M
I wanted to give Wild Arms 2 a try because I've read good things about it, but I couldn't suffer past the 1st cave dungeon. I just couldn't bear the dry translation- you could understand the sentiments the dialogue was trying to convey but it was just lacking all charm or prose. I hope eventually we see a retranslation of the first two games.
Do any of the latter entries hold up okay? It's a series I've never really delved into.
My favorites are Wild ARMs 3 & 5. I haven't played Wild ARMs 2 or 4, so I can't speak to them.
Wild ARMs 1 has one of the greatest opening sequences of almost any JRPG. So much so that watching my cousin play through when I was 6 made it the most fascinating game in the world. I eventually played it as an adult, and the main campaign is unfortunately just too dull to keep up with. The game really ought to have kept to the spirit of the opening chapters, but instead makes every attempt to be one of the most generic JRGPs on the market.
Wild ARMs 3 was good enough to play through to its entirety as a 12 year old bumpkin. The game has a decent exploration mechanic, coupled with Dragon Quest 1's design execution of talking to NPCs, and sussing out where to go with minimal hand holding. The battle system, while a bit basic, is made a little neat via the game's FF8 GF-lite build mechanics. ARMs customization is a neat mechanic that is squandered by the glaringly obvious character optimizations that pretty much render the open ended nature of it moot. Vitality is a pretty interesting mechanic that unfortunately undermines the game's poor difficulty. The story is just about some of the most trite anime tropes conceived (with none of the good ecchi to boot). The opening chapters are prolly the worst of the three games I've played.
Wild ARMs 5, while chock full with anime nonsense, has a somewhat endearing plot. And while the game got rid of the split opening chapters that were present in WA1/3, the opening sequence is quite charming. The game has an excellent battle system; with its only flaw being that is never quite fully realized -- which is a shame, considering this is the second outing of this new battle system. Maybe if they had made one more game, it really could've become something. As it is, the battle system keeps tedium to a minimum, and difficulty balancing is
just good enough to not have things be too mundane. The vitality system is gone, and is replaced wholesale with full automatic healing after battles. This is a bit annoying, as the Vitality system in WA3 would've been much more appropriate here, since enemies hit like trucks, and having a limited pool of 'free healing' would've spiced up the combat portion of the game at least a bit. I never completed this game, but it stemmed more from life getting in the way more than anything else. Honestly, just waiting for a proper hardtype mod to compel me back into playing (something that is more than likely to never occur, I know).
Overall, I'd recommend giving the series a shot. Start with WA3 if you like games that are somewhat similar to DQ1's exploration design; and start with WA5 if you want a pretty neat combat system, a mediocre story with some endearing elements, and a great art style. Maybe play WA1, but I'd at least suggest searching for a hardtype first.
