Wild Arms (1996 Video Game) User Reviews

A Cult Classic That Bridged more Barriers than most Know

[DuskShadow · 10/10 · 1 April 2019]

At a time when 3-Dimensional graphics were truly taking off as they never had before, there was the Playstation (1). After a failed attempt to be the 3d successor of Nintendos Super NES, Sony branched off on its own to create what would become a ridiculously popular gaming console and franchise that would revolutionize the vid game industry forever. So by the time the PS had released in Japan in 1995, Sony wished to begin expanding its consoles library of genre specific games to better cater to wider audiences. As RPGs were so much more popular in Japan than even in America and the Uk combined, Sony wanted to begin making a game that would perfectly demonstrate the technological, visual capabilities of the playstation. This was the beginning of Wild Arms. Media vision was the company tasked with making the game, harkening back to a lot of previously games made by the company with western gun totting action like Rapid Reload for the PS in 1995. Some would say that Wild Arms, which would release in 1996, but had been in the works since the playstation was relatively new, would end up looking dated by its release date. Sadly, to some extents , said critic would be correct. BUt even with a top down over world look reminiscent of the Final fantasy series of role playing games for the super nintendo, when a battle was commenced in Wild Arms, full 3d rendering was used. At the time of the latter mid 1990s, this was breathtaking. Using more shading and polygonal graphics, a player could finally see what could only be done before with a hand drawing of game characters on box art or in game manuals. The fights and colors were exquisite, and the lighting and abilities , as they grew more intense and powerful, was fantastic to behold. By the time the game released in the west, however, The dated look problem became more evident. For a game that should have been in the worlds and released little more than months after the playstation was first launched, Wild Arms might have had MILLIONS of sales instead of its many many tens to few hundreds of thousands per region. BUt by 1997 it was outclassed by a bunch of other popular rpgs , one in particular a nintendo mainstay: Final Fantasy 7. This was literally the best rpg I have ever played on a console to this day. The power the FF7 and its story and characters and visuals had was astounding and really outdid any other rpg for many years. So much so was this the case that its affection from fans worldwide continued to bring back characters in other games and direct sequels to this day. Wild Arms, though iconic in my mind, would only manage to get sequels in the franchise that never brought back the same beloved themes and characters from that wonderful first installment in the series. Going by how great the game could have been if it looked the same but was released in late 1995, it would have been a near masterpiece at 9/10. BUt once it hadto compete with so much by the late 90s, it would be little more than a 7. BUt to me, it will always be a solid 10/10 and I am glad to still own it. A side note for fans that want to collect it, the original verison released in the west has the older "K-A" (kids ot adults) rating used on the cover, whereas the second edition of the first game released slightly later on would have the more modern and currently still used "E for Everyone". For an rpg filled with lots of great western themes and music inspired by the beloved spaghetti westerns of the 20th century, melded with science fiction in a post apocalyptic world trying to survive, adventures abound in this gem of a game! Go get em, Dream Chasers!