Hello and welcome! My name is Katosepe and I’ll be your host for today’s Video Game of the Day.
Westerns seem to almost be coming back from the grave these days. It’s impossible to ignore the success of Red Dead Redemption 2 and people are calling for more. Whether or not the industry responds is something to be seen but for now, if you’re looking for a classic with a western twist, today’s game has got you covered. Today’s game is Wild Arms, developed by Media Vision and released for the Sony Playstation in 1996.
Wild Arms is a JRPG but one that takes a western approach to the genre. Players play as Rudy, a 15 year old Drifter capable of controlling ancient machines known as ARMs. He falls in with a group that calls themselves the Dream Chasers and sets out to explore the western deserts of Filgaia.
Wild Arms is a 2D sprite-based game that switches to using 3D graphics for the battle screen, similar to the Golden Sun series. Battles are turn-based and require the player to input commands for each of the characters in the party at once. Actions are then performed based on the character’s stats. Each character has their own unique ability tree that lets them perform special moves. Characters also have a force bar that lets them charge character-specific special moves called Force Techniques.
Wild Arms was well received by critics but it came out at an unfortunate time. Final Fantasy VII was only a few months away from release in the west and this caused many to pass over Wild Arms. Still, Wild Arms won a number of awards including several runner up awards for RPG of the Year, obviously behind Final Fantasy VII. Wild Arms would go on to have numerous sequels as well as a Playstation 2 remake of Wild Arms called Wild Arms Alter Code F, however fans still argue to this day if the remake does justice to the original.
Thank you for listening! As always, follow me on Twitter for more information about Wild Arms. I’m @vg_oftheday. Transcripts and past episodes are all on videogameoftheday.com. Don’t forget to check back here tomorrow for another Video Game of the Day.
To enable Video Game of the Day on Amazon Echo devices: https://amzn.to/2CNx2NJ
Music Provided By:
In Love by FSM Team feat. < e s c p > | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
