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| Wild Arms 3 | 
 enlarge | From: Sony Computer Entertainment
Category: Video Games
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $4.51
You Save: $15.48 (77%)
Buy New from $13.81
Avg. Customer Rating:  (30 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3925
Platform: Playstation2
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: 97203
Model: P2SNY 711719720324
UPC: 711719720324
EAN: 0711719720324
ASIN: B00006LEM8
Release Date: September 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Third time's the charm! April 6, 2005
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
This WA is by far an excellent addition to anyone's RPG drawer. Unlike SOME people's bland analyses, this WA is unique in many ways in comparison to its previous cousins.
First of all, the story will feel familiar to those of you who played the first WA. A lot of references and names are used in conjunction with this one (including two big surprises in the middle I won't spoil for anyone yet to play this game) and make this game more engrossing. Second, the main character of this game is the first female protagonist for the Wild Arms series and she does a good job of playing the courageous heroine. While she's no Lenneth Valkyrie or Elly Van Houten, Virginia Maxwell performs well fighting injustice throughout Filgaia. To make it more interesting, she is the only female member of the team and the leader of a party that composes males. How's that for girl power? Third, if you loved the ARMS in the last two games, you'll be surprised to know that in this WA, ARMS are your regular weapons and that they are the main weapon of just about everyone you come across in the story. This brings on a feeling of classic wild west since cowboys and cowgirls relied on the same trusty pistols.
Now, for the gameplay stats:
Story-This WA's story is a tad on the huge side, so you must pay careful attention to details as they come. Of course, if you remember any info from the first WA, this won't be a problem for you. Most of the story's content centers around a lot of scientific detail and terms though, so be prepared for complex explanations.
Characters-Your party will compose the same four people for the entire game and each of them develops quite nicely as the story rolls along. In fact, each character has a tough dungeon later on that exclusively stars him/her as the central figure for the plot and helps explain some things that may have confused you before (a.k.a plot fillers, but by no means boring ones).
Music-Michiko Naruke, what a genius! She knows her wild west music. Reading everyone's other comments, I'm appalled by your rudeness and lack of musical comprehension. These are some of Naruke's best pieces to date. The use of strings, whistles and drums blend into some nice wild west themes, especially the many town and battle themes. Don't forget that there are also the traditional dark, sad, heroic, goofy and serious themes.
Battle System-This WA keeps the tradition of Force Points but now has a newer simplified setup. Each character has one unique Force move (ex: Virginia uses Mystic) and two that they all share, Gatling and Summon. Also, a new feature lets you turn monsters into magic gems when defeated by an elemental guardian summon or spell. The gems can be sold for quick money (which is scarce) or used to cast the same elemental spell that made it. Your ARMS can be upgraded and there are countless setups to have for each ally and while quite expensive, can improve your odds against tougher monsters. Each character's gun is unique in its stats, so you must consider carefully what parameters to build (especially since you can reset them but you don't get your money back). Guardians play a bigger role than before. There are 12 in all and each character can equip three. Each one ups certain parameters and gives the equipper four spells to use (sorry folks, no Crest magic in this WA). There are once again, endless setups, but certain Guardians work best with certain characters.
Sound-Magic spells, guns, explosions, horseriding and monster noises all in one game? Quite a coloful bunch of sound FX if you ask me. The gun sounds are especially on the mark.
I give this Wild Arms a 5/5. Buy it and enjoy, it rocks! And for those of you who want an extra challenge, the Abyss is back from WA1, but it's now 100 floors and a familiar face awaits at the end. Good luck!
 Bland, Predictable, Terrible RPG, Not worth your time!!! February 6, 2005
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
Wild Arms 3 is a terribly mediocre RPG that simply never should have been made.
The Good:
Relatively nice cel-shaded graphics. Period. Nothing else.
The Bad:
Incredibly flat characters, predictable and cliched storyline, repetitive and stupid battle system, lack of any good enemies, you can't get any new guns, music is very limited, doesn't sound like the Wild West.
Conclusion:
Wild Arms 3 could've been a good RPG worth 4 stars with some improvements, unfortunately the developers obviously didn't try very hard. Don't even bother with this game. Not worth your time at all. Try Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Dark Cloud 2, Suikoden 3, or Grandia 2. They are much better than this game.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly January 13, 2005
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
I love RPGs. The PS2 has produced some really excellent games for the genre including Final Fantasy X, the Shadow Hearts series, and Disgea: Hour of Darkness. Wild Arms 3 is not going to be joining this list of RPG awesomeness any time soon. It's not even going to be joining my list of decent RPGs. This game is terrible, and I just could not finish it! Trust me I tried and there was a period of two weeks when I couldn't bring myself to even turn the game on.
I thought a western-themed RPG would be something really unique, but I was wrong. This has got to be one of the most cliched things I've ever seen. It's the third in a series that appears to be rather popular. I did end up hating this game, but strangely I'm not totally put off from playing a Wild Arms game ever again. Maybe since this is the third game, it's just an unfortunate casuality of sequel-itis.
The Good:
The music's pretty good. It's appropriately whistlely and twangy like the fare you'd find in most spagetti westerns and really sets the western tone.
Fighting on horseback! This only unique from a visual point of view. The game still plays in exactly the same turn-based Final Fantasy-esque way as if you were on foot, but it looks really cool as you race across the desert fending off creepies.
Save Anywhere! You can provided you have an item called a Gimel Coin, but luckily those are easy to find.
The Bad:
Cliched plot. It starts out with promise. Your four heroes meet up during a train robbery when some burly gunmen try to steal an artifact belonging to this Indian Shaman tribe called the Baskars. Classic Western! Then the adventurers, called Drifters, team up and take an assignment from the Baskar's head Shaman to awaken the four guardians of the planet Filgaia so maybe the desertification of the planet will stop. It's down hill from there. Suddenly, instead of a Western game, I'm playing a cliched find the four scared elemental crystals/dragons/betamax VCRs quest.... but with firearms! Soon our foursome discovers that this weird demon cult is out to infuse the planet with evil energy and transform it into a demon world or some other rot by using guardians and ancient artifacts. So they set out, to discover why Filgaia is dying and play follow-the-bad guys. It's almost like playing Final Fantasy VII over again, and I never liked that game much in the first place.
Characters that come right out of anime central casting. The characters are very archetypal and never try to break out of their mold. You have Gallows, a ne'er-do-well Shaman, who learns some bland lesson on freedom, heritage, and self-actualization on the journey. Brainy, tough guy Clive, who might have been a better drawn character if his marital troubles were explored in more detail. Jet Enduro, surly anti-social amnesiac, and worst of the bunch Virginia Maxwell. For some reason they make her their leader even though she is the least expirenced of the bunch. She's naive, gulliable, and not all that smart trusting people she should know better than to trust and walking into obvious traps. She's one of those annoyingly perky types and her "Come on guys! Let's do our best for Justice, Truth, and blah blah" is more Big Bird than Clint Eastwood. She's also looking for the dead-beat dad she hasn't seen in 10 years. The anime feel is helped along by the video sequences (complete with corny songs) that sandwich the game when you begin and end it during each period of play. Trust me. It's frickk'n annoying after you've seen them ten times.
Sandcraft battles. During the game you get a sandcraft vehicle. If you run into a monster in this thing, the way the battles plays out is very different than on foot or horseback. That's not good because they battles are so bloody slow that they can last for over five minutes each!
The Ugly:
Healing Items are hard to find. Healing Items are scarce, so it becomes neccesary to ration stretigically. There are some sections of the game that are so hard that having a big cache of heal berries is the only way to stay alive. It adds challenge, but since I didn't enjoy the game it just it that more annoying.
Search system. If you want to find something on the map, you need to get directions first and move slowly across the map sending out some kind of sonar to make the ruin, town, or whatever appear. It's time consuming and also makes the game extremely linear.
Boring Level Design. You'll send more of you're time trekking through the various ruins that litter the landscape. In the ruins, you solve various puzzles ranging from easy to what am I supposed to do here? difficulty. A critic once said level design was key, and Wild Arms 3 makes me see how right he was. All the ruins look exactly the same. I know I'm throwing a switch in the ruin in the North, but I did the exact same thing in the ruin to the South which also had a box puzzle like the ruin in the West. Get my point? It feels like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. I'm not traveling to a Forest of Doom or a Cloud City of Eternal Happiness. It's just ruins and towns, and they all look the same!
Wild Arms 3 September 21, 2004
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
A semi-traditional RPG with a Wild West theme and action elements.
Graphics
The layer of "haze" that occurs between the action on the screen and the screen itself makes you feel like you are really watching an old Wild West film; but don't worry, if a layer of "haze" sounds obnoxious to you, it is only really apparent in close-up views.
Environments are fully 3D and rotateable. Characters are done in a 2D/3D manner; that is to say, they are 2D cel-shaded figures that only appear 3D polygonal, the same visual style they used for characters in Dark Cloud 2. The characters are very anime-ish styled. The atmosphere is that of dusty, desert Wild West world.
An anime "screen-saver" also starts up when you leave the game idle for awhile, and I find myself watching it every time I play the game; it's actually real short, though.
Sound
The music is done in the traditional style of the Wild West, but they manage to through some rock and jazz in there too. A lot of the music is very action-oriented, as you would expect from something Wild West.
There is no voice-acting in this game to complain or complement, except for maybe the vocal song that accompanies the aforementioned anime screen-saver. Although, some voice-acting might've helped, as, when the text proceeds automatically, it sometimes proceeds too quickly.
Gameplay
Battles are very simple and fast-paced: click attack and watch 'em die! Although, there is some strategy involved, too.
Like Chrono Cross, you must charge up to use spells and special skills, in which case, you must hit and be hit to acquire "Force Points" to use said spells and special skills. Each character has their own special skill, and you can equip different spell sets as you like.
One thing that is irksome about the battle system: you can only run away from a battle BEFORE it begins, but not after the battle has begun. And if you have no idea how powerful the local enemies are, you may be dispositioned to either charge in guns blazing, or avoid the battle with your tail between your legs.
Outside of battle, there is a good degree of action, jumping off ledges, avoiding and destroying obstacles and traps, climbing ladders and overhead nets; they let you get some exercise.
Another departure from conventional RPGs is having to "search" for your destination on the world map; press the square button, and you can scan the area around you. This is a double-edged sword; it can force you to study the geography of the land and allow you to get in a few level-building battles, but it can also be annoying when you keep searching the same area for your destination and cannot find it. Just keep searching though, your destination will usually appear right out from under your nose, so to speak.
Overall
Aside from the one point of the battle system, it is a rather well-designed game. You want to play this for the characters and story, the Wild West theme, the music, and the action, if not for the traditional RPG strategy.
Wow man this is nice!!! September 13, 2004
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found wild arms to be quite nice the making of your own name and other qualities was quite nice even do wild arms did not have voices it still was a shock thriller game in other aspects the characters were unique and powerful drawings were great and graphic design was suitable for a PS 1 game and guess what if you watch anime this game was even mentioned on the anime series GTO or Great Teacher Onizuka that meens this game really rocks in japan so if i were you see through the graphic and everything and see that the game wild arms has alout of story and orignality into it so enjoy ill be waiting to get my Wild Arms 3 on PS2 bye now and good luck!
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