Wild ARMs XF- Also finished. there will be some spoilers here. However, due to their nature, they can mostly be protected by small-capsing names. Still, read at thy own risk and soforth.
I have no idea why I spread this game out over... 5 months or whatever, since it was generally better than what I played in between. I guess I missed consoles after a few months of thriving on handhelds. Anyways, the game just got better and better as it went, as you got more ways to break it yet, somehow, things almost but not quite kept up with you. this is probably strongly helped by endgame bosses going insane in the speed department, fighting the general trend towards insane turn hax somewhat. Otherwise, I dunno, just a solid SRPG with enough variety to always stay interesting and just enough enemy competence to make the insane broken feel rewarding.
Plotwise... oh, what can you say. I tend to like WA cheese, despite the questionable dialogue the plot concepts often appeal to me, and XF is no different. In particular, points raised by Excal have lead to some nice conversations, so I have to give it some credit. Just... um, the cast doesn't really measure up. They're not bad, but despite going to some length to give every character a foil villain and all that, it felt like going through the motions on a lot of levels. Although certainly the King worked great at his role, and the villain cast was pretty effective as a unit and not too bad individually.
So, moving on.
Clarissa- They, uh, completely overdid it I think, so she's like if Virginia had SO2-esque VA and was cranked to 11. Still not without her moments. DL-wise, definitely a Heavy. People seem to underestimate just how hard 120% or so speed is to overcome, and even some bosses are subject to Rob Turn (ones with bare-minimum status protection, certainly.)
Felius- More than anyone else, Felius felt the lack of quality in the VA. Hard to make a judgement otherwise. DL-wise, tanky physical slugger, pretty typical for that breed of Middle.
Labby- Amusing, at least. Had the best counterpart, so had some good scenes there too. Light, though, solid damage off, uh, y'know.
TONY- Doglike.
Levin- I felt kinda bad for him, by the end. Typical "oh which one!" sort of stuff, except they both just ignore him entirely. Sad~ Levin for Godlike though, his speed is immense and just... Turn Cancel until they die from it. It's pretty spoilable (being faster than him is hard, but evading Turn Cancel or just countering his ass? not so much.) but still effective.
Ragnar- grraaaaahhhhh. Heavy. Why does Ragnar get Hyper? And actually hit things in the DL? I have no bloody idea.
Alexia- Y'know, only really good scenes were owning Clarissa's foil. I don't get it. Granted, Edna, I guess. High Middle of some sort, the initiative turn lets her spoil many status whores, and the damage is competent.
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Y'know, it'll be less effort and spoiler guarding to just say that all the bosses are some flavor of godlike. All I really miss out on is antihyping Felius' foil, but that's been done before anyways. Well, that and just saying "what the hell is wrong with the final boss", but that's also been done. 6k HP is crazy, Exhaustion Strike is damned good for that fight.
Some flavor of 8/10. Good, would browbeat people into playing, etc.
