Enchanted Arms follows the story of Atsuma, who just happens to have a right arm that has funky abilities (hence, Enchanted Arms). He happens to be a student at the local University of enchantments but his arm seems to cause some disruptions to the enchantments. Consequently, he’s not well like, but that could be because he’s a bit on the dull and troubled side. Anyway, the story happens to begin on a day when the man-made entities know as Golems go on the fritz and start attacking everyone. A "Devil Golem" known as Ice Queen destroys the town, so Atsuma must join up with several characters over the course of journey to stop the completion of a war that had been started 1000 years ago. If you haven’t guessed already, the story ends up being somewhat derivative and the characters all seems familiar (except for one oddball with homosexual tendencies…).
"And I was like, yeah"
So while the story doesn’t do much new throughout the entire experience, it does have a traditional feel to it. As long as you’re not expecting too much, you should be able to accept it for what it is, a decent romp. In terms of the gameplay, Enchanted Arms features a number of staple RPG aspects but it has few unique features that allow the game to hold its own. However, the game takes you for a complete RPG noob. The tutorials go to great lengths to explicitly explain every smidgen of detail. If you haven’t played an RPG before, it may help but if you have, it’s very annoying. It doesn’t help when the game takes several lines of text to explain how to press a switch or explicitly tell you which way to go or what to do. Basically, you’ll have your hand held and dragged along throughout the entire game.
As with any traditional RPG, you’re going to have a turn-based system. The difference with this one is that your turns are played out on a grid. There are actually two grids, of four by three squares each. Your party takes one grid and it opposes the one occupied by the enemies. Each character has a mix of attacking, revitalising and supportive moves, that each affect different parts of the grid. It is up to you to strategically place your characters in order to defeat the enemies, as you are clearly shown exactly where your attacks will hit or whom your support moves will affect. Its depth comes a very wide variety of moves and attacks. Battles can be fast-forwarded at the press of a button and you can press “auto” to let the computer play out the battle. This can be useful, especially as the game drags in some of the battles of lesser importance.
The grid is not large enough and doesn’t offer enough to be considered a strategy RPG. The system is passable, more than funcitonal and does offer some satisfying moments, though it is one that is likely to raise a few eyebrows. Often, you’ll think of a good tactic but be unable to go through with it, simply because you’re character is too restricted in their movements to another square. That and when you have the maximum of four characters in your party, the grid feels very small and restrictive. Enchanted Arms is a bit strange in terms of how it treats stats. At the beginning of each battle, your health and “EP” meters are full. EP governs what moves you can use and can be replenished if you "stand-by". If the character is knocked unconscious in one battle, they’ll be fully fit in the next. The challenge here is that at the end of every battle, your “Vitality Points” slowly diminish and once they hit zero, you can’t battle anymore. This can be critical at times, as you'll come across a fair few random battles, especially in dungeons or the open land.
Playing games for too long is bad for your eyes.
Enchanted Arms definitely does things a bit differently but it won’t be a hurdle for anyone who is experienced with turn-based RPGs. Possibly the biggest distinguishing features in this game is the use of the golems. In addition to your normal characters, you can add golems to your team. If you find a “core” and a mix of the right gems, you can “synthesis” a new golem. Cores can be bought or found off “lost golems” that need be fought and defeated to earn the reward. So this adds something of a Pokemon element to the game, as there are close to 100 golems to find and there is a huge variety. Really, the game is much better for this addition. Interestingly, you can take your teams of collected golems and duke it out with other teams over Xbox Live.
Aside from the golems, the only way that you will get new weapons in the game is by collecting weapons cores as well. In fact, you’ll be collecting skills and many other items along the way. Furthermore, the game has its fair share of mini-games and casino based distractions. Collecting is all good fun but there are times where some aspects of the game may be buried under more dominating aspects. That, and the game is a bit heavy on the talking head scenes. As with any good RPG, Enchanted Arms will take you a fair amount of time to complete. In the very least, you’re looking at a bare minimum of thirty hours. However, there is little reason to go again. As the only bona-fide JRPG on the Xbox 360 at the moment, some will use this as reason alone to purchase the game but there are enough nuances in the underlying gameplay to make the game that both differentiate it and at the same time, make it somewhat divisive.
Graphically, Enchanted Arms is quite the mixed bag. Funnily, the cut scenes don’t do anything that hasn’t been done and sometimes can look a tad aged. However, the divide between the cut scene and in-game quality is noticeably narrowed. Some of the aspects and details look awesome, while others look noticeably dull. Particularly, a few of the dungeons and overworld areas feel completely lifeless. It's disappointing, especially from the creators of Otogi, one of the best looking Xbox games ever made. In the least, the game does have a distinctive style and a lot of flair in some of the game’s grander moves.
There are some pretty big nasties here.
Sound-wise, the game has some excellent and emotive tunes but it’s dragged down by some average sound effects and voicing. The English track sounds like it’s been tacked on by the localization team and is totally misused in battles. You can flip to the Japanese track but the dialogue is only on par.
Enchanted Arms is something of a run-of-the-mill effort but it does enough differently and enough well to warrant a look. There are elements that will divide players and there isn’t much that isn’t really anything that hasn’t been done in JRPG titles. Probably the least favourable aspects are the fact that the game treats you like an idiot, taking too much time just to explain how to press “A” and that it’s probably a bit too talking-head heavy. Otherwise, it’s a good first run effort for Microsoft, as pretty much the first good JRPG on one of their systems.
Really quite funny. Luckily the game becomes more serious when he 'leaves' you..
Loading...
