Wild Arms 2 - Same Gunslinging, Different Gameplay
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- My review of Wild Arms 2 for the PlayStation. New to the channel? Subscribe here: czcams.com/users/subscription_c...
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Do you have any fun memories about Wild Arms 2? How do you think it ranks compared to the rest of the series?
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I played the first game at release, but only managed to get my hands on Wild Arms 2 after it released digital on PS3. I enjoyed it and took my sweet time with it, aiming for a 100% playthrough. And if memory doesn't betray me, I achived just that after a long while.
Despite Wild Arms 2 being more modern and technically advanced, I enjoyed the first game way more for two reasons: the 2D aesthetic of the backgrounds in 1 and the snail slow pacing of 2, which almost ruined the game for me at two or three points in the story.
I still haven't had a chance to play Wild Arms 4 and 5 to this day, but Wild Arms 3 made up for that - I love 3 with a passion.
On a sidenote, I wonder to this day if the game Enchanted Arms has anything to do with Wild Arms, 'cause I damn well enjoyed that, too.
One of my all-time favorite RPGs from that era. I played wild arms, then this wild arms 2, then Thousand arms.... Boy was that a cool game.... They all were and I love them all.
Dude I've literally have been playing this game for this past week and honestly this is without a doubt one of the most overlooked and underrated RPGs I've ever played on the PS1 and I really don't understand why this game isn't as well liked as the original because outside of maybe finding the locations of the map I think this game is absolutely a worthy fallow up to the original game and I wasn't too bothered by the translation as I still mostly understood the dialogue and the story it was telling.
And after finally finishing it I think I may actually prefer it over the first game such as it's longer length and it's themes centered around being a hero, so this game to me at least is definitely a great fallow up to the original.
Yeah, it definitely is overlooked! It's too bad not as many people played this one.
I loved both Wild Arms 1 and 2. Both solid JRPGs.
Agreed!
I actually prefer Wild Arms 2 over 1. Knight Blazer is one of my favorite transformations in any series, I love the themes of heroism and what it entails, they have a really deep conversation about that throughout the entire story. The final fight is unironically one of my favorite fights in history, even if it is an assured victory. And I like the characters and music a lot which is also true for Wild Arms 1. It might actually be my second favorite PlayStation one RPG behind lunar 1 and 2.
Right on, glad you preferred it. Thanks for sharing your memories of the gamme here!
Yes, Badass transformation and Badass BGM
*I LIKE* how the characters are supposed to be adults, as seen in the drawings, but in the game they are adorable babies.
The funniest moment was when the friends come to save one of the characters, who was tied to a pole, and the lad was throwing his legs around impatiently like a toddler.
I appreciate you leaving your memories of the game here!
The scan ability is actually really easy to understand. In the clip you where you talked about how annoying it is. Well while you your out looking for your next area to go, if you look on the ground theres a clearing that looks different then the rest of the world map in that area. Once you notice them its hard to un notice them. Almost every new location will look like this, the devs didnt put too much work into hiding them. Ports were even easier to find cause they actually shaped the map to where the ports look like they were build into natural looking areas where a port looks like it would go there. It was kinda fun and it made traversing the world map less boring and dull.
I agree. I never had a problem finding locations and items. I even found some optional dungeons accidentally this way. Though he has a point, they should've just showed the location rather than having to scan it. I guess the game's intention is to encourage discovery and exploration.
Wild Arms 2 was one of my first JRPGs I had on my ps1 besides Legend of Legaia. AND was the first Jrpg to make me tear up. It was the combo of a certain brother sister sacrifice, the music and the credit shot of their picture together. LOVED THIS GAME and I hated Liz & Ard, lol!
Thanks for your thoughts on it! I need to review Legend of Legaia also.
@@Xygor I look forward to it, boss.
Wild Arms, FF, Legend of Legaia, Tales of Destiny, and Legend of Dragoon are the RPGs that still to this day I try and go back once a year and play over again. Such bangers these games were to me!!
@@Kezmanisgod9 Same feelings. And I can't help but, from time to time, listen to the soundtracks and get all nostalgic for playing those games.
wild arms 2 was one of my favorite ps1 games, alongside Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile, Breath of fire 4, FFtactics. Everytime, i hear the world map theme, it just brought all the carefree childhood times. Just playing hours and hours, during summer breaks.
Right on, glad you enjoyed it so much!
Great game. One thing I remember are all the optional bosses you can fight in the late game. Such a shame the series seems to be mostly forgotten nowadays.
Agreed! Thanks for sharing the tidbit about the optional bosses. I know the first Wild Arms had at least one also.
Wild arms 2 was actually my introduction to the series. Nostalgia plays a lot for me with this game and I still, despite many fan’s opinions find this to be one of my favorites.
Thanks for leaving your memories of it!
2 things WA2 can be praised for in all of video games: Music and Puzzles.
I beat this game a few months ago. I bought it for cheap after I loved the first. When I read online though, people were dogging on the game and most said it was terrible. I was a bit nervous going in blind, but after I beat it, I was so confused as to where the hate for the game was coming from. The soundtrack is nearly just as good, the gameplay is is super neat, but with even BETTER battle models and attacks, beautiful overworld with a combo of 2d and 3d, a great story that touches on a lot more serious and deep topics then I expected, great characters, and I could keep going. Its not perfect obviously, but I feel this game was done so dirty. Sad to see it go so unknown.
Edit: also didn't find the navigation difficult at all as some critics said. Maybe because I was talking to NPCs, because they point you where to go. Is it unnecessary? Debatable. I didn't think it made the game worse though.
Thanks for all your thoughts on it!
Absolutely love this game....also have an unpopular opinion regarding the series ....WA2 >WA
Fair enough, glad you like it that much!
I recently played the whole series: WA3>WA2>WA1>WA5>WA4 (maybe WA2 is my Nr.1)
Honestly I love both games 😊
@@deividilavitz6645 as do I. Love the franchise as a whole, especially the first 3.
Thank you for review from Belarus. Played pirated games from ps1. We haven't any legal ps1 games. Our pirates never copy this Wild Arms 2 game. First Wild Arms game I had play it was Wild Arms 4.
Thanks for watching!
Played the 1st and 3rd game last year, playing the 2nd one now that it's available on modern consoles. I like seeing the parallels between the 3 games, like how Ashley's story is similar to Janus' or how Judecca feels like an evil version of Clive from WA3 lol
One of my favorite RPGs. Today I'd recommend a dedicated speedup button on your pad for "skipping" nasty random battles.
That was really a helpful and unique mechanic!
One of my all time favorite intro videos, that song is fire. I love both PS1 Wild arms but 2 is my favorite still. Both are great and should be played.
Thanks, and agreed!
oh i love this game so much.,.. my beautiful memories, the ending are so satisfying..
This was my first wild arms game. I know it’s the 2nd game, but I was drew in through the box art. It was cool. Never beat it, but I remember it fondly.
Glad you remember it! Thanks for adding your memories here.
Haven’t finished the video yet but just wanted to comment I’m glad Wild Arms 2 is getting any sort of attention! It’s one of my favorite PS1 JRPGs and I can fairly say it’s underrated since Wild Arms 1 and 3 get much more attention and praise. The localization is rough at points but you can still follow along the game if you’re really paying attention. Glad to see this in HD on the PS4/PS5 for easy access. This is a game worth trying out if you’re a JRPG fan! It’s a story and aesthetic you won’t find anywhere else!
It's a really good one! Personally I think the series mostly went downhill after it.
@@Xygor3’s presentation and localization was much higher quality but it also came off very cookie cutter and the pacing is horrendous. Even as a kid, WA3 is just way too long and slow and 4 and 5 just never had the same heart and soul that the first three had. Thanks for showing this game some love. Such a bummer typing Wild Arms 2 into the search bar and seeing few reviews for it and no deep dive retrospectives/analysis.
One thing I LOVE about WA2, is how they got rid of MP and just let you cast any spell, so long as you had enough Force (but yet it doesn't CONSUME Force). This is such a neat idea, and a breakthrough one, because it lets mages, be mages. Too many games with finite MP systems, your mages end up being weak melee attackers because you don't want to waste precious MP on casting spells on fodder. So you either backline them until you arrive at the boss's room, or if you can't do that, then they are either defending or plinking enemies with their staff for pitiful damage. But in WA2, you can actually use them for their intended purpose. Not really a fan of some of the character models, like Ashley looks stupid with those comically oversized belts hanging off of him, but the gameplay is definitely quite good.
Really nice review!
Wild Arms is my all time favorite RPG, even though it isn´t really innovative or offers something different.
Wild Arms 2 on the other hand was ok, but I played it half and watched the rest on youtube. It didnt click for me.
A part of it was the really annoying world map and the mostly hard puzzles mixed with random encounters.
Glad you liked it!
Dang great game. I only watched my brother play it since he bought it, but stuck through watching most of it and loved the characters and story.
True, so memorable!
Loved this game. Never ended up finishing it though. Should get on that some day.
It’s pretty overlooked. Holds up pretty well with the encounter skip thing!
Wild Arms 3 was what i played, i may have watched a friend hit up 1 or 2 a few times the memories are hazy.
Really solid game, 3 is my favourite of the series, but 1 and 2 come right behind it
replay this game again on my phone. the gameplay is so simple. the puzzles exploration is superb at the time. and one of my favorite. you can swap member/equipment in middle of battle which later followed by square enix in FFX .
and dont forget 2 openings in each of disc.... 10/10 (y)
Man the puzzle is really gut crunching...
Wild Arms 2 is underrated and I think it's the best Wild Arms - it gets overshadowed because of the bad translation but I think that adds to it.
I also think it's one of the best looking games on the PS1 with 3D environments. The visuals look so good I forget it's a PS1 game and sometimes feel more like I'm playing a late lifespan DS game. I think only the overworld has rough looking visuals, but it's a fully 3D fully explorable planet on the PS1. it's still technically impressive.
The soundtrack is fire; I would expect nothing less from the legend herself Michiko Naruke.
My only real complaints with the game stem from design holes, there is a map where you can get yourself softlocked by falling down to this room you are meant to access later and entering it; the game sets your respawn point at that door and ther is no way to escape if you access it this early in the game, so you are forced to reboot. I also went the wrong way and somehow ended up at a superboss which completely mollywopped me, because I passed through something that was supposed to be solid wall. Collision issue wasted about 3 hours of my life because I hadn't saved in a while. Ouch.
Still a great game though, just be careful you don't go the wrong way and get owned by a superboss meant for the endgame
My first non-pokemon RPG experience was the demo disc of this game. I replayed the tutorial levels so many times...
Thanks for sharing your memories of it!
As great as this game was - Wild Arms 1 is the best by a long shot.
I agree with you.
Played this when I was Year 8 in school.
finished it 3 years later.
apparently the Puzzle and Maps are too hard for me back then.
and my subpar English doesn't help.
And the TOOLS usage is one of my favorite thing in Wild Arms 2.
It makes puzzle harder and the map more innovative
Fond memories.
This one is on my top three in PS One
Along with Tactics Ogre and Suikoden 2
I enjoyed Wild Arms 2 for sure, but never as much as the first. I mean just the opening theme of the first game puts it in its very own bracket. It also doesn't match up to Wild Arms 3, in my opinion. Boy did I have some fun times with that game in the early days of the ps2.
Thanks for your thoughts on it! So many great memories of that time from me too!
I used to play games with my cousin and this, along with Tales of Eternia are probably my favorite rpgs on the console. And for some reason, it reminds me of Lufia 2 alot. If you like one, youll like the other :)
Right on, glad you have memories of this one too!
FF8: here’s an annoying system to hunt around the world for draw points.
WA2: Hold my beer.
Haha!
In the current rom collection try and give it a play very blue moon very good story.....BoF Ryu Dragon Form and Ashley "Demonknight" are my top 2 video game transformations ever
WildARMs 2 was fantastic the day it came out. I was so excited when I saw it, hoping that it would be as much a graphical improvement over 1 as ff8 was over ff7.
That turned out to not be the case as the graphics weren't improved much but the actual design of the game is so fantastic that that didn't really matter. The unique way they introduce bosses at the beginning of battles coupled with the world design where it was possible to get certain guardians early if you just explored enough made the game a real topic of discussion among my rpg friends.
Some of the secrets were just brilliant design, like one where there is a door you drop down to but you can only see it if you're spinning the camera as you walk down the corridor.
Pro tip: 3 is just as good as 2 and possibly the best jrpg on ps2.
Thanks for your thoughts, glad you have such vivid memories of this game too!
I love this classic game. I own 1 and 2 on my Vita. Physical copies are hard to come by.
I love the scanning for new areas. What are you on about 😆
i play all wild arms series. best one is Alter code F. nostalgia for the first one. 2nd would be wa 2 and 3.
I only played the first one, but i wish i would go for a remake or hd remaster
For Tim I had HIM AT LV 70 FROM LV 20 after HIS solo boss fight like FF4's infinite kill summoned monsters trick for lv 60 to lv 99 Paladin Cecil AFTER 1 BATTLE TIM can do the same for HIMSELF on disc 1.
I still think Kanon is cool as hell
I always liked the vampire chick!! Hidden character. Kind of.
i remember i played two before one and wishing one had two's graphics.
Right on, they made quite the improvement in that category!
I have the emulator for snes over 720 games I’ll check to see if I have this game. Looks good
Yeah, give it a try!
@@Xygor looks like I need to download this one. It’s not in my list.
After watching this, I am motivated to play the third game 🙂
Do it! I will review it soon.
In some alternate [more awesome] universe, Wild Arms 6 would have been a PS5 launch title. But in our universe, I guess we will have to keep waiting. When the PS6 comes out in 2035 maybe the real world will be like Filgaia and we can all be NPCs in Wild Arms 6. That is my retirement plan. I'll be 50 years old by then ;D
I recently beat the game and I really really enjoyed it, I think Irving is a really great and memorable character who would have benefited from a better translation. The relationship between Irving and his sister comes off as extremely... Uhhh... Uncomfortable near the end and I wonder how much of that is based on poor translation. Beyond that the game exudes charm.
Another one of my favorites. Even if this story later on did get really weird.
True, I thought the same thing!
I never got into this one. Did try it, but wasn't impressed and there's just so many other games I wanted to play back then.
For me, Wild Arms 2 is probably the second best Wild Arms, as long as you can get past some of the bad translation.
I'd rank them 3>2>1=ACF>4, and I haven't played 5 so I dunno.
I'd actually say I slightly prefer Alter Code F to the original Wild Arms (I feel it does the Wild Arms vibe a bit better by being less tied to standard JRPG stuff) but I know a lot of people prefer the original.
Thanks for your thoughts on the series and rankings!
I've tried 3 about 4 times now . I get about 8 to 10 hrs in and just get so bored. Played 1 to death . Never touched 2 it's on ps5 store for 7.99 but I purchased legend of dragoon to give that a go.
@@drake128 3 can be a bit slow at times. I'm not sure what point in the game 10 hours puts you at, but I'd say you gave it a fair shake. Maybe the things in 3 that I liked just aren't things that grab your attention.
WA2 is paced a bit closer to the original, so if you liked the first, and can handle the occasionally awkward translation, you'll probably like 2.
Legend of Dragoon is definitely in my backlog! First time I played I got stuck at a fight on the end of Disc 2. Second time I was playing it on PS2 and the game would hang after that fight. Other attempts I've made I've gotten distracted before getting very far.
Better battle system than FF4, FF8 and FF9. Its battle system is right there with Grandia and FF7, retro RPG-wise.
To truly enjoy WA2, you have to have 7th grade level Japanese. Everyone knows that Sony's western division is fail at translation.
The map mechanic is incredibly dumb.
A Castle . . . Is visible from miles upon miles away.
I still recall how good the game was and the ending left me with more questions than answers about the past lore.
Love this game! much love bro!
Thank you, glad you liked it!
FF 7 the most over rated rpg ever made. I'll play wild arms lunar vandal hearts breath of fire tactics ogre hell even FF8 over ever touching even the remake of 7. Almost all of the people think it was so great never played phantasy star 4 or shining force or any other far better rpgs that came before it. I love the games you bring up even though I disagree with you on suikoden 4 was definitely the worst of the series.