Which is your favourite Wild ARMs game? How would you rank them?

[Nem]

kupomogli said:

I own 5, but have never played it. I've only played through 1, 2, 3, 4, Alter Code F(halfway,) and XF. I'd rank them 3, 1, 2, XF, 4, and ACF.

I used to rank XF much higher, but then I played through it a second time after the omfg gameplay is so amazing, etc, died and as amazing as the gameplay is, there are some major faults beyond the gameplay. The worst by far is enemy AI. If an enemy is going to be closer to you by standing next to the cliff rather than going around, they're going to stand one space away from you next to the cliff, while you're way below them rather than go around to where they're "actually closer." Even with the faults though, it's still a great game because there are very few battles where that issue comes up. Plus the amount of customization with the class system is better than any other TRPG in my opinion, because it's designed to create custom classes when you're late game(far beyond anything you can do in FFT or anything similar.) I'd recommend it to any TRPG fan that can look past a games flaws when there's such a great game underneath.

Alter Code F is the worst of the bunch. I bought it day one and was pretty sad about how watered down the game was. It was like a bad mixture of the third and the first game. I played it halfway through before I quit. There's a glitch that happened a couple times when I was playing as well, where the world map disappeared and I could run anywhere. I might give ACF another chance in the future. I'm sure it's an amazing game compared to RPGs released nowdays.

*edit*

Nem said:

Wild arms 1 was a bit of a joke. It came off a bit before FF7, so it profited from that hype and lack of anything better, but it was horrible with those Big headed models. WA2 was ok. WA4 was a waste of potencial, like they had lost all funding after WA3. They revamped the combat, lost the cell-shaded look and lost the cut-scenes for a poor 2D presentation. It wasnt terrible, but it was definitly a step back.

I highly doubt Wild ARMs profited off FF7.  When a big name title comes out, usually everything that comes out months before the release get eclipsed.  I think the fact that it was an RPG sold the game to most people, it didn't matter how good it would be or not.  That being said, Wild ARMs was better than Final Fantasy 7, the title everyone was waiting for.  The  in battle graphics may have been pretty crappy, but it doesn't change the fact that the game was very good and is still one of the best JRPGs that's been released.

Not every developer was the graphics whores that Squaresoft was and has been for the longest time ever since Final Fantasy actually made them such a big company.  How many RPGs came out prior to Wild ARMs that had 3D that looked better?  I can only thing of King's Field  1 and 2(or 2 and 3) with the only 3D rendered characters that were not CG, and while their heads were in proportion to their bodies, the character models don't look nearly as good as the big headed Wild ARMs models.  And for as great as the characters look in battle on FF7, the Wild ARMs in battle character visuals look better than the blocky 3D representations of the characters when not in battle on FF7.  I'm not some FF7 hater or anything like that because it's a great game, but it's not the end all of RPGs.  There are a lot of RPGs that are better than it that do not have the name Final Fantasy infront of a number.

And since when do graphics make a game suck?  Wild ARMs is a terrible game because the graphics in the game weren't as good as a game that was in development for more than three years?  From the sounds of it, you don't like it just because the in battle graphics are poor.  No offense, but I'd expect something different from someone with a Nintendo avatar.  Nintendo fans are always saying graphics don't make the game.  Do they or don't they make the game?  Or maybe it's because we're talking aboutt a Sony game and not a Nintendo game, because clearly only Nintendo games can look worse graphically while still being good games. /s.  I'm aware you play other systems as shown by your game collection, but the the avatar makes me think Nintendo fan(or maybe just Fire Emblem fan.)

Nem said:

Thinking about it... it would be awesome if Sony made an HD collection of the PS2 games for the Vita (personally i would like for it to have Alter code F, Wlid arms 3 and wild arms 5). We can only hope. :(

After bashing the first one you praise Alter Code F which is nothing more than a very crappy remake.  So it is all about the graphics to you.

How come you read a part of my post but not the other? Alter code F didnt come out here, so i dont know. Wild Arms 1 was the first RPG available to the Playstation so yes, it did quench some thirst before FF7 came out later. The battles looked atrocious and FF7 proved that. I guess you have a soft spot for the 2D overworld.

I didnt find the story especially good and the design would often leave you stuck on dungeons figuring out what you had to do, when sometimes you just needed to have gotten an item you missed elsewhere. I'm not saying its a terrible game, it was good for its time, but in retrospect, it was weak. I wouldnt play the original version again.