Wild Arms XF - Beat. A while ago. Yeah. <_< Yes I'm slow.
The game was a joy to play. And why shouldn't it be? It's pretty much FFT2. Both the class and battle system, the map and towns... the game unashamedly draws heavilly on FFT for influence. There's quite a few small winks at FFT, even (such as the blonde-haired main character having three costumes). All in all, the game felt made by FFT fans, trying to improve the game's flaws while still creating something new and different. And overall, they succeeded. This isn't to say the game is better than FFT. Given my opinion of FFT, pulling that off would be nearly impossible. And as WAXF tries to do its own things, it inevitably lets in a few things that make it worse than the original. But damn if it isn't shockingly competitive. I never thought I'd see the day.
So what does it do better? Perhaps the biggest, most important thing, is that class balance was done much better. Sixteen generic classes, and almost all have some notable use. Possibly even all, although for some the use is narrow. And just watching the early XF players, it's very clear that there's huge potential for tactical variance. With a variety of oddball moves, there's lots of ways to succeed, and lots of interesting classes and setups to try out.
JP grinding is also less obnoxious. No longer do you need to scramble just to get your Monk to have Wave Fist. Instead, JP serves to allow you to move skills to other classes... to create combos. It's actually closer to FF5, except that instead of one skill slot, you have three... and the number climbs as you level. Forced random encounters are gone, and while I always found FFT random encounters fun enough, I'm sure this is a change some will welcome. They're still available for optional skill gaining.
The game also seems to put up a better fight for longer? While it's hard to say exactly, since I am about ten times more experienced a SRPG player when I played XF as compared to FFT, it definitely seemed like the game was trying to keep pace with the power the PCs had, and since the PCs had a fair bit, that's important. At worst, highly varied win conditions could always cause me to rethink my strategy, which was neat.
And then there's minor things, like the fact you can hire soldiers at a base level higher than 1, that make the game sometimes seem more polished.
So what's it screw up? Honestly, on reflection, the single biggest thing is the AI. Where FFT AI was sophisticated and picked the best move from a sensible (if exploitable) algorithm, and even FE seemed logical in its simplicity, XF's is kinda... bleh. Though there is some bias for enemies to attack weaker PCs, what they do often just felt too random. Challenge seemed like it was being held hostage to how smart the enemies were at times. It's no worse than the vast majority of RPGs, and even most SRPGs, but I expected better here, since FFT showed it could be done. Feels like it will hurt the deep strategising that leads to 20+ playthroughs.
The other big issue is the menu system was kinda unpolished. If you were editing Ragnar's skills, then you wanted to edit his equipment, you had to cancel out of the skill menu, go to the equip menu, watch it default to Clarissa, and scroll all the way over to Ragnar again. And you have to do this a lot, because the game unequips everything whenever you change classes. Very annoying, and so easy to fix. FFT's model was fine, right down to the not removing skills on job change (well, at the correct setting).
That's really about it though. Other big notable difference is XF is a substantially longer game. For me it clocked in at 60 hours, and it's 85 battles, over half again what FFT has. Battles are probably a bit longer on average, too - enemies are more durable, and there are often more of them.
Well that's gameplay. Defined in terms of FFT, yes, but the comparison is a natural one. Needless to say, the fact that I'm making this comparison? Means XF is really, really good.
Onto the rest. Well, getting into aesthetics. Graphics... the sprites are pretty endearing I guess? Don't really have any comments on the rest. Music is top-notch, once again. (Hey, something else XF beats FFT in!) Pretty good mix of tunes from the crazy number of composers the game draws on, and the WA tradition of all the major villains getting rockin' unique boss tracks continues.
Plot... hm. It's not really a great plot, but it has moments, certainly. Game spends two chapters milling around in largely a dull political plot, although it is saved by Charlton's charisma and overall thoughtfulness to some extent. Chapter 3 interlude is cool and the best part of the game from a pure story perspective probably. Chapter 4's... mostly about resolution for various villains and the rise of the main villain to that status, and works well. Final Act I have mixed feelings about but largely it is just an extension of Chapter 4 anyway. Core plot works pretty well, dialogue could be better though. Nothing unusual here.
PC cast is... eh, they don't really excel. Most of 'em are pretty likable (sans Ragnar) but none ultimately stand out. Villain/NPC cast is better generally, even including one excellent character.
Some spoilers follow obviously. I'm using class names for the biggest ones. If you are very sensitive you shouldn't read this at all, of course.
Clarissa- Is Ramza homage. Starts out decently strong in the early going, which is good, because the other characters are largely spinning their wheels then, but she doesn't hugely develop. Fake princess stuff was pretty well-done though.
Gameplaywise, high speed and magic are good, and her unique OC is awesome. Made her into a magic cannon who could do a few other things, and she was generally MVPish.
DL-wise, High Heavy. Woo Rob Turn Sacrifice Sacrifice. Spoiled easily enough but clubs Godlikes with this strategy, so it balances.
Felius- Has some good scenes early where he slaps Levin into line, but other than that just doesn't... do much. Didn't really feel for him strongly.
Gameplaywise, didn't find anything really interesting about his base class, and his stats are poor. Attack Support or whatever would be decent if I used attacks more.
DL-wise, Middle of some flavour I guess? Whatever.
Labyrinthia- At times rather amusing, but more often played as a serious character. Doomed to being outshone by Charlton, but aside from that, not horrible or anything.
Gameplaywise, awful stats but neat skills. Warp/Replica were both terrific, free Revive wasn't bad either.
DL-wise, most of those skills don't translate, so Light!
TONY- Doglike.
Gameplaywise, neat at first but eventually outclassed due to total lack of twinking. He's a lot like Boco, really, just a different emphasis (durability and mobility).
DL-wise, worse than Labyrinthia.
Levin- Okay, Levin I liked. Yes, he's an idiot, and a silly anime trope. But the writers go to great lengths to subvert and mock that trope. Instead of the cast's array of attractive women swooning over him, he swoons over them, and occasionally thinks they return the favour, when in fact they never notice him at all. Makes me smile. Poor guy.
Gameplaywise, Pretty awesome on paper really. Turn Cancel and Blast are both solid moves that can be twinked to do good things. I was kinda hard on Blast because elemental spells from someone with higher Mag work even better, but that doesn't make Blast bad, and the speed is great. Should work well at most things; Execrate and Rushing Beat are neat options too.
DL-wise, High Heavy. Can run out of MP, hates evade or counters, but too good otherwise.
Ragnar- Just shut up. Ragnar's constant nattering about his past, and then his rants about strength of humanity and all that just got on my nerves. He got less bad as the game went on, I felt, but I think that's just because I got desensitised to him.
Gameplaywise, Hyper and Orbital Ring both rule. Nothing else about him is special (Provoke's not bad) but it was enough to get him a spot on the team.
DL-wise, Heavy of some flavour. Feels worse than Clarissa or Levin definitely, but better than anyone else.
Royal Fencer- Having Edna for a foil would make most anyone look cool. Generally wanted to see more done with her, though, and she has the second most screentime of the PCs after she joined so it's kinda bad that I'm saying that? Oh well. Seens with Hrathnir when the party travels back to the past are probably her high point, and round her out as a character some.
Gameplaywise, First strike is nice, and her speed could be remedied through Strong Heart pretty nicely (Trail, etc., help here). Very strong but has some trouble using the strength properly? Fortunately Drop Kick exists.
DL-wise, high Middle I guess. Auron with a worse skillset.
Rupert- Small-time scumbag, but pulled off very well. He was suitably despicable, and suitably nasty for what he was. His fate is delightfully fitting and awesome.
Gameplaywise, Generally found him one of the easier bosses to fight. I can totally see how the last fight can get crazy out of control, but it didn't happen for me. Was one of the harder bosses to test though!
DL-wise, Harken Plus really? Doesn't like evade, but good lord the limit damage makes Indalecio's look like a summer breeze. Godlike of course.
Edna- Generally a lot of fun. Yes, we've all seen the arrogant screwup villain, but she screws up in such creative and fun ways. (Most of her screwups actually help the good guys, with one notable, big exception.) I didn't see her biggest plot at the end of Chapter 4 coming at all, and I kinda wish she'd made it out of the game for that. Her end was ultimately a waste, though somewhat fitting I guess.
Charlton- Outstanding generally. Charlton belonged in a stronger plot game, since he seemed more like a decent Suikoden villain. He's not especially nice or sympathetic, but he uncompromisingly sticks to his hardline beliefs, and in doing so builds himself into a worthy adversary for the party. His ability to whip his loser flunkies into line, and profit off of them even when it was clear they weren't fully on his side (Weisheit, Rupert), was fun to watch, too. His final scene was memorably stylish. He could easily have sought redemption at that point (he and the party do have ultimately similar goals), but I don't think his pride would allow it. Like Labby's other foils, the Tormenta Triad, doing so would be a betrayal of his belief system. I also suspect he didn't want to take responsibility for the creation of the main villain, which isn't especially noble of him, but it is human.
Gameplaywise, goes from unremarkable yet decent to a boss with a very scary trick, which is ultimately controllable. Butchered me once in-game but wasn't too hard to test.
DL-wise, only boss I'm not totally sure is Godlike. Fast, and has some decent status options, as well as a decent limit, but nothing about him is truly overwhelming. At worst, Heavy champ material, and I might be underestimating him.
Samille and El Jackson- I can't believe I didn't notice the pun in their name until after their plot concluded. Holy crap, that's awesome. I did notice Belia Lugos, at least. (Which is weird since I'm far more familiar with SLJ's work than Lugosi's.)
Eisen- I liked some of his scenes with Levin, I'll give him that. The last one they have in particular just clicked. His honourable warrior shtick was terrible, taking that archetype so far that it just felt moronic.
Gameplaywise, whatever. He wasn't notable really.
DL-wise, I didn't even bother to get his stats, so I dunno. High Heavy or something, probably.
Hrathnir- I generally liked him. He was personable, got good scenes even when playing opposite RAGNAR, which is impressive. My only objection to him is the game pulls WA silliness with him shortly before his death. His best scenes come later, though, redeeming him in my eyes. Cool.
Chelle- She's hot. And vaguely insipid, but being played beside Ragnar kinda dooms her to that. Gets a lot of screentime but doesn't find time to make much of it good; yes we feel sorry for her and her people, but she's still stupid for getting jerked around by Charlton like that.
Gameplaywise, found her one of the nastiest bosses in the whole game in her final showdown. Generally had awesome support and she herself is very dangerous.
DL-wise, doubleact OHKO damage. I don't mean OHKO over a double, either. And fast. And yeah, good Godlike.
Piedras Blancas- Totally didn't care about him until his last scene, when he finally talks. And you realise he's the biggest loser in the game (a game with Ragnar, mind). I get this amusing image of Chelle's translations for him up to that point muting all his horrible baby-eating tendencies, and it's hilarious. Other than that, overshadowed by his Dragon, and I already commented on her.
Gameplaywise, neat gimmick (killed me once), but easy aside from that.
DL-wise, awesome speed and durability makes for a Godlike, even without that gimmick. I could pass on ranking him, though.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE LAST TWO
Weisheit- Mm, I really liked Weisheit at first. Felt like what Lezard was aiming to be. Despite his Felius lust prompting a "what", he had loads of charisma and was amusing in the way he screwed around with the party. Very neat backstory, too, mostly - you have this total wanker who, given time to be patient, embarked on a rather cunning manipulation of an entire world, leading to the cool-and-collected personality we see in the game. Ultimately, though, as he nears his goal he gets less and less clever, choosing open combat with the PCs one time to money and finally eating it to the one villain with more plot power than him. And it'd never have happened if he hadn't possessed Edna, either! Oh well. I disagree with Tide in that he actually DID have a backup plan, just he gets killed in the middle of it. He still blew it, generally. I'm not sure if his reappearing in the final act was necessary - while it did complete his downfall, I think I'd have preferred if he had just stayed dead after Part 3 - that was already a fitting conclusion to his story. And then you could just have the ultimate Threat to the World being a TRAP CARD activated by his death or something, since he is vindictive and scheming enough to destroy two worlds if somehow Plan A fell through. Also, thought his voice actress was probably cast-best.
Gameplaywise, once he finally started being serious and having competent support, he was quite nasty to deal with, and made for some creative fights. Found the one in the desert the hardest, definitely.
DL-wise, awesome stats and OHKO damage make for a respectable but certainly not high Godlike.
Disaster Maiden- Someone else I liked a fair deal ultimatly. I spent the first half of the game largely wondering what her point was, and the point of her being unable to experience fear. So when she finally goes off the deep end (thanks, Edna!), it's neat to see her character come together and prove that yes, it was all setup. It means we have a main villain with a character motivation that is at least unique (feed me your fear, bitches) and adequately explains why she is willing to embark on a plan of suicidal world destruction, though the game takes the time to work her up to that point through Part 4. All in all she was brought along very deftly. "Possessed by an evil god" doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a truly excellent character (but we have Charlton for that), but like Aira and Lyon, she really puts her own unique twist on it and it's a lot of fun. Also gets bonus points for keeping zombie Belia Lugos from being the final boss like I was expecting.
Gameplaywise, moderately scary but I think my party was pretty well-suited to her. I understand why some people have serious issues there though, but hey, she has a big weakness which they can exploit.
DL-wise, Xorn variant (durable limit boss). More durable, but not as offensively gifted (goes from lower speed to lower damage). Pretty badass Godlike. Altima wishes she was this good.
END OF MAJOR SPOILERS
tl;dr version is that I roughly agree with CK. I remember nodding as I read his post a few days ago. And also reminded me that I needed to write this! So I did.
Of course, for a fan of gameplay-first SRPGs, it's a 10/10 game. It's FFT2 (EDIT: Unless you are OK, then it is FFT with all the suck drained out and replaced with awesome. Also more noses), with enough advantages to make up for its disadvantages. A lower 10, to be sure, but it too clearly beats FE7/FE9 to me to not make the highest tier. PLAY XF.
