Wild Arms 2, thankfully, is quite fun to play, at least after you get past the first few hours. The game details the adventures of, at least in the beginning, three main characters: Ashley, an ARMs-toting sword master; Jack, an ex-con that can beat the tar out of anything and everything; and Lilka, a novice magic-user. Veterans of the first game will notice the extreme parallels between the two’s characters. That being said, in this game, you can get considerably more people to join your cause, which makes it a good bit different from the first
Wild Arms in that respect. Like the first
Wild Arms, you’ll spend the first few hours playing each character’s back-story, and then after a bit, you’ll get all the characters to join up for the real adventure. Besides having ARMs (which are basically kick-ass guns that knock the crap out of all the bosses), your characters are members of a group called ARMs that is basically a nonpartisan police force. Imagine if the U.N. had the ability to beat the crap out of anyone who caused problems, instead of having red-tape, and you’ll have an idea of what sort of group ARMs is.
Unfortunately, the first few hours of the game are a real drag. I had to force myself to play them, hoping that the game would get better. Thankfully, it did, around the six-hour mark. The story really never improves, but the tasks that you are put to are a lot more interesting. The game has a few interesting additions to normal RPG fare. For one, places are not shown on the map until you’re told about them, and then go looking for them while pumping the “Search” button. Although this is mainly a pain in the ass, it actually makes a good bit of sense. What are the chances of you seeing a small building from miles away? Nil. It does seem a little silly sometimes, though.
An extremely cool add-on, however, is the little exclamation points that appear over your head when you’re about to have an enemy encounter. If the exclamation point is red, you have no choice but to fight, and may have been surprised. But if it’s white, that means that the enemies are (ostensibly) no match for you, so you can simply tap the cancel button and not fight them. I found myself fighting more often than not, because upgrading ARMs costs an, er, arm and a leg, but it’s nice when you’re trying to run through an old area fast in search of something. You also get Personal Points, which can be used to increase how much health you get every level-up, your defensive ability against various things, and the strength of your attacks. This allows for more customization of your character than most games of the genre.