Wild Arms?

[MrEco]

I've sort of had my eye on this series for a long time, since a wild west themed JRPG sounds oddly amazing, but I've only just now finally gotten around to picking some of them up. I've already picked up the third game in the series since it looks very fun and I've heard it praised by a lot of people as being the best in the series, but now I don't know what to think of the rest of the games.

I'd like to get the Racketboy communities opinions on this series. To be specific, I'd like to generally know which games in the series are worth playing, or if it's best to skip some of them? Also I heard the first game got a remake titled Alter Code F? Does it change a lot, and if so which version is better?

[touchofkiel]

The first three games are solid JRPGs, though I don't think any of them are truly spectacular. The third game definitely has the most wild west feeling, in my opinion.

Haven't played Alter Code, but it looks like a decent remake, and it's well regarded.

I have a soft spot for the first two games in particular, having played them when they were new and I was young.

[Xeogred]

Sadly, I've owned the first two games for years and for some reason have not gotten around to them yet.

I watched a friend back in the day play a lot of both of them though. They kind of have that Lufia 2 thing going on from what I remember and have Zelda-esque dungeons with some puzzles and such.

They seem really basic, but I never really hear bad things about the first two.

Just a heads up though, the PS2 games are getting very pricey.

[Exhuminator]

The only Wild Arms I played was the first one on PS1. I gave it a shot in 2009, but I found it to get boring very quickly. Never made it more than about two hours in. I'm not saying it's a bad game though, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it at that time.

A lot of people say this is a very solid SRPG though:

Wild Arms XF

[strangenova]

I got the first three and they are all solid jrpgs. I do have to say the third is probably the best out of the three.

The second one was one of my first rpgs on the ps1 so I love the game but it is a tad easy, also really wonky localization.

The setting and music really help these games stand out amongst all the other jrpgs of the time.
In short if you like three, I recommend getting the first one and if you aren't satisfied then get two. The fourth and fifth games altered the battle system to a hex system, I didn't care for.

[Daria]

Pretty sure I have the entire series. Liked the first, haven't played the rest. >.>

I suck.

[Sano]

I remember playing Wild Arms on the original Playstation. If I recall it was the 2nd RPG I played on the console behind FFVII. Great game! If nothing more, play the first one!

[econoemu]

If there is one key feature I can point out (as did strangenova), it has to be the music. Michiko Naruke's combination of spaghetti western themes and boom bombastic symphonies keep you wanting more.

I'm going to throw this out there. One of my favorite pieces video game music ever and it's the opening theme! Into the Wilderness

[laurenhiya21]

I'm still kind of annoyed at the first Wild Arms for soft locking on me... But to be honest it was a bit too grindy for my taste anyway. Haven't tried the others though so I'm not really sure how different they are.

[MrPopo]

The only one I've played to any degree is the fifth one; I'm in the last segment of the game but I think I might be needing to do some major grinding; last I remembered things tended to take me apart. The fifth (and the forth, as I've read) has a very interesting battle system where the battlefield is divided into hexes. All your attacks and abilities target a hex; so if you have two characters in a hex then attacks will hit both characters and heals will hit both characters. Random battles has them arranged in a basic circle so there isn't much strategy (you can always move a hex and then attack in a turn), but in boss battles they have more interesting arrangements where you can do things like block enemies to protect a party member. There's also elemental tiles that make you deal that damage and have defense of that element (so you're weak to the opposing element). It ends up being a risk/reward choice.

Settings-wise Wild Arms 5 has a Borderlands feel, in that there's a bunch of technology but you're still in dry gulch with western clothing and jobs. Dungeons add some platforming elements but it's still standard random battles.