CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I just got this game the other day and I must say that Im quite impressed. Ive just casually played the other games; but for some reason I really like this one I think its the best in the series so far. My appologies to the mods if this has already been covered.

I liked Wild ARMs 4 well enough, but I had a few problems with it that kept it from topping the first game or Alter Code F.

First, the enemies hit WAY too hard. I didn't think this would be a problem, seeing as how the characters have over 2,000 HP at first level, but seriously, it's ridiculous. I can't keep a good enough stock of Revive Fruits because ONE hit and Yulie goes down. And I wasn't slacking on level building either.

Second was the lack of personal tools. This isn't a huge blow, or something that even irritated me. The Tool system in this game was fine, but I liked the individual tools of the other Wild ARMs games better. Just personal preference.

Third was the overabundance of Duplicators. I never had any problem with them in this game. In the other games, they were coveted and rare, you really had to work hard to get them, and whenever you saw a Duplicator chest or door you went, "Oh man, I can't wait to come back and get that." Here they're practically like any other chest because Duplicators are given out like candy...what's the point?

However, the GOOD things:

I liked how the bosses each had a unique ability that REALLY made you think of how to fight them. A lot of RPG bosses these days seem to be just really strong, not really difficult to fight...just keep up your HP and attack like mad. This game's bosses had abilities that could totally mess you up unless you used your brain to fight them.

I liked the character customization process, where you could learn temporarily new moves and stat boosts by giving up some of your levels, and then permanently learning them when you leveled up.

The voice acting was also good, for the most part. I can think of one or two voices I didn't care for, but the rest were great. I'm thinking that Johnny Young Bosch was Kresnik...sure sounds like him, at least.

Wild Arms 4: Cel-shading perfected.

Wild Arms 4 was so different from the other Wild Arms games in so many ways.

While the story was rich, compared to the other games the characters weren't that likable as far as the heroes go. The villians were the best the series had to offer.

The battle system was a breath of fresh air. Very nicely done and apparantly it sticks since it was recently announced Wild ARMs 5 would utilize the same battle system and graphic design.

I have seen the character design for WA5 and my personal opinion is that this game was a warm up for the 5th. The 5th looks like it will take all the good things about the first three WAs, take out the 'bad' changed in 4, create a great new cast of characters, and make the ultimate WA game.

Another poor aspect of WA4 is that they took the most important aspect of gameplay of WA [puzzles] and made it a little extra thing for fun.

The Sidescrolling would've worked if you could somehow play a little game of "Shoot 'Em Up" with some enimies.

A good game overall. I think it has the best plot and villians in a WA game and was more epic and emotional than the rest.

Expect great things from the upcoming WA titles:
-WA5 (Ps2)
-WA: Crossfire (PsP)

Yeah the battles are a little tougher than in the previous games; but for me I thought that was more of a good thing cause personally I thought they were too easy. Plus the battles in this game tend to be a lot faster than the previous.

The voice acting is definitely a plus and I like the anime esque cutscenes. I love the bad guys though. Id rather have some of them on my party than a few of the characters.

It's interesting to see other takes since WA4 was my first experience with the franchise.

I didn't have many problems with the monster fights, though. It wasn't too tough to keep Yulie out of trouble except on the odd fights where only one character appeared at the start of the fight. She often didn't last long enough for the others to show. Then again, I tend to be a compulsive leveler and did the work required to get each character their own Sheriff's Badge and best weapon, so that may have contributed.

Anyway, I tohught the story may have been a little weak, but characters were very likeable and made up for it. I was also very happy with the ending even though it wasn't a very happy ending.

I haven't finished it yet; but It seems like the characters aren't as prone to dying latter on in the game than when it first started. Ive found that in most boss fights if you can figure out the right strategy to use against that boss then hes a piece of cake; but otherwise your mince meat.

Not that much of a gravedig, the thread is a month old.

Have fun on the last boss if you haven't faced it already. Only hard boss in the game IMO. Seriously, it took me a LONG time to beat it.

haven't had much time to play since schools wrapping up now; but I think Im getting pretty close to the end.

Good.

Then you'll realize this is like Suikoden in the sense that every boss but the last are easy.