Wild Arms 4 is the first published game under XSEED, a new publisher that was founded in 2004. This is only the start for XSEED and with the release of Wild Arms 4, the future looks definitely bright. With former Square Enix president, Jun Iwasaki, their goal is to bring Japanese games to the U.S. market for excellent translation. Wild Arms 4 is technically the fifth game to be released in the U.S. as the recent remake of the original was published not too long ago (Wild Arms: Alter Code F). Does Wild Arms 4 offer anything exciting to the RPG genre?

If you have played any of the past games in the Wild Arms franchise, forget what you know right now and be ready to embark on a whole new journey. Woefully though, the storyline in Wild Arms 4 isn’t up to par with the gameplay. The storyline is disappointing in the fact that it tries too hard to align you against adults throughout the whole game. By the end of the game though, I was rooting more for the adults to pull through with a victory more so than my own pesky teenagers that wouldn’t stop whining. This effect is somewhat related to Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode 1. We all know he’s a good guy but all of us hardcore Star Wars fans wanted him to disappear before the end of the movie. Wild Arms 4 has similar attributes as it has too many moments when the storyline was tailored for the younger generation.

Here’s a quick rundown of the story without any spoilers. The setting is in a unique town of Ciel. Ciel isn’t the run-of-the-mill small town you may be acquainted to, but rather imagine it being thousands of feet floating above the surface. Since Ciel is far away from the surface, not much crime is seen and the dangers of the night are never present. Until one day Wild Arm’s 4 hero, Jude Maverick, witnesses large aircrafts shoot through the skies. Through his discovery, he finds out that military men are holding captive a young girl.  Encountering this young girl, Yulie, as a prisoner, Jude sets forth to free her and not too long after he discovers he is able to handle one of the legendary weapons known as an ARM. The ARM packs a mighty punch that in turn destroys Ciel completely. The adventure begins after Ciel’s destruction and contains humor to entertain the player all throughout.

Aside from the story, Wild Arms 4 excels in almost every other category an RPG needs to have. The combat system is fantastic, the gameplay is wonderful, and the graphics are an improvement from any other Wild Arms title. The combat system has been revamped with the new HEX battle system. The HEX (Hyper Evolved X-Fire) allows for more engaging fights that involve strategy and gutsy moves. The characters that are about to enter the battle will be placed on one of the seven large hexagons that are located on the battlefield. Each hexagon is able to support a number of characters. With the hexagons being used, the number of characters placed within a certain hexagon being targeted will all feel the affects of an attack. There are some strategies of moving around characters to different hexagons since some differ in colors. The colored hexagons are called Ley Points and each color is attributed to different elements. As you can see, the battle system is fresh and energizing.

Outside of the fresh battle system, each character has three unique abilities to assist them with fighting. There are Force Abilities, Personal Skills and Original Commands. The first, Force Abilities, uses the blue force gauge on the right side of the screen. A few examples of Force Abilities include Yulie summoning different guardian beasts, Arnaud jumping to empty hexagons, and Raquel having consecutive strikes as an advantage. The second, Personal Skills, are passive maneuvers that are triggered at random events. The last is Original Commands, they are special abilities you can use while in battle. They use up the MP bar and can help out by either attacking or healing the team.

Aside from the battle system, the developers anted up the gameplay with puzzles to be solved. The puzzles revolve around 2D-style platforming that are a simple but a charming attempt to bring depth. You’ll be jumping more than once or twice to figure out puzzles, but think about Wild Arms 4 as being an RPG-Adventure game. You’ll be double jumping, stomping and exploring areas as if that’s the objective of the game. Exploration of the Filgaia (the surface world under the once beautiful Ciel) is quite fun and entertaining. The platforming isn’t an afterthought either, it’s well thought out and can provide thrills at a few moments of accomplishment.

If that’s not enough, the developers also added in a mechanic known as “Accelerator” which is the “Matrix Bullet Time” feature of this game. Slowing down time and increasing Jude’s speed is tempting to use whenever it is available. There are other abilities to unlock such as turning off random encounters. That’s right, turning off random encounters! What a dream come true for this RPG lover who despises them when they come at the most unfortunate time. No more will I have to worry about having back to back gigantic battles that could mean game over for me. Random battles always strike me when I am hurting the most so the ability to turn them off is welcomed.

The art style is superb and is reminiscent of the old Wild Arms games. It has a cyberpunk meets Old West approach and it only improves the game’s graphics in total. Besides the art style, the actual graphics are better than anything else seen in any other Wild Arms game. There are facial expressions to go along with the dialogue, detailed environments, and cinematic scenes are well done even if they are in limited amount. The cell shading holds up and delivers a solid graphics engine as the framerate never dropped throughout my entire journey.

The audio department for RPGs can vary from great to downright awful. Wild Arms 4 falls directly in the middle and sometimes goes above being average. The voice acting is odd when you are battling which is strange, since you’d expect it to come from NPC’s talking to your characters. The soundtrack and musical score is aptly acceptable. The audio doesn’t detract away from the game as it does influence the mood in a few instances. While they won’t win any awards for the sound, Media Vision can rest safe that their audio is decent enough to get the job done.

Speaking about Media Vision, I am glad to hear that they are working on the upcoming Wild Arms 5. If Wild Arms 4 is any indicator, the fifth part of the series should be even better. I am hoping they make advancements in making it more for the hardcore role-playing gamer rather than the beginners that are just starting out. Wild Arms 4 often portrays as if it was intended to be a starter-RPG so beginners can pick up and learn to play. If they continue to add depth to what they have already created, Wild Arms 5 should be a success too.

Wild Arms 4 isn’t the greatest RPG I have ever played but it does its job of entertaining. The story is weak and borrows a lot of clichés from several other top RPGS already on the market. The platforming is refreshing to see added and the HEX battle system is a decent surprise too. You’ll easily be able to get your worthy 40 hours of gameplay out of Wild Arms 4 in replay. Gamers should pick it up regardless as it’s not a bad purchase for a starter-RPG.

Gameplay: 8.0
Platforming + Great Battle System = A Refreshing Product. The series needed to see some new ideas implemented and Media Vision has delivered the goods.

Graphics: 7.6
I am a sucker for cel shading and Wild Arms 4 presents it splendidly. The art style is the major reason the graphics won me over. The characters are all unique and diverse so I have to give them a hand for the artists that drew them up.

Sound: 7.7
Wild Arms 3 didn’t feature any voice acting, so any decent voice acting would be an upgrade for Wild Arms 4. Wild Arms 4 is lucky enough to have that as the voice acting never has a down moment where I cringed and hoped to grab the remote for the mute button.

Difficulty: Easy
Though the platforming isn’t extraordinary easy, Wild Arms 4 is a starter-RPG at its core.

Concept: 6.0
I’m hoping that Wild Arms 5 will have a better plot outline than the adults vs. teenagers one within Wild Arms 4. Inserting platforming is the huge reason why the game even receives a six in this category as the storyline is disappointing.

Overall: 7.8
With optional boss fights and side quests, there is tons to do within Wild Arms 4 to make you keep playing. I’d rather explore the world of Filgaia though if that gives you any hint on how I loved the added exploration and adventure side of Wild Arms 4.