Reviewed: October 1, 2006
Reviewed by: Blake Kenny
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
FromSoftware
Released: August 29, 2006
Genre: RPG
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Teen
8
7
7
8
7.9
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Just ask our illustrious leader Mark, and you would know that I’ve been hounding him to let me review this game for weeks. Why you might ask? Well that’s simple, I love role-playing games, especially some of the traditional Japanese stuff - you know, Final Fantasy and the lot. That style of gameplay has captivated and intrigued me from the very first time I ever remember playing one, the first being Dragon Warrior from back in the days on the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
As most of you probably know, the Xbox has never been the best console to own if you’re an RPG fan. The original system had such a small number of role-playing games that you could basically count them on your fingers. Sure, for the most part the few we had were quality titles with the likes on Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Jade Empire and the 2 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, but in comparison to the Playstation 2, the pickins were pretty slim. I suppose the lack of support from heavy hitting developers like Square/Enix had a lot to do with that, but those days may be changing.
Once again, with the Xbox 360, the Elder Scrolls series is first out of the gates with their epic and simply incredible offering - Oblivion; certainly a game worth buying a console for. Still, all is not lot on the RPG horizon with a few highly anticipated titles in the works, including the much-hyped Mass Effect and a few other like Blue Dragon. Still, as it stands, nearly a year since the systems launch, we have a total of 2 RPG’s available, the most recent being the Japanese port, Enchanted Arms or [EM] as it was known in the land of the rising sun.
So right off the bat I’ll say it, if you crave an RPG, Oblivion sports my highest recommendation. It’s simply outstanding and the scale of the game is gigantic. Also, if you’re one of those who must have every achievement, you could easily spend 120 hours in your quest to get them all, well worth the money, and certainly destined to be a tough act to follow.
If you’ve managed to finished it and need another fix of RPG goodness, you could do a lot worse than to go with Enchanted Arms, well actually, you can’t do worse since there are no other choices.
In typical Japanese tradition, Enchanted Arms follows all the stereotypical plotlines of virtually every Japanese title to come before it. The story primarily revolves around Atsuma; a young man who hates school to the point of ditching it. In fact, the ditching of school with a couple of his fellow classmates pretty much leads to the main plotline of the entire game.
A thousand years earlier, the people of Atsuma’s home world used machines, simply known as Golems to carry out all manner of servitude for their creators. Naturally, the Golems went haywire and started what was then known as a Golem Wars. The civilization of that time collapsed and as the war came to a close, the Golems shut down and ceased to function. Using technology and magic (also known as: enchanting) humans rebuild their world and the Golem Wars faded from memory and into the history books.
As you might expect, it’s our hero Atsuma’s disrespect for authority that inevitably leads to the discovery of a Devil Golem, the most powerful of all golems. Without intending to do so, the powers held within his enchanted arm leads to the resurrection of this thousand year old deity, who once again threatens to destroy all of humanity.
As you might have guessed, our rebellious youth Atsuma is not only the inadvertent cause of the catastrophes that take place from here on out, but as the player, you assume control of him in his quest to set things right.
Along the way many surprises and plot twists await the player, but in all honesty, because of the almost formulaic use of typical Japanese storytelling, many of the games bigger moments are highly predictable and you can see many of them coming from a mile away. So for those who have never delved into the world of a Japanese, turned based RPG, here’s what you can expect from Enchanted Arms.
Throughout the course of the game you can control a party of up to 4 characters, with many more, including Golems, waiting on the sidelines should you desire to change up your party. Enchanted Arms plays out with a turn-based combat system, meaning that you input the commands you wish your group to carry out, then simply sit back and watch as the battles unfold. Each of your party members can be moved around on the battle grid and assigned a task, whether that’s to attack, chant out a magic spell, or use one of the items within your available inventory. Each member of your party can move only a designated number of spaces on their side of the battlefield; and each task that a character is ordered to perform only effects a specific area on the opposing side. It’s fairly simple to learn and while the selection process could have been made faster, you do have the option to have the battle play out automatically and with very little input from the player should you get lazy.
While a majority of the battles require little or no skill in order to win, there are a few fights where strategy and planning certainly come into play. Making mistakes or not upgrading you character’s weapons, skills and attributes on a regular basis can really hurt your chances in a big fight. Fortunately, if you die within a battle you can choose to re-engage in the same fight instantly and with hopefully better results. To increase the player’s chances for success, there are locations throughout the world where items like healing and resurrection potions can be purchased. At these locations you can also choose to synthesize newer and more powerful golem’s to fight alongside you.
As the player you are able to converse with NPC’s (non-player characters) and explore your surroundings. However, it should be noted that unlike Oblivion, which basically plops the player down and allows them to pick a direction to go adventuring, Enchanted Arms is very linear and basically points you in the right direction at all times. Freedom is very limited and progressing the story basically forces the player to travel along a pre-determined path.
Battles within the game are completely random encounters, and once again, like many Japanese RPG’s can result in taking 2 steps and fighting, taking 5 steps and fighting again. While this is great if all you want to do is gain levels, it’s pretty annoying and cumbersome when all you want to accomplish is to get somewhere before your Mom calls you to dinner. The estimated 50 hours of gameplay are certainly stretched out in a large degree by the constant fighting.
As is stands, armour upgrades are non-existent. And the only noticeable changes to your characters appearance come from synthesising new weapons. Levelling up occurs from the constant combat and with each battle; SP or skill points can be earned and used to upgrade your characters physical attributes or to learn new fighting skills.
Truth be told, if you know anything about the Final Fantasy’s style of gameplay, you’ll feel right at home with Enchanted Arms; and if you’re at all familiar with the chess-like tactics of games, like Shining Force or Vagrant Story, then you’ll be even more comfortable. It’s generic Japanese gameplay through a through, serious cookie cutter mechanics. If you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. There are little or no surprises awaiting you once you dig into it this one. It’s everything you have come to expect.
Surprisingly, for an RPG that is solely a single player adventure, the game also has a small multiplayer option via Xbox Live. Player can upload their golem warriors and partake in battles against other players. It’s nothing special, but it’s better than a kick in the head. Overall all it’s a small and simple addition to the game, but a welcome one none-the-less.
Graphically, the game is a bit of a mixed bag. The visual effects that accompany the weapon and magical attacks can be beautiful; especially the summons, utilizing game lighting and great particle effects in addition to nicely choreographed camera movements no heighten the effect. Still, as lovely as the game can appear at times, other aspects of Enchanted Arms’s appearance can be rather drab.
The environments in general are rather basic and a little boring. Details are sparse, but it should be noted that some visuals, like ice, wet rocks and shiny metals look absolutely great. While lighting effects are wonderful at times, on the whole, they’re nothing much to write home about and certainly won’t knock anyone’s sock off. Much of the game’s visual appearance seems to be on par with the capabilities of the original Xbox, but with higher overall resolution.
I have to admit I was also a little disappointed with the interaction between the primary characters. While it would have been great to see more cut-scenes using the in-game engine, we’re given little more than still images on one side of the screen or the other who occasionally move through robotic poses as they speak to one another. In all honesty, this did little to lift my level of enjoyment in the game, and because of the lack of artistry within these chat sessions, it eventually reached a point where I just wanted the characters to shut the hell up so I could get on with the story. Much of the time a great deal of dull chitchat takes place, and with little visual flair, it’s easy to lose interest.
However all it not lost, there are a few moments where this game really shines. I suppose I would be negligent to say the game never uses game engine cut scenes. Bigger, more dramatic and pivotal moments within the game use them a little, and rather effectively I might add, but it would have been since to see more of this. They’re just to few and far between.
In addition, the occasional use of CG cut-scenes are simply breath-taking. Like all Japanese RPG’s that host CG, these scenes are total eye-candy and a treat for anyone who can’t get enough of these highly entertaining and visually flashy intermissions. One of them, early on against a Devil-Golem was so incredible, that I wanted to reload a previous save in my game, just so I could view it again. It’s quite simply a work of creative animated art.
Overall, the game has it’s visual moments, but on a whole, the graphics really don’t come close to most of the game’s on the 360 and certainly nowhere near the magnificence of RPG’s like Oblivion. They’re passable, but little more. They get the job done, present the visuals necessary to tell the story and move the plot along, but unfortunately, leave you wanting more, and I guess for the Xbox 360, rightfully expecting more.
Probably the weakest area for Enchanted Arms would be in the sound department. Already much touted in the press is the option to play the game in its original Japanese language or with the new English dubbing. The dubbing will likely make most players cringe and shiver in horror with the absurdity of it all. As not only are the words spoken aloud, totally ridiculous and hammy, but some voice work, especially that used for Atsuma are blasted through so quickly that you would think the voice actor was running late for another engagement.
What’s being said isn’t really the problem, as true to form with most Japanese works, the dialogue is pretty laughable and childish a majority of the time. The problem is the delivery of these lines, but I suppose if you’ve ever seen really crappy Japanese anime, you really can’t expect much different. I never played the game through entirely in either Japanese or English, but rather chose to switch between the two in order to get a feel for the differences. I guess the tone of the Japanese language was more fitting to the overall mood and urgency of the game, but in the end, I favoured neither one. Ultimately playing a majority of the game with the English dubbing so I could concentrate on watching the game instead of constantly reading text.
Musically, the game is also less than exciting. It’s typical melodic stuff that’s calm most of the time but heats up when more dire battles take place. The basic battles and boss battle play the same music over and over again, becoming repetitive rather quick, especially when you’re going to be spending 50+ hours in the game. The music works as a whole, but never really catches on or draws the play into the drama.
If you value the opportunity to play next gen RPG’s on your shiny new 360, then you have to value Enchanted Arms, because next to Oblivion, you don’t really have any other options.
All said and done, Enchanted Arms will take most players somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 hours to complete, while that’s not a gigantic amount of time, it’s certainly above average for most RPG’s and significantly more than the 10-15 hours you get from most other genres. That time estimate would probably be a lot shorter if not for all the random battle encounters, but for this style of game, it’s pretty normal to be forced to go through that. As annoying as random battle can be, they facilitate the growth of your characters as you move through the game, allowing you to gain the level of experience and power needed to survive the tougher battles.
The only downside to Enchanted Arms, and I hate to mention Oblivion again, is the replay value. With the big “O”, you can create a huge variety of different characters and classes and play through the game anyway you choose – and with downloadable content, it’s a virtually endless experience. Enchanted Arms on the other hand doesn’t offer a whole lot of incentive to play through it more than one time.
There just isn’t a whole lot else to find and discover within the walls of Enchanted Arms, unless you’re one of those people that simply must find every type of golem there is to be had. When all is said and done, the game ends and with that, it’s liable to spend the remainder of it’s days sitting on your book shelves collection dust. A must have for true RPG fans, but nothing more than a rental for more casual gamers.
While Enchanted Arms doesn’t revolutionize the genre or offer much to differentiates itself from other Japanese RPG’s, it’s got everything that most fans would come to expect from this style of game. It delivered no more and no less than I expected it to, it was traditional and conventional role-playing from the very beginning. It’s an all around solid gameplay experience offers both unexceptional, but acceptable graphics and sounds.
In the end, even before I popped it into my Xbox 360 for the first time, I was 90% sure of what to expect – and in keeping with those expectations, it delivered. If you have finished up the vastly superior Oblivion and simply can’t wait for another role-playing game, then look no further. If you can keep and open mind, especially with some of the more… umm colourful characters in the game, (if you know what I mean) then you’ll likely enjoy the ride. You won’t be blown away by the experience, but it is worth a look and a good way to pass some time until some of the bigger titles come along this holiday season. It’s not a landmark adventure, but it is a worthy adventure.