Rating

4.1

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Wild Arms 3

2002-03-14

Developer: Media.Vision, ContrailPublisher: Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment

PS4, PS2

Single playerThird person

Role-playing (RPG)

Sport

Fantasy

The first two games in the Wild Arms series garnered attention and acclaim as they brought classic console role-playing to the original PlayStation. Though crafted in the same story-telling spirit, Wild Arms 3 (titled Wild Arms Advanced 3rd in Japan) boasts major technological improvements and a number of new gameplay elements. Featuring "stroke-shaded" animation-style graphics, a "Wild West" setting, and a completely 3D game engine (not just for battles, as in the previous games), Wild Arms 3 is designed to make good use of the power of the PlayStation 2. Wild Arms 3 features four main characters and takes the time to let players become acquainted with each of them. The "drifters" Virginia, Gallows, Jet, and Clive are four very different adventurers whose paths intertwine toward a shared destiny. Though each has his or her own personal motivations, all four seek an explanation for why the once-verdant lands of Filgaia have become dry and barren. Differences must be overcome and the characters must act in harmony if they are to truly understand the ancient mystical forces at work. As the drifters move through the desolate land of Filgaia, they are challenged with a number of mysteries to solve and barriers to overcome. The different special abilities of each character must be used to solve different parts of the game's complex puzzles. A technique dubbed "expressive communication" is designed to allow players to quickly gauge the moods and emotions of the onscreen characters. Monsters, villains, and other horrible creatures stand between the drifters and their destinations as well. The Wild Arms 3 turn-based battle system is designed to offer players an intricate level of control, allowing tactics that make wise use of the various powers and weaponry of the drifters while presenting combat with cinematic flair. Wild Arms 3 delivers everything RPG gamers expect: an in-depth storyline, puzzling dungeons & a unique battling system. Journey along with Virginia, Jet, Clive and Gallows and discover the mystery behind the Prophets to revive the memories of Filgaia. Explore dungeons to unlock secret pathways and find mythical treasures. Gun Blazing shoot-outs deliver intense cinematic battles. Wild Arms 3 embodies tried-and-true elements of a role-playing classic.

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MaekaReviewed a game8 months ago

Wild Arms 3

I would love to see a new Wild Arms game or have the old ones remastered/remade.

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TinseraArchived a game1 year ago

Wild Arms 3

100 hours

Soundtrack

Visuals

Gameplay

Story

The game was streamed from beginning to end and was by far the longest of the series. I listed 100 hours since the save file was 88 hours but the games timer will not count time spent on menus or inside cutscenes and does not count times we had to restart a stage via a reload. Of the three Wild Arms games played thus far, this one is my least favorite. I know for some, this was a great game and the best of the three...but I could not figure out why even after beating it. I'll focus on some good aspects first before stating why this is my least favorite title in the series, and likely RPG of all time. The Music is a great score almost on par with the first 2 games, and only reason I took out a star was it was used quite a few times in mis-matched places (Some Cut Scenes/Dialog having little to no music or sound.) The game world has some great artwork, and they managed to capture the steampunk/western feel pretty well. The character models and animations are a step up from the first two games, but was not so much as to save the overall blandness of battle scenes reused throughout the game. There are a few very small things later in the game that I'll not list as they are spoilers, that were useful fun ideas...but they come in too late and too little to make the game much better. With that...I really have nothing nice to say about the rest of the game, and my score reflects that. (You were warned) Overall I feel 2 completely different development teams worked on Wild Arms 3 (no proof to support this, just how it felt). Team A was focused on trying to make a game to compete in a broad market against other classics that were out at the time, while Team B was trying to make an actual 3rd game in the series...Team A added a bunch of very very un-needed systems to a game that just did not need them, a whole system based around random encounters that makes the game a slog and overly grindy, bad puzzle designs and poor controller set up. Team B tried to add some quality of life things (garden system, vehical combat, side quests) that were all deemed too easy by Team A and made overly complicated and un-needed. Most of the game has you grinding some system that feels like it was tacked on at the end of production. The leveling system defeats itself in giving you more custom options but punishing you with tons of problems (equipment breaks, forever lost if unequipped). It feels every single enemy in the game is given a 1 shot hit ability of some sort forcing you to use all of your "custom" points to simply play the game. Running from a fights is a no go, you are instead given a spell that will fail 70% of the time turning every single random encounter into a long drawn out battle. The animations during battle are charming at first, until you realize they do nothing but make the turns take 2 times longer (and I played on the fastest battle setting). There is no joy in gaining loot as almost all of it is 1 time use item, or will break if you equip it to the wrong character. Every single chapter feels padded with long slogs of overly complicated puzzles with little reward. The story and characters are just garbage and I can barely contain my contempt for it as a whole. The team is a motley cast of characters similar to the first 2 games, except they choose to loose 90% of their battles (I lost count of the "scripted losses"), have several chances to end the bad guy several times and ignore it. I can't help but get angry every time the characters start talking about a grand cause to only completely ignore any sense of honor/duty...or just do something stupid like handing over a critical time to the bad guy for no reason. You have a team rocket like 2nd party that follows you around through the story that are honestly more interesting than your own (I'd rather have played as them or the bad guys)group, but come off as half baked and annoying considering how many times you have to beat them or otherwise work with them to have them stab you in the back. Throughout the story you see from the bad guys point of view to have the screen feel with utter nonsense about things your character would have 0 clue about and as the player who might not know the series would not care about. All of the cut away scenes could be removed and you would lose nothing to the story, they are that badly written. The bad guys are the typical evil to be evil with a recurring villain making an appearance to add to several false endings in the story. I could go on and on about how bad the story is, but its not worth it. I can simply state the last boss in the game has 8+ stages of dumb gimmick battles that ends the game without anything really being done. In Wild Arms 1 and 2 I felt a sense of pride saving the planet and its people, I felt I was truly the hero of the story...by the end of 3 I felt I had just played a poor clone of Wild Arms 2 where the characters were replaced by the Loony Toons. I think I could likely make an entire stream listing all the reasons I disliked this game so much, but I think I've gotten the point across that its no Wild Arms 1 or Wild Arms 2. Perhaps for some that was a great thing? For me, this game was a massive let down in a neat series. It was full of interesting ideas that went no where, Rewards that were great but too little too late, a cast of boring, unimaginative characters, and an overly complicated story that was borrowed from 1 and 2...but missing good heros and bad guys. (I'll admit towards the end I skipped everything ruthlessly). The game is only saved by the fact it does offer a good many quality of life upgrades over the first two games (but are hard and annoying to unlock), a wonderful soundtrack and an interesting setting. I guess it has Game Plus mode if you really must...but oh yeah...you have to "unlock" that by "unlocking" keys in the main game...if you forgot to do that...well oops that feature won't work... If on a 1 - 10 score, I give it a 1. Here I'll settle for 1 star for the music/environment, 1 1/2 star for attempting something different in the series (and failing). Sitting at 2 1/2 stars feels criminally high for me, but the music really is that good.

2 reactions

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WooZyDice1 year ago

That was a super long playthrough, GG!!

1 reaction

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Tinsera

RankOne Supporter

Wild Arms 3

2 years ago

The Wise Chicken

3 reactions

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DarkRedDove

Wild Arms 3

3 years ago

“Boss Battle Boogie”

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DarkRedDove

Wild Arms 3

3 years ago

“An Eggcellent Victory”

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DarkRedDove

Wild Arms 3

3 years ago

“They Call Me Critical Clive “

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