After something like 35 hours, I'm done with Wild Arms 2. As often with these long games, I'm glad that I'm done. Dunno, ten less hours would have been better for me. The world, the characters, everything isn't interesting enough for me to want to spend that much time there.
But I'm also very glad I played it. It was an interesting experience, and in some ways, surprisingly different from what I expect a standard rpg from the time and the psx to be.
I still don't like how this series is compared to Lufia 2, with how there are tools that you use to solve puzzles. I mean, that part is true. But as someone who loves the sometimes pretty hard logic puzzles in Lufia 2, I was pretty disappointed when finding out that nearly all the puzzles here are extremely simple. But aside from that, I do like that they exist. Dungeons are kinda my least favourite part of rpgs, because they often are in boring locations, and even if not, it's way too much fighting. There is more interesting stuff for me out there. But the puzzles do break up the monotony nicely, and make the dungeons in general just more enjoyable.
You do get a tool that tells you, if a chest is in a room. That's very nice of this game. Very handy.
The battle system was surprisingly well done, I thought. At least compared to a basic battle system from that time. I like, how you can often negate an encounter before it starts. And being able to swap between your six characters at all times, without penalty (you can only have three actively fighting), is pretty nice. The battle system isn't complex enough for this to matter too much. The characters kinda flow into each other somewhat. Which is a shame, the developers tried to give each their own thing. One is even a Blue Mage! But in the end, it turns out kinda samey. Which might be me, as I tend to not experiment, so feel free to blame me for that.
In the end, it's fine. I prefer easy games, and aside from a handful of bosses who do way too much damage, it's a very easy game. Oh, and I like how bosses often have multiple parts you can attack, and if you destroy the part that isn't the main one, you change the behaviour of the boss. Not too much, the bosses are in the end very simple, but somewhat.
I just wished the localization was better. Or at least competent.
I really like the story. The characters are mainly archetypes, but they are competently enough written, and each has some interesting things going for them. Mainly a different take on what it means to be a hero, and how to work with that. But due to the shitty translation, none of them has a unique voice. They fade together, and that is a big shame. You could have a pretty cool party, if the translation wasn't so aweful. Or maybe the original isn't great about making the characters distinct either, I don't know. In any case, they should have gotten better writing. It's all there, and wasted.
I love the exploration of what it means to be a hero. It's an interesting topic, and while I think I didn't learn anything actually new (by now, the theme just isn't new anymore), I always enjoy going back to it. And the game goes, imo, in heavy directions. We have Tim, who is supposed to die, a sacrifice that will save the world. There is a scene, where some old dudes from his village corner him and tell him to please, could you just die? I'm basically quoting, they tell him stuff like that for a bit of time. Tim is still a kid, this has to be horrifying. Then there is Brad, who lived in an awful dictatorship. He and his maybe lover (it seems like we have a gay couple in this game) lead a revolution. But the shitty dictator, instead of behaving like a normal person, blows the whole country up with what is essentially an atomic weapon. And Brad is held responsible, with the people believing he did it. This is intense stuff for a game from then.
I guess I should mention Liz and Ard, because they are great and fun, I just don't have much else to say about them.
Also, I feel like the translation got worse as the game went on. At the beginning, the things I read at least made sense. But as time went on, not only the Liz and Ard sections became utter nonsense. Sometimes, a character would say something and I had no idea what it meant. It never was so bad, that I couldn't follow the plot. But so many details were lost or muddled, and that's a shame.
Oh, well, as I said, I'm glad I played it. And as you can see, it left quite an impression. But still, as much as I enjoyed my time with it, it's time for something else.
