The year was either 1998 or 1999 and I was out with my brother looking for some games for our kind of newly acquired PlayStation 1. My brother gave me this game and told me to buy it so I did even though I knew nothing about it. So I popped it and I was immediately entranced with its awesome opening theme and its awesome opening animated sequence. Then a love affair was born where I pretty much played some of the sequels like 2 and 3 and the remake of the first Wild Arms game called Wild Arms: Alter Code F. 3 wasn't that good, the remake was decent but it didn't have the same feeling and 2 was good but circumstances made it impossible for me to finish but none of them are as good as the first. So with that said lets whistle our way towards Wild Arms.
The planet of Filgaia is slowly dying. Monsters have overflowed the land with their existence. The plant life is slowly fading away as is the power of the Guardians who watch over Filgaia. But things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. The demons, led by The Quarter Knights, have plans to resurrect their old leader Mother to help rule Filgaia. But there are three people who can stop this. Rudy Roughknight, an outcast forbidden from society after he used the forbidden ARM's, the demons weapons. Jack Van Burace, a treasure hunter skilled with a sword looking for Absolute Power. And Cecilia Aldehyde, the Princess of Aldehyde, whose Tear Drop which is the family heirloom that is necessary for the revival of Mother. Together, they are Filgaia's only hope.
Before I begin the ultra-amount of praise, I must discuss the graphics. To me graphics are never THAT important to a game but they help. Also, I fear that if I say nothing people will get to the first battle and immediately turn it off and throw it away. I'm not going to lie to you guys, the graphics during the battle scenes have not aged well at all. It's all blocky and jittery and really ugly to look at. If it wasn't for the constantly moving camera the battle scenes wouldn't really be worth it if you weren't so heavily invested in the story and characters it would be a real chore. So yes, that's your warning that the 3-D graphics haven't aged well. The overworld 2-D graphics are pretty good, like high-end Super Nintendo graphics.
But like I said the aging graphics don't matter since the story is written well enough for me to get into it. The story twists and turns into a highly entertaining adventure story. The characters are fairly well-developed and the villains are pretty bad ass. Then when you think you've beaten the game, you only just begun. Now I know much has been written about the bad translation but I didn't notice it very much since I'm that in tuned with how the Japanese name their things so I don't care about changing names but there are some misspellings here and there.
But my absolute favorite part of the game and I mean absolute favorite is the score. I mean it's like a combination of spaghetti westerns, sci-fi and Indiana Jones that works. Every piece of music is at best really awesome and at worst, decent. The musicianship is sweeping, epic and fun. You can really hear each instrument pop especially the bass which is simply incredible. When I think of some video games greatest scores this is almost at the top of the list but nothing can ever topple Chrono Trigger.
If you can get past the aging graphics, this game is awesome. The writing is very easy to get into and it is consistently entertaining. The score is easily in my top 10 best video game scores I have ever heard. The characters are really likable and the villains are really...uh hate-able! It's one of my favorite RPG's ever. Now there is a word of warning if you are playing this on the PS2, like I did for this review. The game freezes up fairly often especially when you summon a Guardian using Rudy or use one of Rudy's ARM's. But there is fix for the slim PS2's, just open the system door and close it. Then it should work but try to play it on the PS1 if possible.
9/10
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