Heyoooo! Another Wild Arms game down and three more to go! ( 4,5 and 1 remake!) Maybe. And don't forget to check out my thoughts on Wild Arms 1 and 2! Or just one. One of the greatest PS1 games everrrrr! Haha, thanks for watching and be sure to check out the Patreon ( www.patreon.com/PelvicGaming )! We're working on selecting my next TOP 5 video. Expect a Neo: TWEWY review coming reaaalllll soon! Also you're gonna be seein' me on Normal Boots with more JRPG goodness reaaaaaaaaaaaal soon. Okay maybe a month. I don't actually know but shit. is. going. down.
Wild Arms XF on PSP as well? I have that, 3, and 1 remake left on my end to still beat - agree that nothing tops 1 so far on PS1, and likely won't once I wrap all of them up either :)
I actually felt more attached to the characters in this game than any other in the series. Virginia ended up being my main damage dealer/tank, she always managed to take way more punishment than the others. Honestly, 3 is my favorite game in the series. I never got that into the first one. I played Wild Arms 2 when a friend lent it to me then started keeping an eye out for the series. When I did finally play the first game (or rather it's remake Alter Code F) Rudy being a silent protag kinda dragged the whole thing down for me. I never felt like his connection to any of the other characters mattered and I could not for the life of me tell what his personality is supposed to be. I can't even tell you anything that happened up to the point I played to because there was no event what-so-ever that managed to stand out in my mind. I think around the time I stopped playing a town was fire maybe? Couldn't tell you who set it or why or if there was anyone in that town I was supposed to care about, but, there ya go. Hell, I regularly forget most of the characters names in 1. I dunno. I enjoyed 2 and 3 a lot and had a fair bit of fun with 5, but to me 1 was just kinda meh, and 4 was....a thing...
Cool. Same here. I just played 1-3 and XF, and 3 has my heart (look at my name). Clive had daddy HP and was an _actual_ daddy, so he was my tank. Virginia took over as my healer, Gallows was magic dd, and Jet was all-purpose ninja-boy.
All jrpgs evolved along with how anime looked like when they were being developed and released. Look at 1 and how the intro looks hand drawn with its 90s style versus 2 where that one is the more modern anime look. I have to mention all of that because by the time 4 came out, anime had evolved and, yes, it was its own thing. I never really liked it and sadly, I never managed to finish it, either.
WA3 is one of my favorites (nothing beats WA1). That said, I can't argue any of the points you brought up. I dunno... Something about the game just clicked for me and I love it. I seem to be in a small minority, though. Oh well. You gave it a chance. I can't ask anything more. Excellent review!
I really like the aesthetic of this game; both the wild west setting and the cel-shaded (I think?) look of the characters. Horseback battles in particular look incredibly cool! Shame to hear that it doesn't really deliver on that coolness. I have heard nothing but bad things about the Wild Arms 1 remake and I can't wait to see you (maybe) eventually review that.
Yeah it really does. Seems like she has ADHD or something. She keeps rambling on (both in this video and the WA2 one) about how absolutely everything is "boring" or "disappointing" etc.. It's a consequence of modern social media addicted ADHD millenials picking up classic gems and expecting the game to constantly entertain them instead of taking the initiative to become IMMERSED in the game; with that little work providing an amazing pay-off of an RPG experience.
I found the hidden boss in the well on accident. I spent 5 hours fighting it because I happen to have 2 dark neutralizing items that prevented all of its damage and chipped away until victory.
I remembered the option system was well done. You can increase the battle speed by a mile. It really help get through the game. After the prologue it did get boring. I also loved how you can custom your character's gun & skills. I remembered using a game shark to give lots of coins so I can save as I please. And max vit so I can heal after a fight. I didn't all the sub bosses because I loved the fighting in wild arms. I didn't care for the story or remembered it. But I liked the combat.
Say what you will but I think those riding battles look really cool. I really wish more RPGs would embrace setting the battles in more cinematic locations - even if nothing changes in the mechanics - I just love the mix ups!
Virginia to me was the not-so-glass glass canon. Her arm gets the most bullets. Equip her with lover+Star have Jet set her up with the spell that causes health loss=damage. Mystic a small carrot and gattling away. Melt a boss in 2 turns or less garunteed.
I think magic in the right hands is fucking wild. Gallows? He has the highest magic stat. If you do magic with literally anyone else it's shit. Even Virgina having the second highest magic stat.... didn't do much. She was my buffer and speedy healer.
Magic is insanity. Just pay attention to stats. Like she says, Gallows is a fucking machine. And early on, Clive's a threat too. Just don't bother with Jet. Level 16 right now... Jet has 43 MAG, while Gallows has 110. He can hit a weakness for almost 600 dmg already, which is insane.
I personally love this game, but even I could agree it's a slow simmer in terms of plot. I will disagree with the characters being dull though. Each has their own development as they go, and you mention Virginia wanting to br a Drifter didn't make sense....but she's following in her father's footsteps, a big portion of her character development
lol The most interesting thing about this game was the random NPC dialogue. Other than that, it all felt like a disjointed, utterly forgettable fever dream.
This is one of my all time favorite jrpgs. I completely understand, and even agree with some of the criticisms (especially the ship/dragon fights)…but I’m a sucker for many of the things this game does. I love cell shading, and I love when a game has several unique, well integrated character progression systems. Despite it having many cliches and being vanilla and generic with some of the characterizations…none of it is actually offensive to me. And I really enjoy the soundtrack as well…there’s something very nostalgic about it. I love the encounter system (no trying to dodge around enemies, but encounters can be cancelled when I’m not in the mood), and I love how there’s actually a decent amount of depth to the way you develop your characters, without ever incorporating some of the most common and played-out systems (purchasing weapons and armor…crafting…skill trees etc) I like how I can change my setup in so many ways as i progress in the game…rearranging turn order, guardian setups, reallocating gun specs…and none of it is too cumbersome. There are so many legitimate strategies when it comes to guardian setups alone (some that aren’t immediately obvious), and there are ideal times to swap them to different characters throughout the entirety of the game. I remember the first time I played the game I had no idea how to maximize gallows or Virginia, and I wasted a lot of gella trying to balance them out. I went into a second playthrough with the knowledge of the guardians and spells I would eventually have access to. I came up with a plan, made every gella count, and those two became absolute monsters.
Listen I won't complain about the gameplay the combat was fantastic! Changing stuff on the fly was amazing! But the characters themselves...ugh... I found them to be boring. And fan enough maybe I just didn't understand how what her face worked but everything I tried just...didn't land. Gallows was fine tho!
Old school Incredible Hulk was a drifter who helped people. And he had the best/saddest theme in TV history. Also, Pelvic can be brutal in the best possible way. Thanks!!!
*remembers my comment from her Wild Arms 2 review* ... Yes! She's doing Wild Arms 3! (Also, you'd better say by the end of this review that Virginia Maxwell is an awesome protagonist. XD )
I honestly liked that the characters seemed boring. Dude, people are boring. So as the game goes on, learning more about them is neat. The joke is that you're totally wrong about Gallows. Though he's a flunkie to his tribe, he absolutely explains everything spiritual regarding the mediums to Virginia, Clive and Jet. Clive is just a dad. He's got a sweet and supportive wife and daughter, and he's a nerd archeologist who's obviously only good at shooting because the world is fucked and he's smart. Jet's looking for money. Virginia's a goody two-shoes. It's like Cowboy Bebop in a way. Sure, CB has characters who are very capable and smooth, but these characters feel like ones you'd find on a shitty dustbowl of a planet. And the stats of the characters make things seem bad early on, but it really feels intentional. At the beginning, think about the cast. Clive is the oldest and most experienced. His damage is the highest and his HP is too, but he's the slowest. Virginia is a greenhorn, so she hits low and her health is pretty much half Clive's. But as the game goes on, everyone balances out to a degree that makes sense. So as an interactive story, I love it. Playing it again after 20 years, I'm totally digging how I feel the need to have Clive and Jet use protective magic to keep Virginia safe at the beginning of boss fights. Games basically never do that. Sorry. I appreciate you doing this, but you... don't get how time works. Like, how would you review Pac-Man? This game was part of the JRPG's "wild west." People were trying different stuff, and that's when JRPGs were the most interesting. If you can't appreciate that, sorry. Guaranteed you wouldn't discourage people from watching The Great Train Robbery just because it's not realistic by today's standards. If we're gonna be good about games, we need to treat them as history. After all, this game is literally twenty years old. Tech, budgets, business models and corporate control were not the same back then as they are now, and you should respect that.
That's true, boring people exist. But I don't think it's the best move to put them into a game, especially if the whole cast feels that way. I didn't find learning about them as thrilling as you. Clive by far I was like OH he has a family that's pretty cool...and that's as far as that went. Gallows, listen I remember playing the game and often time this man distinctly failed at giving information, there was a point they had to go back to the Grandmother chieftain lady because he failed to recall whatever it was. Yeah no, didn't enjoy that feeling but different strokes for different folks. Also Clive was dead last. At least mine was. He's slow. Uh, I absolutely get how time works. It goes forward. LOL. I literally say I love the world story? The lore? That's one of if not the best part of this game? Listen, no problem, we clearly disagree. I am gonna talk about how games how I'd like to speak on them, playing them in the current years and giving my thoughts. I'm a person whose going through older games and giving my thoughts playing them in modern day. And there are PLENTY of older games that still hold rather well in 2022 (Suikoden I, 2, Chrono Trigger, FF 9 etc. ) Thanks for watching. :)
I loved the first Wild Arms so I picked up each one a few years ago and tried them all out one by one for only maybe a hour or two. 3 was actually my favorite of the others and I put a few more hours into it. However, I think I stopped around 10 hours or so even though it was getting better. I thought the story was more interesting than that of 2, 4, or 5 so far. But nothing beats the original! Someday, I'll get back to this game though.
The story man... Will be half disappointing. You can really tell it's like a post eva plot. The final villain is so.... Digimon season 3. I just realized that Janus is suppose to be like the green guy from part 1. So it mirrors the first game. But each villain has their sort of selfish goal.
Man I have so much nostalgia for this game, it was my first JRPG back when I was 14 and I was absolutely entranced. I had never experienced anything like it and will always cherish my memories of it.
been watching tons of reviews on your channel today and really appreciating your perspective on character writing. something i don't often think about but it all makes a ton of sense.
Heh, I grew up with this. Even had the demo that had been bundled with several other classics. Hitman 2 silent assassin, sly cooper, heck even red faction 2. I just was feeling nostalgic and poked around. My take, it's not that bad, had its moments. I would love to try the other 2 earlier installments. I only personally recommend this if people enjoy western style games with RPG mechanics. To me, I would've love to see better background info on more characters. And make the damn Abyss more easier to farm. Can't stressed how much time I wasted on a Necronamacon. Had to leave it too. Still think Lombardia is best dragon friend. She rocks.
I had that same demo when I first got my ps2 and I fell in love with Wild Arms 3, one of my favorite prologues in any game ever, I played it over and over. I didn’t end up getting the full game until like 10 years later. I love JRPGs but what I really loved about this game was the western setting so when the game started going full Japanese with the prophets and flying robots and then randomly demons and memories, it lost some of its charm, so the first chapter is the best for me. But it still holds a special place in my heart. I bought it on PS4 and I’ve been meaning to beat it again.
Just found the channel. Review is on point. I always Overpowered Clive and hyper magic upped Gallows. The other two are dead weight but Virginia might as well be a floating body bag. Edit I loved the millennium puzzles. No matter how long they took they were satisfying to me. Sandcraft was trash, the dragon air battles were okay but the music is always dope. I hated that 100 floor unsavable dungeon tho. Abyss I think it was called.
Hello and welcome! Yeah Clive was hands down my murder everyone person. Gallows was my back up. Virgina was ...my support I guess. Millennium puzzles after a while I was just kinda done with them, especially if I got stuck after a while haha.
I feel a bit vindicated by this review, which is nice. I REALLY...like this game, I think? Eurgh. Basically I love the music, the vibe, the aesthetic...but I tend to put it down quite a lot and when I do it’s for a while. There’s just something sloggish about it, which I think you’ve articulated pretty well. This is my first Wild Arms game, and I always thought the idea of the map search system was either going to be fun or completely infuriating. Let’s just say I hit the GameFAQs rather quickly. There’s a level of obtuseness to it all I guess.
I was given this game as a child from my mom and step dad along with Final Fantasy 10...WITHOUT a memory card....🤦🏾♀️😅 I kind of appreciate now as an adult, but it does drag.
Yeah, WA3 has a great world and atmosphere, but it can be kind of a chore sometimes. Best character designs in the franchise tho. Virginia's a speedy support with high burst damage because of how her gun interacts with the gatling command btw, she really should outdamage Gallows most of the time and Jet basically always, but she's designed strangely and it's easy to misuse her. If anything, it's really Jet who's kind of mediocre at everything.
@@PelvicGaming All three were protag, you could even pick whichever you wanted to run through first. I could see Rudy being the "main" protag, but they were all protags. Still love your videos, always makes me happy seeing you pop up in my sub box!
This is definitely the weakest wild arms I've played(didn't play 4 of xf). It's very flawed with the rotating villains. Another problem is the dungeons. There's nothing unique about them, all inside. Compare to WA1 where there were outside areas, and dungeons hidden in sand, or two attacks in cities. This makes the gameplay loop more rote too. I didn't hate the puzzles. And I liked Virginia..she actually gets called out on being naive. Jet was my least fav. I did like how they're a group though. The ending with all of them still together was nice. I also really liked Janus. He was the best villain in the game. And I liked Maya. She calls back to Jane but she's her own character. Her and Virginia's relationship rivalry was cool. And her posse was cool.
I got the game for 10 bucks years after the PS2 was considered dead. Never saw an RPG so low in price in my life. It's overly simple, but then it was an early title for the PS2. It totally got smoked by Final Fantasy X. Another cheap one I got was Phantasy Star Universe which is pretty much a poor man's Phantasy Star Online. lol PS2 has so many RPGs that it was bound to get a few not so great ones. But then they were decent for a cheap price. I wouldn't pay 50 bucks for them though.
my memory fails me is this the game where you can wrestle 100 different levels in a ring and at the end you fight the guy's mentor? The character im talking about is this really flamboyant wrestler What game was that wait Is it Shadow Hearts
Gotta admit this game was nice to play through, but I gotta admit it started to suffer some "fetch-questy" story-progression. Raising stakes are common thing but in WA3 it seemed that after one enemy is done, new one kinda just... pops up. The world and music were interesting but I admit characters were bit... lukewarm. Not every character needs to be trope boogaloo, but perhaps some spice was needed. The characters seemed to be more like good work-partners in the end of it but didn't really get much deeper out of it. But that is pretty subjective. I perhaps should've experimented more, but I found pretty solid build for almost all game. Virginia's special allows her to use item on all characters making her perhaps the best healer for the group and with proper guardians she almost always was the first. Clive was for setting up most insta damage and rest... well, they did their best. It was still fun game and had interesting style.
This game was such a disappointment. But then Wild Arms was always overrated. It relied on it's theme to catch occidental audiences where it was always lagging behind it's competitors in every way according to oriental audiences. We got the subpar RPG instead of the bangers due to visual familiarity. Truly the most bigoted moment in gamer history. By the way look up oriens and occidens before you whine about made up racism.
It's a shame. I like Virginia's design a lot, but you're not wrong. Something about her just never quite clicks, and she finishes out as a fairly bland, if inoffensive, main character.
I'm here because I saw your cameo in Scott the woz Borderline Forever... I didn't know gamer girls were real until I saw this video... I must meditate on this...
What killed WA3 for me was the absolutely terrible character designs, and the main characters were just so dull. The Shrodinger gang and all the npc characters were better looking and had more personality than the ones you get.
I played this game when I was sick with swine flu back when that happened, I have a real soft spot for this specific game and all the little things about it like the changing title demo anime intro
Very nice video and review, it's good to see your thoughts on this one. I really loved Wild Arms 3 and it's my favorite in the series. It hits the West concept the best in the series and I really like the characters and combat. I admit I didn't like it as much on a first playthrough, but really liked it when I hit up the PS4 version. I seem to have very counter opinions to yours - I didn't care much for WA1, but loved 2-3. Haha. BTW, Virginia says she wants to help people, but part of why she becomes a Drifter is to find her dad. Honestly, the reasons you dont like WA3, give me a hunch that you will actually enjoy WA4.
What does Sony's 1st party JRPGs have in common after Wild Arms and Arc the Lad II? Grindfest, sometimes bland characters, plot is confusing or gets boring, and gameplay can be problematic. Wild Arms 3 is not an exception. Sony gave it a chance to PS3 until they gave up on the genre completely or just didn't care and didn't gave it enough love. 6 and 7/10 were majority of Sony's JRPGs. Quite average. I want to see your review on Dark Cloud 2 in the future which seems to have been praised by Super Derek RPG.
Wow. I've come to realize you're a "WA1 supremacist" lmao. Because there's no logical reason for the ridiculous hate you throw at these great games (WA2 and 3). Like seriously, I've never seen a reviewer with so many terrible hot takes lumped together. These games have some of the BEST PS1-PS2 era story, characters, bosses, systems etc.. of all.
It's so dumb that they didn't give Virginia a useful ability. Your suggestion of her shooting twice would be cool. Or she could be a D&D-style Warlord where she buffs the rest of the party with commands and tactics. Which would make sense as she seems to be the driving force behind the party staying together.
Virginia can easily break the game. Upgrade her guns to hold more ammo for Gatling and increase overall damage. Combined with her ability to spread out items for the cost of 1 and use items like mini carrots and healing berry and she can carry your team.
@@PelvicGaming the original is my favorite too. Still a solid game to this day. I wouldn't highly recommend 3 or anything, but I know there might be people who would like it more than me. Definitely not a must play though lol. I completed like 95-98% of everything in the game. Interesting world lore and plenty of side stuff to do, an ok battle system, but some of the flatest characters and boring story presentation in a rpg ever imho. I finished it years ago using a online guide , but I would never play it again 😂
I haven't played this, but could 'became a drifter to help people' a callback to radio/TV western where the hero came into a town, solved a problem, then moved on to the next? That was a pretty common format, and those heroes would be drifters.
I wanted to love this game so much back when it was released. I didnt make it very far into it. I am not sure what turned me off, but tell me about it Lady ❤️
I only played the original Wild Arms, I thought it was pretty boring actually. I do want to play the whole series, so I'll get to this game eventually, my backlog is crazy though ugh.
Said it previously . I’ve tried to play this game multiple times across decades thinking it was me , I have it now on my PS4 just sat there and I have no motivation or wanting to play it . Clocked up around 6 ish hours and it bores the tits off me and I adore RPGs. If a game initially bores me I stick around for the eureka moment but never experienced it with this.
I remember my PS2 kicked the bucket while I was about 3/4ths through this game and I just like, instantly forgot to finish it as soon as I could play Ps2 games again. I liked the game overall but it does feel like it's missing... something.
I'm a patron, I'm sure you get asked this a lot, which is annoying for you, but I've never seen the answer. Is there a list of games you are covering? I keep hoping FF7 or FF Tactics is on the horizon, but I am pleasantly surprised by the other games you pick too.
Hello, and thank you for your support. No plans for FF7. And FFT ... I own. But I'm not big on strat games so...maybe? One day... The games left for this year are: FFX, Valkyria Chronicles 4, and Dragon Quest 11. We can probably expect a Skyward Sword review as well. Again, appreciate the support and I'm glad you're enjoying the games I cover!
You know what, I was like "hey, time to check that review, I'll do it later..." and here I am with everybody else, cuz ya know, it's wa3... lol! Well, I also kinda got the live show for this one so I never your feelings on it. So I'll focus this comment of the review, you're so good at this, girl! Every point was clear and nicely picked, the segways are all great and I couldn't help but to open a large smile when you talked about the cell shaded graphics, lol, thanks for being you! One thing I missed though, I thought there was going to be some more Janus fangirling! Lmk when you continue the journey, will be there to take the blows and the glows with ya!
This was the only Wild Arms I played. I remember deciding to just quit one day when playing, and never finished it, because the story was so boring lmao. I really liked the art style, buuut nowadays that ain't good enough for me.
It's almost as if they deliberately made the sequels worse than the original in hopes they wouldn't have to make any more. I like the Trigun wild west setting, though
