. After an event is complete and your obviously supposed to go somewhere else the game is never clear about it. You  have to explore around forever, asking people and just picking up the hints about where to go next. I guess this can be seen as challenging, but after Lunar where it's very clear where to go next it's just a bit frustrating. To make matters worse there is an open world map like Final Fantasies as opposed to Lunar where the only purpose the world map serves is to select the town you go to. So it takes figuring out where to go that much longer.

So I'm only about 5 hours in and overall it's enjoyable. The story is a bit bland but I'm willing to see where it goes. The action element is enough to keep me coming back. I always look forward to puzzles. More to come soon. Later Gamers!