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Enchanted Arms - A View
So yeah, Enchanted Arms. The game came out in 2006. Why am I reviewing it now? Well I have an HDTV now and that is making a lot of my old games new. I threw in Enchanted Arms, picked up from where I left off and have been kind of hooked on it since.
First off it's a full on JRPG, that means a linear storyline, turn-based combat, and at least one of the main characters is pedo-bait.
Yes the rumor is true, one of the early characters is gay, flaming if you will. Makoto is one of Atsuma's friends. He is also killed off early on, but he may have survived. I haven't finished the game yet, but there is a "Mysterious Man" that keeps showing up to drop hints and help progress parts of the story. Right now it's heavily hinted that he may be the same character yet no longer gay or acting very straight to throw off suspicion. Really though in this day and age does a gay character really make that much of a difference or impact?
The main character is Atsuma. He is a student at the university in Yokohama City, one of three great cities in the world. The other two are London City and Kyoto City. The school teaches students in the arts of enchantment and golems. Golems do many thing in this world. Think of them as what robots would do in your standard sci-fi, advertise, watch children, and fight as soldiers. Atsuma would be best be described as the jock. He's not smart, always hungry, and always getting in trouble. Part of the reason he's always getting in trouble is his right arm, evidently it's not his original. His right arm seems to have the power to disenchant enchantments and it seems to have it's own intelligence.
Atsuma's other schoolmate is Toya. Toya is the brains of the bunch. He is also taken out early on, but not killed, he becomes the "magicore" for the Devil Golem, The Queen of Ice. Basically Atsuma's mission becomes to save Toya from the her.
The other main characters that soon accompany you are;
Karin - The princess of London City, hard headed, hot headed and slightly spoiled.
Raigar - Karin's personal bodyguard. Basically he's a paladin.
Yuki - A golem hunter/pedo-bait. Wants everyone to take her seriously, but still acts like a child. Has a slight crush on Atsuma
The basic plot is Atsuma, Toya, and Makoto decide to check out a "forbidden" section of the university. Atsuma's right arm "accidentally" releases the Queen of Ice. She decides that she is going to release the other two Devil Golems (in London City and Kyoto City) to help destroy mankind and then rule the earth.
The story while somewhat simple and very cheesy is still rather interesting as it plays along. They actually flesh out the characters backgrounds as the story progresses and you find out why each acts like they do. One thing I also noticed is while they do use about every cheesy JRPG cliche in the book, they twist them in humorous ways. Case in point, NPC have names like "Woman with worrisome eyes" or "Samurai who eats too much."
Graphically the game is beautiful. The back of the case describes the game as the "first true next-gen RPG" and I think that pretty much sums up the graphics. It especially looks great when you get out of the cities, the countryside is so well done I want to explore as much as I can just to see it all.
Combat, well let's see. It's turn-based, you fight on a grid system that has a center line that neither side can cross, and everyone is randomly placed on their side. Because of the grid system you have to move your characters to take advantage of their strengths. Each character and creature has an elemental affinity, which are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark. Hitting a opposite element will do double damage and hitting same elements will do lesser damage. You have HP (hit points) and EP (ether points) for your health and magic respectively. You also have VP (vitality points) which is burned off at the end of all combat the more turns you take in combat the more VP that is used. Basically VP restores you to full health/magic. If your VP is all gone you'll start the next combat with 1 HP and 1 EP.
Once you get the hang of the combat it's becomes pretty simple. The hardest part becomes trying to move your characters into the best position. While you will play most of the game with the main four characters there will be times when some or all will leave your party for one reason or another. This is where the golems come in. There are "over 100 golems" to choose from, each whit their own elemental affinity. Most are hidden around the world, to unlock them you must fight and defeat them. On the 360 version you can have a max of eight golems and three human characters in reserve, all gain experience. The PS3 version to my understanding does not have the limited reserve system, instead all golems you find and unlock will be available to you. To me that kind of takes away some strategy, but I guess they wanted to make it easier for PS3 owners or something.
The main reason I've been playing it a lot lately is because I have an HDTV now. So now the print on screen is much clearer to read, thus making the game better. Probably something I'll be doing with other older games I have, that have been sitting waiting for me to get a HDTV.
Overall I am really starting to enjoy the game. The first third I played through was a bit slow, plus I was on a standard TV. The plot has started to pick up now as the backgrounds of the characters are explored a bit. And well the cheese factor has some appeal too.
The achievements are all story based, so just playing through the game will net you them all. So no worries of trying to collect all of the golems for an achievement. It does have a golem battles over Xbox Live if you wish, best if you've leveled up some good ones. But considering the game came out in 2006 good luck on finding anyone to fight. Also in London City is a Casino where you can make money fighting golems, or playing bingo, slot machines, or roulette. Happily I've managed to make #10 on the Slot Machine leaderboards and #9 on the Roulette. :D
I would say if you are interested in the game give it a rent. Once the game is finished there is no real reason to replay it unless you have "pokemon fever" and need to get all of the golems. It's beautiful to look at and fun once the story finally starts to take off and answer questions.
First off it's a full on JRPG, that means a linear storyline, turn-based combat, and at least one of the main characters is pedo-bait.
Yes the rumor is true, one of the early characters is gay, flaming if you will. Makoto is one of Atsuma's friends. He is also killed off early on, but he may have survived. I haven't finished the game yet, but there is a "Mysterious Man" that keeps showing up to drop hints and help progress parts of the story. Right now it's heavily hinted that he may be the same character yet no longer gay or acting very straight to throw off suspicion. Really though in this day and age does a gay character really make that much of a difference or impact?
The main character is Atsuma. He is a student at the university in Yokohama City, one of three great cities in the world. The other two are London City and Kyoto City. The school teaches students in the arts of enchantment and golems. Golems do many thing in this world. Think of them as what robots would do in your standard sci-fi, advertise, watch children, and fight as soldiers. Atsuma would be best be described as the jock. He's not smart, always hungry, and always getting in trouble. Part of the reason he's always getting in trouble is his right arm, evidently it's not his original. His right arm seems to have the power to disenchant enchantments and it seems to have it's own intelligence.
Atsuma's other schoolmate is Toya. Toya is the brains of the bunch. He is also taken out early on, but not killed, he becomes the "magicore" for the Devil Golem, The Queen of Ice. Basically Atsuma's mission becomes to save Toya from the her.
The other main characters that soon accompany you are;
Karin - The princess of London City, hard headed, hot headed and slightly spoiled.
Raigar - Karin's personal bodyguard. Basically he's a paladin.
Yuki - A golem hunter/pedo-bait. Wants everyone to take her seriously, but still acts like a child. Has a slight crush on Atsuma
The basic plot is Atsuma, Toya, and Makoto decide to check out a "forbidden" section of the university. Atsuma's right arm "accidentally" releases the Queen of Ice. She decides that she is going to release the other two Devil Golems (in London City and Kyoto City) to help destroy mankind and then rule the earth.
The story while somewhat simple and very cheesy is still rather interesting as it plays along. They actually flesh out the characters backgrounds as the story progresses and you find out why each acts like they do. One thing I also noticed is while they do use about every cheesy JRPG cliche in the book, they twist them in humorous ways. Case in point, NPC have names like "Woman with worrisome eyes" or "Samurai who eats too much."
Graphically the game is beautiful. The back of the case describes the game as the "first true next-gen RPG" and I think that pretty much sums up the graphics. It especially looks great when you get out of the cities, the countryside is so well done I want to explore as much as I can just to see it all.
Combat, well let's see. It's turn-based, you fight on a grid system that has a center line that neither side can cross, and everyone is randomly placed on their side. Because of the grid system you have to move your characters to take advantage of their strengths. Each character and creature has an elemental affinity, which are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Dark. Hitting a opposite element will do double damage and hitting same elements will do lesser damage. You have HP (hit points) and EP (ether points) for your health and magic respectively. You also have VP (vitality points) which is burned off at the end of all combat the more turns you take in combat the more VP that is used. Basically VP restores you to full health/magic. If your VP is all gone you'll start the next combat with 1 HP and 1 EP.
Once you get the hang of the combat it's becomes pretty simple. The hardest part becomes trying to move your characters into the best position. While you will play most of the game with the main four characters there will be times when some or all will leave your party for one reason or another. This is where the golems come in. There are "over 100 golems" to choose from, each whit their own elemental affinity. Most are hidden around the world, to unlock them you must fight and defeat them. On the 360 version you can have a max of eight golems and three human characters in reserve, all gain experience. The PS3 version to my understanding does not have the limited reserve system, instead all golems you find and unlock will be available to you. To me that kind of takes away some strategy, but I guess they wanted to make it easier for PS3 owners or something.
The main reason I've been playing it a lot lately is because I have an HDTV now. So now the print on screen is much clearer to read, thus making the game better. Probably something I'll be doing with other older games I have, that have been sitting waiting for me to get a HDTV.
Overall I am really starting to enjoy the game. The first third I played through was a bit slow, plus I was on a standard TV. The plot has started to pick up now as the backgrounds of the characters are explored a bit. And well the cheese factor has some appeal too.
The achievements are all story based, so just playing through the game will net you them all. So no worries of trying to collect all of the golems for an achievement. It does have a golem battles over Xbox Live if you wish, best if you've leveled up some good ones. But considering the game came out in 2006 good luck on finding anyone to fight. Also in London City is a Casino where you can make money fighting golems, or playing bingo, slot machines, or roulette. Happily I've managed to make #10 on the Slot Machine leaderboards and #9 on the Roulette. :D
I would say if you are interested in the game give it a rent. Once the game is finished there is no real reason to replay it unless you have "pokemon fever" and need to get all of the golems. It's beautiful to look at and fun once the story finally starts to take off and answer questions.
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