Now Shipping: Wild Arms 5

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EvilAvatar.com sponsor, XSeed Games, sends along word that their new Playstation 2 RPG adventure, Wild Arms 5, is now shipping!
XSEED Games announced today that WILD ARMS 5 has shipped to retailers across North America. WILD ARMS 5 is the newest chapter in the popular role-playing game series by Sony Computer Entertainment and developer Media.Vision Entertainment. Celebrating the series’ 10th anniversary since its inception, WILD ARMS 5 features a brand new cast of characters in an all-new storyline along with a return of the acclaimed HEX battle system from WILD ARMS 4, strengthening its appeal to both new players as well as returning fans of the series. WILD ARMS 5 follows the journey of a group of young travelers as they try to unlock the mysteries of their ravaged land and unknowingly become involved in a struggle that will decide the fate of the entire world.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Wild ARMs series, all launch units of Wild ARMs 5 will contain a special 80-page "The Art of Wild ARMs" artbook highlighting illustrations from the entire 10-year span of the Wild ARMs series in full color, packaged together with the game case in a special embossed foil box. This is the only version of Wild ARMs 5 available at launch and it's still at the same $39.99 suggested retail price, so be sure to pickup a copy because quantities of this special 10th Anniversary Edition of Wild ARMs 5 are limited to the initial launch units.

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For more information on Wild Arms 5, just click the big banner at the top of the page!

[mkelehan]

I got the first Wild Arms the day it came out. It was my first new release PS1 game, in fact; when I got the system a couple months prior, I just got a few forgettable used games. I ended up liking Wild Arms quite a bit. I later got WA2, WA3, WA4, and Alter Code F... and have yet to play any of them. I'm sure I'll end up with this one, too... and hopefully I'll get to playing it before I'm dead.

[Sarconix]

Reviews at 75% so far. (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/931326.asp)

For anyone who picks it up... any thoughts? The bonus materials are appealing but I already have some JRPGs in the ever-growing game pile, including Rogue Galaxy. There is a demo video (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/wildarmsthevthvanguard/media.html) at GameSpot, but from that the game seemed mediocre at best.

[GunJ]

So... Is it any good ? (according to EvAvers not review sites)

Worth the time investment, or gets "meh" after an hour ?

[jpublic]

I picked it up, but don't plan on playing it for a while. I mostly picked it up because I'm a sheep and have 1, 2, 3, 4, and Alter Code F.

5 is supposed to clean up a lot of the engine and give you the best of 3 and 4, as well as returning you to the Wild West setting that they abandoned in 4 (which, being a prequel to 1, wasn't *that* out of place, but still...)



And what do you mean 'now shipping'? The damn thing has been out since Monday.

[Sion]

This series has traditionally been mediocre at best. The wait for Mass Effect isnt too long.

[Gorvi]

Wild ARMs has been a pretty solid second tier series for a while now. Not bad to play, but not something you'd be rushing out to get if you've got other, better RPGs sitting around to play.

[Abednigo]

I loved the first Wild Arms. It was one of the few PS1 games that I actually finished. I think I bought WA2 but never finished it. I haven't touched the games since. But that first Wild Arms was fantastic.

[JohnnyToxxic]

Loved 1 when it came out, missed 2, picked up 3 and got it mostly finished. This is definitely on my plan to pick up this weekend.

[Spigot]

I've only really played about half of WA3. I've heard promising things about WA5 (basically that it takes the best of the series and distills it into a yummy confection of JRPG goodness) but I just have too much on my plate right now and with Eternal Sonata just around the corner, I have a very hard time justifying this purchase.

Now, if some EvAvers get this and can convince me that I'm missing out on something on par with Persona 3, I'll run out and snag it!

[51|RandoM]

This series has traditionally been mediocre at best. The wait for Mass Effect isnt too long.

What does Mass Effect have to do with Wild Arms?

[Spigot]

Well, my infamous willpower crumbled like a sandcastle in a tsunami again. I picked up WA5.

I don't know when I'll end up actually playing the thing, given the fact that I have Bioshock, Persona 3, Metroid Prime 3 and a slew of DS games to work on, but I'll try to fire it up for a few hours this weekend and I'll give my initial impressions.

I always regret not finishing Wild Arms 3 and trading it in. If WA5 is as good as the promises are making it out to be, I hope to enjoy it for some time.

[Tricky Thumb]

I've been playing it the past couple of days and so far I have to say it's a pretty solid RPG. Aside from the good localization that comes with an Xseed game, I've really been enjoying Wild Arms 5 for it's simpler JRPG gameplay/story. The main character is pretty much obsessed with "Golems" which are basically robots. His female friend is obviously carrying a torch for him, but even in skimpy short-shorts he's too busy drooling over said Golems to notice that. Oh and then you've got a tall guy, with a hat that's way too big for his face that carries a giant rifle and blows up Golems, 'cause his past be so dark.

Sure the world map is a tad slow in the FPS department but the dungeons are fun and not so very complicated or trite that I've wanted to just turn off the game and play something else. The newly redesigned HEX battle system is actually a lot of fun and my only gripe about it is that the "Force" attacks your characters can do together could have used a little more variety. Even though there are random battles, once you get to the end of a dungeon or search an area of the world map long enough you find a terribly named "Sol Niger" that heals you normally. However when you heal it will ask you if you'd like to battle the tougher monster inhabiting it and by beating that monster you'll be granted the option of turning off random battles at any point in that dungeon or area of the world map by just hitting the R2 button.

I'd say that overall, for $40 bucks, if you're looking for a fun and simple JRPG you couldn't go wrong with Wild Arms 5.

[Spigot]

So that's what the Sol Niger does. I noticed it in the manual and after first thinking, "Oh god. How are they going to pronounce that in the voiceover?" I noticed that you could fight the monster inside. Having the option to turn off random encounters is great.

[Crabby]

Basically just another solid Wild Arms title. The music is quite good, as expected.

Here's the thing though: they claim that they've cut out all the fat and left the good things from the series in WA5...but why am I still running around the world map having to use one of the worst implementations of a jRPG timesink in existence in order to find hidden treasure boxes? Worst feature they have ever used in any of the recent games.

I hope by the time I am finished with WA5 it will have finally tied all of the canon together in a cleaner package but I doubt it.