Firstly, sorry I didn’t update when I said I was going to. I decided that, since a lot of stuff happens in the first week of February, I’ll just take a break. Two birthdays and an anniversary happen, so I wasn’t sure about my availability.
Secondly, I love you, Lucy.
Thirdly, let’s get on with Wild Arms II! Wild Arms is one of the games I played during my dark ages period. I have even less memory of this than I do of Legend of Dragoon. I remember it being a Japanese version of an American western, something named Odessa, and that I enjoyed it. That’s it. Get hyped, let’s do this.
We’re brought to a character selection screen and asked to pick one of three people. This isn’t a pick your character for the whole game thing, but a who do we want backstory on first thing. I choose the first option, Ashley, and explored the Whithering Ruins. Ashley is a low level mercenary in a troop called the Musketeers. We’re here because a local kid was kidnaped by bandits, and we’re here to save him.
The dungeon introduces us to combat, exploration, and the general basics of our characters. It’s a mix of Zelda exploration and Final Fantasy combat. You use tools to open gates in the dungeon and turn based tactics in battle. It’s all simple at this point, so let’s skip to the bottom. Ashley finds the boy, Tony, surrounded by arguing bandits. Ashley gets his attention, and he runs around and accidentally opens up a gate, revealing the goss, Kalivos. All five people then run through the halls, trying to avoid the dinosaur. When the merc commander shows up, saying he’s going to blow up the dungeon, Ashley jumps into action. Using normal attacks and his special gun, Ashley kills the sealed monster weapon. We then return to the entrance, Ashley is scolded for disobeying orders, and then an ending soliloquy happens. Ashley talks abound being the noble hero, refusing to take such actions that would kill innocent people. He’s the stereotypical JRPG hero.
The second character I played was Lilka, who I'm probably going to refer to as Lillla because the font in this game sucks. She’s a mage trainee who sucks at teleportation. We know this because she interrupts a meeting between a small village discussing something. Rather than leave and return to her journey, she hangs around.
Her dungeon is a flashback to when she was learning magic with her sister. Her magic wasn’t good enough to get out of a puzzle the traditional way, so she had to be verbally escorted by her famous sister to use the failsafe. We learn her tool is her magic, and she uses it to activate switches to move platforms. Her sister seems suspicious during the whole thing, and I think something strange is going on with her. Out of the dungeon, she offers help to the villagers and, after an annoying and unannounced investigation, beats up Oliver. She continues with her journey, and I get the feeling something is very amiss. She calls out for a young girl at two points, despite being a young girl. Tip for her dungeon, guard the first round or two to building up FP (MP from henceforth). Freeze kills most things here, but tMP is build up by being attacked or attacking, so you can't use magic at the start.
Finally, I come to the war hero turned criminal, Brad Evans. Five years ago, he was lost in the woods during a rainstorm and was chased by a group of local mercs. We immediately jump to a flashback (in a flashback) of him disobeying an order during the Sleyheim War. When we gain control, we're tasked with finding an exit from the woods. He punches things to death and, when he reaches level two, is very good at it. The random mobs are all barghests that can be defeated in one shot. Along the way, he befriends a stray puppy and finds the tool, Kick Boots, which knocks stuff around, I guess. The boots do nothing to the boxes Brad can throw around, another Zelda mechanic, so whatever. They do activate the nearby ski lift that he and the puppy ride on over a chasm. On the otherside are two soldiers talking about how they’ll take down this dangerous criminal and what they’ll do with the money.
Then, they hear a monster roar. They’re attacked by Gremalkin, the Parasite. Rather than let them die, Brad jumps to fight the beast. He uses his Bazooka with terrible accuracy to do so. Despite being enemies, Brad saves the soldiers. He and the puppy wander off, and they come to the world map.
It’s very different than what we’re used to in JRPGs. Rather than have every city and cave already there, we have to actually look for stuff. Pressings square can reveal nothing, a signpost pointing us to our destination, or an actual location. Call me intrigued. Eventually, we come to the village of T’Bok, where Brad passes out from injuries sustained in the fight with the parasite. He’s woken up later in the horse stalls by a girl named Merril. She’s not here for long as the soldiers looking for Brad show up. Wanting to avoid a fight, Brad turns himself in. He believes this to be the best as his continued journey would lead to more death. There’s no place for a man whose home is a battlefield when the world is at peace.
With the three dungeons done, I'm getting a picture of how the game is played. Use tools to access new areas of the dungeon map. Battles are random but can be skipped if you press "O" at the right moment, usually. There are occasionally healing orbs on the ground to run over. And defeat mobs in turn based tactics with several skills. I wonder why no one talks about these games?
The three tutorial sections are done, and I’m excited. How are these three going to meet? What’s the main story, and who am I gonna kill? I was skeptical at first, but I’m interested in Brad. He’s not some edgelord like I thought. What happened to the puppy, Rassyu?
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