Wild ARMs XF (PSP)
2008 XSEED/Media Vision

The Short Version: “XF” stands for “Crossfire,” or possibly “Boss says we can’t call it ‘Tactics.'” Sadly doesn’t go too far with the Western motif in regards to classes, but it’s a richer experience than Luminous Arc at least.

The Long Version:

The Wild Arms series might be the RPG series I like most in spite of never finishing an installment of. The American Western theme lends a breath of fresh flavor to stock RPG trappings, kind of how Chex Mix has that dusting of mystery powder on it to make it taste less like mini-pretzels, cereal and breadcrumbs. Sadly somewhere along the line I usually get sidetracked when the veneer wears off, like how I was enjoying 3 until the segment where they make a huge to-do about contracting with/capturing element based summon monsters. The first portable installment, released nigh-simultaneously with the fifth console installment, applies the same idea to the ______ Tactics genre of strategy RPG’s.

XF’s story follows Clarissa, a Drifter who is well-meaning and hates to lie, but is luckily a master of rationalization, otherwise she’d probably have a nervous breakdown about the time she’s made to dress up like a deceased princess and lead a country to rebellion. Her unique class abilities let her attack enemies in a straight line regardless of range, and pretend that doing things she doesn’t like to do is fine if she acts like it’s her idea.

“Leading a direct offensive/decoy mission into the heart of enemy territory is dangerous and stupid, but I’ll do it because I want to and not because my lackey told me to. Now to rephrase her exact plan in my words!”

Er, anyway. As one might deduce from the last paragraph, the game for the most part follows Chevrolet Blank, a band of rag tag drifters led by… YOU! One recurring element of Wild Arms, if you’re not familiar with it, is the Japanese unfamiliarity with what a ‘drifter’ is in English. In context, it’s the term for the catch-all-adventuring-hero-class prominently featured in these kind of games. Out of context, it can get pretty funny when an upper-class girl daydreams of leaving home to become a Drifter, or when people generally act like hiring them is a bright idea. In this case, the drifters are rank-filling created units, The purpose of ARMs is rather different this time around as well, they’re basically doodads carried around to allow them to change classes on the fly between battles. (Though I suppose it’s never been explicitly said ARMs need to be weapons, it just stands for Ancient Relic Machines, they just usually end up being, well, guns. Wild ones.) If there is one thing that the game does well, it’s making you make use of all the classes. Even though you can learn all the skills of a class and equip them to another, you’re limited by how many skills can be equipped to a character, and each class carries with it significant enough stat differences that can’t be offset just by grinding (You can give an Elementalist a Fantastica’s [support mage] powers, but the Fanta will always have faster movement.) The fact that the game system is skill based rather than GRIND GRIND GRIND like so many allows things to progress a bit faster than normal, since you’re going to gain skills faster than actual levels, and being level 80 isn’t going to help Clarissa climb a hill that only an Excavator can tackle.

The battlefields are based around hexes rather than squares, which is somewhat different than the norm. Sometimes it can make judging distances and lines of fire somewhat awkward (Berserker movement and Clarissa’s gunshots can only travel in straight lines) but it allows for a a few methods of spicing things up. Block-pushing, switch-hitting, and torch-lighting, WA series standbys have been integrated into the battle maps, and the objectives for story missions are almost always more complicated than “DEFEAT ALL ENEMIES.” A tactical game requiring tactics? That’s rich! That alone’s worth some credit even if the forced stealth segments are a pain in the ass, and following one up immediately with a ‘protect the convoy’ style mission had me convinced that the makers specifically wanted to kick me in the pants. Like they had spied on me and recorded how much I fucking HATE escort missions. (Luckily the villagers are at least somewhat fast.)

All things considered, WAXF is worth a play even if it’s got some flaws. Even though you basically NEED to have a character of the right class to clear a map, you can restart any time without penalty. Quicksaves are weirdly absent, though. Putting the PSP on sleep mode isn’t exactly a substitute, especially if you want to switch to another game. And again, though you can equip any skill to any other class once it’s been ‘memorized,’ many of the vital ones are at the very end of the list requiring you to muddle through the entire rest of the list in order to pick up Secutor EQ or Object Attack (which you do really need for many puzzle based maps in order to move blocks.)